Client document portal
- Pages in the backlog
- 30,000
- Scanner hours to clear the backlog
- 13
- Scanner minutes per day for the incoming pages
- 4
Every figure on this page is computed from the inputs you enter, by the method stated below it. The only constants Batesio supplies are the vendor prices cited where they are used. The defaults are a worked example to replace with your own.
A client document portal for a small firm has one job before any other: let a client hand over a file without emailing it, and let the firm find it afterwards. That means an upload page under the firm's own name, a record of who sent what and when, the file numbered and filed against the client and the matter the moment it lands, and a place the firm can send a document back for signature or review. Everything else, the branded mobile app, the workflow designer, the integrations marketplace, is decoration on that. A portal that receives files into an inbox has moved the problem, not solved it.
Open the Document capture worksheet Free to use. No account, no card, no sign-up.
Put the upload under the firm's name, and log it
A client who is asked to send tax papers or a signed contract should land on a page that says the firm's name, takes the file, and confirms receipt. The portal records who uploaded, when, and what, against the client, so the question of whether the client sent the bank statements is answered from the log rather than from an inbox search. Pro does exactly that, under your firm's name.
Number and file on arrival
The file that lands is Bates-numbered and filed against the client and the matter at once, with its retention date set from the firm's policy. A file that sits in an uploads folder waiting for someone to name it is the shared drive again. The document capture worksheet on this site sizes how many pages a year the firm takes in, so the filing rule is set for the real volume.
Send documents back through the same door
Engagement letters, returns for approval and closing statements go to the client through the portal, not as attachments, so the sent copy and the signed copy sit in the same record as the files that came in. The firm's history with the client is then one thread, exportable when the client leaves or the regulator asks.
Client document portal: common questions
Is there a free client document portal?
The tools on this site size the capture backlog, the retrieval cost and the retention load from your own figures, free and with no account, and you can print the worksheet. Batesio Pro is the portal itself: the upload page under your firm's name, the numbering, the client and matter record, and the export.
What should a client document portal do that email does not?
Confirm receipt, log who sent what and when, file the document against the client and the matter on arrival, number it, hold it under the firm's retention policy, and let the firm send documents back through the same record. Email does none of those without somebody remembering to.
Does a three-person firm need a portal?
At three people with a handful of clients, the free tools and a disciplined shared drive carry you for a while. Pro is worth it the first time a client says they sent the file and nobody can prove it, or the first time a regulator asks for everything on a matter and it is in four places.
Will it do what you need for Client document portal?
Tell us what your firm needs and we will tell you straight whether Batesio Pro does it today, whether it is coming, or whether you are better off with something else. A person reads these and replies.