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Client Portal Settings

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Every Matter has its own Portal. In the following information, mention of “a Client Portal” is synonymous with “a Matter’s Client Portal”.

Individual Records (Bills, Activities, and Documents) can only be shared with one Portal.

You will need the permission "Modify Client Portal Settings" to view and edit client portal settings.

Enabling the portal system-wide

  • Go to system settings and click on Client Portal in the menu
  • The first checkbox is “Client Portal Enabled”. If this is checked, the Client Portal is enabled for all of Centerbase. mceclip0.png
    • Individual Matters still need to be enabled to activate those portals.
    • By extension, if this is unchecked, the Client Portal is disabled for all of Centerbase (even if a Matter has “portal enabled” checked)

Disabling the portal system-wide

  • If the Client Portal was enabled and is then disabled, a dialog much like the one in Disable Matter Portal will display. See below for more details.
  • If yes is checked, that will delete all shared item relationships in Centerbase, but not the items themselves.

Other Client Portal System Settings

  1. Share
    • Sets the system default for which objects will be shareable to the Client Portal. The only possible objects are Activities (both Appointments and Tasks), Bills, and Documents
    • This can be overridden at the Matter level
  2. Session Timeout
    • How many minutes of inactivity Client Portal user will stay logged in for before logging the user out.
    • Certain actions on a user’s part reset their activity level
  3. Share Bill Upon Posting
    • When checked, any Bill that is posted will be immediately shared with its Matter’s portal. 
    • If the Bill is unposted, it will be unshared with the portal
  4. Company Name
    • Allows the firm or company to customize how its name appears in the Client Portal
  5. Matter Lookup Field for Activity
    • Activities must have a Matter to be shared on the Client Portal. This allows you to choose which field in on the activity is used as the Matter.
  6. Matter Lookup Field for Documents
    • Documents must have a Matter to be shared on the Client Portal. This allows you to choose which field in on the document details is used as the Matter.
  7. Logo Image
    • Allows the firm or company to customize its logo for the Client Portal
  8. Email Link Timeout
    • How many minutes a link in a Client Portal related email will last. This affects the reset password link and user registration link.
  9. Invitation Email Subject
    • The email a Client Portal user gets when invited to join a Client Portal will have this subject line
  10. Invitation Email Body
    • The email a Client Portal user gets when invited to join a Client Portal will have this body text
  11. Reset Password Email Subject
    • The email a Client Portal user gets when attempting to reset their password will have this subject line
  12. Reset Password Email Body
    • The email a Client Portal user gets when attempting to reset their password will have this body text
  13. Privacy Statement URL
    • Client Portal emails have a privacy statement link at the bottom and use the link provided by this field.
  14. Terms and Conditions URL
    • Client Portal emails have a terms and conditions link at the bottom and use the link provided by this field.

 

Enabling a Portal for a Matter

  • Go to the Client Portal menu in the gear icon

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  • In edit mode, click the checkbox “Client Portal Enabled on Matter”
  • Save changes
  • This dialog will appear

mceclip1.png

  • This allows sharing of existing bills immediately to the portal. “All Bills” can be chosen or "Bills as of" a certain date. Bills with open balances can also be selected to share bills with open balances regardless of issue date.
  • If nothing is checked, no bills will be shared
  • NOTE: a dialog will appear in that case, similar to if Bill sharing is disabled and re-enabling.

 

Disabling a Portal for a Matter

  • If a Matter’s portal is disabled and changes are saved, this dialog will display:

mceclip2.png

  • The option of deleting all relationships between Centerbase and the portal is displayed. This does not delete any items in Centerbase. 
    • If checked, the next time the portal is enabled (if ever) it will have no shared items and each item will need to be shared again.
    • Otherwise, if unchecked, the next time the portal for the Matter is enabled, all the previously shared items will be visible to portal users immediately.

