Client portal: give customers a secure login

Your customers ask the same questions by phone: what do I owe, when are you coming, where is that estimate. The client portal answers all of them without a call. Customers sign in with a secure email link and see their history with your company, wearing your branding, not ours.

If you have been searching for a customer portal, this is it. Client portal and customer portal are the same feature, and WorkZen calls the setting Client Portal.

Turn the portal on

Open Settings from the sidebar, then the Client Portal card in the General section. Turn on Enable client portal and save.

The Portal Link card on the same page shows your sign-in page address. Copy it to share in your email signature, on your website, or anywhere clients look for you. The link never changes.

The portal requires a ZenGrow or ZenAI plan. On other plans the page shows what the portal does and how to upgrade.

Invite a client

Open a client's page and choose Invite to client portal under Quick actions, or Send portal invite in the ⋯ (Actions) menu at the top right. Choose how to send it: Email, Text message or Both. You can edit the Email message; the sign-in link is attached automatically. The Text message shows greyed out, so you can read exactly what the client gets, but it is not edited here: change its wording once under Settings > Message Templates (Client portal invite text). Press Send.

The invite always goes to the client's own email and mobile number on file, so the address fields are not editable. The email carries a secure sign-in link. The text carries your portal link, where the client enters their email to sign in. The client needs an email address on file; add one first if the option is not shown. Sending by text uses your texting number, like sending an estimate by text.

Clients can also sign in on their own from your portal link: they enter their email, and if it matches a client on file, they receive a one-time link. A link they request expires in 15 minutes; the link in an invite email lasts 72 hours. Either one works only once, so a forwarded or used link is useless.

What your customer sees in the portal

The customer portal opens on what needs their attention first: estimates waiting for approval and invoices with a balance due, each one tap away from approving or paying online. Below that, they see upcoming visits with dates and addresses, their sent estimates and invoices with live statuses, and their job history with any job reports you have sent.

Customers only ever see their own records, and only what you have sent them. Unsent and archived documents, internal notes, and costs stay private.

Clients can request a visit

On their portal home page, clients press Book service, pick a service, a day and a time, and add a note if they like. The days, times and services offered follow your website widget's online booking settings. The request is filed for that client: it arrives in your booking requests already linked to their record, never as a new lead, and you accept or decline it as usual. Accepting schedules the visit on the client, at the address they have on file. Clients follow each request under Your requests on their portal home: Pending until you decide, then Confirmed or Declined.

Clients keep their own properties up to date

Under My details, clients see My properties: every address you have on file for them. They can add a new property, rename one, and write access notes (gate codes, parking, pets) that your crew sees on the property. Typing an address brings up matching addresses to pick from, the same address search as in your app, and on the Book service page too when they book somewhere else. They can change a property's address only while it has no jobs or visits; after that the address is yours to change, so the place you worked at stays the place on record. Clients never delete properties and never see your internal property notes. Each change appears on the client's timeline and sends you a notification.

Clients can send you files

Clients open Files in the portal to send you photos and documents (photos, PDF, Word, Excel, text; up to 10 MB each). They can also add photos when they book a service, so you see the problem before you accept. Uploads land on the client's Files tab with an Uploaded by client badge, and photos sent with a request also show on that booking request. The portal's Files page lists only what the client uploaded; files your team attached are never shown there. Clients can remove their own uploads, never yours, and you are notified either way.

Availability

The client portal is rolling out gradually. If the Client Portal card is not in your settings yet, it has not reached your account. It arrives automatically; there is nothing to request.