Early Access Program
Over the last few weeks, we’ve invited some of you to join the Early Access Program. For those of you already part of it, we are very grateful for your support! Your feedback is the reason the product gets better every week. 🙏
If you are not yet part of the Early Access program but would like to be, please first take a look at our website which now reflects the features we support. If you believe we can support your workflows, please respond to this email and we will find time to onboard you. We’d also love to know if there are specific things holding you back from getting set up.
New Design
Today we are rolling out the next iteration of the Portal design. The design is bolder, more customizable, and looks even better on mobile.
Payments - Subscriptions
In addition to regular invoicing, we now let you set up subscriptions for your clients. Support is comprehensive and includes multiple payment methods, customizable billing periods, and a fully branded payment experience for your clients.
We’re very excited to see how this feature will be adopted. In the last few weeks, we’ve heard from many innovative firms that want to explore new business models, including:
- Creative agencies that will provide a fixed number of monthly creative deliverables for a monthly fee.
- Law firms that will make their knowledge repository available for a low annual fee.
Improvements and fixes
- Added draft states to the invoice creation flow.
- Added support for in-product sidebar notifications for Messages.
- Added welcome messages for all new client users.
- Added the ability to rename files.
- Redesigned all tables.
- Improved how due dates on invoices are selected.
- Improved input rules so that you can only enter numbers in number fields.
- Improved the experience of previewing images in Messages in full-screen mode.
- Fixed a bug where some downloaded invoices had incorrect file names.
- Fixed a bug where you could click on the 3-dot actions button in a table even if no actions are available.
- Fixed a bug where you couldn’t update the social sharing image for your landing page
- Fixed a bug where you sometimes couldn’t delete a client user.
- Fixed a bug where in Messages your profile picture sometimes didn’t show up correctly.
Messenger
After months of small improvements, Messenger is now available for all Early Access customers. With Messenger, it's incredibly easy for internal users and client users to communicate. Here's how it works:
- Click on messages
- Select a channel
- Send your message
Behind the scenes, we've made sure Messenger works as intended. This includes:
- Notifications: If a message is not viewed within 5 minutes we send an email notification with the content and a button to reply.
- Client users that sign up to your Portal are automatically greeted with a Welcome message. In the future this message will be customizable.
Customization
The Customization page is coming alive today. In the past, you could see it but you couldn't update anything. Now you can navigate to "Customization" and personalize your portal without having to email us. You can now update:
- Logos and icons
- Social sharing images and the login/signup image
- Color schemes
- SEO titles and descriptions
Improvements and Fixes
- Fixed several bugs that caused page alignment issues on iPads and Safari browsers.
- Fixed a bug that prevented favicons from showing up.
- Improved the performance of loading pages that show user data.
- Improved how tags are created in the Knowledge Base.
Connect your Stripe account
It's now easier to get paid. Under Settings/Banking, you can choose between 2 options:
- Express - Enter your banking information directly
- Standard - Create a new Stripe account or use an existing one
Improvements and Fixes
- Redesigned the Customization page.
- Improved the client user creation flow. Now, there is a checkbox that lets you quickly invite the user after they are created.
- Renamed the CRM section to "Clients" with 2 sub pages named "Client Users" and "Client Companies".
- Added colored icons for companies.
- Added deep links to email notifications. Now, when you receive an email notification and click on the link, it will bring to the relevant page directly.
- Fixed a bug where downloading some files showed them as being corrupted.
- Fixed a bug where an email user invite to an existing teammate sometimes did not arrive.
- Fixed a bug where client users who logged in sometimes saw the admin sidebar for a a few seconds.
- Fixed a bug where signing out of the Portal didn't bring you to your landing page.
Knowledge base
The Knowledge Base is the best way to create content for your clients. You can use it answer common questions, introduce your offerings, and more. Here's how it works:
- Click on 'Knowledge Base' in the sidebar.
- Click on 'New Resource', and add a title, tags, and content.
- All content is now accessible by any client users that log into your portal.
Improvement and fixes
- Added an invite status for internal users so that they can know if teammates are fully set up.
- Added a Preview button to see files without having to download them.
- Fixed a bug that prevented the deletion of companies.
- Fixed a bug where on mobile devices, after logging in, the zoom level is too high.
