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The client portal

What a client sees: the quote, the story, milestones, variations to approve.

The client portal

What it is

The client portal is the one page your client has into a job. It shows your letterhead, the job name and address, the contract sum and dates, a photo carousel and progress story, the quote they were sent, the documents you have shared, the progress claims you have issued, milestones, variations, defects and, after practical completion, the handover pack. From the same page they can accept or decline the quote, approve or decline a variation, approve or query a claim, ask for a change, report a defect and download a document.

Two kinds of people open it. Most clients open a link you email them and never log in. A client you have invited as a user of your Base account logs in and sees a list of the jobs shared with them, then the same page. Everything a client sees comes from the one view your own team sees under Client → What they see, so the preview is exactly what they get.

Before you start

  • The job exists and has a client company with at least one contact on the job's Client → Contacts tab. A contact needs an email address before Base can send them their link or a code.
  • Decide what the portal shows on Client → What they see. Progress claims and variations are always shared. Photo updates and Defects are on unless you turn them off. Milestones and Handover pack & warranties are off until you turn them on. Save some milestones and the section switches on by itself.
  • Decide who may sign things off. On each client contact you can tick whether they may approve variations (which also lets them accept the quote) and whether they may approve claims. A contact with neither tick sees everything but the Approve buttons.
  • The link is the credential. There are two kinds, both under Portal links on the What they see tab:
    • A contact's own link, one per client contact. It names a person. Only this kind can ever decide anything, and before a decision Base emails that contact a one-time code. Send this one.
    • The project-wide link, which anyone holding it can open. It is view-only: the holder can read, ask for a change and report a defect, but can never approve or accept anything, and the page tells them so. Every link can be given an expiry, rotated (a new address; the old one stops at once) or switched off. Tell the client not to forward their own link: anyone who opens it reads the job, and the code to decide goes to the contact's email, not to the person holding the phone.
  • A client who logs in instead needs an invite with the role Client from the Teams page, with the jobs they may see ticked. Their account email has to match a client contact on the job for the Approve buttons to appear, and they have to confirm their account email before they can decide.

How to

  1. Open the job and go to Client → What they see. Under Portal links, find the contact.
  2. Press Send link. Base emails them a short note with the link, saying it is theirs, that a code will be emailed before they approve anything, and not to forward it. Copy link puts the address on your clipboard instead.
  3. The row shows the link's state: live, Expires on a date, or Switched off. Set an expiry date, Rotate for a fresh address, or switch it off when it should stop working.
  4. From then on the Portal activity list on the same tab shows what the client did: opened the portal, downloaded a document, asked for a code, confirmed with a code, approved or declined something, asked for a change, reported a defect.
  1. Your business name and logo, the words Client portal and their name (or view only on the project-wide link), then the job name, number, address and status.
  2. If you have shared them, four tiles: Contract sum, Start, Finish and Client.
  3. A sliding carousel of every progress photo, oldest to newest, then a strip of numbers: milestones done, the latest update, Claimed to date (what they pay, GST inclusive) and open defects.
  4. Your quote, Your documents and Progress claims, then Milestones as a simple chart, the Progress story with your photos and words, Variations and Defects, and the handover section if it applies.
  5. An expired or switched-off link gets a plain page saying so and telling them to ask you for a new one. A wrong link gets "Project not found" and reveals nothing about the job.

Accept or decline the quote (the client)

  1. In Your quote the client sees each quote revision you sent, its total ex GST, when it was sent, its valid-until date and a Quote PDF link. An open quote is marked awaiting your decision.
  2. They press Accept quote or Decline. If they have not yet confirmed who they are, a box appears: Email me a code. Base emails a six-digit code to the contact's address (the page shows the address partly masked). They type it and press Confirm. The code lasts ten minutes, allows five tries and can be resent after thirty seconds. A correct code opens a thirty-minute window, so a second decision on the same visit does not ask again.
  3. To accept, they check their name (it is filled in and fixed on a contact's own link), tick I accept this quote and authorise the builder to proceed, and press Accept quote. To decline they must write why, then press Send decline.
  4. The quote changes to accepted or declined on their page. An accepted quote is accepted in your CRM with their name, the date and the method, and both they and your admins receive a Record of decision email: what was accepted, the amount ex GST, when, by whom, how they were verified and a reference. An expired quote shows Expired with a note to ask you to reissue it; it cannot be accepted.

