📌 Note: This article talks about the Customer Portal (1.0). For the newest version of the Customer Portal (2.0), please click here to access current documentation. For some additional resources on Customer Portal (2.0), see the below section for Customer Portal (2.0) Additional Resources.
Table of Contents
Purpose
Aspire's Customer Portal is a useful feature that improves communication and transparency between you and your customers.
With the Customer Portal, you can:
Send proposals
Send invoices
Capture digital signatures to help increase progress on jobs
Help customers view statuses of issues tied to their properties
Give customers the ability to make electronic payments on their own (with the Clover Connect integration)
📌 Note: Since your customer portal is custom to your company, you are required to set this up. Your Aspire Implementation does not cover this as it is an optional feature.
Enabling Your Customer Portal in Administration
In this section, we'll also show you how to enable your customer portal. You would have to have System Administrator level permissions to do this step.
First, begin setting up your customer portal by turning this feature on in Configuration:
Click the Profile icon in the blue side menu. Click Administration.
Click Configuration and then Customer Portal.
Click the checkbox Enable Customer Portal.
Below, we will breakdown the fields for your new customer portal, starting with creating the Customer Portal Invite Email for Customers.
Creating the Customer Portal Invite Email for Customers
In order for your customers to use the customer portal, an email invite will need to be created first. Enter information in the following fields:
Customer Portal Domain
The domain appears in the URL you give to your customers to access the portal.
It's recommended to use your company's name.
📌 Note: Aspire adds to your portal Domain to include: .propertyserviceportal.com. This will complete the URL that you share with your customers.
For example:
Customer Portal Link Description
This is what your customer will see in their Invitation Email Body. The text in the Customer Portal Link Description field specifies the text displayed as the hyperlink in the invitation email to your customers.
Example: Entering the text in the link description above appears as Click here to accept your Portal invite inside the body of your customer portal invitation email instead of your URL.
Invitation Email Subject
Next, set up the Invitation Email Subject.
Use tokens to personalize the information being sent in your customers' invite by clicking the magnifying glass ( 🔍 ). In the example above, we used [ContactName]. which pulls from the contact record of the customer.
When the Customer Portal Invitation is received, the subject line will include the contact name of the contact record you are sending the invitation to.
For John Smith, the email subject would read: John Smith, you've been invited to the Customer Portal!
Next, set up the Email Body information that will be sent to your customer.
Invitation Email Body
Write an email body that is easily understandable for your customer.
Tokens are helpful here as well when setting up your email.
⚠️ You must include the CustomerPortalLink token in your Invitation Email for customers to set up their account.
In the above example, we use the tokens Contact Name and Customer Portal Link. Next, we'll talk about the design settings for your customer portal.
Designing Your Customer Portal
The next section of the customer portal setup is to decide how your want your portal to look to your customers when they login to their accounts.
Portal Design
Login Page Logo
This logo will appear on the initial login page of your customer portal. Upload your company logo by clicking Upload Files and then clicking Save.
Page Text
The page text entered in this section appears on the login page of the customer portal under the Logo that is uploaded.
Enter your Page Text into the field.
Example:
General Settings
Display Font
The Display Font is the font that is shown throughout the customer portal. These are the default fonts that Aspire offers.
Select a Display Font available in the drop down:
Background and Borders Colors and Color Hex Values
The background color of your customer portal is configured here. The Border Color is the color that will display on the borders of tables inside of the customer portal. You can set your background color with one of the two following options.
Click on the background color box and slide the color picker until you find the color you want to use.
Or, if you know the color hex value, enter that in the Background Color Hex Value instead, and the color will be added to the Background Color field.
💡 Tip: If you are not sure of the exact color value, reach out to your marketing team or graphic designer for assistance.
⚠️ When using the background color hex value option, you must enter the # before the value, or the color will not display inside of the customer portal.
Input Field Font, Border Color, and Border Color Hex Value
This second row has the same options and functionality as the previous section.
The Input Field Font is the font that will be used when customers type into open fields inside of the customer portal. Select any font available in the drop down.
The Border Color is the color that will display on the borders of tables inside of the customer portal. Click on the Border Color field and slide the color picker until you find the color you want to use.
Or, if you know the color hex value, enter that in the border color hex value instead and the color will be added to the border color field.
Navigation Bar
The Navigation Bar settings allow you to upload a header logo, set up colors, and choose fonts for your customer portal headers.
Example:
Logo
The logo uploaded in this section will appear in the header of your customer portal after your customers log in to their account.
Click on the logo box and you can attach a file.
Title
Enter a title here, which will appear on the header of your customer portal.
Background Color and Background Color Hex Value
Set your Background Color for the Navigation Bar in these fields. You can use the background color picker, or enter the color hex value of your company branding colors.
Font Color and Font Color Hex Value
Set your Font Color for the navigation bar in these fields. You can use the color picker, or enter the color hex value of your company branding colors.
Now, on the dashboard, after customers log in, the changes here will show the header with the colors you set in this section.
Buttons
Next, set up your preferences on how your buttons will appear inside of the customer portal.
Background Color, Background Color Hex Value, and Font
Now, it's time to set up your buttons background color, font, and font color.
