How To Use And Share The Customer Portal

The customer portal gives a homeowner one place to see everything about their job — upcoming appointments, invoices, photos you've shared, and proposals to review and sign. It's branded to your company, and it exists to cut down the back-and-forth calls asking when you're coming and what's happening next.

When would I use it?

• A homeowner keeps calling to ask about the schedule
• You want a customer to see documented damage without emailing photo attachments
• An invoice needs paying and you want a link they can act on
• A proposal is out and you want them reviewing and signing in one place
  
  

Where do I find the customer portal link?

The portal is tied to each contact in your CRM.

1. Open the contact card — from the Contacts page, the project page, or anywhere you can access it.
2. Find the Customer Portal link.

You can open it directly or copy it.

How do I share the portal with a customer?

Three ways:

• Email the link
• Text the link
• Send it automatically — include it in an automated email sequence that goes out once a project reaches a certain stage, set up through workflows
  
  

What does the customer see?

A branded experience carrying your company's brand and information, welcoming the homeowner to their portal.

If the contact has more than one project with you, they select the project from a dropdown, and everything below — events, invoices, photos, and proposals — reflects the project they've selected.

The Overview page shows counts of:

• Upcoming events
• Outstanding invoices
• Photos shared
• Active proposals

From there they can open each section:

How do I choose which photos the customer sees?

Photos are shared per project, and nothing is shared automatically.

To see what's already shared: go to the project's Photos tab. Photos currently in the portal carry a purple portal chip in the bottom right corner.

To share photos:

1. Select the photos.
2. Click the purple globe icon.

To remove photos:

1. Select the photos.
2. Choose Remove Selected from Portal.

Those photos no longer appear in the customer's portal.

Is the portal link private?

No. Anyone with the link can open the portal — there's no login or password.

Treat it like a shareable link. A homeowner may forward it to a spouse, an adjuster, a family member, or anyone else. Only put things in the portal you'd be comfortable with any of them seeing, and be deliberate about which photos you share.

Tips and gotchas

• Nothing is shared until you share it. Photos default to internal. This is deliberate — your crew shoots plenty of images that shouldn't go to a homeowner. But it also means an empty photo section is on you, not the software.

• Share marked-up photos, not raw ones. A circled, labeled photo of damaged flashing explains itself. An unedited shot of a roof means nothing to someone who's never been on one. See How to Edit a Photo — Markup and Cropping.

• Check the portal chip before you tell a customer to look. Nothing undercuts the "everything's in your portal" message faster than a homeowner opening it and finding nothing there.

• Remember the link covers every project for that contact. The dropdown gives the customer access to all their jobs with you, not just the one you're discussing. For a property owner or repeat customer, make sure everything reachable through that dropdown is something you'd want them looking at.

• Send the link early, then automate it. Sharing it manually works. Building it into a workflow at a stage change means every customer gets it, every time, without anyone remembering to.

• Use it for invoices, not just updates. The invoice section lets customers pay from the portal. A link is a faster path to payment than a phone call about a check.