Using the Client Portal without overwhelming your clients

The Client Portal lets clients view tasks, upload documents, sign agreements, and communicate with your firm without phone calls or email threads. But introducing a new digital tool to clients who are used to emailing a person they trust requires care. Too many features at once and the client feels lost. Too much enthusiasm about the tool and the client feels like they are being managed by software.

The firms that get the best adoption from the Client Portal are the ones who introduce it gradually, frame it around the client’s benefit rather than the firm’s efficiency, and give clients exactly as much as they need — not the full feature set on day one.

Quick answer

Roll out the Client Portal in three stages: (1) set up and test internally, (2) invite one or two willing clients and start with task visibility only, (3) expand to documents, messages, and requests as clients become comfortable. Each stage builds trust; none of them should feel like a software rollout to the client.

Who does this

• Company Admins and Company Owners set up the portal and enable it for clients.
• Any team member with client access can manage which tasks are visible in the portal and send invitations.

Stage 1 — Set up before the first client sees it

Before inviting any client, set up the portal so it reflects your firm, not a generic tool.

1. Configure your subdomain (your firm’s name at a getuku.com address) and upload your logo.
2. Set your trademark text to your firm’s name as you want it displayed.
3. Write a short company description for the login page — something welcoming that explains what clients can do in the portal. “Here you can review your tasks, upload documents, and communicate with our team. We keep all your documents in one place so nothing gets lost.”

Test the portal yourself by opening the preview from the Settings page. Check that the login page looks right, the branding is correct, and the user experience feels polished. See How to set up and configure the Client Portal.

Stage 2 — Start with one or two willing clients

Do not roll out the portal to all clients at once. Choose one or two clients who are:

• Comfortable with digital tools generally (they already use online banking, email, etc.).
• Responsive — they read messages and follow up promptly.
• Trusting of your firm — they will be patient if something is not perfect at first.

For these first clients, start with task visibility only. Before inviting them:

1. Open each client’s Workflow tab and review their tasks.
2. For tasks that make sense for the client to see (document collection, review, approval), open the task and enable Visible in Client Portal.
3. For internal tasks (your firm’s reconciliation work, internal review), leave the Client Portal visibility off — clients do not need to see your internal processes.

See Task Client Portal settings for how to configure which tasks are visible.

When you invite these first clients, send the invitation with a personal note from their usual account manager — not just a system email. Something like: “We have set up a private portal for you at [portal URL]. It is a secure space where you can see the status of your work with us and upload documents when we need them. Your invitation email has arrived separately with a login link — no password needed, just click the link.”

This framing does three things: it personalizes an automated action, it sets expectations about what the portal does, and it reassures the client that there is still a person behind it.

Stage 3 — Add more functionality as clients become comfortable

After two or three weeks, check in with your pilot clients. Did they log in? Did they use it? What confused them?

If they are comfortable with task visibility, introduce the next feature based on what is most useful for that specific client:

Document uploads

If a client sends you source documents by email, the portal’s file upload is a natural upgrade. Frame it as: “You can now upload your documents directly to the task instead of attaching to an email. We see them immediately and they are organized by task automatically.”

The file upload box is enabled by default in portal settings. Clients can attach files to tasks they can see, and files are immediately visible to your team in Uku. See How to upload files in the Client Portal.

Messages and requests

The messaging feature allows clients to reply to task requests or send information directly through the portal. This works well once clients trust the portal as a reliable communication channel. See Messages and requests in the Client Portal.

Task completion with checklists

For tasks where clients need to complete a set of steps (provide specific documents, confirm information, sign off), checklists in the portal give them a clear progress view. See Using checklists in the Client Portal.

Common concerns and how to address them

”My clients will never use a portal — they prefer email”

Some clients genuinely prefer email, and that is fine. The portal is an option, not a requirement. Focus your portal rollout on clients where the communication overhead is highest — clients who send multiple emails a week, who frequently ask “where did we land on X,” or who need to share documents regularly. These clients have the most to gain and are most likely to appreciate the structure.

”Clients will be confused by the login process”

The magic-link login (click a link in an email, no password needed) is specifically designed to reduce friction. Most clients find it easier than a username/password system once they understand how it works. Your explanation in the invitation matters: “You will receive an email with a secure link — just click it and you are in. No account to create, no password to remember.”

If a client’s link expires (links are valid for 7 days), you can resend from the contact’s panel immediately. See How clients log into the Client Portal.

”I do not want clients to see internal work”

Task visibility is opt-in for the Client Portal. Tasks are not visible in the portal unless you explicitly enable the Visible in Client Portal toggle on each task. Your internal reconciliation, review, and quality-check tasks remain invisible by default. Only the tasks you choose to share appear.

”We tried a client portal before and it was not used”

Portal adoption usually fails for one of three reasons: clients never understood what it was for, the portal was launched all at once and overwhelmed people, or the portal did not reflect actual workflow (tasks were created in Uku but the portal was never updated with current status). The staged approach in this guide addresses all three — gradual introduction, clear framing, and tasks that reflect real work in progress.

Expanding to more clients

Once the pilot clients are using the portal consistently, expand gradually. A good cadence is 5–10 new clients per month until your full client base is covered. For each new batch:

• Configure portal task visibility before sending invitations.
• Send a personal note alongside the system invitation.
• Check in after two weeks to see if they have logged in.

For clients who never log in after three reminders, accept that the portal is not the right channel for them and continue serving them by email. Not every client needs to use the portal for it to be worth having.

To enable the portal for multiple clients at once, use the bulk activation feature in the Clients list view — select the clients, choose Activate client portal from the bulk actions menu, and decide whether to send welcome invitations immediately or manually. See How to set up and configure the Client Portal — the “Multiple clients at once” section.