Additional Portal Settings on Matter

  • The purpose of these settings is to allow granular control of what information users on the Client Portal can see.
  • Most of these fields default to the “normal” Matter fields and can be reset to default at any time.
  • These are unique fields and updating them will not affect the “normal” fields on the matter.
  1. Portal Name
    • The name of the Matter that displays on the portal.
  2. Portal Matter Status
    • The status of the Matter that displays on the portal.
  3. Portal Open Date
    • The open date of the Matter that displays on the portal.
  4. Portal Close Date
    • The close date of the Matter that displays on the portal.
  5. Portal Responsible Attorney
    • The responsible attorney displayed on the portal.
  6. Portal Firm Address
    • The firm or contact address displayed on the portal.
    • Defaults to the same address bills use, if available.
  7. Portal Contact Phone
    • The contact phone number displayed on the portal.
    • Defaults to responsible attorney’s phone number, if available.
  8. Portal Contact Email
    • The contact email displayed on the portal.
    • Defaults to responsible attorney’s email, if available.

 

Client Portal Users Table

On a Matter’s Client Portal page, you can manage user access to the portal

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The table shows when each email was invited, the last time it logged in to the portal, its status (either Invited, Active, or Inactive), and available actions.

  1. Add User
    • Enter any email address in the field at the bottom and click Invite.
    • It is up to the invitee to click a link in their email to complete registration for the portal.
    • An email may be invited to more than one Matter’s portal.
    • In the event a user has registered for one portal, the invitation email they get for a second portal will simply direct them to log in to complete the registration process for the second portal (instead of setting up a profile).
  2. Resend Invitation
    • If the emailed user didn’t get the invitation email or their invitation timed out, you can easily resend the invitation by clicking Resend for any email with “Invited” status.
  3. Deactivate User
    • If you want to revoke access to a Matter’s portal for a certain user, click the “Deactivate” button for the user
  4. Activate User
    • If a user was deactivated from a Matter’s portal and you want to grant access again, click the “Activate” button for the user

 

Viewing the Portal as User

There are two ways you can view a Matter’s portal as if you were a portal user.

  1. The first way is to click the “View Portal as Client” buttonmceclip5.png
  2. The second way is to click on the green Client Portal text next to the Matter name.mceclip6.png
    • This opens the Client Portal in a new browser tab and allows displays what portal users see.
    • NOTE: if you make any changes (for example, to Portal Matter Name) in Centerbase, a refresh is needed to see the changes. Certain changes, like disabling/enabling shareable objects, may require a relaunch of “View Portal as Client”.

Sharing Items with a Client Portal

  • Activities, Bills, and Documents can be shared with a Client Portal.
  • Activities and Documents have some fields you can customize for the portal. Bills cannot be customized but still have the Share dialog to show you which fields the portal users will see.

Example: share an Activity

mceclip7.png

Click “Share on Portal” in the Actions:

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This dialog will appear:

mceclip0.png

  • You can enter custom information to display on the Client Portal. These fields are unique from the activity record fields of Name, Description, etc.
    • For example, if you needed a more “client-friendly” description of an event, this is where you would put it.
  • Some data is read-only, such as Start Date, but is displayed here to remind you that it is data the Portal users will see.
  • “Apply these values to Centerbase”, if checked, will overwrite the record's fields to use the information you enter here. 
    • For example, if you come up with a clearer name for an Activity and you want the activity to display the same name, check off “Apply these values to Centerbase”
  • On the other hand, “Reset to Default” will clear out the custom fields and reset them to the record's fields
  • Click “Share” to begin sharing the Activity on the Portal.
      1. Example: unshare an Activity
        • If you want to unshare an item with the Client Portal, go to “Share on Portal” in the Actions button
        • If the item is shared, you will see a dialog like this:mceclip1.png
        • To stop sharing the item with the Client Portal, click “Stop Sharing”.

 

User Permissions

There are two user permissions for use of the Client portal. They are both under "Access Client Portal Settings" in the user permission list. "Access Client Portal Settings" does not grat any access itself but is used to mass select all client portal permissions.

  1. Can Share Items With Client Portal
    1. Users with this permission can share records with the client portal.
  2. Modify Client Portal Settings
    1. Users with this permission can access the client portal settings on the matter.

 

 

 Related Articles:

Client Portal Overview

 

 

 

 

 

 

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