Agency Client Portal

Agency operations are often messy. Delivering creative services requires a high level of client communication. This includes project briefs, updates, billing, and file management. As such, agencies need clear communications channels.

Portals are also an essential part of any efficient agency. On the one hand, it’s crucial to centralize client and project information. On the other, it’s essential that creative teams have the information they need to deliver for clients.

What is an agency client portal?

An agency client portal is a private app, where clients can log in to access services, files, content, and project information. This means that clients can access key information, without the need for manual communications.

Our agency client portal template is built for efficient operations.

Why do agencies use client portals?

Anyone who’s worked in an agency can tell you about the impact that poor communication has on revenue. In fact, ineffective project management will quickly undermine your agency’s profitability.

Agencies use client portals to automate key project management tasks. This saves costs, by removing the need for manual communications, file sharing, and project updates.

What does a client portal contain?

Client portals can contain a number of different screens. A basic portal allows users to:

• Provide information.
• View project statuses.
• Access files.
• Request work.

More advanced tools also offer support for payments and invoicing, or CRM integration.

However, different agencies will naturally have different needs. As such, it’s important that your portal app offers the flexibility to add the exact functionality you need.

Our agency client portal template

Our template is designed to provide you with a deployable, custom client portal, in minutes. Give your clients a quick and easy self-service portal.

Straight out of the box, our template offers:

• Complete customization.
• Tailored workflows.
• Automations.
• Intuitive UI.
• Access control.
• External database support.
• Responsive design.
• Flexible hosting.
• Design customization.
• Streamlined processes.

Our template is built around a central work request database and two dynamic forms. This creates a simple and powerful way to manage client work.

Manage new and existing clients

Our template is built to simplify workflows for scoping and delivering new projects. Clients can use a simple form interface to request quotes for new work. Your team can then review requests, and provide quotes.

Once a quote is agreed, your team can add any relevant project files, to complete the task. Maintain complete oversight of all projects, as their status automatically changes based on user actions.

Clients can also view the status of all of their active or previous projects. Our agency client portal guides clients and employees through internal processes, ensuring that project delivery perfectly matches your internal procedures.

Streamline communications

One of the biggest challenges for creative agencies is excessive back-and-forth between clients and project owners. This often undercuts your projects’ profitability. Our client portal template makes it easy to simplify and automate routine communications.

For many projects, a client can request, review, and receive work, without ever needing to pick up the phone. Instead, clients can log in to your portal, and view the status of their project, anywhere, at any time.

Our template also supports a full suite of automated communications. Simply add SMTP credentials, and trigger automated emails from any in-app action. Notify team members and clients alike when a project’s status changes.

Check out our free [content approval software](You might also like our client portal for accountants.) template.

Customize workflows

Our template is based on a basic creative agency project workflow. Each entry in your projects database is assigned a status, based on how it is progressing. Out of the box, our template offers five statuses, which change throughout the delivery process:

• Request - When a client requests a new piece of work.
• Quoted - When your team has provided a quote for the request.
• In-progress - If a client agrees to your quote.
• Queried - If a client does not agree to your quote.
• Completed - When project files are added to an in-progress task.

At each stage of the project, users are given access to different data fields and CTAs. The goal here is to seamlessly guide clients and employees alike through the delivery process.

Our client portal template is built for total customization. In minutes, you can change interfaces, add additional statuses or create new screens to fully match your internal workflows.

Quotes, briefs, and file sharing

Client portals are the smart way for agencies to gather information, and share project files in real-time. Gathering the right information is essential for agency teams to work effectively and efficiently. Poor data gathering prevents your team from meeting clients’ expectations.

With our template, you have complete control over how information is exchanged with your clients. Add new data fields to any in-app interface, to gather the exact information that you need for your agency projects.

Our agency client portal also supports attachments. These are included at the initial request, and project completion stages of the template. Share secure files with clients within your portal, creating a secure, intuitive, and effective file transfer system.

Check out our standalone project approval system .

Process automation

With Budibase, it’s easy to automate key processes within your agency client portal. We offer a wide range of built-in automations, which can be triggered from any in-app action. Trigger emails from different user actions, or export data to external project management tools.

Budibase supports third-party app integrations with Zapier and Webhooks.

