Supporting portal users

This page is a playbook for the people on your team who answer questions from clients about the portal. It starts with the most common call, "I cannot sign in", and then covers the other problems you are likely to meet. Most fixes need an administrator account.

A client cannot sign in

The portal shows the same general message for every sign-in refusal: "Invalid username or password, or the portal isn't enabled for your account." It deliberately hides the real reason, so you have to check the causes yourself. If the connection to the server fails, the client sees "Sign-in failed. Please try again." instead. That means a network problem, not an account problem.

The client's portal sign-in page after a failed attempt.

Check these causes in this order:

1. Is the user active? Open Setup > System > Users and open the user. If the card shows Inactive, click Activate. Ten wrong passwords within 15 minutes switch an account off automatically, so a client who forgot the password and kept trying will often be inactive. After you activate the user, also set a new password.
2. Is the portal switched on for the client? Open Setup > 3PL > Clients, open the client and check that Portal enabled is Yes on the Portal tab.
3. Is the client using the right address? Compare the address the client opens with the Client portal link on that tab. If you changed the Portal URL slug, the old address no longer works. Send the current link.
4. Does the user belong to the client, and is the user a portal user? On the user's Access tab, the Client picker must show the client. On the Account tab, Permissions must show PortalUser. A user with no client is refused at the portal.
5. Do you know the password? Set a new one (see "Reset a password" below) and give it to the client.
6. Has the portal user limit been reached? If your account has a limit on Allowed portal users, one more person cannot sign in while that many different portal users are already signed in. The client still sees the general message. Ask them to try again in a few minutes, or ask P4 Software support to raise the limit. See Creating portal users.
7. Is your licence valid? An expired licence also stops portal sign-ins. Check the License section at Setup > System > Tenant.
8. Has the password expired? If your password policy expires passwords, an expired password is refused with the same general message. Set a new password.

Reset a password

The portal has no self-service reset. On the sign-in page, Forgot your password? only shows the note "Passwords can't be reset on this page. Please contact your warehouse and they will reset it for you." and there is no change-password page inside the portal. When a client asks, you set a new password:

1. Open Setup > System > Users and open the user.
2. On the Account tab, in the Sign-in section, type the new password in Password and click Apply. If you see the link Send password reset email instead, click it. The user needs an e-mail address for that.
3. Send the new password to the client, and send the portal address in a separate message.

See Creating portal users for the details of both methods.

A client sees "You don't have access to this section."

The user opened something that their access switches do not allow. Open the user, go to the Access tab and check the Portal access card. A user with no switch at all can sign in but sees only this message. See Portal access switches for what each switch opens.

A client cannot find a menu item

Each menu item shows only when the user has its switch. Use this table to find the switch to turn on:

A client sees no Invoices

1. Check that the invoice is posted. Clients never see drafts. Open Setup > 3PL > Invoices and look at the State column.
2. Check that the user has View Invoices.

See Making invoices visible to clients.

The Dashboard stock figures are empty

The stock section of the Dashboard needs both View Inventory and View reports. A user who has only one of them sees zeros or empty panels there. Turn on the missing switch.

A client cannot change an order or a product setting

The portal applies some rules to portal users only:

• A portal user can change a sales order only while it is Draft or Unallocated, and a purchase order only while it is Draft or Not Received. After that the portal refuses the change with a plain message, for example "Order [SO-100] is already being processed (status [Shipped]) and can no longer be edited. Contact your warehouse provider if it has to change." or "Purchase order [PO-4] can no longer be edited because it is [PartiallyReceived]. Only a purchase order that has not started receiving can be edited. Contact your warehouse provider if it has to change." (with the real number and status in the brackets). The order page then has no Edit order button.
• A portal user cannot change a product's tracking settings once the product has stock on hand or allocated. These are Bill of material, Lot controlled, Serial controlled, Expiry controlled, Manufacture date controlled, Decimal controlled, Packsize controlled, the lot and serial patterns, the allowances and the units of measure. A save that tries it is refused with "Cannot change [Lot controlled] on [SKU-1] because it has stock: [10] on hand and [0] allocated. These settings describe how that stock was received. Move or consume the stock first, then change the setting." An Excel import row that would change the lot, serial or expiry control or the unit of measure of such a product is skipped and listed under Warnings with the same reason (in English); the other rows still import.

A new order shows the status Draft

Every order or purchase order that a client creates in the portal starts as Draft. It stays Draft until your staff releases it in the office app. Nothing releases it automatically, and placing an order in the portal does not send your team an e-mail by itself. Check for new Draft orders regularly. See Order statuses.

Using the portal and the office app in the same browser

Signing in to the portal and to the office app in the same browser, on the same address, signs the other one out. If you test a client's portal in the browser you use for the office app, your office session ends. Use a private window or another browser for the portal. Sign out of the portal before you go back to the office app.

Using Impersonate

In the Users list, administrators have an Impersonate link on each row. It opens a session as that user in a new tab, so you can see exactly what they see. It uses the same browser sign-in as your own office session, so it replaces your office session in that browser. Sign in to the office app again afterwards, or use a private window.

Sessions

• A portal user can be signed in on several devices or tabs at the same time. Nobody is signed out when the same user signs in again. Office users keep one session each.
• A sign-in lasts at most six hours, and may end sooner if the user is idle. The user then sees Your session has expired. Please sign in again. on the sign-in page and loses any unsaved work.
• Setup > System > User sessions lists the current sessions.
• If you switch off the portal for a client while a user is signed in, that user is sent back to the sign-in page the next time the portal reloads.

Other things clients ask about

Related pages

• Creating portal users
• Portal access switches
• Turning on the portal for a client
• Troubleshooting (what your clients read)