Custom client portal development for trades and service businesses.
Custom client portal development for builders, property maintenance companies, cleaning contractors, clinics, consultancies and agencies across Australia. One branded login where each client sees their job status, documents, quotes, approvals and invoices, drawn from the systems your team already works in.
A fixed written quote before we start. Pay upfront or in stages. Ongoing management from go-live.
A portal your clients actually open.
A custom client portal is a secure, branded part of your website where each client logs in and finds everything about their work with you: where the job is up to, the documents and photos that go with it, the quotes and variations waiting for a decision, and what they owe.
Most businesses already have that information. It is just spread across a job app, an accounts package, a shared drive and a dozen email threads, and the client can only get it by asking. A client portal puts it in one place and answers the question before the phone rings.
A portal is one of the tools we build under custom software development. We are a Melbourne studio that also runs Google Ads and SEO, so we build portals that help win the next job too: repeat bookings, maintenance reminders and review requests from the same login.
Book a free strategy callSigns you have outgrown email and phone updates
Usually a business with ongoing or multi-stage work for each client, where keeping clients informed has become a job in itself.
The same question, every day
Clients ring and email to ask where their job is up to, and someone has to stop what they are doing, find out, and reply.
Documents live in email threads
Quotes, plans, certificates, photos and invoices are spread across inboxes, so clients ask for them again and staff resend them again.
Approvals wait on a reply
A variation, a design choice or a quote sits unsigned because the client missed the email, and the job stalls while you chase it.
Your service looks less organised than it is
The work is good and the team is on top of it, but the client only sees scattered emails and texts, not the progress behind them.
What a custom client portal does differently
Six things a portal built for one business can do that a generic client portal has to approximate.
What goes into a client portal
Client portal development starts with the one question your clients ask most. Most portals use some of these parts, and more can be added once clients are using it.
Your job app's portal or a custom one?
Plenty of software already includes some kind of client area. Here is when that is enough, and when a portal built around you fits better.
Fits when one system holds everything
ServiceM8, simPRO and AroFlo offer client-facing views, and HubSpot and products such as SuiteDash include customer portals. If all the information clients need already sits in that one system, and its layout suits your clients, switch it on and use it.
The trade-off is that the vendor decides what clients see, how it looks, how approvals work and what each extra feature or seat costs.
Fits how you work with clients
A custom portal suits businesses whose clients need information from several places at once, such as job progress, documents, quotes and invoices, or whose approvals and requests follow their own rules.
It reads and writes like your business, every client contact can log in without a seat fee, and it changes as your services do, as part of ongoing management.
There is also a middle path. Keep your job app and accounting software exactly as they are, and build a portal that reads from them. Your team keeps working the way it does now, and clients get one clear view on top.
What a client portal looks like in different businesses
Illustrative examples to show how the same idea fits different work. They are not past client projects.
Connected to the systems behind it
A portal is a window onto information you already hold. We connect it to the systems that hold it, and never rebuild accounting or payroll. If you need a custom CRM behind it, we can build both on the same records.
Rolling it out to your clients
A portal only works if clients use it, so we plan the launch as carefully as the build. Existing clients, contacts and open jobs are loaded before anyone is invited, and old documents are attached to the right records.
- A test run with a handful of friendly clients first
- Invitations sent when each client has something worth seeing
- A short walkthrough for the staff who publish updates
- Changes made from the questions clients ask in the first weeks
Clients who would rather keep using email can. The portal adds a better way to stay informed; it does not take the old one away.
How a client portal project is priced and run
A portal project runs the same way as every custom software build: discovery, a written scope with a fixed quote, building in stages you test with real client records, then go-live and ongoing management.
Every portal is different, so there is no price list. You see both figures, in writing, for an agreed scope, before we start.
A one-off build fee
Fixed in your quote after discovery. Pay it upfront, or in stages tied to milestones.
Ongoing management
Every build comes with it: hosting, monitoring, updates, fixes and small improvements, billed monthly from the day your portal goes live. Security updates, new document types and new stages as your services change are part of looking after it.
Who owns the portal, and who owns the data
We agree code ownership per project, in writing, before the build starts. There are two options.
We keep the code, you hold a licence
Scalepoint owns the code and you get a licence to use the portal in your business. You can buy the code out later if your plans change.
You own the code once it is paid for
Ownership of the code passes to you when the build fee is paid in full.
Your data is always yours, whichever option you choose. Your clients, their documents, approvals and job history belong to your business, and you can export them at any time.
Other ways we can help
Common questions about client portals
What is a custom client portal?+
A secure, branded area of your website where each client logs in to see their own jobs or projects, documents, quotes, approvals and invoices. Custom client portal development means it is built around your stages, your records and your rules about what clients can see, rather than a template designed for every business.
Our job app already has a client portal. Do we need a custom one?+
Often not. If the portal inside ServiceM8, simPRO or your CRM shows clients what they need, use it. A custom portal suits you when clients need information from several systems, when approvals or requests follow rules the built-in portal cannot handle, or when you want it to look and read like your own business.
Will clients actually use it?+
They use it when it saves them a phone call. We design the first screen around the question clients ask most, send them a link at the moment there is something to see, and keep logins simple. Email still works for clients who prefer it.
Can clients pay invoices through the portal?+
Yes, where you take card payments. Invoices and statements are read from Xero, MYOB or QuickBooks, clients pay online, and the payment is matched back to the invoice in your accounts.
How much does a client portal cost?+
It depends on what the portal has to show and what it connects to, so there is no price list. After a discovery session you get a fixed build fee and the monthly management fee in writing, for an agreed scope, before any work starts.
Who owns the portal and the client data in it?+
Your data is always yours, and you can export it at any time. Code ownership is agreed in writing before the build: by default we keep the code and you hold a licence to use it, with the option to buy it out, or the code becomes yours once the build fee is paid in full.
Show us what your clients keep asking you
Walk us through the questions, documents and approvals that take up your week. We will show you what a portal built around them would look like.