Changes to Karbon’s Client Portal will be live next week

Related products: Client Communication

This is a reminder that changes to the Karbon Client Portal will be live next week. 

An overview of the changes are:

Changes

  1. The heading in tasks will be renamed from ‘client task’ to ‘client request’ to better align with terminology across the platform

  2. The PIN will be replaced by a magic link (a one-time use link). The magic link is secure, as it can't be accessed by anyone other than the users it’s sent to. But more importantly, it reduces friction and allows users immediate access to action their items in a list view

  3. Changes to settings - Your logo placement will move from Company Details (now renamed Account Settings) and will be under Client Portal tab (previously Client Tasks), where you can also pre-set auto sending options.

  4. A dedicated link to your Client Portal which can be added to your website and/or outgoing emails and is a great way to promote the feature and save you administration time. It allows your clients to quickly access their information. The URL will be in the Client Portal tab.

  5. Coming soon - you’ll be able to send the client request to multiple Karbon contacts

What’s new?

  1. Your client will receive a magic link rather than the PIN, as outlined above.

  2. A log-in section, which provides your clients with greater flexibility to view everything including open and completed requests (history), as well as documents that have been uploaded. Clients can comment and ask questions. Please note this is for business plan and above only.

What will happen when the new Client Portal is live?

  1. Existing client tasks already sent prior to us making the new functionality live, can only be accessed by your client through the PIN in the email

  2. If you resend a client task, it will be accessed via the magic link if your client accesses it from the email

  3. If a client task is set up to auto-send in the future, it will be accessed via the magic link if your client accesses it from the email

  4. Any new client task that is sent will be accessed via the magic link if your client accesses it from the email

  5. If your client logs in, they will see up to 100 open requests and the last 100 closed requests. 

The FAQs can help you respond to the needs of your clients more quickly, but, if you have more unanswered questions, please reach out to your customer success manager.

To make it easier for you to communicate these changes with your clients, we have included some suggested wording and a how to guide, that you can adapt to your branding if you haven't done so already.

We will send you an email when the changes are live.

Are we able to see a demo before it goes live?  Hard to imagine how it works by just reading about it.


Hi @Amelia Freeman 

Is there two factor authentication with the client portal?  I’m not sure how this is more secure than before, as mentioned in the ‘How to Guide’, where it states:  “It’s a safer and more efficient way to handle your accounting and tax.”

Previously, the link in the emails to the client task checklists break - good for security.   The URL to the client portal will be a static URL that is fixed per accounting firm.  Is this correct?   Which means, the only security is the password that the client makes?


These are some cool upgrades. I like that this allows clients to see a history of requests. However, I do worry about the security. Emails are so easily hacked, especially nowadays when most people are always logged into their emails on their cell phones. If a cell phone is stolen, the data is at risk. There is so much sensitive data in tax documents, I think another layer of security (like the PIN used previously) is necessary.


@Amelia Freeman You write that the Magic Link “can't be accessed by anyone other than the users it’s sent to.” As I understand Karbon’s implementation, the Magic Link can be accessed by anyone in possession of the link regardless of how they might have obtained it. As such, there’s nothing inherently “secure” about the Magic Link. The link is only secure to the extent that it is kept out of unauthorized hands. 

Can you elaborate a bit on this?


These are some cool upgrades. I like that this allows clients to see a history of requests. However, I do worry about the security. Emails are so easily hacked, especially nowadays when most people are always logged into their emails on their cell phones. If a cell phone is stolen, the data is at risk. There is so much sensitive data in tax documents, I think another layer of security (like the PIN used previously) is necessary.

I agree that the new ‘magic link’ is a step backwards in security from the PIN concept.


Will reminder emails for tasks sent prior to the Portal be accessible via PIN or via link?


Can my team still send requests to prospective clients?  We use the “Client Task” section a lot for onboarding and implementation.  Sounds like they have to be “Clients” in Karbon in order for us to use the magic link?  Or is that simply if they want to sign up for the actual portal itself?


Hi All,

Thank you for all of this valuable feedback we have received on this post.  We heard you and are working on providing additional information to you over the next 24 hours. 

