What the portal is
The client portal is a tokenized, case-scoped page where a client sees their engagement with your firm: your firm’s name and logo, where the case stands, documents they may download, signature requests waiting on them, and intake sections they can complete. There is no client account or password — the invite link is the credential, which keeps friction low for clients who are already stressed about an IRS problem.
Inviting a client
From the case workspace, create a portal invite. RESO mints a unique link, shows it to staff exactly once, and stores only a hash — copy it and send it through your normal channel. Invites are scoped to one case, expire after 90 days by default, and are revocable at any time, so a lost or stale link can be shut off without touching anything else on the case. You can keep multiple labeled invites per case (for example, taxpayer and spouse).
What clients see
- Engagement progress — the same five phases staff see (Qualification, Discovery, Strategy, Implementation, Work Verification) with client-appropriate status. Internal stage names, blockers, and operator copy never cross the boundary.
- Documents — only client-safe document types (see below), each downloadable.
- Signature requests — pending e-sign envelopes with a direct link to sign.
- Forms — FORMS by RESO links staff have generated for them, so a client can resume a 433-A or Tax Organizer from the portal.
- Intake — consultation and 433 financial intake sections (A–H) they can fill in directly.
Client-safe documents only
The portal works from an explicit allowlist of document types. Engagement letters, signed addendums, signed documents, invoices, client retention reports and their cover sheets, and the client’s own completed forms (tax organizer, profit & loss, IRS form fills) are visible. Internal work product — transcript diagnostics, strategy reports in their operator form, fee worksheets, drafts — is intentionally absent. You choose what to deliver and when; the portal never leaks the workshop.
Client-entered data is staged, not silently applied
When a client completes intake sections through the portal, their answers persist with a client-entered flag and are treated as client story and household economics — never IRS ledger truth. Financial figures from client-filled 433 forms are staged for staff review before they update the case’s financial profile. The division of authority that governs the rest of RESO applies at the portal boundary too.
E-sign through the portal
When you send a document for signature, the open envelope appears in the client’s portal with a sign link. Completed signatures land back on the case as signed documents — which are themselves client-safe, so the client always retains access to what they signed.
Practical guidance
- Set your firm name and logo in Settings before sending the first invite — the portal is your brand, not RESO’s.
- Send the portal link at Discovery delivery: the client gets the report, their progress, and a place to complete financial intake in one stop.
- Revoke and re-issue invites when an engagement pauses for months — a fresh link is cheaper than a stale-credential conversation.
- Use the portal for delivery and the FORMS launcher for collection — they complement each other on the same case.