Use our agency client portal to trigger automations in external apps, for automated invoicing, communications, and workflow management.

Organize and classify projects

Naturally, different agency projects require different workflows. As such, it’s important that you can apply the correct categories and taxonomies to different project requests. With Budibase, you have complete control over how you go about this.

On one level, our template offers project statuses, which automatically change according to user actions. Each new project request is also automatically assigned a client data field. Clients can then choose from a range of different types of projects, based on the nature of their request.

Our template’s management screen allows your team to search for different projects using their project type, status, or client name.

Conditional Design

Our agency client portal template uses a conditional UI to streamline user experiences. Our agency client portal is built around a series of multi-step forms. These use conditionality to display different functions, based on the project status.

Internal and external users can take different actions, based on how their project is progressing.

For example, when a new project request is created, your internal team is able to add a quote to the record. When a quote is accepted, they’re then able to add project files or completion notes. This ensures that proper internal processes are thoroughly followed.

Tiered access

Different kinds of users interact with your client portal differently. For example, your clients don’t need access to the same features as your internal team. It’s also crucial to ensure that client data is not shared with unauthorized parties.

With Budibase, you have full control over how users access the client portal. As standard, our template offers four permission tiers, allowing you to grant different access to clients, employees, management teams, and admins.

With Budibase, you also have complete flexibility to add or alter permission tiers.

Why build a client portal with Budibase?

At Budibase, we’re building the world’s largest ecosystem of business tools. Our low-code portal builder offers:

• Open-source design.
• Scalability.
• Rapid deployment.
• Access control.
• Flexible hosting.
• Mobile-responsive apps.
• Security.
• Automation.
• Integrations.
• Free SSO.
• External data connections.
• Infinite customization.
• Built-in JavaScript editor.

Free, open-source portals

At Budibase, we believe in open-source tools. Our goal is to empower businesses to build the perfect tools for their needs and requirements. With our low-code editor, you can create a deployable agency client portal, in minutes.

Unlike other low-code platforms, Budibase is free, forever. We even offer free SSO across all of your Budibase tools. Check out our pricing page for more details.

You might also like our client portal for accountants .

Secure file transfer

Budibase offers unrivalled security for agencies sharing files with clients. Our template offers several attachment data fields, which allow users to add files to different forms. These can then be automatically shared with clients and employees.

Adding attachments directly to your client portal database gives you total control over security standards. Enjoy maximum security, without the need to pay for additional file transfer tools.

Self-hosting or cloud deployment

With Budibase, you have complete control over how and where you deploy your agency client portal. Choose from self-hosting or the Budibase Cloud platform, for complete flexibility.

Self-host your client portal locally, or as a web app, using Kubernetes, Docker, Digital Ocean, and more.

Third-party integrations

Budibase offers a wide range of third-party app integrations , using Zapier, Webhooks, and more. Connect your agency client portal directly to invoicing tools, messaging apps, project management software, or employee calendars.

Use any action within your client portal to trigger automations in external tools to streamline admin tasks, and cut operational costs.

Complete customization

Budibase is the smart way to build client portal software. Don’t settle for off-the-shelf solutions. Our intuitive, low-code builder offers completely customizable client portals, with fast deployment.

Change any data field, workflow, or function in our template, in minutes. With Budibase, you can easily create a client portal that fully matches your internal processes.

Scalability

As your agency grows and changes, the way you interact with clients will also evolve. Budibase is built for scalability. You can add functionality, new screens, or data fields to your Budibase apps, with minimal disruption.

We also don’t charge for building multiple self-hosted apps or adding new features. Budibase empowers users to build future-proof client portal software.

Mobile-responsive client portals

Like all Budibase tools, our agency client portal template is fully mobile responsive. All design elements automatically resize and scale, to fit perfectly on users’ devices.

Empower your clients to take control over their projects, no matter what device they’re using. Users can take your client portal with them, wherever they go, with our totally mobile-friendly user interfaces.

Start building your agency’s client portal

Budibase allows you to build fully deployable agency client portals, in minutes. Streamline operations, and cut admin costs with an effective self-service portal.

We also offer premium support and SLAs for enterprises. See our pricing page for more information.

Click below to start using our template today.