The Customer Portal (1:23 video). Open on its own page
A portal for your customers — no passwords
Your customers get their own portal, branded to your company. They sign in with just their email address and a one-time code — no password to create or forget. You control what the portal shows from the Customer Portal Settings page, and messages customers send through it land in a dedicated inbox for your team.
How customers log in
- 1The customer opens your company's portal page.
- 2They enter the email address on their customer record.
- 3They receive a 6-digit code by email.
- 4They enter the code on the same page to sign in.
There is no password and no link to click — just the email and the code.
The email must match the one on the customer's record. A customer's email address is only needed for emailed invoices and the portal — it can be added to their record at any time.
Portal settings — the Customer Portal Settings page
Everything portal-related lives on the Customer Portal Settings page (sidebar → Settings → Customer Portal). At the top, your portal link with Copy and Open buttons — share it in email signatures and invoices. (If no link shows yet, set up your logo and portal slug on the Branding page first.)
Portal Visibility — what customers can see
The Portal Visibility card controls what customers see when they log in. Everything is on by default. Service History is a parent toggle with seven sub-toggles that appear beneath it, so you can show visit history while hiding the parts you'd rather keep internal:
- Service History — with sub-toggles for Technician Names, Job Notes, Photos, Chemicals Used, Water Chemistry / LSI, Parts Used, and Tasks Completed. Despite its name, Job Notes controls the technician's visit notes: the notes the tech typed when completing each visit, shown on that visit in the customer's service history. It does not show the job's internal notes, customer notes, location notes (gate codes), or the notes timelines; customers never see those in the portal, whatever this switch says.
- Quotes — with a Tasks to be Performed sub-toggle controlling whether quotes show their task checklist.
- Service Requests — whether customers can submit support requests through the portal (see below).
Technician App — completion screen toggles
Settings for what your technicians see when completing a job live on their own page: Technician App Settings (sidebar → Settings → Technician App). Its Job Completion card has toggles to hide sections your team doesn't use — End-of-Job Photos (the general photos section; per-task photos still show), Chemicals Used, Parts Used, Equipment (the Log equipment work section), LSI Gauge, Recommended Dosages (the Balance card's suggested chemical amounts; see Chemical dosing recommendations), Tasks Performed (Not Listed), and Tap Water Reference — plus Pre-fill Chemistry From Last Visit, which you can turn off so water chemistry readings start blank each visit instead of seeding from the previous reading. See Complete a visit.
If Pay by Zelle is turned on, a "Show in customer portal" toggle in Invoice Configuration controls whether your Zelle QR code and link appear in the portal too.
What customers see inside
The portal sidebar gives customers Home, Service Requests, Service History, a Billing group with Invoices, Quotes, and Billing (payment methods), and Account — with the sections you've toggled off hidden.
- A Service History entry opens the full visit detail — date, technician, tasks completed, chemicals applied, parts used, water chemistry, and photos — each part governed by your visibility sub-toggles.
- Visits with a deposit due show a deposit card right in the Service History detail with a Pay Deposit button, so the customer doesn't have to hunt for the quote.
- If tipping is enabled, maintenance visits also offer a Leave a Tip card. See Tips and gratuities.
- On the Account tab, customers with a phone number on file get a "Text message updates" switch — self-service SMS consent they can flip on or off any time, which syncs with the consent setting on their customer record. See Texting and the Phone inbox.
Service requests — structured support tickets
Service Requests are not a free-form message box — they're structured tickets. The customer picks a category (Water Quality, Equipment Issue, Scheduling, Billing Question, New Service, or General), optionally selects which service location it's about, writes a subject (up to 100 characters) and a message, and can attach up to 3 photos or videos (25MB each).
- Each request moves through a status lifecycle the customer can see: Open → In Progress → Awaiting Your Reply → Closed, with unread badges when your team responds.
- If your team converts a request into a job, the thread shows a "Job Created" banner naming the recurring service or work order.
- Closed requests become read-only for the customer.
- Turning the Service Requests toggle off hides the whole section from the portal.
On your side, these requests land in the Portal messages inbox, where your team can reply, assign, set status, and create jobs — the full triage workflow is covered in Portal messages.
