What a client portal is, and what it should do for a practice
A private space where your client sends you documents, approves things and finds their own prior years. The useful ones also do the asking.
Year-end financials 2025
9 of 13 received1 item overdue — FirmHello is chasing
- Bank statements, Jan–Jun Received 12 Aug
- Bank statements, Jul–Dec Received 12 Aug
- Payroll summary Received 19 Aug
- Fixed asset invoices Received just now
- ! Stock count at year end Overdue
- Director loan confirmation Reminder Thursday
- Letter of representation Approved 6 Aug
The three things worth understanding
Most confusion about portals comes from the word covering two quite different products.
A portal is not a shared folder
A shared folder holds what you already have. A portal is concerned with what you do not have yet: the documents, answers and approvals still sitting with your client. The difference is that a portal knows what is missing and a folder does not.
This is why firms that move from a shared drive to a portal usually report that the useful change was not the storage. It was suddenly being able to see, on one screen, every client with something outstanding.
The client's experience decides whether it survives
A portal that clients avoid is worse than no portal, because you then run two systems: the portal for the clients who use it and email for everybody else. Every requirement you place on a client — create an account, choose a password, install something, read instructions — loses a percentage of them.
The portals that last are the ones where a client opens a link, sees a short list of what is needed, and uploads from whatever device they are holding.
Chasing is the feature, not the storage
The expensive part of document collection is not keeping documents. It is the follow-up: the second, third and fourth request, written by somebody senior enough that it is a genuine waste of their time. A portal that cannot follow up on its own has left the actual work where it was.
When the reminders are automatic and come from your firm, the chasing stops being anybody's job and starts being a setting.
What a portal should be able to do
Feature detailRequest lists
Build a named list of everything you need — files, answers, approvals — and send one link. Your client sees a checklist, not a paragraph of instructions buried in an email.
Automatic chasing
FirmHello sends the reminders. Pick a rhythm, and outstanding items get followed up until they arrive or you call it off. Nobody on your team has to be the nag.
Client vault
Every document a client has ever sent or been sent, in one searchable place, versioned, with retention rules. No more hunting through three years of email for last year's engagement letter.
Roles and per-client access
Staff access is granted one client at a time, on top of owner, staff and limited roles. A seasonal preparer gets the engagements they are working on and nothing else, and loses them the day they finish.
Approvals on the record
Put a document up for approval as an item on the same checklist. The record captures who approved it, the wording they agreed to, when, from where, and a fingerprint of the exact version they saw. It is not an electronic signature and we do not pretend otherwise.
Intake forms
One public link that turns an enquiry into a client record, a portal login, and their first request list — before you have spoken to them.
Your brand, your domain
Your logo, your colors, your domain. Clients log in at portal.yourfirm.com and every notification comes from your firm, not from a vendor they have never heard of.
Audit trail
Every view, upload, download and permission change is recorded and exportable. When someone asks who saw what and when, the answer takes one search.
What an Australian firm should check in a client portal
A portal holds personal information, tax file numbers among it, so the Privacy Act 1988 is the frame. Businesses with turnover above $3 million are bound by the Australian Privacy Principles, but the TFN Rule reaches every TFN recipient whatever its size, as does the Notifiable Data Breaches scheme where TFN information is involved.
Registered agents also owe a Code duty not to disclose a client's affairs to a third party without permission unless the law requires it. Ask any vendor how one client's documents are kept from another's view, and who on the vendor's side can see them.
A breach assessed in 30 days
Under the scheme, a suspected eligible data breach must be assessed within 30 days, and one likely to cause serious harm notified to the affected individuals and the Commissioner. A record of who viewed and downloaded what is what that assessment works from.
Offshore storage and APP 8
OAIC guidance treats giving data to an overseas cloud provider as a use rather than a disclosure only where a binding contract limits the provider to storage and gives you effective control. Otherwise APP 8 applies, and you remain accountable for the provider.
Australian hosting
FirmHello does not offer Australian hosting today. Weigh that against the APP 8 question above, against your own policy, and against any client, lender or funder who requires documents to stay in Australia.
Fund audits are different
SMSF auditors ask for documents with a statutory deadline behind the request, which suits a dated request list. The SMSF audit engagement letter sets out the terms, on a page for Australia only.
Pick the page that fits your practice
Each page below shows the same product in the vocabulary of one kind of practice, with the document lists and the deadlines it actually runs on.
Common questions
What is a client portal?
A private, secure space that a firm gives each of its clients. The client logs in to send documents, answer questions, approve paperwork and find material the firm has sent them, instead of exchanging email attachments.
What is the difference between a client portal and a shared drive?
A shared drive stores files. A client portal tracks what is still outstanding, follows it up automatically, scopes access to one client rather than to anybody holding a link, and records every view and download. If all you need is storage, a drive is enough.
Do clients have to create an account to use a portal?
With FirmHello, no. They open the link you send and land in their own space. You can add a password or a one-time code for clients who want one, but requiring registration loses a meaningful share of clients.
Is a client portal secure enough for financial documents?
A properly built one is considerably safer than email, because documents are encrypted, access is granted per client, and nothing travels as an attachment. The things to check are set out on our security page.
How much does a client portal cost?
FirmHello starts at $119 a month, with unlimited staff seats and unlimited client logins on every plan. Products that charge per seat or per client can cost several times as much once a practice grows.
Can a client portal be on our own domain?
Yes, and it matters. Clients are trained to distrust unexpected links asking for financial documents, so a portal at your own domain with your branding converts better than one at a vendor's.
What kinds of firm use a client portal?
Any firm whose work waits on documents from clients. Accounting and tax practices, bookkeepers, law firms, financial advisers, agencies, architects, consultants and trade suppliers all run the same underlying workflow.
Put your firm's name on it this week
Tell us about your firm and we will set your portal up with your logo, your colors and your first request template. No card, and nothing for your clients to install.
No card and no sales call. If you would rather tell us about your firm first, use the longer form.