We will be posting additional documentation with further clarification on your security questions tomorrow.

For the demo request please see a video attached here for an overview.

Preview of Karbon Client Portal

 

We appreciate you, and look forward to all the exciting product features that are coming!

Leigh


Can my team still send requests to prospective clients?  We use the “Client Task” section a lot for onboarding and implementation.  Sounds like they have to be “Clients” in Karbon in order for us to use the magic link?  Or is that simply if they want to sign up for the actual portal itself?

Can you clarify this? With the existing portal, you can only send client tasks to contacts. This will remain for the new portal. 


Thank you for providing the preview video.  Very helpful to see it. 

In the FAQ’s, there is a question, “What if I delete a contact?’.   It mentions that the client’s client portal account would be deactivated when a contact is deleted.  However, we do not delete any contacts in Karbon.  We only change their status to ‘Archived’, which is really just another client status. 

Would you be able to provide the functionality to manually de-activate a client’s portal without actually deleting the client?  We prefer to keep the history of a client instead of deleting them.

 


Thank you for providing the preview video.  Very helpful to see it. 

In the FAQ’s, there is a question, “What if I delete a contact?’.   It mentions that the client’s client portal account would be deactivated when a contact is deleted.  However, we do not delete any contacts in Karbon.  We only change their status to ‘Archived’, which is really just another client status. 

Would you be able to provide the functionality to manually de-activate a client’s portal without actually deleting the client?  We prefer to keep the history of a client instead of deleting them.

 

Hi Melissa. I would suggest adding this as a feature idea for us to consider in the future. 


The video provided shows a login. there’s nothing referencing this in all of the rest of the information regarding the portal. 

Can you confirm how the login will work? Can clients log in to Karbon directly and see any open tasks? What if they have open tasks from multiple work items, and/or for multiple clients in one client groups?

 

So many un-answered questions!


The video provided shows a login. there’s nothing referencing this in all of the rest of the information regarding the portal. 

Can you confirm how the login will work? Can clients log in to Karbon directly and see any open tasks? What if they have open tasks from multiple work items, and/or for multiple clients in one client groups?

 

So many un-answered questions!

Hi Katrina. Please see the FAQ documented in the information above. I’ve posted it here for quick reference.  https://help.karbonhq.com/en/articles/6403571-client-portal-faq and https://help.karbonhq.com/en/articles/6403578-client-portal-how-to-guide


The video provided shows a login. there’s nothing referencing this in all of the rest of the information regarding the portal. 

Can you confirm how the login will work? Can clients log in to Karbon directly and see any open tasks? What if they have open tasks from multiple work items, and/or for multiple clients in one client groups?

 

So many un-answered questions!

Hi Katrina. Please see the FAQ documented in the information above. I’ve posted it here for quick reference.  https://help.karbonhq.com/en/articles/6403571-client-portal-faq and https://help.karbonhq.com/en/articles/6403578-client-portal-how-to-guide

Hi Amelia, this doesn’t answer my key question: What if they have open tasks from multiple work items, and/or for multiple clients in one client groups?


The video provided shows a login. there’s nothing referencing this in all of the rest of the information regarding the portal. 

Can you confirm how the login will work? Can clients log in to Karbon directly and see any open tasks? What if they have open tasks from multiple work items, and/or for multiple clients in one client groups?

 

So many un-answered questions!

Hi Katrina. Please see the FAQ documented in the information above. I’ve posted it here for quick reference.  https://help.karbonhq.com/en/articles/6403571-client-portal-faq and https://help.karbonhq.com/en/articles/6403578-client-portal-how-to-guide

Hi Amelia, this doesn’t answer my key question: What if they have open tasks from multiple work items, and/or for multiple clients in one client groups?

Through the login they will be able to see any client request section that was sent to them with the email they are logging into it. They will see each work item they are involved in (by having a request sent to them) and if the email they use is on multiple clients, they will see all of those. They will not be able to see anything they have not been sent. They will not be able to see a client request section sent to someone else even if it was on the same work item. 


Thank you Amelia! That is huge for us!


Hi there. For more information on the Client Portal security, please see this article: