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Create client portals

New to portals? 
You might want to get a rundown of how portals work first, and then set up your practice's default portal details.

To create a portal

  1. Click Contacts in the top menu bar.

  2. Click Portal list.

  3. Click Create portal.

  4. Enter a unique portal name. This is for your reference only.
    You should use a portal name that relates to the client you're creating it for.

    There are a few restrictions for the portal name you can enter:

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      the field can't be blank

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      it must be unique

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      only letters and numbers can be included. The following special characters can't be used: ,([~#%*{}<>?/+|\"])

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      it must be 55 characters or less.

  5. In the Clients section, click + Add a client to add one or more clients to this portal.

  6. You can type the client name in the text field or select the client from the list.

    You can group your common legal entities into one portal. Note that a client business can only be associated with one portal.

  7. Select the practice user who should be assigned the administrator role.
    They’ll receive any notifications from clients that aren’t replies to tasks they were assigned. For example, if a client uploads a document straight into their portal, the administrator will be notified.
    If you don’t select an administrator when creating the portal, the portal creator will become the administrator by default.

  8. Add the users who need to access this portal.

    You can add a user to more than one portal.

    • To add contributors, click + Add a contributor. Contributors can only access the documents you share with them.

    • To add a user who isn't currently part of your system, click + Create new user. See Create client portal users for more information.

      If you're creating a new user, make sure you enter the email address they use to log into their own MYOB products, or an email address associated with a Google account. Learn more

      Also, each person that you add to a client portal must have a unique email address.

  9. Select the default practice user who should appear as the sender of tasks that are created for users of this portal.
    If nobody is currently selected, click + Select a default sender to select a practice user. If you don’t select a default user and a practice alias is set up, the task will be sent from the alias. If you don't select a default user and you don't have a practice alias set up, the task will be sent from the user who creates the task. But you can always change the sender when creating a task.

    "Send as" users are practice staff whose names will appear on a task notification sent to clients. This will usually be the practice alias or the partner's or manager's name.

    You might want to select a different user to the task creator if the person who sends the task isn’t the person that the client would usually deal with.

    For example, Anna may be the partner who deals with Michelle, Clearwater’s business owner, but James might be the one who sends Michelle her tasks. If you want Anna to appear as the “From” name on emails the client receives and the task creator in the client’s portal, you would set Anna as the default “send as” user.

    If you've set up a practice alias, you can select it to be the default task sender. Learn about setting up a practice alias.

  10. Select who should be notified by default when a portal user adds comments to a task or approves a document.
    Click + Add someone to notify to select a practice user. Note that when creating a task, the task creator will automatically be added to the Notify list.
    If you don’t select any practice users, only the task creator will receive notifications by default, but you can add additional people to notify when creating the task.

    You can add a practice alias as a user to notify, so that the email notifications are sent to the email account associated with the alias. Learn about setting up a practice alias.

    The "Notify list" is the list of practice staff who need to be notified when tasks are actioned by their clients, including by digital signature.

  11. Choose who in the portal should be assigned tasks that are bulk-sent from the Transaction processing page (such as coding reports or when you use the Create task feature).
    To select the bulk task assignees, click + Add an assignee. If you don’t select any bulk task assignees, the tasks will be automatically assigned to all full access users.

    If you set a bulk send assignee, all tasks will be assigned to that user. If you don't set a bulk send assignee, all tasks will be assigned to all users with full access.

    Bulk assignee settings are used, for example, for tasks bulk sent from the Transaction processing page (such as coding reports or when you use the Create task feature). Or, for New Zealand users, tax notices sent in bulk as a task.

  12. Click Create.
    The Clients > Portals page displays the portal you've just created. An email will be sent to your client(s) and user(s) inviting them to connect with your practice as you've set up a secure online space for them to collaborate on documents and accounting tasks. Your client will be able to click the Sign in to your portal button in the email to accept the invitation to use your collaborative space.