Inviting Clients to the Portal
When you're ready for a plan sponsor or HR contact to start uploading documents, completing tasks, and viewing plan information, you'll send them a portal invitation from CX.
The Client Portal gives your clients a secure, branded space to interact with your firm without needing a full platform login. Most TPAs send portal invitations during onboarding or at the start of census season.
Before You Begin
The company's status must be Active, Onboarding, or Terminating. Companies in other statuses are not eligible for portal access.
The contact must already exist on the company record with a valid email address. If you need to add a contact first, see Managing Your Book of Business.
You need clients::cp (Client Portal) permission or higher. If you don't see the portal options described below, ask your team admin to check your permission group.
Steps
Click Companies in the left sidebar and select the company — for example, Harbor Benefits Group.
Click the People tab on the middle of the company record.
Find the contact you want to invite — for example, Sarah Chen, HR/Payroll Admin. Click the three-dot menu to the right of their name.
Select Invite to Portal from the dropdown menu. A dialog box will appear asking you to configure the invitation.
Choose the permissions for this portal user:
View plan/company information — gives read access to plan details and company data. Enable this for most contacts.
Upload files and complete tasks — lets them respond to task requests, upload census files, and complete questionnaires. Enable this for HR contacts and plan sponsors who will be submitting data.
Add, manage, or delete other users — lets them invite additional people from their organization to the portal. Only enable this for a primary contact who manages their own team.
Edit company/plan information — lets them update fields on the company or plan record directly. Use this sparingly, typically only for trusted primary contacts.
💡 Tip: For a typical HR/Payroll Admin who will be uploading census files and completing annual questionnaires, enable the first two permissions and leave the last two off. You can always adjust permissions later.
Click Send Invitation. The contact will receive an email with a link to create their portal account. The email comes from your connected email address (not a generic Stax.ai address), so it will look familiar to the client.
What Success Looks Like
After sending the invitation, you'll see a Portal Access badge appear next to the contact's name on the People tab. The contact's portal status will show as Invited until they click the email link and set up their password, at which point it changes to Active.
If the contact doesn't see the invitation email, ask them to check their spam folder. The email subject line will include your TPA firm's name and "Portal Invitation."
Troubleshooting
The "Invite to Portal" option doesn't appear in the menu. The company's status may not be portal-eligible. Check that the company status is Active, Onboarding, or Terminating — not Prospect, Terminated, or a custom status.
The contact says they never received the email. Verify the contact's email address is correct on their People record. If it is, resend the invitation from the same menu. If the problem persists, check whether your team's email domain has SPF/DKIM configured correctly — your IT team or Stax support can help with this.
The contact can see the portal but can't see any tasks. Tasks are only visible in the portal if they are set to Client Task type. Internal tasks are never shown to portal users. Check the task type on any tasks you expected the client to see.
Related Articles
Managing Client Portal Users — adjust permissions, suspend, or remove portal users after they've been invited
Branding Your Client Portal — customize the portal's appearance with your firm's logo and colors
Client Portal Permissions — detailed breakdown of what each permission level controls
Next step: Uploading and Managing Files →