Then, decide which font should be used within buttons on the customer portal. The font selected here will be displayed when viewing buttons.
You can select any display font available in the drop down.
Example:
Dashboard
The settings in the Dashboard section allow you to configure the main display inside of the customer portal.
Example:
Dashboard Text
Add text here that will display to customers when they are viewing their Invoices, Proposals, and Issues.
Font, Font Color, and Font Color Hex Value
The Dashboard Font settings control any font listed within the Dashboard of the customer portal.
Font color can be specified here, and will affect the font colors displayed within the dashboard of where customers view Invoices and Proposals and Issues.
You can use the color picker slide, or enter the hex value of your company branding colors.
You can select any font available in the drop down.
When reviewing the customer portal screen, the font details are displayed based on the colors set up in this section!
Show Invoices, Proposals, and Issues Checkboxes
Clicking these boxes on when setting up your customer portal will determine what is shown to customers when they log into their customer portal.
Show only Proposals Within Specified Days
If you click the Show Proposals checkbox, Aspire will only show open proposals whose Opportunity Start Date is within the specified number of days from the current date. Enter a number here if you plan to use the Show Proposals checkbox.
Preview
Previewing provides a general idea on what the changes in your customer portal might look like once you have set up your colors, titles, logos, etc. This section is found at the bottom of the customer portal set up screen.
📌 Note: It's a good idea to review in Preview to see if you like your changes when designing your customer portal.
Once your preferences are entered in all of the fields, press Save to apply your changes and finish creation of your customer portal!
How to Use the Customer Portal
Once your customers accept their invite to create a new account to access the Customer Portal, there are many things they can do once they login.
We will go over the self serve features that the customer portal offers, so you can understand the level of permissions that your customers can do on their own, without additional management:
View and Sign Proposals
View and pay Invoices
Review and comment on Issues
Manage payment methods that work with your Clover Connect integration
Viewing and Signing Proposals
When your customer needs to review line item details inside of their customer portal account, they can click the vertical three dot icon within Invoices, Proposals, or Issues tabs.
If you send an Opportunity Proposal to your customer, they are can accept and sign an inside the customer portal with the use of a Digital Signature!
Viewing a Proposal
When the customer logs in, they can click Proposals, and then the vertical three dots to View or Sign.
Viewing will display a preview of the opportunity proposal for the customer to download and save, or print.
Signing a Proposal
If the customer wants to sign their proposal, they can go back to the three dots, and select Sign.
The Digital Signature window will appear.
When the proposal is signed via email, the person listed as the Sales Representative on the Opportunity will receive an email notifying them the proposal was signed.
The Sales Representative would then have to win the Opportunity in Aspire.
When completing an estimate, your team can also send the proposal to the customer; customers can also review and sign this proposal with this email.
Important things to know about proposals in the Customer Portal:
🧠 Customers can sign proposals that aren’t already in a status of Approved or In Production; they would be able to sign proposals electronically if the opportunity status is marked as Delivered.
If a proposal has a status of In Production, inside the customer portal, View would be only option when clicking on the three dot menu.
For the best experience when using the customer portal, it is recommended that the customer portal is operated on devices no smaller than a tablet.
Your team can confirm if an opportunity proposal has been signed in Opportunities ➡️ Display, to add the Electronic Signature column.
This will provide information on when the opportunity was signed without having to drill into the Audit information on each opportunity.
Viewing Invoices
When invoices are sent to a customer, the invoices then become available for viewing inside of the customer portal.
When customers need to review line item details inside of your invoices, they should click Invoices, then click the vertical three dot icon, then, select View.
Viewing an invoice inside of the Customer Portal shows a copy of the invoice sent to them. They would be able to download this and print if need be as well in this screen.
Here is an example:
After the invoice is viewed, then Payment can be made with an Electronic Payment Source.
The customer could then go back to the line item vertical three dot menu and select Pay to complete their payment.
📌 Note: Pay is not an option for those that do not use the Clover Connect integration with Aspire.
Visibility for reviewing Invoices in the Customer Portal are limited to Customer contacts that have accepted their invitation and are listed as either the Primary contact on the property, or the Billing contact on the invoice.
Important things to know about Invoices in the Customer Portal:
🧠 The Billing Contact on the invoice and the Primary Contact on the property can view invoices.
🧠 The due date displayed in the Customer Portal is tied to the net terms of the invoices.
Issues
Customers can view Issues that are tied to their properties including any Public comment that is made onto the Issue on the Customer Portal.
Clicking on the vertical three dot menu allows the customer to view more details. Customers can also make comments on the issue.
If a reply or update was made on the issue and is public, it will displayed to the customer inside of their portal. The screen below appears when the customer selects View.
If the customer wants to add their own comment, they could click Add Comment, and reply to update the issue.
📌 Note: Issues shown to customers can be turned on or off depending on your Customer Portal Configuration settings.
To read more about creating and managing Issues in Aspire, read the follow article here.
Subscribing to Electronic Receipts in the Customer Portal
Customers have the option to subscribe to Electronic Receipts in the Customer Portal. This option is able to be turned on from the Manage Payments screen under the welcome button.
