A client portal that produces a record, without making the client learn software
Client approval is the step every project depends on and nobody designs for. It happens in a meeting, is confirmed in an email that gets buried, and is remembered differently by the two parties when it matters. A portal is not about giving the client a dashboard — it is about producing a record that neither side can argue with later.
What an approval record has to be
- 01Attached to the exact revision that was approved, not to a drawing name
- 02Timestamped, attributed and immutable once given
- 03Reachable by a client who will not install anything or learn a new tool
- 04Scoped so the client sees issued work only, never the internal set
- 05Able to carry a comment or a rejection, not just a yes
- 06Visible to your team as a project state, not as an email in one inbox
The portal's job is to be boring
Clients do not want a workspace. They want to see what you sent them, say yes or no, and get on with their day. Every feature added to a client portal past that point reduces the number of clients who use it, which reduces the number of approvals that end up on the record — which was the entire point.
Read-only is a feature, not a limitation
The client sees issued drawings, submitted deliverables, approved stages and their own documents. They do not see the working set, internal comments, staff costs or anything else. That boundary is what makes it safe to give a client access at all. The reasoning is in getting client approvals in writing.
Where it comes from
The portal is part of the delivery side of Ofivio Architecture and Ofivio Build rather than a separate purchase — an approval is a project event, so it belongs to the project.
What happens when the client says they never saw it
This is the moment the portal exists for, and it arrives on almost every project. The claim is rarely dishonest — an email was missed, a message scrolled past, a decision made verbally and remembered differently. Without a record the argument is unwinnable in either direction and usually ends with the practice absorbing the cost of a redesign. With one it takes thirty seconds: here is the revision, here is the date it was issued, here is the approval and who gave it.
Why so few client portals actually get used
- They ask the client to learn a workspace when the client only wanted to answer a question
- They notify so often that the notifications get filtered into a folder nobody opens
- They expose internal state the client was never meant to interpret, which generates questions instead of answers
- They make approval a multi-step process, so the client replies by email instead and the record is lost anyway
Who this is not for
If you are on this list, Ofivio is the wrong purchase and we would rather you know now than in month three.
- Firms wanting a collaborative client workspace with shared editing
- Practices whose clients approve in person and who do not need a record
- Public-sector projects requiring a specific mandated submission platform
- Anyone needing e-signature with legal certification in a regulated jurisdiction
The products behind this
Questions people actually ask
Does the client pay for access?
Can a client reject with a comment?
What stops a client seeing our internal files?
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