The client portal

Available onBuilder

There are two kinds of client link, and both are plain web addresses - the client needs no login, no app and no password. The address itself is the key (a long random code), the same way shared colour schedules and call-up confirmations work.

Putting a variation on the portal

A variation is invisible to the client until you say so, so a draft you are still pricing never leaks. On the tracker, the Client portal panel has one button: Put on client portal. Press it and the variation appears on the client’s job page, on the Variations tab, as awaiting your approval, where they read it, approve it with a typed name and see how to pay you. Nothing is emailed; the panel turns teal with Open their page so you can see what they see. If the client has no portal link yet, the panel says so - invite them from Project settings > Client portal.

Sending the variation by email from the editor does the same thing as a side effect, so a variation you have emailed is already on the portal.

The variation link

The button above also issues the variation’s own link, which is what the row on the portal opens. You can send that address on its own too: Copy next to Client link, then paste it into a text or your own email. The client sees:

the variation laid out plainly: what changes, quantities and amounts on the lines you chose to show, subtotal, GST and total, any extension of time, and your closing note;
Download the PDF;
an Approve box: they type their full name, tick that they have read it, and approve. The typed name, the time and their device’s address are stored on the variation as the signature;
I have questions / decline, which sends a note back to you and marks the variation as declined until you revise it;
once approved, a Payment section showing the bank account you chose on the variation — account name, BSB and account number — with the variation number (for example VA12) as the reference. If the variation has no bank account, the client is told you will let them know how to pay.

Withdraw (the pink button next to the link) invalidates it; anyone opening the old address sees “this link is no longer valid”. Creating again issues a new one.

The first time the client opens the link is recorded, so the tracker can show viewed 3 Sep next to a variation that is still waiting - useful before you chase.

The portal link

One link per client per job. Press Create next to Portal link in the same panel (the variation must have a client). This page lists every variation you have sent to, or shared with, that client on the job, with its status, and has Request a variation.

A request is a short title and a description. It arrives as a new variation on the job flagged Client request, with the description as a note line and the client’s link already attached. You are told through the bell, and the board’s Client requests tile counts it. Price it in the editor as you would any other variation - add the lines, set the markup - then send or share it, and the same link the client already has now shows the priced version ready to approve.

Nothing is agreed until the client approves the priced variation, and the portal says so.

Getting paid

The client pays you directly, by bank transfer to the account shown on the variation. Pick that account when you create the variation — it is the same list of bank accounts your progress claims use, kept under Settings in the Admin panel — and check it before you share, because it is exactly what the client will pay into.

When the money arrives, press Record payment on the variation’s tracker (needs Update Variation Workflow). That completes the Paid stage, so the board shows the variation as paid.

What the client cannot do

Change a line, a price or a quantity. Approve a variation twice. Open a variation that has been trashed. The address gives them exactly one variation (or one job’s list) and nothing else in your account.