The page where a client sees everything between you and them, and how they sign in.
Every firm has a client portal: one page where a client can see what has passed between you and them, in both directions, without an account. There is nothing to switch on.
A client who signs in sees their own record with your firm:
Social Security and account numbers in their answers show the last four digits only, the same as on your screens. A reply they have not sent yet is not listed.
A reply that came through an open link is listed only if the client signed it with a code sent to their email address. An open link accepts whatever address is typed, so without that proof the reply could be somebody else's. Replies to requests you sent a client by name are always listed.
Each person sees only what was sent to or by them, with one exception: a client group's vault. Under Kept for you, everyone you let into the vault sees the same files. See Client vaults. Someone in a client group sees the group's name and who else is in it, but nothing of the other people's items. On a request several people answered, the client looks back on their own part only, never what a spouse or a CPA wrote in theirs.
When retention deletes a submission, or a file link expires or is stopped, the entry stays in the client's record and says so, with nothing to open.
The client types their email address and gets a one-time code at the address you hold for them. There is no password. The page answers the same way whether or not it recognizes the address, so nobody can learn who your clients are by guessing.
A client you hold only a cell phone number for can't sign in. Add their email address on their page in Clients first.
Each sign-in, each reply a client reads back and each document they download is written to your activity log.
The link is the same for all of your clients; what each one sees depends on the address they sign in with.
A client who goes to Cartenda's own website finds Client sign-in at the bottom of every page, and a line on the sign-in and sign-up pages that takes them to the portal.
A client looking for their form sometimes signs up for an account. Once their email address is confirmed, their welcome page starts with Before you set up a firm, names your firm, and offers to open their record with you. If they haven't done anything in the workspace their sign-up made, they can remove it, and the account with it, in the same step.
A client who is also starting a firm keeps both. In the portal, the menu under their email address has Start a firm of your own.
If another firm using Cartenda holds your sign-in email address for a client, the workspace menu lists that firm under As a client. Choose it to open your own record there. Nothing from that firm appears in your workspace, and nothing from your workspace appears there.
Still stuck? Write to hello@cartenda.com and a person will answer.