Quick start

Create your account

Sign up at app.portico.run with your name, email, and a password, or click Continue with Google or Continue with Apple. Passwords need at least 10 characters with letters and numbers. If you sign up with email, confirm your address before you sign in.

Every new account starts a 14-day Pro trial with no credit card required. When it ends, your account moves to the Free plan automatically.

On first sign-in, Set up your account asks one question: Where is your business based? Your country sets your default language, date format, timezone, and privacy settings. You can change these later in Settings.

Portico names your workspace after you, for example "Jane Smith's team". Clients see your firm name on forms and emails: your Email sender name from Branding, or your team name when none is set. Change the team name in Settings > Account under Team name before you send your first onboarding.

A new workspace with no templates and no onboardings opens Welcome to Portico, a short setup guide. Choose your type of business to copy a starter template, review the client experience, add a client, and send. To try the flow yourself, tick Send to myself for a test. A test never counts toward your monthly onboarding limit. A test is an onboarding sent to the sign-in email of anyone on your team. Portico ignores capital letters and a "+" tag, so name+test@firm.com counts as a test for name@firm.com. Click Skip setup to start from scratch instead.

Build a template

Templates are reusable onboarding forms. One template can power any number of onboardings. Only owners and admins can create and edit templates.

1. Go to Templates and click New template.
2. Choose Start blank, enter a Template name, and click Create blank template. On plans with AI generation, Paste your questionnaire builds a template from text you paste instead.
3. The editor has three panels: steps on the left, fields in the center, and settings on the right.
4. Your template starts with one step called "Getting started". Double-click its name to rename it to something your client will understand, for example "Business details".
5. Click Add field and choose a type. A short text field for "Company name" and an email field are enough to test the flow.
6. New fields are Required by default. Switch Required off for questions the client can skip.
7. Add more steps with the + button in the left panel. Each step becomes a separate page in the client form.

Changes save automatically a moment after you stop editing. The toolbar shows Saving... while a change saves and Saved when it is done. A draft with a problem, such as a field without a label, does not save until you fix the highlighted field.

Send your first onboarding

Only owners and admins can create and send onboardings.

1. Go to Onboardings or Dashboard and click New onboarding. To start with a template already chosen, click Send onboarding on the template's card in Templates.
2. Under Choose a template, select the template you built and click Continue.
3. Under Choose a client, search for an existing client or click New client. A new client needs a name and email. Company and phone are optional.
4. Check the Due date. Portico fills in a date 14 days ahead, or 21 days for legal templates and 7 days for consulting templates. You can change or clear it.
5. Optionally set a Link expiry date. After it passes, the link stops working and the form accepts no more answers.
6. Click Create onboarding. Portico saves a draft, opens the onboarding page, and shows "Draft saved" with the client's name. Creating a draft never counts toward your monthly onboarding limit, so it is never blocked by the limit.
7. Click Send to client, fix anything listed under Must fix before sending, and click Send in the Send to client? dialog.
8. If your team still has its signup name and no sender name, Portico asks for Your firm name as clients see it. Enter it and click Save and send. See Branding.

If the email you enter already belongs to a client, Portico offers Use this client instead of creating a duplicate.

Portico checks the onboarding before it sends. It blocks sending when the template has no fields or the client email is missing or invalid. It also blocks sending when a signature field still has the sample agreement text from a gallery template. To fix it, add your own agreement text to the template, then create a new onboarding from it. A required payment field blocks it when its amount is invalid or Stripe is not connected. An optional payment field never blocks sending. After you click Send, Portico also refuses the send when you have reached your monthly onboarding limit, or your plan cannot collect a required payment. Portico also warns you when there is no due date, when the reminder schedule is missing or empty, or when fields have no label.

On the Free plan and during the Pro trial, Portico also limits how many different clients you can invite in 24 hours. The limit is 25 by default. When you reach it, try again later or upgrade your plan.

When you send, Portico creates a unique link that works for 30 days and queues the invitation email. Your client opens the link in a browser, with no account or password. To require a 6-digit PIN, enter it under PIN protection (optional) in the send dialog, then share it with your client yourself.

Your dashboard

Open the Dashboard from the sidebar to see your onboarding activity at a glance:

• Summary cards show Active onboardings, Completed this month, and Awaiting your action. The last card counts onboardings that wait on you, such as drafts and submitted answers to review.
• Clients to follow up lists flagged onboardings. Overdue means past the due date, and at risk means due within 3 days with less than 80% progress. Stale means no client activity for 5 or more days.
• Recent activity shows up to 15 of your team's latest logged events, including team-level events such as client imports.
• Get started lists three steps until you send your first onboarding to a real client: Choose a template, Add a client, and Send your first onboarding.

Track progress

In Onboardings, the status changes from Sent to Opened when the client first opens the link. Each row shows:

• Status: who acts next, such as Opened while the client works or Needs review (3) after they submit. How it works lists every status.
• Progress: the share of required questions the client has submitted.
• Due: the due date, shown in red with a warning icon once it has passed.
• A pause icon when the client has not been active for 5 or more days.

To open an onboarding, click the template name under the client's name. Clicking the client's name opens the client's page. On the onboarding page, review answers in the Responses tab, comment on a field, or write to the client in the Messages tab.

To chase a client, open the onboarding. Send reminder emails the client a reminder with the items still open. Copy client link creates a new link you can send yourself. Links you sent before keep working. See Onboardings.

Switch between Table view and Board view to see onboardings as cards in status columns. Change an onboarding from its own page.

Review and approve

When the client submits answers, open the onboarding and go to the Responses tab:

• Approve answers that look right. To approve every waiting answer in a step, click the step's button, such as Approve 3 answers. To approve every waiting answer in the onboarding, click the review banner's button, such as Approve all 5 answers. Portico approves them at once and shows Undo for at least 10 seconds.
• Request changes when you need a fix. Write a note, and Portico emails the client your note and a link to the form. The step with that answer is marked as needing attention.
• Reject marks an answer as not acceptable. The reason is optional, and the client gets no email. To get a corrected answer, use Request changes.
• Start review walks you through each answer in turn, with keyboard shortcuts.

The client submits when they finish the final step. The status becomes Needs review, with the number of answers waiting for you. There is no separate step to mark it complete. If the client changes an answer after you review it, the answer shows Updated by client and waits for review again. Once you approve every answer, the status is Approved, and the header offers Export PDF.

So you usually review an onboarding the client has already submitted. If the onboarding is submitted, cancelled, or closed after its link expired, or its link expiry date has passed, requesting changes reopens it. The status becomes Changes requested and the client gets a new 30-day link. A change request never counts against your monthly plan limit, even when it reopens a closed onboarding, so it never fails for that reason.

What to do next

• How it works: the full onboarding lifecycle
• Dashboard: summary cards, attention flags, and recent activity
• Template gallery: more than 150 ready-made industry templates
• Template builder: all 18 field types and conditional logic
• Client experience: what your clients see when filling in forms
• Client portal: your client's page for past onboardings and signatures
• Managing clients: directory, CSV import, and custom fields
• Billing and plans: feature comparison across plans