Giving clients access with the client portal
Invite clients to the Finye portal so they can track requests, upload documents, approve work and pay invoices online.
The client portal gives the people you work with a single, secure place to see their requests, send you documents, approve work and pay invoices. It cuts down on the email back-and-forth that slows most practices down, and it gives clients a clear view of what is happening without them needing to ring the office. This guide walks through setting up portal access for a client, what they can do once they are in, and how to keep things tidy as your client list grows.
Before you start
Portal access is granted to a contact on a client record, not to the client organisation as a whole. So before inviting anyone, make sure the client exists in Finye and has at least one contact with a valid email address. A client can be an organisation (company, trust, partnership, SMSF) or an individual such as a sole trader, and each can have several contacts. If you are still setting up clients, see the guides library for the steps on creating clients and adding contacts first.
Inviting a client to the portal
Once the contact details are in place, sending an invitation only takes a moment.
- Open the client record and go to the Contacts section.
- Find the contact you want to give access to and choose Invite to portal.
- Confirm the email address is correct. This is where the invitation and any future notifications are sent.
- Send the invite. Finye emails the contact a secure link to set their own password and sign in.
The contact creates their own login, so you never handle or store their password. If an invitation is not actioned, you can resend it from the same Contacts section at any time.
Inviting more than one contact
For an organisation with several people involved, such as a director and an office manager, invite each contact individually. Each person gets their own login tied to that client. This keeps access personal and means you can remove one person later without affecting the others.
What clients can do in the portal
Once a client signs in, the portal is scoped to their records only. They cannot see other clients, internal notes or your team's private comments. From their dashboard a client can:
- See their requests and jobs. Every work item raised for that client appears with its current status, so they can follow progress without asking for an update.
- Upload documents. Clients can respond to document requests and send through files you need, which land straight against the relevant work item or request.
- Approve work. Where you have asked for sign-off, the client can review and approve directly in the portal.
- Pay invoices. Invoices you publish show in the portal, and clients can pay online via the secure pay page.
Because requests raised in the portal become work items on your boards, your team sees them in the same place as everything else, with no separate inbox to monitor.
Document and approval requests
The portal is most useful when you drive work through it rather than email. When you need information to complete a job, raise a document request against the client. The contact is notified, uploads the file through their portal, and the document is attached where you need it. The same applies to approvals: rather than chasing a reply, you ask for sign-off and the client confirms in one place. This creates a clear record of who provided what and when, which is helpful for both service quality and your audit trail.
Invoicing and payments through the portal
Invoices you raise in Finye can be made visible to the client so they can view and pay them from the portal. Payment is taken through Stripe or Square, and the public pay page means a client can settle an invoice even without logging in if you send them a direct link. Payment reminders help keep outstanding amounts moving without manual follow-up. For the full process of building and sending invoices, see the related billing guide in the guides library.
Branding the portal
The portal carries your practice branding rather than the Finye name, so the experience feels like an extension of your firm. Set your logo, colours and practice details in your tenant branding settings, and they flow through to what clients see when they sign in and to the emails they receive.
Managing and removing access
Keeping portal access current is part of good client hygiene. A few habits help:
- Review portal contacts when a client's circumstances change, such as a staff member leaving an organisation.
- Remove access for any contact who should no longer see the client's records. Revoking access is immediate.
- Resend an invitation if a contact never set up their login or has lost the original link.
Because access is tied to individual contacts, you can add or remove people as relationships change without disrupting the rest of the client's portal.
Tips for a smooth rollout
If you are introducing the portal to existing clients, a short note explaining what it is and what they can do tends to lift take-up. Start with clients who send a lot of documents or query their job status often, as they will feel the benefit first. Over time, steering requests, approvals and payments through the portal reduces email volume and gives both you and your clients a clearer picture of where every job stands.