A client portal for agencies, so approvals stop living in email threads
Agency work waits on two things: assets that never arrive and approvals that are never quite in writing. FirmHello puts both on a checklist your client can see.
Free for 14 days, no credit card. Your portal carries your firm's name from the first client you add.
Phase 2 kickoff — assets and access
6 of 10 received1 item overdue — FirmHello is chasing
- Logo files — vector originals Received 5 Mar
- Brand guidelines PDF Received 5 Mar
- Analytics access — read only Granted 7 Mar
- ! Product photography — Q1 shoot Overdue
- Tone of voice questionnaire Reminder tomorrow
- Phase 1 sign-off Approved by D. Achebe · 26 Feb
Northbank Studio's portal, as their client sees it.
You cannot start until you have the logo files, the brand guidelines, the access to their analytics, and the answers to nine questions about tone. You cannot invoice the phase until someone with authority says yes.
FirmHello gives each client a branded space where the outstanding asks are listed, the approvals are recorded with a name and a timestamp, and the deliverables live somewhere more permanent than a expiring share link.
What actually delays agency work
Kickoff waits on assets nobody owns
The vector logo is with a designer who left. The photography is on someone's laptop. You asked at kickoff and you are still asking in week three.
Approval by emoji
A thumbs-up in a group chat is not an approval you can point to when the client's new marketing director disagrees in month four.
Share links that expire mid-project
Deliverables live in a folder on a drive belonging to whoever set the project up, with a link that dies or leaks. Neither is a good look.
Scope creep with no paper trail
Extra work arrives as a message in a thread. Without a record of what was approved and when, the argument about it is unwinnable.
From kickoff to sign-off in one place
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Step 1
Send the kickoff list, not a kickoff email
Assets, access, answers, and the approved statement of work as line items. The client can see exactly what is holding the project, which changes the conversation entirely.
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Step 2
Put deliverables up for approval
Each phase goes up as an approval item. The client approves in the portal and you get a name, a date and a record you can bill against.
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Step 3
Hand over a library, not a link
Every asset and deliverable stays in the client's vault under your branding, so a handover is an access change rather than a zip file.
What agencies use most
Every featureRequest lists
A kickoff list per project, reusable across clients, so the fourth brand refresh starts from the twelve things you always need.
Approvals on the record
Phase approvals and statements of work recorded against a named person with a timestamp, so the deliverable that was approved is provable.
Client vault
A permanent, branded home for assets and deliverables that does not depend on a share link or a particular employee's drive.
Intake forms
A public brief form that turns an enquiry into a client, a project and a first asset list before the kickoff call.
Your brand, your domain
You are a design business. The portal your clients live in carries your identity, on your domain, not a vendor's.
Automatic chasing
The follow-up on missing assets happens on a schedule, from your studio's address, so no account manager has to send a fifth message about photography.
Client documents are the most sensitive thing a firm holds
So the portal is built to hold them properly: encrypted, access granted one client at a time, and every action recorded. Nothing travels as an email attachment.
How FirmHello is built- Encrypted in transit and at rest
- TLS 1.3 on every connection and AES-256 encryption for stored documents, with keys managed separately from the data they protect.
- Access is per client, not per firm
- A client can only ever load their own space. Staff access is granted per client, so a junior can be given three files and nothing else.
- No documents in email
- Notifications tell a client that something is waiting and link them to the portal. The material itself never leaves it as an attachment.
- Complete audit trail
- Views, uploads, downloads, approvals and permission changes are all recorded with actor, time and IP, and the log is exportable.
- Retention you control
- Set how long documents live per client or per matter, and hold or purge on request, so the portal matches the retention policy you already have.
- Hosted in your region
- Choose United States, Canada, the EU or the United Kingdom, and your firm's data stays in that region.
Questions from agencies
Is this a project management tool?
No, and deliberately. Your team keeps working in whatever it already uses. FirmHello is the client-facing surface: what you need from them, what they need to approve, and where the files live.
Can clients approve work without an account?
Yes. They open your link, review the deliverable and approve. The record still captures who approved and when, because the link is issued to a named contact.
Does it replace our shared drive?
For client-facing material, usually yes — that is what the vault is. Working files, versions and internal scratch work tend to stay where your team works.
Can we white-label it completely?
Your logo, your colors, your domain, and notifications from your address. Clients do not encounter our name.
What if a client wants everything at the end of a project?
Export the whole vault as one archive, or leave their access in place. Plenty of agencies keep the portal live as a reason for the client to come back.
Does it work for retainers as well as projects?
Yes. Recurring lists reopen on a schedule, which suits a monthly content or reporting cycle better than a one-off project list.
Related
Where to go next
Every page on the site, grouped by the question it answers.
Ready when you are
Start a free trial and have your portal branded before your next kickoff.
No card and no sales call. If you would rather tell us about your firm first, use the longer form.