Accounting client portal software gets bought as a way to move files and gets kept as a way to know where everybody is. The upload button is the part clients see and the least important part of the product. What decides whether a firm still uses it next year is whether the portal is attached to a record with enough in it to answer a partner's questions without opening anything else. That record, not the portal, is what this page is about, because the portal is the easy half.
One client, one record, everything hanging off it
The record has to hold more than a name and an email. It needs the engagement, who at the firm owns it, what stage it is at, the documents received and the documents still owed, and a history that survives staff changes. When that exists, the portal is a view of it. When it does not, the portal becomes a folder and the real record stays where it always was, which is in one person's head.
Outstanding is a status, not a folder that is empty
The most valuable thing a portal can tell a firm is what has not happened. An empty folder does not say whether the client was asked, whether they promised it Friday, or whether nobody has looked at that client in three weeks. Make sure the product models the request itself, so that outstanding is something you can list, sort and chase rather than something you infer by absence.
Client access is granted, reviewed and removed
Access is a lifecycle, not a switch. Somebody at the client leaves and their login should go. A business client adds a bookkeeper and they need in without sharing a password. A former client should stop having a door into your firm the month the engagement ends. Check that the product lets you see who currently has access to what, in one list, and remove any of it in one action.
Questions people ask about accounting client portal software
What is the difference between a document portal and accounting client portal software?
A document portal moves files. Client portal software attaches those files to a client record with a status and a history, which is what lets you answer where are we up to without opening the files at all.
Should clients be able to see prior year documents?
Usually yes, and it removes a steady stream of small requests. The thing to check is that older material is filed behind the current view rather than in front of it, so the client is not made to navigate an archive to find this week's task.
Does the portal replace our engagement letters?
No. It should hold them against the client record so anybody can see which version was signed and when. What an engagement letter must say is a matter for your professional body and your own advisers, not for software.