Where this screen lives
A client who signs in with no connections does not land on an empty dashboard. They land on the Client Hub, headed with a welcome and laid out as a working screen with four panels: find an agency, discovered results, existing connections and requests, and a short explanation of how connecting works.
That is a better first experience than a blank state with a single button, and it is worth noticing what it implies. The design assumes a client may connect to more than one agency over time, so connecting is treated as an ongoing capability rather than a one-off onboarding step that disappears afterwards.
The same screen is reachable later, which is how a client adds a second agency without help.
Three routes in, compared
All three end in the same place — an access request against one workspace — but they differ in how much can go wrong on the way.
| Route | Right for | How it works | What can go wrong |
|---|---|---|---|
| Search by name | A client who knows the agency but has not been given anything. | Type at least two characters of the agency name and search. Matching workspaces appear under Discover Agencies, each with a request action. | Two agencies with similar names. Check the logo and the exact spelling before sending, because the request goes to whichever workspace you picked. |
| Six-character agency code | A client whose agency has sent them a short code, usually in an onboarding email. | Expand the agency-code panel and enter the six-character code the agency shared. It resolves to exactly one workspace. | Transcription. Six characters are easy to mistype, and a wrong code finds nothing rather than finding the wrong agency, which is the safer failure. |
| Invite link | A client the agency has invited directly, with the least effort required. | The link carries the invite code in its address. Opening it prefills the search, runs it, and shows a banner confirming the invitation, leaving one action to send the request. | None to speak of. This is the route to prefer if you are the agency, because it removes both the searching and the typing. |
Note that the agency-code entry is deliberately collapsed behind a prompt asking whether you already have a code. That is the correct hierarchy: most clients arriving cold will search, and a code field shown by default reads as a requirement to people who do not have one. It is one click away for those who do.
Search results are presented as discovered agencies, each with its logo where one exists and a two-letter initial where it does not, so the choice is visual rather than purely textual. Results already connected or already requested are marked as such, which prevents duplicate requests.
Why the invite link is the one to use
If you are an agency and you want clients in your portal this week rather than eventually, use the invite link.
The link carries the invite code in its address. When a client opens it, the portal reads the code, fills the search field with it, and runs the search on their behalf. A banner then confirms they have been invited and points at the action that sends the request. The client’s entire job is one click.
Compare that to the alternative, which is an onboarding email asking someone to sign in, find a search box, type your agency name, identify you among the results, and send a request. Every one of those steps is a place a busy person stops. Portal adoption is almost entirely determined by how few steps stand between an email and a working account.
What sending a request actually does
The screen explains its own model in two short steps, and they are worth taking literally.
- Send a request. The client asks for access, and the agency is notified in their workspace.
- The agency approves. Once accepted, the dashboard unlocks with projects, invoices, and everything else.
The important consequence: nothing is visible before approval. A pending request grants no access to anything. A client cannot see a project, an invoice, or a file by requesting access to a workspace, and an agency does not have to worry about what a stranger might glimpse in the gap. Approval is the gate.
It also means the agency is always the one who decides. There is no code that self-serves access and no link that bypasses the accept step. The agency-side view of managing that, along with portal settings and branding, is in Client Portal.
Get your clients into a portal this week
Start free in minutes, or log in to your Arpixa workspace. See pricing for plan details.
Connecting a client costs nothing extra; the plan sets how many can be connected. That is one on the free tier, twelve on Starter at $12 a month, and unlimited on Pro at $29 and Advanced at $89. Confirm on the pricing page.
Pending, Accepted, Rejected
Requests live in a Your Requests panel with one of three states, each colour-coded.
- Pending, amber. Sent and not yet decided.
- Accepted, green. Approved, and the connection is live.
- Rejected, red. Declined, and it stays visible rather than disappearing.
Keeping a rejected request on screen is the right call. A request that silently vanished would leave a client wondering whether they had sent it at all, and the most likely cause of a rejection — the wrong workspace, or an email address the agency does not recognise — is something the client can act on once they know it happened.
Both requests and connections update live, so an acceptance appears without a refresh. In practice a client who has just been told on a call that their access is approved will see it appear while they are still looking at the screen.
Withdrawing, and why it matters
A client can withdraw their own pending request, and it takes effect immediately with a confirmation.
This is a small feature that removes a genuinely annoying support conversation. Search by name will sometimes surface two agencies with similar names, and someone will occasionally request the wrong one. Left alone, that is an awkward message to a stranger’s workspace and a second message to the right one. Self-service withdrawal turns it into a click.
It also means the request list stays honest. A client who has cleaned up their own mistakes has a list of requests that all mean something.
Several agencies, and the active one
Connections are listed together, with the currently active workspace marked, and a client can switch which one is active in a single action.
