A customer document portal exists so that a client has one obvious place to put a file and the firm has one record of what arrived, and it fails when the client has to create an account to use it. This page says what a document portal for clients must do from the client's side, what a client upload portal must log from the firm's, how client portal file sharing works on the way back, and why construction file sharing with subcontractors and owners follows the same rule with a job number instead of a client year. The free document capture worksheet sizes the backlog; Batesio Pro keeps the portal for $19 a month for the whole firm.
The client's side: one link, one page, no account
A document portal for clients should be reached from a link to the client's own email address, open on one page, and accept the upload in one action. Every account to create, password to set and app to install is a client who emails the file instead, and the record is lost before it starts. The firm can tell whether its portal works by whether the least technical client used it without a phone call; that is the only test that matters.
The firm's side: the upload logged, the file numbered
A client upload portal logs the upload against the client and the date, gives the file its Bates number on arrival and files it under the client, so the firm's document keeper can see at a glance which clients have sent what and which have not. Client portal file sharing on the way back is the same record in reverse: the link to a named person, the expiry, the open logged, the withdrawal available. Both directions in one log is the product; storage is where the files then live, and Dropbox publishes that at $15 per user per month on its Standard team plan.
Construction file sharing follows the same rule
A contractor sharing drawings with a subcontractor and a certificate with an owner has the same problem with a job number instead of a client year: files leave as attachments and nobody can say who opened the current revision. Construction file sharing through a portal gives each party a link to their page, logs the open of each revision and keeps the number on the page. Batesio Pro is $19 a month for the whole firm and keeps the portal both ways, the number, the log and the retention record, with an export.
Questions people ask about customer document portal
Do clients need an account for a customer document portal?
No; a link to their own email address and one page is the whole of it, and that is why they use it.
What does a client upload portal log?
The upload against the client and the date, and the number the file was given on arrival.
Is client portal file sharing different from sending a link?
The link is tied to a person, expires, logs the open and can be withdrawn; a plain link does none of that.
Does construction file sharing need a different tool?
The same portal with a job number on the page instead of a client year.