The client portal unites the client and the accountant. The client and the accountant can communicate without sending endless emails, share documents, send reminders, leave notes on tasks and much more.
The client portal is the future of accounting! Adopt it today to keep up with the competition.
How to activate the client portal?
Select "Settings" from the main menu and open the "Client Portal" app.
Select "Activate" to confirm your choice.
How to set up the client portal?
You must create your company's client portal visual to start using the client portal.
Go to the "Settings" tab in the Client Portal app and define the domain name of the portal. It could be the business name of your office. A domain name is mandatory for creating a portal.
PS! This name is publicly searchable and visible to all internet users. By specifying a domain name, you define the web address of your customer portal.
Add other settings such as colours, description, icon and logo.
Press "Save" to create the portal or update the settings if you have changed them.
"Client portal preview" is an opportunity to check what the portal's homepage looks like for your clients.
Welcome to the Client Portal!
The domain you created is now public, and anyone online can find the login page. Yet, only clients you invite can log in.
Your client sees the 30-second welcome video when they enter the portal for the first time. They will no longer see the video the next time they visit the page.
We have created a sample task to make introducing the customer portal easier for your clients. It's the first task shown to them in the client portal. You can create, change or delete sample tasks on the "Templates" tab.
How to invite your clients to the client portal?
None of your clients are invited to the client portal or marked as users by default.
You can invite clients to the portal as a bulk action in the client list.
Select "Clients" in the main menu and select one or more clients.
Choose "Client portal" from the options.
In the opened window, determine whether client contacts should receive an invitation to the client portal as an email. If you choose to activate without invitations, in the future, clients will receive emails from Uku when you assign them a portal task. They will not receive the initial email or sample introductory task.
Confirm the selection by pressing "Activate".
The system opens the client portal to all clients with a working email address added to Uku. Invitations are sent within 5 minutes if you choose activation by invitation.
NB! The login link is valid for 24 hours. Also, a client portal sample task is automatically created for each client if the task exists under templates.
How to use the client portal if my client has several companies?
Clients with multiple companies can also operate under different companies in the client portal if the portal is open to everyone. To do this, click the user's icon and select another company.
Adding customer contacts to the client portal without a greeting - "silent opening"
If you don't want to give your clients a grand welcome to the portal, you can invite them through a silent opening. In this way, the client first learns about the existence of the customer portal when the accountant adds a task.
The client portal can also be opened for the clients in their profile if you specify "Customer portal open". In this case, the client portal opens silently, i.e. your client will not receive an invitation or a letter, and no sample task will appear on their dashboard.
When adding a new customer contact, you can determine whether they can access the portal. They will not receive an invitation, letter or sample assignment either.
Communication between the accountant and the client through the client portal
Accountants can direct tasks to clients. For example, the task "Please send me receipts".
If an accountant wants to direct the task to the client through the client portal, the accountant clicks on "Assign" to send it to the client.
If the task is new or unread, the client sees it in bold.
PS! Approximately 5 minutes after assigning the task, the customer will receive an email notification informing that a task is awaiting in the customer portal. The 5-minute pause allows the accountant to update the task or remove it from the customer's side.
Clients can upload files (max file size 10 MB) and add comments, messages or questions through the client portal. The accountant can also reply to the client through the portal, so everyone saves time from writing and reading endless emails.
Clients see the task checklist, files and description just like the accountant.
When writing comments and messages, Uku members can choose whether it is an internal comment only for their office employees or a portal message the client can see.
If you would like to answer to the customer, click on the reply button and insert your answer.
You can also set task deadlines; if the deadline has passed, it's red in the customer portal.
You can assign both one-time and recurring tasks to the client.
When a client marks a task as done, it does not automatically become done for the accountant. However, the accountant can set automatic completion for the task. In this case, the task is marked as done by the accountant if the client marks it as done by them.
Requests from a client to an accountant using Uku
The client can send requests to the accountant, and they will receive a notification. The request is seen by everyone to whom it is directed: the member responsible for the client, the admin member, and the company owner. Then, if you wish, you can change the request to a task.
When do accountants get notifications from the client portal?
The customer creates a new request in the customer portal;
A public message is added to the task or request;
The client completes a task that the accountant has not yet completed;
When do clients get notifications from the client portal?
They have an assigned task
Their task has a comment
The task is withdrawn from the client portal.
What can a client do in their profile?
Clients can change their contact details and notification settings in the portal.
Meanwhile, if the client changes their contact details or name, they show on the Uku member form.
Document management in the customer portal
Enter a URL link for the client that leads to the client's folder in the office's document management system, such as a Google Drive link.
Digitisation of documents
You can define the email address in the client's digitisation system, for example, client@costpocket.com.
To send client documents for digitisation, activate digitisation of client documents under company settings. You can then enter the email address to which you send the documents for digitisation on the client card.
If you are a user of Envoice, kindly use the email address generated by Envoice for the purpose of digitalization.
Now, the accountant can select "Digitise" under the task to send the documents to the digitization system.
