Client Portals
A configurable, white-label workspace where your customers, contractors and advisors see and act on exactly what you choose to share.
What Client Portals do
Client Portals are the bridge between your internal operations and the people outside your organization — customers, contractors and advisors. Each of your clients gets an isolated, brandable workspace. They reach only the data that concerns them, without ever touching the CRM, Finance or HR modules running behind the scenes.
- Self-service experience — clients see their own invoices, follow project status, and download or upload shared documents without email back-and-forth.
- Visibility and isolation — the operational work done inside your workspaces (canvases, terminals and more) stays closed; only selected reports, forms and approvals are reflected to the portal.
- Client retention — a professional portal makes your business look more established to the people you serve.
Screen previews
A quick look at the screens. Use the toggle in the corner of each preview to switch between the dark and light themes.
Portal builder with draggable blocks
View rules: what you see vs what the client sees
Project timeline with client approvals
Portal branding with custom domain
Isolated client workspaces
External links with expiry
Shared documents with versions and watermarks
Activity monitor and GDPR report
A portal configured per client and industry
Instead of one page for everyone, each tenant composes the portal its clients need. From the Portal Builder you arrange blocks and widgets the way you would arrange a dashboard.
| Client type | Blocks in front |
|---|---|
| Finance-driven client | Invoice list, payment history, quote approval. |
| Project or agency client | Active tasks, milestones, live preview and revision-request forms. |
| Consulting or legal client | Document pool, digital signature or approval, and a secure messaging area. |
View engine: mirror modules, share selectively
A permission engine controls how data from the main modules (CRM, Finance, workflows) is reflected in the portal.
- Selective sharing — internal notes and costs of a project or task are hidden; only the client-facing output (status, due date, approval state) is shown.
- Module mirroring — an invoice issued in Finance appears in the portal immediately, ready to pay. The portal is a mirror of the internal system, not a separate tool.
- Automation triggers — when a background workflow finishes (a report is generated, an analysis completes), the output drops into the client's document area automatically.
Two-way collaboration
A portal is not a read-only dashboard; it is a workspace where clients take action.
- Forms & briefs — collect data and files from clients through dynamic forms, such as onboarding forms.
- Approval workflows — clients approve quotes, contracts or deliveries with one click.
- Activity feed — a project-specific timeline and comment area that cuts email traffic to near zero.
Access control and secure sharing
| Capability | What it gives you |
|---|---|
| Granular role-based access | Decide exactly what a client can do: read only, upload files, comment or approve. |
| Encrypted document sharing | Files are stored encrypted; large files move quickly and securely. |
| OTP-protected, expiring links | Invite guests without creating accounts; set expiry and access rights per recipient. |
| Approve before sending | Outgoing files wait for an authorized approver before release. |
| Watermarking | User-specific identifiers make every shared copy traceable. |
| Upload scanning | Customer uploads pass six layers — data governance, DLP, sandbox, CDR, antivirus and firewall — before reaching your platform. |
| Audit logs | Which document was viewed, when and by which external user — critical for SOC 2 and GDPR compliance. |
White-label and branding
- Custom domain or subdomain — clients sign in at an address such as
portal.yourclient.com. - Theme and design tokens — your logo, color palette and light or dark mode, with your identity on every screen.
Branding is managed with the White Label tools.
Where it sits among portal approaches
| Approach | Typical strength | How TotalApp combines it |
|---|---|---|
| ERP-style customer portal | Talks directly to sales, purchasing and inventory; clients see invoices, orders and support tickets in structured tables. | The view engine mirrors CRM, Finance and workflow data the same way. |
| Dedicated portal software | Secure messaging, contract signing and file folders for agencies and service firms. | Forms, approvals, messaging and document workspaces are built in. |
| Workspace guest access | Invite guests to selected pages or boards with limited rights. | Guests and external links with per-recipient rights and expiry. |
Positioning
Client Portals turn TotalApp from a tool for internal workflow automation into a platform that also manages the business-to-customer relationship — one flexible customer-experience hub that gathers every touchpoint (documents, payments, approvals, communication) in a single brandable space.
Getting started
- Create a client workspace and choose the blocks that fit the client type.
- Set view rules: what to mirror from Finance, CRM and workflows, and what stays internal.
- Assign rights — read only, upload, comment or approve — per client member.
- Apply your domain, logo and theme.
- Invite the client with an OTP-protected link, then follow activity and audit logs.