The Client Portal is a self-service website for your customers. Once you give a customer access, they can sign in any time to see their invoices, pay online by card, save payment methods, set up autopay, and review their payment history — without calling your office. This guide is for your team: how to give a customer portal access, what the customer sees on their side, and how their portal activity shows up back in GO.
How a customer gets portal access
Portal access rides along with invoicing. When you send an invoice to a client account using portal delivery, GO creates the portal sign-in for that account (if it doesn't have one yet) and emails the customer an invitation with their credentials. There's nothing separate to set up first.
For that to work, the account needs to be:
a Client account, and
have an email address on the account.
Each account gets one portal sign-in, tied to the account's email address.
Sending an invoice to the portal
Go to Finance → AR Invoices.
Right-click an invoice for the customer and choose Send to Client.
In the send dialog, pick Send to Client Portal as the delivery method.
Click Send.
The invoice is posted to the customer's portal and they receive a notification email. If this was the account's first portal delivery, that email is also their invitation — it contains their sign-in details. The dialog tells you exactly what will happen: "This invoice will be delivered to the client portal and the client will receive a portal notification email."
If Send to Client Portal is grayed out, the account is either not a client account or has no email address. Add an email on the account (Accounts → edit the account → Contact tab) and try again.
What your customer sees
Customers sign in at your portal address — your GO web address followed by /portal/login. The invitation and notification emails link them there.
There's a Forgot password? link on the sign-in page, so a customer who loses their invitation can set a new password themselves.
The portal dashboard
After signing in, the customer lands on a dashboard summarizing their account with your company: Outstanding Balance, Overdue Invoices, Last Payment, and Next Due Date, plus their most recent invoices. The navigation across the top has four areas: Dashboard, Invoices, Payments, and Payment Methods.
Invoices
The Invoices page lists every invoice on their account with its date, amount, remaining balance, and a status chip (Paid, Due, Overdue). Filter tabs — All, Open, Overdue, Paid — and a search box help them find a specific bill. Note the customer sees the invoices you've created for their account here, including ones that are already paid; it's their full billing history with you.
Invoice detail and paying online
Opening an invoice shows the full document — dates, terms, bill-to address, your client notes, every line item, and the totals with what's been paid so far. From here the customer can:
Download PDF — a copy of the invoice using the template you chose when sending.
Pay Now — pay the open balance online by card, either entering a card or using one they've saved. Card details are captured directly by the payment provider; full card numbers never touch your system.
Payments and payment methods
The Payments page is the customer's receipt history — every payment they've made, whatever the method. The Payment Methods page lets them save a card for faster checkout, and — for projects billed on an installment plan — turn on autopay per project, so installments charge their saved card automatically. They can remove saved cards at any time.
The customer can also update their contact details under Profile (from the menu at the top right).
How portal activity shows up in GO
When a customer pays through the portal, the payment is recorded against the invoice automatically — the invoice's balance comes down and its status moves to Partially Paid or Paid on its own, just as if your team had applied the payment.
The payment appears in Finance → Payments and in the invoice's Payment History (right-click the invoice → View Payment History).
Invoices you send with portal delivery show it in the Delivery column on the AR Invoices list, along with how many times they've been sent.
Permissions
Sending invoices (and therefore inviting customers to the portal) requires permission to send AR invoices.
GO will only create a portal sign-in for a client account that has an email address, and only one per account. If a user with that email already exists in the system, the portal sign-in can't be created — use a different account email.
Portal customers only ever see their own account: their invoices, their payments, their saved cards. They have no access to your dashboard.
Tips
Make sure the account email is the right person. The portal sign-in is created for the account's email address — set it to your billing contact before the first portal send.
Portal delivery still sends an email. The customer gets a notification with a link each time you deliver an invoice to the portal, so they don't need to remember to check it.
Point customers at "Forgot password?" — it's the fastest fix when someone can't sign in, and it doesn't need anything from your team.
Suggest autopay for installment projects. A customer on a payment plan can save a card once and never miss an installment.
Common questions
How do I invite a customer to the portal? Send them an invoice with Send to Client Portal as the delivery method. The first portal delivery creates their sign-in and emails them an invitation automatically.
The portal option is disabled in the send dialog — why? Portal delivery needs a client account with an email address. Vendor and other account types can't have portal users, and an account without an email has nowhere to send the invitation.
My customer never got the invitation. Now what? Check the email address on the account, then send another invoice (or the same one again) with portal delivery — each portal delivery emails a fresh notification. The customer can also use Forgot password? on the portal sign-in page with their account email.
Which invoices can the customer see? All the invoices on their account — open, overdue, and paid — so their portal doubles as their billing history. If an invoice shouldn't be visible to a customer, don't leave it on their account.
Do portal payments need anything from my team? No. The payment records itself against the invoice, the status updates, and it shows up in Finance → Payments like any other payment.
Related topics
Accounts — the client account whose email becomes the portal sign-in.
AR Invoices — creating, posting, and sending the invoices customers see in the portal.
Payments — where portal payments land in your books.