IT services
An MSP client portal: what your clients see
The OKTO PSA client portal lets an MSP’s clients open a request with a photo or a transcribed voice message, follow the state of their devices, approve a quote, pay an invoice and request an employee arrival or departure. Sign-in uses Microsoft or Google.
This page takes the IT provider angle. The generic portal page lives elsewhere, and we link to it.
What do an MSP’s clients see in the portal?
Their requests, their devices, their quotes and their invoices, with one button to ask for help and another to pay. For the generic portal page that applies to any service business, see the client portal page. Here we look at what matters to an MSP.
The OKTO PSA client portal lets an MSP’s clients open a request with a photo or a transcribed voice message, follow their devices, approve a quote, pay an invoice and request an employee arrival or departure.
How does a client describe a problem without calling?
They type it, take a photo of the screen, or record a voice message that the portal transcribes into text. A rushed user does not have to find the right words: a photo of an error message beats a paragraph.
Photos and files
The screen showing the error, the document that will not open, attached to the request from the start.
Transcribed voice message
The client speaks, the text appears in the ticket. Your technician reads the message instead of listening to all of it.
Urgent, two confirmations
Choosing the Urgent priority asks for a double confirmation. That keeps the level for real emergencies, the ones that deserve an answer right away.
Can the client see the state of their devices?
Yes, for tracked devices. Each device has a record with its live state, which saves the email “is my laptop up to date?”. They open the record and have the answer.
What it changes for you
A client who can check on their own asks fewer routine questions, and the questions that remain are more precise. The device list comes from the OKTO PSA asset module. Alerts from your monitoring tool arrive by email in the ticket queue and attach to the device by its name.
And the money: quotes, invoices, payment?
It is all settled in the same place as the requests. The client reads the quote and approves or declines it. They download invoices as PDFs, see their balance and click Pay.
Because the quote, the invoice and the payment sit in the same portal as the requests, the client has one place to look and one login to remember. Nobody has to hunt for the PDF you emailed three weeks ago.
Quotes
Approved or declined in the portal, with no reply email and no signature to scan.
Invoices and balance
PDF invoices, balance due and a Pay button. Online payment goes through Stripe.
Payment methods
The client saves their card themselves, without reading it out to you over the phone.
Automatic payment
With the client’s agreement, their invoices pay themselves. A declined payment is retried.
Can arrivals and departures come from the client?
Yes. The client’s manager requests an employee’s arrival or departure in the portal, and can cancel a planned departure. They know the date, so they enter it at the source instead of emailing a technician.
The Microsoft 365 handling that follows (account block, re-check) relies on an engine offered to IT providers, on request. It is all explained on the Microsoft 365 and Teams for MSPs page.
How do employees sign in?
With their Microsoft or Google account (SSO). No new password to remember for the portal. People already sign in to their email every morning, so the portal is one click away from where they already are.
Chat
Available during the opening hours you set. The administrator turns it on; it is not enabled by default.
Documents and training
You share documents with the client, and they follow the training you offer, in the same space.
Help and app
Help guides, an up-to-date profile, and an app that installs on the phone.
Why a portal instead of a support address?
Because an email to a generic address loses its context: you do not know which client to attach the message to, or whether a photo stayed attached. In the portal, the request is born already linked to the right client, the right person and their attachments. What you receive is a complete ticket, not a message to untangle.
On the client’s side
They keep one place for open requests, quotes to approve and invoices to pay. They no longer dig through old emails to find out where their file stands.
On your team’s side
Requests arrive in the same queues as emails and monitoring alerts. Time logged on a ticket is deducted from the hour bank. The client sees the outcome, you keep the detail.
What does the portal not show?
It does not show an hour bank balance, or the client’s contract. That information stays on your side. If your clients want to see “how many hours I have left”, it is not shipped yet, and we do not imply otherwise.
In the meantime, a client who wants to know their balance asks through a portal request, or you send a statement at month end. The time logged on each ticket already gives you the detail to answer without digging.
Two settings to plan for
The portal home page and chat need a setting from your instance’s administrator before they appear for your clients. It is done at onboarding, once per instance.
Frequent questions
The questions we get asked
Your question is not here?
Write to us. A person in Trois-Rivières answers, within one business day.
Ask your questionThey open a request with photos, files or a transcribed voice message, follow their devices, approve or decline a quote, download and pay invoices, and request an employee arrival or departure.
A client who picks Urgent has to confirm twice. That keeps the level for real emergencies.
No. The portal shows neither an hour balance nor the contract. That information stays on your side.
With their Microsoft or Google account (SSO). Chat, available during opening hours, and the home page need a setting from the administrator.
Yes, for tracked devices, with a record and a live state.
Yes. They see their balance, click Pay, save a payment method and can accept automatic payment. Online payment goes through Stripe.
See the portal with your own clients in mind
In the demo, we walk through a client’s journey from request to paid invoice.
OKTO Solutions, Trois-Rivières, Quebec