New to portals? Start with How client portals work: start here.
There are four ways to get clients into portals. Pick the one that fits:
Situation | Use |
A new client | |
Someone else needs access to an existing portal (a co-director, a spouse) | |
Moving many clients at once | |
Clients should sign up themselves, for example from your website |
Before you start: set your default invitation message and reminders in the group's Settings > Invitations (see Pending invitations below).
1. Create a portal and invite a client
Click Portals, open the portal group and click the + next to Portals.
In Start typing to search or create a new contact, pick the client from your Contacts or choose Add a new contact. The portal name fills in from the contact's name, and you can change it.
Optionally add a Personal message.
Click Create the portal and invite client user.
Not ready to invite anyone yet? Leave the contact field empty and click Just create a portal (I will invite client users later).
2. Add a member to an existing portal
In the portal list, click the people icon in the Users column. Inside a portal, the same icon sits next to Portal Users in the left-hand menu.
In Manage Portal Access, click + next to Members.
Pick or create the contact and choose their Permissions:
Full Access: view, upload and delete documents, and invite other people to this portal.
Read/Write: view and upload documents, but not invite other people.
Read: view only. You can also stop Read users downloading files in Settings > Security.
Optionally add a personal message, then click Invite new member.
The default permission for new portal users is set in the group's Settings > Security. To give one person access to several portals, repeat these steps for each portal. They receive one invitation email per portal.
3. Import portals from a CSV file
Open the portal group and click Add Portals in Bulk in the left-hand menu.
Click Example CSV to download a template. The columns are:
name (required): the portal name
email, firstName, lastName: the client to invite. If you give one of these, give all three.
label: an optional portal label
Drop your file on Choose a CSV file or drop it here, map your columns to the fields, add an optional welcome message and click Import.
Rows without an email create portals without inviting anyone, so you can invite those clients later.
4. Share a self-signup link
With a self-signup link, clients create their own portal and login without waiting for an invitation. This suits website "Become a client" buttons and events.
Open the portal group and click Self-signup link in the left-hand menu.
If your group uses portal roles, choose the role the link is for.
Click Generate new link, then copy it to your website or emails. You can revoke it at any time.
Good to know:
Clients who sign up this way use guest user licences. If you reach your plan's limit, new sign-ups may need an upgrade. Auto-upgrade isn't available on every plan, so contact customerservices@mydocsafehq.com if you expect high volumes.
The verification and login emails don't include a link back to your sign-in page. Tell clients where to sign in: add a "Client login" button to your website and put your sign-in address in the Dashboard description.
If you use your own portal domain (Branding add-on), the link uses it.
To be told when someone signs up, use Manage it in your notification settings on the same page.
Pending invitations, reminders and resending
An invitation stays Pending until the client accepts it, and their avatar shows faded in the Users column. Go to the group's Settings > Invitations to set:
Invite new member message: the default text sent with invitations.
Remove pending invitations after, days (default 60): counted from when the invitation was sent or last reminded.
Invitation reminders > Send automatic reminder: chases people who haven't accepted.
To resend by hand: tick the portals in the portal list and click Resend pending invites.
Client says the invitation never arrived? Ask them to check spam and safelist MyDocSafe. Also check the email address, because we don't report bounced emails.