Approve or decline a variation (the client)

  1. In Variations, a variation you have submitted to the client shows its number, title, description, amount and Approve / Decline buttons, but only to a contact who may approve variations. On the view-only link the buttons are replaced by "This shared link is view-only. Use the link we emailed you, or ask the builder to send you your own link."
  2. They press Approve, confirm the code if they have not already, read "Approving V03 at $4,200. This is your authority for the work and the cost.", add a note if they like, and press Approve. Declining asks why (optional) and records Declined.
  3. The variation's status changes on your job at once, with their name and the method "portal". An approval sends the Record of decision email to them and to your admins. A note they typed is kept on the job's client feedback trail.

Approve or query a progress claim (the client)

  1. In Progress claims each issued claim shows its number, period, status, the amount to pay (net of retention, GST inclusive), the work value ex GST, retention held, the due date and a Claim PDF link. A claim past its due date shows the date in amber.
  2. A contact who may approve claims sees Approve claim and Raise a query on a claim awaiting approval. Approving (after the code) tells you the amount is agreed and due. A query must say what needs sorting out; the claim shows query raised and, as the page tells them, is not chased while the query stands.
  3. An approval sends the Record of decision email to both sides. What they wrote with either answer lands on the client feedback trail.

Ask for a change, report a defect, download a document (the client)

  1. Ask for a change sits beside Your documents. One box, up to 4,000 characters, pinned to the current quote. Send files it as client feedback against that document version and notifies you. The client sees "Sent. We will come back to you with a revised version."
  2. Report something sits beside Defects when defects are shared. They describe what they found, where, and put their name to it. It lands as an open item on the job's defect register, identified by "client", and they watch it move from open to fixed on the same page.
  3. Download on any shared document, and Quote PDF / Claim PDF, open the file through a short-lived address. The client never gets a permanent file link.

What happens on its own

  • Base records every portal event: each view, download, code request, decision, reply and defect report, with the kind of link used, the contact it names, how they were verified and a hashed device fingerprint. The last of these appear under Portal activity on the What they see tab. Your own previews are never recorded.
  • A decision writes its evidence reference onto the quote, variation or claim it decided.
  • After an acceptance or approval, Base emails a Record of decision to the deciding contact and to your admins, once. A decline or a query sends no record; it tells you instead.
  • Your inbox in Base is told, by default, when a client approves a variation, accepts a quote, approves a claim, declines a quote, rejects a variation, or asks for a change. A client query on a claim can start the assistant drafting your response, but that automation is off until you turn it on under Automations, and it only ever drafts.
  • Nothing on the portal is approved, certified or paid by Base. Every decision on the portal is a person pressing a button after a code.

Things that surprise people

  • The project-wide link cannot approve anything, however much authority the holder has. Send contacts their own links. If a client says the Approve buttons are missing, check which link they opened and whether their contact has the sign-off tick.
  • The code goes to the email on the contact record. A contact with no email sees "We have no email address for you. Ask your builder to add it." and cannot decide.
  • The quote total on the portal is ex GST; the claim total is what they pay, GST inclusive and net of retention. The PDFs carry the full breakdown.
  • A variation only shows Approve while it is submitted to the client. If you change it in the office while the client has the page open, their decision is refused with "Your builder has just updated this one. Refresh to see where it stands."
  • Hiding Defects also removes Report something. Switching Photo updates off removes the carousel, the story and the latest-update tile.
  • A logged-in client cannot be sent a code; they must confirm their account email instead. Until then the page tells them to check their inbox for the confirmation email.
  • Milestone dates on the portal are marked indicative. Your real programme is never shown.