Client portal

The client portal is what your clients actually experience of Journey, and it's built to feel like an extension of your firm rather than a third-party tool. Journey is white-labeled throughout: the portal a client logs into and every email they receive carry your firm's name, logo, and colors, never the word "Journey." To a client, this is simply your firm's online presence.

Getting in: onboarding

When you invite a client, they receive a branded email and are walked through a short, guided setup. During onboarding the firm's navigation is hidden, so a client can't wander off half-set-up. They move through the steps in order and land in the right place:

1. They set a password, arriving through a secure one-time link and choosing their own credentials so you never handle them.
2. They review and accept your legal documents: engagement terms, privacy policy, and any §7216 consent. Where you've enabled it, this is a real e-signature they can type or draw, and it can require them to fill in fields; where you haven't, it's recorded as a click-to-agree. See Signatures & e-sign.
3. They get the chance to opt in to text-message updates, offered at the legal step so the opportunity is there even for a client who's never assigned a questionnaire.
4. They enter a six-digit sign-in code emailed to them. This is on for every firm unless an owner or General Manager turns it off in Settings, under the firm's Security section. The code expires after ten minutes, and each new sign-in asks for a fresh one. The portal asks for the code before it opens, and the portal's server actions check it too. If the portal can't confirm the code, it shows a Retry screen instead of opening.
5. A neutral welcome (not assumed to be tax-specific, since not every client is a tax client) brings them to their dashboard.

The dashboard

The client's home surfaces what needs their attention and how to reach you. It shows outstanding items (documents to upload, things to sign, to-dos) alongside their returns and requests with current status. It also carries the Contact staff options: a client can email, call, or text your firm's support contact, or open a request (a ticket) instead of sending an email, so reaching you never means digging up an address.

Tracking returns and requests

A client can open any return to see the six-step tracker (Awaiting Documents through Complete) and exactly what's needed from them at this point, and any request to see its status. Each has a message thread back to your firm. Internal staff notes are never part of that thread, so a client only ever sees what's meant for them.

Uploading documents

Uploads are organized around the checklist, so a client is never left guessing what "send your documents" means. They upload against each item, with an additional-document slot for anything extra and a "confirm all documents submitted" step to signal they're done. They can do this from a return, a request, or a linked to-do, on a computer or a phone, and the supported types are PDF and images.

Questionnaire

If your firm assigns a tax questionnaire, it appears in the portal with a prompt to complete it, and the client can save partway through and finish later. If none is assigned, they simply don't see one. See Questionnaires.

Signatures

Documents that need signing show up in the portal, and the client reviews and signs them right there rather than printing, signing, and scanning. See Signatures & e-sign.

Tasks

To-dos you assign a client appear under Tasks. Each one can carry a due date and can accept document uploads, so "send me last year's depreciation schedule" is a task rather than an email that gets lost.

Journey chases an overdue to-do on the client's behalf, in the portal and by email where an email is on file, and no more than once every three days per to-do. That throttle matters: a client who is slow on one item does not get chased daily.

Billing

Clients with invoices see a Billing area listing what they owe and what they have paid, and they can pay by card from there.

They do not have to. Every invoice email also carries a link to a payment page that opens without signing in, which is how most clients will actually pay.

Sales tax

Clients enrolled in sales tax get a Sales Tax area where they submit each period's figures. As with invoices, the reminder email carries a no-login link, so a client who never signs in can still file with you. See Sales tax.

Uncategorized transactions

Firms using the QuickBooks Online integration can send a client their uncategorized transactions to sort out, which the portal calls Categorize transactions. It replaces the spreadsheet-by-email round trip.

Notifications and settings

Every client has a Notifications area showing what Journey has told them, and a Settings area for their own details.

What each client actually sees

The portal is not the same for everyone. Returns, tasks, requests and the questionnaire are always there. Billing appears only once a client has an invoice, sales tax only if they are enrolled, and Categorize transactions only if your firm uses the QuickBooks integration.

So a client seeing fewer items than you expect is usually correct rather than broken.

One exception worth knowing: a client you have marked as former keeps read-only access to their existing returns, and sees a reduced portal. See Clients.

How clients are notified

Clients hear from you by email and in their portal (and by text if they've opted in and your firm's SMS is active) for the moments that matter: a status change, a new message, a signature request, a completed return. This is the mirror image of how your team is notified: staff get in-app bell alerts rather than email, while clients get email because that's how you reach them. See Notifications.