How it works

Portico replaces the back-and-forth of emails, shared folders, and separate signing tools with one structured flow.

The four stages

Every onboarding moves through four stages:

Templates and onboardings

A template is your reusable blueprint: the form structure, field types, conditional logic, and settings. You build it once.

An onboarding is a single instance of that template for a specific client. It carries that client's responses, status, and history. One template can produce any number of onboardings.

Each onboarding keeps a copy of the template from the moment you create it. If you update the template later, existing onboardings and drafts keep their copy. Only new onboardings use the latest version.

What your client sees

When a client clicks the link in their email, a multi-step form opens in their browser. No login is required. The form shows your firm name and your saved brand color. Your logo appears on every plan except Free. See Client experience for the full walkthrough.

1. PIN (optional): if you set a PIN when sending, the client enters it first.
2. Consent (every plan except Free): if you set up consent checkboxes, the client sees them before the form starts.
3. Welcome page: shown by default on the first visit, with your optional message. You can turn it off per template.
4. Step-by-step form: one step per page with a progress bar. Answers save automatically as clients type.
5. Due date countdown: if you set a due date, clients see how much time remains.
6. Save and exit: clients can leave and return later with the same link. The form reopens where they left off.
7. In-form messaging: the Messages button lets clients write to your team from within the form.
8. Changes requested: if you request changes, the client gets an email with your note. The form opens at the answer to change.
9. Completion: after the client submits, they see a confirmation screen. On every plan except Free, they can also view their submissions and download a PDF.

Client portal

On every plan except Free, clients also get a Client portal. It shows their onboardings, uploaded files, and signatures in one place.

Statuses

The status tells you who acts next. The same statuses appear on the onboardings list, the board, the dashboard, and each onboarding's page.

A client submits when they finish every required question and any required payment. After that, the status is Needs review, Reviewed, or Approved.

A red Overdue marker appears beside Sent, Opened, Reopened, or Changes requested when the due date passes. Your clients never see these labels. They see their own: To do, Submitted, Changes requested, and Done.

Each link works for 30 days from the email that carried it, or until the link expiry date if that comes sooner. A send, resend, or reopen deactivates every earlier link. Reminder emails and links from Copy client link carry their own fresh links and leave earlier ones working. A copied link stops working when the link from your last invitation does. The status shows Link expired as soon as the client has no working link. When the client next opens the expired link, Portico closes the onboarding.

To send a new link, open the onboarding. If the link expiry date passed, click Edit link expiry and set a later date. If the 30-day link lapsed, click Resend. Once Portico closes the onboarding, click Reopen onboarding in the header. For a Cancelled onboarding, Reopen onboarding is also in the header. For one that is Needs review or Reviewed after the client submits, or Approved, choose More actions > Reopen onboarding. Portico keeps all responses, issues a new 30-day link, and sets the status to Reopened. If the link expiry date has passed, Portico sets a new one 30 days from the day you reopen. Reopen onboarding counts as one onboarding against your monthly plan limit. A reopen through Request changes on the Responses tab does not count. See Billing and plans.

Dashboard and attention flags

The Dashboard summarizes your onboarding activity each time you open it. Its Awaiting your action card counts the onboardings that wait on you. Its Clients to follow up list flags onboardings you sent that the client has not submitted:

• Overdue: past the due date.
• At risk: due within 3 days with less than 80% progress.
• Stale: no client activity for 5 or more days.

Automations

Portico handles the follow-up so you do not have to:

• Send reminder now: on an open onboarding, Send reminder queues a reminder email to the client, which goes out within a few minutes. Portico accepts it an hour or more after the last send, reopen, or reminder.
• Email reminders: each onboarding has a reminder schedule. The default is 3, 7, and 14 days after you send, or your team default from Settings > Client experience. You can edit the schedule while the onboarding is a draft.
• Reminder limits: after send reminders stop at the due date, and after due (overdue) reminders go out after it. Portico sends no reminders after the link expiry date. Each reminder lists up to 5 items the client still has to complete.
• Overdue notice: Portico emails the workspace Owner when an onboarding passes its due date. The email comes from Portico.
• SMS reminders: included on Pro, Business, and the Pro trial. On lifetime and AppSumo plans, they run on SMS credits you buy. See SMS reminders.
• Webhooks: available on every plan except Free. Trigger external workflows when onboarding events happen. See Webhooks.
• Data retention: available on Pro, Business, the Pro trial, and the lifetime and AppSumo Practice and Firm plans. Portico deletes completed onboardings after the number of days you set, with a minimum of 30.

Compliance

Every onboarding includes a built-in audit trail:

• Consent records: on every plan except Free, clients tick the consent checkboxes you define before the form starts. Each choice is stored with a timestamp.
• Signatures: each e-signature records the signing time, IP address, and browser.
• History tab: logs actions such as send, open, submit, approve, and reject with timestamps. Filter by All, Reviews, or System, or click Export CSV.
• Data export and erasure: available on Pro, Business, the Pro trial, and the lifetime and AppSumo Practice and Firm plans. Export a client's data as JSON from the onboarding's Compliance tab or the client's page. To erase a client, choose Request erasure on the Clients page or on the client's page, then process it in Settings > Client experience.

Portico supports 42 countries. Your business country sets your privacy defaults: GDPR for EU countries, the UK, and Switzerland, and LGPD for Brazil. See Compliance for details.

Managing clients

You can add clients on the Clients page, import them from a CSV file, or add a new client while you create an onboarding. See Managing clients for custom fields, localization, and bulk import.

Collaboration

Multiple team members can work on onboardings together:

• Assign onboardings to specific team members for clear ownership. The assignee option appears when your team has more than one member.
• Comment on fields in the Responses tab. The client can see field comments. Portico emails the client only while the onboarding is open: sent, not yet submitted, not cancelled, and before its link expiry date. Otherwise the comment is saved, no email is sent, and the onboarding stays as it is. To get the client back into the form, use Request changes.
• Send messages to clients from the Messages tab on the onboarding page.

All plans include unlimited team members at no extra cost. Owners and admins create and send onboardings. See Team and roles for what each role can do.

Self-registration

On every plan except Free, you can let clients start an onboarding themselves. Go to Settings > Client experience and find Client self-registration. Tick Enable self-registration, choose a Default template, and save. Share the registration link with clients. Each client who registers gets an onboarding from that template.