Client Portal: One Branded Login for Everything a Client Needs

Why clients keep asking where things are

From the client's side, working with an agency often means keeping track of five inboxes' worth of scattered artefacts. The proposal came as a PDF. The files came via a drive link that expired. The invoice came from an accounting tool with a different sender name. Progress updates arrive as prose in an email, when they arrive.

None of that is one big failure, and that is the problem: there is no single moment where anyone decides to make it confusing. But the effect is that the client cannot self-serve. Every question — what is the status, has this been approved, what do I owe — becomes a message to you, and answering those messages becomes a real part of your week. We wrote about that load in how to give clients project updates without email.

There is a positioning cost too. An agency that communicates through scattered attachments looks smaller than one whose clients log into something branded. Same work, different impression.

What the Arpixa client portal is

The client portal is a dashboard your clients log into, branded as your agency. It is not a shared folder or a read-only status page: clients act in it. They approve deliverables, sign documents, accept proposals, pay invoices, upload files, and write briefs.

The first thing a client sees on their home screen is the Action Needed panel. It aggregates the three things that genuinely block work — unpaid invoices, proposals sent for review, and deliverables awaiting approval — and orders them so invoices come first, then proposals, then deliverables. Each row carries the action: Pay Now, Review Proposal, Review Deliverable. If there is a backlog it shows the first five and a count of the rest. When there is nothing, it says so plainly.

That panel is the single most useful thing about a portal, because it inverts the chasing. Instead of you emailing a client to remind them there is an approval waiting, the reminder is sitting in front of them the moment they log in.

What clients can do in the portal

The portal, section by section

The navigation is grouped so a client is never guessing which heading holds what.

A few of these are worth calling out. Deliverables is where a client approves work or requests revisions with written feedback and a priority, and where version history makes the third round visibly the third round. Documents hides drafts entirely and labels anything you have sent as awaiting signature, with a floating banner counting what is outstanding. Invoices updates live, offering a view, a PDF or receipt download, and a Pay Now action only where there is a balance. Brief Builder is where the client writes a structured project brief and publishes it to you — see Docs & Briefs. Knowledge Base shows the read-only wiki pages you chose to share. On mobile there is a bottom bar with Home, Projects, Chat, Invoices, and More, with unread and outstanding counts on the badges.

Access, branding, and what stays private

There are two ways in, and they suit different clients. A portal account gives the client the full dashboard, and lets them switch between agencies if they work with more than one. A share link covers a single client or a single project without an account, set either as a public link or restricted to a list of allowed email addresses; these require a Starter plan or above. The enterprise client's procurement team will want an account. The small business owner who just wants to see the mockup will use the link.

Branding runs deeper than a logo. You set your workspace slug, which your URLs sit under, upload a logo, choose primary and accent colours and a typeface from ten presets, and set the sender name and reply-to address on outgoing email. On Pro and Advanced you can point a custom domain at the portal with a CNAME record and switch off Arpixa branding, which removes the “Powered by Arpixa” mark from invoices, the portal, and your booking page. The Free plan carries the Arpixa badge. There is also a public portfolio page under your slug if you want a shopfront alongside the portal.

What clients cannot reach is as important as what they can. Your task boards, internal notes, activity log, cost and profit columns, and draft documents stay on your side. Progress reaches the client as the project status, a progress percentage, the milestone list, and the activity recorded on that project — a summary view rather than your working board. That separation is what lets a team be blunt internally and appropriate externally. More on the principle in how to keep internal notes private from clients.

How it connects to the rest of Arpixa

• Client records and portal access are managed from your CRM, per client.
• Project status, milestones, and deliverable reviews come from Projects.
• Invoices and Payments power the Finance sections, including the public pay page.
• Proposals and E-Sign Docs are reviewed and signed here.
• Shared files from Files and shared wiki pages from Docs & Briefs appear in their own sections.
• Client-side conversation stays here rather than in the internal Inbox.
• The full module-by-module breakdown lives on Client Portal Software.

Each client-facing module has its own guide, written from the client’s side of the screen:

• Timeline — the seven event types and how two agencies are told apart on one calendar.
• Calendar — the five request types a client can send, and the approval lifecycle.
• My Projects — three views, and exactly what a client can create or edit.
• Deliverables — when to approve, when to send it back, and why approval is final.
• Documents — the per-signatory progress panel and who is allowed to sign.
• Proposals — packages, add-ons, and the three ways to sign.
• Files — the two-way asset room and the rule deciding what a client sees.
• Invoices — an invoice row taken apart, and how Overdue is calculated.
• My Payments — what each billing metric actually counts.
• Messages — one thread per agency, and which module to use instead.
• Brief Builder — six templates and field-by-field writing guidance.
• Find an Agency — the three connection routes and how to unstick one.

Arpixa has a real Free plan (not a trial), with Starter at $12/month, Pro at $29/month, and Advanced at $89/month. Active clients are limited to 1 on Free and 12 on Starter, with Pro and Advanced unlimited. Portal share links require Starter or above, and custom domain plus removing Arpixa branding requires Pro or Advanced. Annual billing lowers the effective monthly cost, and the pricing page is the source of truth for current plan limits.

How to set up your portal

1. Set your workspace slug, logo, and brand colours so the portal looks like your agency.
2. Turn on the client portal and write a welcome message clients see when they arrive.
3. Invite a client to their own portal account, or share a per-client or per-project link.
4. Keep project status, milestones, and progress current so the portal reflects real movement.
5. Submit deliverables for review, share the files that matter, and send invoices.
6. Let the Action Needed panel do the chasing, and watch approvals and payments come back.

Related reading: how to give each client their own login and building a branded client portal.

Frequently asked questions