⚠️ Note: Electronic payment receipts inside of the customer portal are only for those that have enabled the electronic payment integration with Clover Connect and Aspire. To get more information on Clover Connect, please submit a ticket to our AspireCare team.
If customers turn this on, they would get an automatic email notifying them that they have opted in to Electronic Receipts.
Here is an example email a customer receives when turning this button on for Electronic Receipts:
Then, when a payment is made with the payment sources on file in the customer portal, customers that have subscribed to electronic receipts would automatically get a receipt for the amount paid.
Reset Password
Customers can request a new password on the log in screen by selecting Forgot Password?
📌 Note: You cannot reset passwords on your customers' behalf.
The login email needs to be the same as the the email your customer registered with at the time of customer portal registration to receive the Password Reset email.
Troubleshooting
If your customer clicks the link to get their password reset for their account and never receives this email, confirm if they are Customer Portal Verified.
If they are not Customer Portal Verified, then they will not get a password reset email. They would have to accept their portal invite first, and set a password.
If your customer's email address changes, and you update their Contact record with the new email, the customer can use the same password; when they log in, they would use the new email address.
Multi-Property Management in the Customer Portal
For customers with multiple properties that have services, they can manage all properties within one customer portal account, as long as the Primary and Billing contacts are the same for each property.
The additional properties can be found by clicking on the drop down arrow on the Property name display.
Then, the additional properties could be selected from the drop down list to view the additional property's Opportunities, Proposals or Issues.
Manage Payment Methods
In the customer portal, your customers are able to add their own payment methods.
⚠️ Note: Electronic payments inside of the customer portal are only for those that have enabled the electronic payment integration with Clover Connect and Aspire. To get more information on Clover Connect, please submit a ticket to our AspireCare team.
To add a payment source, customers would click the Welcome button and click Manage Payment Methods.
Click Create Payment Method to add a new payment source.
ACH/eCheck
⚠️ ACH/eChecks cannot be disabled for those who have access to electronic payments for the customer portal. If you do not accept ACH/eChecks with your Clover Connect integration, you would need to communicate to your customers so they do not add an ACH payment source and attempt to make a payment.
To add a new ACH payment method, customers can select the Create Payment Method box, then under the payment type drop down, select "ACH/eCheck".
Under the Routing/Account Number, the customer would enter their bank information separating the routing and the account number with a "/".
⚠️ No spaces or special characters besides "/" should be used in this box.
After entering the bank information, they can decide to make this a default payment method by checking the Default Payment Method checkbox.
When all information is entered, select Create Payment Method.
Credit Card
For credit card payments inside of the customer portal, your customer could select the payment type of credit card, and enter the details to save their card onto their customer portal account.
Then, this card could be used for future transactions.
🧠 Note: As an administrator, you can also add Electronic Payment Methods on a contact record in Aspire. To learn more about adding these Electronic Payment Methods on behalf of customers, click here.
Inviting Customers to Your Customer Portal
Requirements
You've set up your Customer Portal.
The Role Permissions Bulk Email Contacts and Send Customer Portal Invitation are enabled for the user sending the invitations.
System Administrators, Branch Administrators, Branch Managers, and Account Manager can send Customer Portal invitations.
Sending Customer Portal Invitations
Go to Contacts and select the appropriate option in the filtering dropdown. In the example below, we selected All Customers [System Admin].
Click the checkbox next to the customer records that will receive the invite and select Send Customer Portal Invite from the Bulk Actions dropdown menu.
Edit the template email if needed and click Send. Remember, the default email comes from what you had setup in Administration. The email sender email address is the user that is sending the invite!⚠️ You must include the CustomerPortalLink token in your Invitation Email for customers to set up their account.
📌 Note: Customer Portal Invite links, once sent, are valid for 30 days. If 30 days has passed, and your customer never uses their invite link, you'll have to send them a new Portal Invitation Email.
Example Customer Portal Invitation email:
⚠️ You cannot send your customer a Customer Portal Invitation outside of Bulk Actions in the Contact module of Aspire. Additionally, whoever is logged in and sending the invites, is displayed as the default sender for these invitations
Aspire Best Practice
If a customer calls and says they can't get into their account, the first step would be to check and see if they have accepted their invite.
To confirm if your customer has accepted the Customer Portal Invitation, add a Display to include Customer Portal Verified and press Save.
The Contacts module display column will show a column with checkmarks next to your customers that have an active customer portal account created.
Customer Portal (2.0) Additional Resources
If you are looking for some additional documentation on Customer Portal (2.0), below is a short list of the useful article published in the Aspire User Guide!
For general information on Customer Portal (2.0), see: Customer Portal 2.0 and Use the Customer Portal 2.0
For more information on configuring Customer Portal (2.0), see: Configuration Screen
For more information on transitioning from Customer Portal (1.0) to Customer Portal (2.0), see: Transitioning from the Legacy Portal
For more information on managing payments with Customer Portal (2.0), see: Manage Payments Screen
For more information on basic troubleshooting, see: Customer Portal 2.0 - Basic Troubleshooting