Getting into the portal

Signing in, being invited by a colleague, customers registering themselves, a forgotten password, and signing out.

Signing in

Customers sign in at /portal/login on the business's address. Type your Email address and Password and press Sign in. Tick Keep me signed in on a computer that is yours alone. You land on the overview, or on the portal page you were trying to open.

• Continue with Google and Continue with Facebook appear when the business has set them up (see Integrations). They sign in a contact who already has portal access with the same email address; they never create an account.
• Create an account (New here?) appears while the business lets customers register themselves.

When signing in does not work

Each attempt, successful or not, is recorded in the business's login history. Both portal forms also carry a box people never see; a bot that fills in every box is turned away without being told why. reCAPTCHA can be added on top, for the forms ticked under Integrations ("Customer portal sign-in" and "Customer portal registration").

Who may get in

A contact can sign in once they have a password, are switched on, and, if they registered themselves, have finished registering. There are three ways to get a password:

• The business sets one on the contact's record (Customers → the customer → Contacts, under Portal access), and tells the contact.
• A primary contact invites a colleague from My account → Contacts. The colleague chooses their own; see below.
• The customer registers, while the business allows it; see Registering yourself.

The switches that decide this are on the Access card of Settings → Customer portal:

Invited by a colleague

When a primary contact adds you under My account → Contacts, you are emailed Invitation to the customer portal. Its link opens Choose your password, with your Email address already filled in.

1. Type a Password (at least eight characters) and again under Confirm password.
2. Press Set my password. You are taken to the sign-in page: Your password is set. You can sign in now.

The link works once and for three days. An old, used or mistyped link — or one for a contact who has since been switched off — is answered This link is not valid any more. Ask whoever invited you to send it again.; Send again on their Contacts list emails a fresh one. Opening the link also confirms that the email address is yours.

Registering yourself

While the business allows it, Create an account on the sign-in page opens /portal/register; otherwise that address answers "not found". The form always asks for First name, Last name, Email address, Password and Confirm password. The business chooses on the Sign-up form card whether it also asks, or requires, company name, phone, website, VAT number, address, city, state / region, postcode and country; its own custom fields marked visible to the client are added too. When Privacy / GDPR asks for the terms to be accepted, an I accept the terms and conditions. box (with Read them) must be ticked. Press Create my account.

1. A new customer is created with you as its primary contact. Without a company name, the customer is you, under your own name.
2. With verification on, you see Check your inbox and are emailed Confirm your email address. Open the link in it.
3. With approval on, the registration then waits for the business. You see Thank you, your email address is confirmed. We will email you as soon as your account has been approved., and are emailed again when it is approved or declined.
4. Otherwise you are told You can sign in now. Sign in at /portal/login with the password you chose.

Check your inbox says how many hours the link works. If nothing arrives, look in the spam folder, or type the address and press Send the link again: If that address is waiting to be confirmed, a new link is on its way. A link that has run out, or was not copied in full, opens This link has run out with the same button. A link that has already been used takes you to the sign-in page: Your email address is already confirmed.

The registration queue

For the business: Customers → Registrations lists every registration, filtered by Waiting for approval, Email not confirmed, Approved and Declined, and needs the "create customers" permission.

The registration stays on the list as the record of who asked and what was decided. The queue is described in full under Portal registrations.

A forgotten password

1. On the sign-in page, press Forgot password? beside Password.
2. On Reset your password, enter your email address and press Send reset link. The page says If that address belongs to an account, a reset link is on its way. whether or not it does, so nobody can use it to find out who has an account.
3. Open the link in the email within 60 minutes, choose a new password, type it again, and save. You are taken back to the portal sign-in: Your password has been reset. Please sign in.

It is the same page staff use (Resetting a password); Back to sign in on it returns you to the portal. No email is sent for a contact who has been switched off. The business can also set a new password on the contact's record (Customers → the customer → Contacts → edit, under Portal access), and a contact can sign in with Google or Facebook where the business has set them up.

A colleague who was invited and never chose a password is different: the primary contact presses Send again on the Contacts list. Once signed in, anybody can choose a new password under My account → Password.

Signing out

Open the menu under your name at the top right and choose Sign out. You are taken back to the portal sign-in page.

The emails

Five templates are added under Email templates, in the Customer portal group, and can be reworded there: Confirm your email address, Portal registration approved, Portal registration declined, Somebody tried to register with your address and Invitation to the customer portal.

What a contact can do once inside — My account, colleagues and what each may see, privacy — is on Your account and privacy.

Addresses on this page

For reference and for anyone scripting against the panel. Everything here needs a customer contact signed in to the portal; the addresses that open without signing in are marked.