Client Access Controls

Client Access Controls configure what your clients experience in their portal and how the firm is notified about client activity. From here you turn on the client bills page (AP automation), a read-only AI assistant, recurring digest emails, a firm-wide Slack channel, and fine-grained notification routing. These are firm-level switches that apply across the client portal, and the page lives in the /settings Practice Management section (advisory firms only).

Key capabilities

• AP Automation toggle — gives clients a bills page to view, approve, and upload bills
• Client AI Assistant toggle — adds a read-only AI chat to the portal (explains numbers, never edits books)
• Client Digest Email toggle — recurring, AI-written financial recap emailed to client-portal users
• Digest frequency: weekly (sends Mondays) or monthly (sends on the 1st)
• Firm-wide Slack — forward client events to one shared firm channel
• Per-business Slack still configurable separately in each workspace
• Notification topics grid — choose channels per topic, with firm-policy fallback
• Legacy email/in-app digests across five categories during the deprecation window
• Optimistic toggles that revert automatically if a save fails

How it works

Firm-level switches enable or hide portal features and direct client-event notifications.

flowchart TD
  firm["Firm: Client Access settings"] --> ap["AP Automation -> client bills page"]
  firm --> ai["AI Assistant -> read-only chat"]
  firm --> digest["Digest email (weekly / monthly)"]
  firm --> slack["Firm-wide Slack channel"]
  firm --> topics["Per-topic notification routing"]
  ap --> portal["Client portal experience"]
  ai --> portal
  digest --> portal

How to use it

1. Open Settings > Client Access.
2. Toggle AP Automation to give clients a bills page where they can view, approve, and upload bills.
3. Toggle Client AI Assistant to add a read-only AI chat panel to the portal.
4. Enable Client Digest Email and pick weekly or monthly to send recurring financial recaps.
5. Configure Firm-wide Slack to forward client events to one channel for the whole firm.
6. Use the Notification topics grid to pick channels per topic; cells without a setting fall back to the firm default.

Pro tips

• Start conservative and enable features per the firm's standard, then expand for clients who need more.
• Disable AP Automation for clients who don't manage their own bills — it keeps their portal uncluttered.
• The AI Assistant is read-only — it can explain numbers and surface transactions but never changes the books, so it's safe to expose.
• Digest numbers are computed from the client's books; the AI only writes the plain-English summary around them.
• Use the Notification topics grid for precise routing; the legacy five-category digests are kept only for the deprecation window and are overridden by per-topic settings.

In-depth guide

Portal capability toggles

Digest emails

When enabled, each client-portal user receives a short recap on the chosen cadence covering:

• Money in / out for the period
• Net change
• Top spending

The hard numbers come straight from the client's books; the AI only generates the surrounding plain-English narrative, so figures stay accurate.

Notifications: topics vs legacy

Two controls govern routing, and the per-topic grid always wins:

• Notification topics grid (canonical): each topic is directed to specific channels; any unset cell falls back to the firm's policy default.
• Legacy five categories (deprecation window only): Messages, Reports, Alerts, Action Items, and Transaction Anomalies, each with simple Email and In-App toggles — overridden by the per-topic grid.

Slack routing

Firm-wide and per-business routing can coexist:

• Firm-wide Slack: forwards client events to a single channel for the whole firm.
• Per-business Slack: individual client businesses can still configure their own webhook from the Integrations page in their workspace.

Related settings elsewhere

This page governs what the portal can do and how the firm is notified. Related controls live elsewhere:

• Client messaging (letting clients message the firm): Profile / Your Firm page, under Client Portal.
• Who each client can access (which businesses): the Client List page.

Suggested rollout

Treat these as starting points — every toggle is per-firm and can be changed at any time.

Audit implications

Toggling portal capabilities and notification routing changes what external users can see and do. Use Settings > Audit Log to track these configuration changes for compliance reviews.

Edge cases

• Toggles are optimistic — if a save fails, the switch reverts to its previous state.
• The digest frequency selector only appears once the digest is enabled.
• If no firm is selected, the page shows a "No firm found." placeholder.