Give a customer a sign-in to your portal, then choose which work orders and estimates they can see. Access and visibility are two separate decisions, and both start switched off.
Before you start:
- The portal must already be switched on — see Setting Up the Customer Portal.
- The customer record needs an email address. That email is how the customer signs in.
How to Access
Navigate to Customers, open the customer, then use the Customer Portal Actions menu on their detail page.
Giving One Customer Access
- Open the customer's detail page.
- Click Customer Portal Actions.
- Choose Enable Portal Access.
- In the window that opens, tick the work orders and estimates this customer should be able to see.
- Save.
Result: The customer is emailed a sign-in link, and they now appear in the Customers with portal access list under Settings → Customer Portal.
How Customers Sign In
A customer you have just given access to is emailed a sign-in link. They click it and they are in — there is no password to create and none for you to reset.
If you have set your Customer sign-in method to Email and password, new customers still start with a link. On the sign-in form they click Email me a link, under the line Forgot your password, or never set one?, and the emailed link takes them to a screen where they choose a password. The link is single-use and expires in 24 hours.
The same link is the answer when a customer forgets their password later — it lets them choose a new one, so you never set or reset a customer's password yourself. See Setting Up the Customer Portal for the sign-in method setting.
Sharing More Work Later
Once a customer has access, you share individual records from the records themselves. Open a work order or an estimate and switch on Available for Portal.
The toggle only appears while the portal is switched on. If you cannot find it, check Settings → Customer Portal first.
Seeing What Your Customer Sees
- Open the customer's detail page.
- Click Customer Portal Actions → View portal.
Result: The portal opens read-only, exactly as that customer sees it. You cannot change anything from this view, so it is safe to open on a customer's real account.
Warning: The Access switch in the Customers with portal access list only takes access away. To give a customer access, use Customer Portal Actions on their detail page instead.
Next Steps
- What Customers Can Do in the Portal — what your customer sees after they sign in.
- The Customer Portal on a Phone — most customers will open your link on a phone.
- Setting Up the Customer Portal — the portal-wide settings and your two links.