Client portal overview
A branded, sign-in space where your clients view and pay their invoices using a magic link — no passwords, no Hoursmith account.
The client portal is a small, branded space where your clients sign in to view and pay their invoices. They log in with a magic link — no passwords — and see only their own invoices in your workspace.
- Plan
- Studio
- Role
- OwnerAdmin
The portal needs a Studio or Agency plan. Owners and Admins control which client contacts can use it.
A separate identity from your team
The portal is a separate identity space for your client contacts. They are never team members, never take a seat or a role, and their portal session is completely independent of your team login. A client signing in to the portal has no access to your workspace beyond their own invoices.
What it includes
/portal— the client's invoice list./portal/invoices/[id]— one invoice, with a Pay button and payment history./portal/login,/portal/verify,/portal/signout— magic-link sign-in and sign-out.
Every page shows your logo and workspace name plus a Sign out button, and nothing else. The portal is noindexed, so it won't show up in search engines.
Plan gating
The portal requires the client dashboards entitlement, available on Studio and Agency. On Free the portal is off.
Even without the portal, single-invoice quick-pay links (/i/[token]) work on any plan. So
a Free workspace can still send a payable invoice link — clients just don't get the multi-invoice
portal. See Public links and views.
What you can do
Enable portal access
Choose which contacts can sign in.
Magic-link login
How clients sign in without a password.
View and pay invoices
What clients see and how they pay.
Troubleshooting
Fix sign-in and access problems.