- Redesigned the Files tab to work better on mobile.
- Redesigned all modals to look better and more logically separate content from action buttons.
- Redesigned email notifications.
- Improved the animations on the sidebar when you select a new page.
- Improved the performance of loading user information.
- Improved the mobile experience of the Settings page.
- Improved the design of tooltips across the product.
- Improved the performance of loading user profile pictures by saving size-optimized versions.
- Switched to a new domain, portal-notifications.com, for all email notifications.
- Reduced the time it takes to log in.
- Removed the "Back to Home" links on the login and signup buttons.
Files module
With the new Files Module, it's easier than ever before to collaborate with clients in a shared folder. Here's how it works:
- Click on Files in the main sidebar.
- Select your client in the Files sidebar.
- That's it - here you can see the shared folder for you and your client. When your client logs in, they can see exactly the same data. From this page you can upload new files, download files, and delete files.
Improvements and fixes
- On mobile, table pages render better and let you horizontally scroll to see all content.
- On mobile, table action columns now show drop down menus.
- Company names now shows on the top bar beside the company icon making for a more on-brand experience.
- Performance improvements for loading user data.
- Renamed Marketing Page to Landing Page.
- New users now automatically get assigned a colored icon with 2 letters representing their name. They can still upload profile pictures.
- Added tooltips to all action buttons.
- Added a new loading spinner to all pages.
- Added a progress spinner to the upload file button.
- Fixed a bug where a small fraction of email invite links did not work.
- Fixed a bug where users could not be re-created after they were deleted.
- Fixed a bug where closing a modal put all the buttons on the page in a bad state.
- Fixed a bug where files could not be deleted.
Improvements and fixes
- Updated the base font to Inter UI.
- Updated the client sign up flow so that company name is optional. When no company name is entered, we automatically create a company called "firstName lastName's Company"
- Added search capabilities to all pages in the product and improved search performance.
- Updated our table styles so that any table action (add, delete, sort) that change what rows are shown use transition animations.
- Added a logo API that automatically assigns company logos to users if a suitable match is found based on the user's email.
New sidebar
We've redesigned the Sidebar so that information is more accessible for internal users and client users. The My Portal section in the bottom is new and will let you connect an existing marketing page (if you have one) or setup a new one from scratch. The eye button lets you look at your marketing page in a new tab so that you can see what visitors see.
A new brand & website
We have a new color palette, new logo, and an updated marketing page. T website is still pretty barebones right now, but be on the lookout for more updates in the next few weeks.
Client user statuses
On the Portal CRM, you can now see statuses for your clients. The statuses include:
- Active: Client User is setup and has logged in at least once
- Invited: Client User has received an invite but hasn't logged in
- Pending Verification: Client User has started to create an account but hasn't completed email verification
- Not Invited: Client User has not received an invite yet
Improvements and fixes
- You can now search on CRM/Users and CRM/Companies tables.
- Success and error toast messages have been updated to be more helpful across the product.
- You can now invite client users directly from the CRM/Users table by clicking on the invite icon.
- Redesigned email notifications.
- Redesigned all page layouts to work better on large screens.
Improvements and fixes
- Updated the client user invite flow so that accounts can be activated by clicking on a link vs. having to enter a code manually.
- All new users now have an icon that consists of the first letter of their first and last name. The icon is replaced when the user uploads a profile picture.
- Various layout improvements to improve the look of your Portal on larger screens.
- Improved tables so that they look better and load faster.
- Desktop-only pages now show a modal that informs you of this. Mobile support is in the works.
Hello World
When Covid started to affect the communities around us and decimated our existing startup, we knew we had to adapt. We were inspired to work on something that helps companies embrace going virtual because for many that will be the only way to survive and for most it will be the only way to thrive. Because services like Shopify already exist to help physical product companies transition to e-commerce, we are specifically focused on professional service companies (creative agencies, consulting firms, law firms, etc.) which we understand well and for which no great all-in-one solution exists.
We're going to stay quiet for the next few months and focus on (1) building product and (2) onboarding early access users. Nonetheless, we thought it would be great to keep track of weekly progress, which is why we started this blog.
Shoot us a message if you are interested in what we're working on or want to be an early access user. You can reach us at hello[@]joinportal.com 🙂
