A client portal, and a way to work with the clients who will never use one
Most clients will not log into a portal, however good it is - and a firm that has to chase the other half by email anyway ends up keeping the record in two places. Niyora runs both channels onto one record: a real portal for the clients who want one, and an email-first path for the clients who will only ever reply to an email.
- A portal per client company - invoices, statutory registers read-only, documents, directors, messages and notifications
- Per-client chat that answers from that company’s own documents, and costs the client nothing to use
- Email-first clients get an ordinary email they can reply to: an attachment or a plain “approved” both come back as a recorded response
- No-login links for one-off acts - accept a quotation, sign a document, answer a request, send what a filing needs
- Several people at one client, each with their own level of access, or on the contact list with no portal access at all
- A notification setting per contact, so the accountant is not copied on everything the founder is
The client who will not log in is the normal case
A client marked email-only never sees a portal. When the firm needs something - a document approved, a file sent, a question answered - the ask goes out as an ordinary email carrying a secure link, and the client can either open that link or simply reply. An attachment on the reply is filed as the document that was asked for; a reply saying “approved” or “please change this” is read as the decision it is. Nothing is applied automatically: the response is recorded and the firm confirms it, because an email that merely looks like an approval is not one.
A company is several people, not one email address
Each client can carry as many contacts as it really has, and each is set separately: full portal access, a narrower one, or no login at all and simply on the contact list. Invitations go out as a magic link rather than a password to circulate. Because notifications are per contact, the person who should see an invoice and the person who should see a filing reminder do not have to be the same person.
One-off acts need no account at all
Accepting a quotation, signing an engagement letter, answering a single request and sending the documents an incorporation needs are each reachable on their own link, with nothing to register for and nothing to remember. That is deliberate: asking a client to create an account before they can say yes to a quote is where the quote stops.
What this does not do
- There is no payment gateway. A client records that they have paid and attaches the reference; the firm confirms it against its own bank, and that confirmation is what issues the tax invoice. Niyora never takes a card or UPI payment.
- Niyora e-sign is an electronic signature under section 10A of the IT Act 2000. It is not a DSC, and not an Aadhaar eSign through a licensed ESP.
- There is no general upload folder in the portal. A client sends files in response to a specific request, so anything that arrives is already attached to the thing it was asked for - which is the point, but it does mean there is no open drop-box.
- The per-client chat answers from that client’s own documents. It is not the statute-grounded research assistant the firm uses, and it is not legal advice.
Questions firms ask
Our clients will never use a portal. Is this any use to us?+
That is the case it is built for. A client can be marked email-only and will never be shown a portal or asked to log in: every request reaches them as an ordinary email they can reply to, and their reply - including any attachment - is recorded against the same client record the portal would have written to.
Can several people at one client company have their own access?+
Yes. Each contact is added separately with their own level of access, or with none at all if they should only be on the contact list. Each also has their own notification setting, so people are only told about the things that concern them.
Can a client pay an invoice through the portal?+
Not directly - there is no payment gateway. The client records the payment and its reference, and the firm confirms it against its own bank. Part payments, TDS the client has deducted and write-offs are all handled on the firm side, and the bill is settled when those add up to the total.
What can a client see?+
Only their own company: its invoices, its statutory registers read-only, the documents shared with it, its directors, and the messages and notifications addressed to it. A contact at one client can never reach another client’s records.
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