Billing in the portal
The Billing section is real self-service, not just a pay button (it appears once your Stripe account is connected — see Accept online payments):
- Customers can save multiple payment methods — cards and ACH bank accounts — and remove them.
- An AutoPay toggle turns automatic invoice payment on or off. With more than one saved method, each card shows a Use for AutoPay button so the customer chooses which one gets charged; the active one wears an AutoPay badge. When adding a new method, a "Use this for AutoPay" checkbox enrolls it in the same step.
- A Store credit card shows the customer's unused credit and its recent history (credit given, used on an invoice, returned). It appears only once the customer has had credit. See store credit.
- With AutoPay on and multiple methods, a "Charge specific jobs to a different card" section lets the customer point an individual recurring service at a different card than their default AutoPay card.
- The Invoices page filters with All / Open / Paid / Cancelled tabs and shows a total balance due. Invoice details display refunds too — a Refunds card lists each refund with its amount, reason, and a Processing or Refunded status, and refunded invoices carry Refunded / Partially refunded badges.
Responding to quotes
Quotes in the portal show your line items, photos, any Message from Service Provider, and — if the sub-toggle is on — the Tasks to be Performed. The customer responds right there:
- Accept Quote confirms they're authorizing the work, with an optional notes field for special instructions or preferred times.
- Decline Quote requires a reason — the decline button stays disabled until the customer explains why, so you always learn something from a lost quote.
- If the quote carries a deposit, accepting reveals a live Pay Your Deposit card with a Pay Deposit Now button; once paid it flips to Deposit Paid.
- The customer's prior response and notes stay visible on the quote under Your Response.
Customers don't have to sign in to answer a quote: the quote email's View Quote button and a texted or copied quote link open the quote on its own page with the same Accept and Decline buttons. See Quotes for the full quote lifecycle on your side.
A customer mobile app is not available yet
There is no separate Pool Founder mobile app for customers today — the Customer Portal Settings page lists a customer mobile app as "Coming Soon." Customers use the web portal (the same email + 6-digit code sign-in) from their phone's browser in the meantime; the portal is mobile-friendly.
What customers receive by email
- Invoices with secure payment links — see Create and manage invoices.
- Service reports after each visit — see Service reports.
- Quotes they can accept online — see Quotes.
- Customer email notifications can be toggled per customer.
Payment links are per invoice — there is no single all-invoices payment link for a customer. To give a customer one place for everything, share your customer portal link instead (from the Customer Portal Settings page).
Portal messages — your side of the conversation
Messages and service requests customers send through the portal land in the Portal messages section (sidebar → Messages → Portal messages): a dashboard with stats, and an inbox one click away holding every portal thread. The full triage workflow is covered in Portal messages.
- From a thread you can reply, leave internal notes, set the thread's status, assign it to a teammate, or create a job straight from the conversation.
- A customer's portal requests and recent portal messages also show on the Messages tab of their customer page, with links into the inbox.
- The technician mobile app's Comms tab has the same Portal section (for roles with inbox access): tap a thread to reply or leave an internal note.
Frequently asked questions
What does the "Job Notes" toggle in Portal Visibility show customers?
The technician's visit notes: the notes the tech typed when completing each visit, shown on that visit in the customer's Service History. Turn Job Notes off to hide them. It never shows the job's internal notes, customer notes, location notes such as gate codes, or the notes timelines; those are never in the portal. The service report email has its own Technician notes toggle on the Service Reports page.
Do customers need a password for the portal?
No. They enter the email on their customer record, receive a 6-digit code by email, and enter it on the same page. There is no separate customer mobile app yet — customers use the web portal from their phone's browser.
Can customers see their invoices?
Yes — the portal's Invoices page lists every invoice with All / Open / Paid / Cancelled filter tabs and a total balance due, alongside the invoices they receive by email with secure payment links. There is no single all-invoices payment link — share the portal link for a one-stop view.
Can a customer decline a quote without giving a reason?
No. The decline dialog requires a written reason before the Decline Quote button activates, so you always learn why a quote was lost.
Can customers set up autopay themselves?
Yes. While paying an invoice, checking "Save this card and automatically pay future invoices" saves the card and enrolls it for autopay. Autopay can also be managed from the customer portal and from the customer's page in your dashboard.