What your clients see

What an invited client sees and can do inside a BankSync client portal, including connecting their own banks.

6 min read

On this page

What the client receives
How the client accepts and lands in the portal
What a client sees once they are in
Settings are read-only for clients
Connecting their own bank accounts
Client can / cannot, by role
For the accountant: how the data flows back to you
Confirm it worked
Troubleshooting
Next steps
Related guides

This guide walks through the client portal from the invited client's side: accepting the invitation, signing in, and working inside a focused space that shows their banks and data but none of your firm's account controls. It also explains, for the accountant reading along, how that data reaches you without a second invite.

Before you start

This is the client-facing companion to the admin guide. If you are the accountant or bookkeeper setting the portal up, start with the setup guide first: you need to create the portal and send the invitation before a client can do anything here. Portals require the Professional or Business plan on the firm's workspace; the client never needs their own subscription.

The client portal experience, both sides.

What the client receives#

When you (the accountant) create a portal and add the client's email, BankSync sends an invitation email right away. The subject line attributes the invite to your firm, in the form [Your name] invited you to join "[Portal name]", and the body names your workspace so the client recognizes who is asking. The email contains a single link to sign in and accept.

Invitations expire

Invite links are valid for 7 days. If the client waits too long, the link stops working. The accountant can issue a fresh one from the portal's Members tab using the resend action, or copy the invite link and share it directly.

How the client accepts and lands in the portal#

Accept the invitation

Open the invite link
The client selects the link in the invitation email.
Sign in or create an account
They sign in with the invited email address. A brand-new user creates an account during this step.
Land directly in the portal
After accepting, BankSync drops the client straight into their portal. They do not pass through your main workspace or see any of your other clients.

Accepting the invite makes the client a member of that portal with the role you assigned (Editor or Viewer). The role is fixed on the invitation, so an Editor invite produces an Editor member.

What a client sees once they are in#

The portal is a constrained workspace. The client sees their own banks, accounts, and data, but the firm-level controls are removed from the navigation entirely. In Settings, only General and Profile remain. These sections are hidden from a portal client:

Settings section	Visible to client?	Why
General	Yes (read-only name/icon)	Basic workspace info
Profile	Yes	The client's own account
Members	No	The accountant manages membership from the parent workspace
Billing	No	The portal inherits billing from the firm's plan; it has no separate subscription
Developers	No	API keys for a portal are reserved for the accountant
Affiliate	No	A firm-level rewards surface
Delete Workspace (Danger Zone)	No	Only the accountant can delete a portal, from the parent workspace

These are not just hidden links. The routes themselves are guarded: if a client tries to deep-link to /billing or /danger-zone, BankSync redirects them back to General.

The client's portal: only General and Profile remain in Settings, with the firm-level tabs gone.

The Portal label in the switcher

If a client belongs to more than one workspace, the portal entry in the workspace switcher carries a "Portal" tag so they can tell a portal apart from a regular workspace at a glance.

Settings are read-only for clients#

A client cannot rename the portal or change its icon. The General settings page shows the message: "This portal is named and themed by your accountant. Ask them to change the name or icon." If a client (even one promoted to admin inside the portal) tries to rename it through the API, the request is rejected with an "only the accountant" error. The same rule blocks portal clients from inviting new members.

Connecting their own bank accounts#

Whether a client can add a bank depends on the Clients can connect banks setting the accountant controls on the portal's Access tab.

Connect a bank (when allowed)

Open the Banks tab
From inside the portal, the client selects the Banks tab.
Add a new connection
They choose the option to add a bank connection. This appears only when bank creation is enabled for portal members.
Authenticate with their bank
They sign in to their institution through the same secure connection flow described in Connecting banks.
See the connected accounts
Once the connection completes, the accounts appear inside the portal's Banks tab.

When bank creation is turned off

If the accountant disables "Clients can connect banks," the client still sees the Banks tab and any accounts already connected, but the add-a-new-connection control is removed. A direct attempt to start a connection is rejected by the server with a "does not allow" message. The client cannot add banks; the accountant adds them instead.

Client can / cannot, by role#

Roles are scoped to the portal. A few capabilities also depend on the portal-level toggles the accountant sets.

Capability	Editor	Viewer
Sign in and see the portal's banks and data	Yes	Yes
Connect a new bank (when "Clients can connect banks" is on)	Yes	No
Create feeds into Sheets, Notion, or Airtable (when "Clients can create feeds" is on)	Yes	No
View account status and balances	Yes	Yes
Rename or re-icon the portal	No	No
See Members, Billing, Developers, Affiliate, or Delete Workspace	No	No
Invite other members to the portal	No	No

Editor and Viewer alike are blocked from the firm-level settings and from renaming the portal. The Editor / Viewer split governs whether the client can act on data (connect banks, create feeds), not whether they can touch firm controls.

For the accountant: how the data flows back to you#

A portal is a child workspace under yours, so you and your admins already have access to it without any second invitation. The moment a client connects a bank in their portal, that connection and its data are available to you. You can build and manage feeds that read from the client's banks: the client handles authentication, you handle the reporting. From your main workspace you can see a portal's banks marked "Managed by the client in [Portal name]," and you reconnect or disconnect by opening the portal.

For reading or managing every portal at once programmatically, use the scope=family parameter described in the developer portals reference.

Confirm it worked#

The client experience is set up correctly when, after the client accepts the invite:

They land directly in the portal and see the Banks tab with their accounts (or an empty Banks tab ready for a connection).
The Settings navigation shows only General and Profile: no Members, Billing, Developers, Affiliate, or Delete Workspace.
If the client belongs to more than one workspace, the portal carries a Portal tag in the workspace switcher.
Back in your main workspace, the client appears under Members on the portal (not just Pending invitations), and once they connect an account the portal's Resources tab shows a non-zero Banks count.

Troubleshooting#

Common client-side snags

Invite link not working? It may have expired (7-day limit); ask the accountant to resend it. Client signed in but sees a different workspace? They may have multiple workspaces: look for the entry tagged "Portal" in the switcher. Client cannot add a bank? Confirm the accountant gave them the Editor role and that "Clients can connect banks" is on in the portal's Access tab. Client wants the portal renamed? Only the accountant can do that, from the parent workspace; the General page is read-only for clients by design.

Next steps#

Set the portal up

Configure permissions, branding, and invites from the admin side.

Automate across clients

Read every portal at once with scope=family.

Set up a client portal

Set up a client portal: the admin-side flow for creating the portal, permissions, and invites.
Connecting banks: the secure connection flow your clients go through inside the portal.
Developer portals reference: programmatic access across every portal at once with scope=family.