---
title: "What your clients see"
description: "What an invited client sees and can do inside a BankSync client portal, including connecting their own banks."
section: "Client portals"
canonical: "https://banksync.io/docs/client-portals/client-experience"
---

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.

[![What a client portal looks like from the advisor side and the client side: the portal detail with a pending invitation and copyable link, and the client signing in to connect their own bank into your workspace.](https://cdn.banksync.io/videos/portal-client-view.poster.63297bd37e1e62b1.png)](https://cdn.banksync.io/videos/portal-client-view.99dfde382acf2b0c.mp4)

[Watch: What a client portal looks like from the advisor side and the client side: the portal detail with a pending invitation and copyable link, and the client signing in to connect their own bank into your workspace.](https://cdn.banksync.io/videos/portal-client-view.99dfde382acf2b0c.mp4)

## 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**

1. **Open the invite link** — The client selects the link in the invitation email.
2. **Sign in or create an account** — They sign in with the invited email address. A brand-new user creates an account during this
   step.
3. **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.

![A client's constrained BankSync portal view: the workspace header shows the portal name 'Acme Co' with a 'Portal' tag beneath it and an 'Editor' role badge, a top tab strip with Banks, Feeds, and Settings, and a Settings sidebar listing only client-visible items grouped as Workspace (General, active) and User (Profile, Security, Connections, Delete Account, Preferences) plus Support. Members, Billing, Developers, Affiliate, and Delete Workspace are absent. The General pane reads 'This portal is named and themed by your accountant. Ask them to change the name or icon.'](https://cdn.banksync.io/screenshots/portals/client-view.cf6ac7e98c82cc46.png "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)**

1. **Open the Banks tab** — From inside the portal, the client selects the Banks tab.
2. **Add a new connection** — They choose the option to add a bank connection. This appears only when bank creation is enabled
   for portal members.
3. **Authenticate with their bank** — They sign in to their institution through the same secure connection flow described in' '
   Connecting banks.
4. **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](/docs/client-portals/setup)

## Related guides

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