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Build a customer portal
Give every customer one signed-in page for their project: where it stands, what you need from them, the files you exchange and the approvals they give. Then test that no account can open another's.
Built around a purpose
From email threads to one page per customer project.
For service businesses whose customers write in to ask where a project stands, whether a file arrived, or what you still need from them. That might be a landscape designer working with homeowners, an architect sharing drawing sets with a builder, or an IT contractor handling requests from small offices.
For illustration: a landscape design studio in San Diego, California, with 30 active homeowner projects. Each one lives in an email thread, a shared-drive folder of site photos and drawings, and a whiteboard of phases. Bring one finished project's thread and folder, the phase list, and the ten questions homeowners ask most, such as whether their homeowners association (HOA) letter came through.
Each homeowner signs in to one project page with the current phase, who acts next, and their requests with your replies. The same page holds drawings to download, a place to upload photos and letters, and approvals saved with a name, date and drawing version. The studio works from one queue across all 30 projects.
Customer sign-in, saved requests and approvals, stored uploads and invitation emails all run on the backend, so a portal like this is an app with data; a public page describing your studio would be a one-page site. Model and service usage is metered separately. Build and preview it on any plan. Putting it live needs Go or Pro. See pricing
Sort one project's emails by what the customer wanted
Open the thread from a finished project and label every message the homeowners sent: a status question, a file sent, a file asked for, an approval, or a change. Status questions become the project home. The rest become an upload, a request form or an approve button.
Rename your phases for the homeowner
The whiteboard says SV, C1, R2, PP and INST. Write each one the way a homeowner would say it, such as Site visit or Revising your concept, and add a line on who acts next. A phase waiting on them should name the missing item, such as the HOA approval letter.
Decide how a sign-in begins
Choose who gets an account, such as both homeowners on a project. Describe in Studio that accounts start from an invitation you send. Also describe what an uninvited sign-up sees, and which studio contact appears for anyone who can't get in.
Hang every record on a project
Requests, files, approvals and updates each belong to one project, and each project to the people invited to it. Say that customers see only records on their own project, through the access you describe for each collection, while your designers see every project.
Rehearse as two households
Set up two test projects, the Morales garden and the Bennett backyard, each with its own homeowner account. As each household, read the project home, upload a photo, approve a concept and send a change request. Then try to open the other household's work, and close any gap before inviting a real customer.
Scope the first version
What a first version includes.
Project home
The first screen after sign-in: the phase in plain words, who acts next, the latest update from the studio, and a short list of anything waiting on the homeowner.
Requests by type
A form with three choices, question, change or site problem, each asking only what that type needs. A change asks which area of the plan it touches. Each request keeps its sender, date, status and your reply.
Drawings and uploads
Files the studio shares, each marked draft or final with a date, next to files the homeowners added, labeled with who sent them. Superseded drawings stay visible but marked, so nobody prices or plants from an old version.
Approvals tied to a version
An Approve or Ask for changes button on each concept and quote. It saves the person, the date and the exact file they were looking at, so any later question about what was agreed starts from the record.
Studio queue
Your staff view across every project: open requests oldest first, projects waiting on a homeowner, and new uploads not yet marked as reviewed.
People on each project
The homeowners and anyone else invited to a project, with the date each invitation went out. Staff can remove a person, such as a previous owner after a house sale, without touching the project's records.
Test it in the preview
Before you share it.
- As the Morales household, open the planting plan and copy its web address. Load it signed in as the Bennetts, then with nobody signed in. Neither attempt should show the file. Repeat with a request from the Morales project, because records need the same test as files.
- Try to create an account with an email address you never invited. It should reach no project at all. If it can, describe the account rule again in Studio and repeat the test.
- Upload what homeowners really send, such as a phone photo of the side yard and a signed HOA letter, once from a phone and once from a laptop. Open each from the studio queue and confirm it sits on the right project with the sender's name.
- On one project, approve the concept as one homeowner and ask for changes as the other. Both actions should be saved with names, dates and the drawing version, and the second should not erase the first.
- Send yourself the invitation and a phase-change email. Check the sender name and wording, and that the link lands on the right project after sign-in. Keep drawings and street addresses out of the email body, since messages get forwarded.
- Close a test project. New requests should be blocked, the final drawings should still download for the homeowner, and the project should leave the studio queue.
Together in your app cloud
The pieces behind the possibility.
Choose the models and services that support the experience you want to create.
Authentication
Give the right people access
Database
Keep data and context for apps and agents
File storage
A home for your documents and media
Email
Keep conversations moving
Shape the details
Make it work for your world.
- Write statuses for someone reading on a phone between errands. "R2" tells a homeowner nothing. "Revising your concept from your notes; next, your approval" tells them what is happening and who moves next.
- Keep private remarks off anything a customer can open. A note such as "budget may not stretch to the pergola" belongs in a separate staff-notes collection, and the access you describe for it should leave customers out. Hiding a field on screen is not enough. Sign in as a test customer and confirm the note appears nowhere.
- Plan for people changing. A house sells, a couple separates, a property manager takes over. Decide who can add or remove people on a project, and review that list whenever a project closes.
- Tell customers what the portal replaces. If files can still arrive by email, some will, and the project record splits in two. Say so in the invitation, and add any file that still comes by email to the project yourself.
- A designer who updates projects needs a staff sign-in to the published portal, with access you describe and test. Changing how the portal works happens in Studio, where each Exepad account has one builder.
A little more context
Good questions.
How do customers get their accounts?
Pick the route before you build. For most service portals, only invited people should get in. Add each homeowner's email address to their project and describe an invitation email that links to it. Send the first invitation to yourself and follow it. Put a studio contact on the sign-in screen for anyone who can't get in.
Can customers upload documents?
Yes, if you ask for it: uploaded files are stored with the project. Attach each upload to a project or a request, record who sent it, and flag it for your staff. Test with the files your customers really send, from a phone as well as a computer, before you invite anyone.
Can the portal include a support agent?
Yes, once the portal itself holds up. Design an agent that answers routine questions from your policies and the signed-in customer's own project, and passes the rest to your staff. Then test it: signed in as the Morales household, ask about the Bennett backyard. The reply should reveal nothing about it. The AI support agent guide below covers scope and hand-offs. Model usage is metered separately.
Do I need a client portal, or is a client list enough?
If only your staff open the records, a client management app is enough and no customer signs in. Build a portal when customers keep emailing to ask where things stand or to send you files. You can start with the staff side and refine it into a portal later in Studio, then check that every existing record belongs to the right customer.
Explore Pricing for plans, included capabilities, and usage details.
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