ARI Client Portal

ARI’s client portal is the easiest way for clients to know what’s happening when they come to you. It lets them see their Invoices, Estimates, Paid or Due status, Vehicles, Inspections, and older Payments. They know when their next service is due and can book an appointment with you directly from the portal or ask for help via live chat.

Client Portal Overview

How the Client Portal works

The Client Portal provides a detailed summary of the essential information an individual client needs about your business. The ARI(Auto Repair Software) portal has info relevant to one client at a time.

Each client can access the portal after you give them a login key. You can preview the portal or send the entry keys via email, SMS, and a regular link.

The portal is made by the info you first put into ARI(our auto repair invoicing software). Then it goes through the system, and clients see a nice dashboard of their business items like Invoices, Estimates, Payments, etc.

Clients will also find your email and physical address, phone number, and a unique online booking page, provided you’ve set this up in your ARI account. If you haven’t entered a user’s email address, name, or vehicle or haven’t created any invoices for them – the client portal will be empty!

You will find the client portal action button whenever you open a client.

Using the Client Portal

Live Preview

Use the live preview when you want to know what the client sees. It’s common practice to check the details before sending it over. As you upload client data to the app, it’s crucial to avoid any mistakes that may confuse them. Here’s how to preview the client portal:

				
					Clients -> Select Client ->
Client Portal -> Preview Client Portal

The preview is not different from the actual information clients will see on the portal. It’s made for convenience and testing purposes.

Granting Access

Clients won’t see the portal unless you share the login page and credentials with them. Once they have them – they access it freely and interact with you.

Here’s how to share the portal with your customers:

				
					Open a Client -> 
Client Portal -> Send via Email or
Send via Text or Copy to clipboard

As clients view their info they might request an address, email change, or other amendments. They cannot change their profiles directly so you’ll have to do that for them

You can deny or allow back client portal access if you need to. Do this with the toggle button on the bottom of the client portal view.

* In the future, we plan to add information control to this feature. You can choose if clients see Invoices, Inspections, Appointments, or all of the above.

Dashboard

There are a few navigation paths in the client portal. They either provide an overview of significant data or point towards a single detail about an item.

The dashboard summarizes the main things a client would seek. It has the following items:

The total amount of invoices of a single customer.
The sum of all payments and a breakdown by payment type.
All client vehicles.
A link to a customer’s complete profile.
Any upcoming online appointments or service reminders.
The sum of all invoices every month.
All inspections and work orders with their status.

*The sidebar menu has the same items formatted differently.

You will notice the top menu with:

A notifications panel where you’ll see how the work orders have changed.
A live chat button.
The sidebar menu(with all client items).
A client profile link/icon.
A reports dashboard(will be live in the next update!)

Live Chat and Help Center

Arguably the most significant feature in the client portal, the live chat is an excellent way to respond to client queries. Every time your client writes from the client portal – you will receive a push notification or see it in the app if you use it. You can then chat with them and provide instant assistance.

You can later see all the previous chats in the Activity logs panel under ‘Client Chats.’

Clients can reach out with the message icon

or with

				
					Help Center → Get Support → Contact Us

All of the following are visible in the main client portal panel.