This matters because the portal treats multi-agency clients as normal rather than exceptional. Several modules aggregate across every connection: the Timeline colour-codes agencies on one calendar, the Invoices screen merges billing from all of them, and My Payments shows spend split per agency. Others, like Messages and file uploads, are scoped to one agency at a time and ask which.
What never happens is leakage. Each connection is scoped to one workspace, and agencies working with the same client cannot see each other. The merged view exists only on the client’s side, which is exactly the asymmetry you want: convenient for them, invisible to you.
Troubleshooting a connection
Six things account for nearly every connection problem. Five of them are fixable by the client.
| Symptom | Likely cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| The search finds nothing. | Either fewer than two characters were entered, or the agency name in Arpixa differs from the trading name you know them by. | Ask the agency for their six-character code instead. A code is unambiguous where a name is not. |
| The request sits on Pending. | Nobody at the agency has actioned it yet. Pending is a real state, not an error. | Tell your contact it is waiting. Access requests land in the agency workspace, and a quiet one can go unnoticed for a day. |
| The request came back Rejected. | Usually the wrong workspace, or an agency that does not recognise the email address the request came from. | Check you picked the right agency, and confirm which email address they expect. Then send again. |
| You sent a request to the wrong agency. | Two similarly named workspaces in the search results. | Withdraw it from Your Requests. Withdrawal is immediate and needs no help from either agency. |
| Connected, but the dashboard looks empty. | Connection is not the same as having work. Until the agency assigns a project, sends an invoice, or shares a file, there is nothing for the modules to show. | Nothing to fix. Each module explains its own empty state and fills in as the agency adds things. |
| The wrong agency is showing as active. | You are connected to several and the active workspace is set to another one. | Switch to the one you want from the Connections list. Switching is instant and reversible. |
The fifth row is the one worth dwelling on, because it is the most common complaint and it is not a fault. A newly connected client with no assigned work sees a portal that is mostly empty, and concludes something is broken. Nothing is. Each module says plainly that it fills as the agency adds things.
The lesson for agencies is scheduling: connect a client when there is something for them to see. A portal invitation that arrives alongside a real project, a first invoice, or a document to sign gets used. One that arrives two weeks early teaches the client the portal is empty, and that impression is expensive to undo.
How to connect to an agency
- Open the connect screen in your Client Hub, or follow the invite link your agency sent.
- Find the agency by name, or expand the code panel and enter the six-character code they gave you.
- Check the result carefully: right name, right logo, right agency.
- Send the connection request. The agency is notified in their workspace.
- Watch the request in Your Requests, where it reads Pending until it is actioned.
- Once it is accepted, enter the dashboard, and switch between agencies from the Connections list if you have several.
Step three costs three seconds and prevents the single most common error in this flow. Once you are through, the full set of twelve modules is mapped on the client portal overview.
Frequently asked questions
How does a client connect to an agency in Arpixa?
By sending an access request from the connect screen in their Client Hub. There are three ways to find the right workspace first: searching the agency name, entering a six-character agency code, or following an invite link that prefills the search. In all three cases the agency has to accept the request before any data becomes visible.
What is the six-character agency code?
A short code an agency shares with a client, entered in a collapsible panel on the connect screen. It resolves to exactly one workspace, which makes it the reliable option when an agency has a common name or trades under something different from its registered name.
How does an invite link work?
The link carries an invite code in its address. Opening it fills the search field with that code, runs the search, and displays a banner confirming the invitation, so the client only has to send the request. It is the smoothest of the three routes and the one agencies should default to.
What are the three request statuses?
Pending in amber while the agency has not yet decided, Accepted in green once they have approved it, and Rejected in red if they decline. All three appear in a Your Requests panel, so a client always knows where a request stands without asking.
Can a client withdraw a connection request?
Yes, from the Your Requests panel, and it takes effect immediately with a confirmation. This matters because sending a request to the wrong workspace is easy when two agencies have similar names, and self-service withdrawal means neither agency has to be involved in fixing it.
Can a client be connected to more than one agency?
Yes. Connections are listed with the currently active workspace marked, and switching between them is a single action. Several portal modules aggregate across all connections rather than showing one at a time, so a client with three suppliers sees one merged timeline, calendar, and billing position.
Does connecting give an agency access to my other agencies?
No. Each connection is scoped to a single workspace, and requests are made against one workspace at a time. Agencies working with the same client cannot see each other’s projects, files, invoices, or messages. Only the client sees the merged view.
What happens immediately after a request is accepted?
The screen offers a route into the dashboard, and the portal modules begin populating from that agency. What appears depends entirely on what the agency has: projects assigned to you, invoices raised, files shared, documents sent. An accepted connection with no work yet is a working connection with nothing in it.