Setting up Portal and Inviting Users | Zoho CRM - Help

Setting up portals and inviting users

Portals in CRM are designed for the administrators to extend CRM access to their contacts, vendors, or partners, and custom modules. A portal user can access the modules and some of the associated data that they have been given access to, such as products, invoices, and notes present in CRM. They can also view, edit records, create records, and add notes.

Portals for you

Business Cases 

Let's consider a few scenarios to understand how portals can be helpful in your business.
In a franchise - Imagine you run a fast food business and have granted others the right to operate the franchise in a few locations. You use Zoho CRM to manage all the business details and to track outlets' performance. The franchise owners can request to view their outlets' performance and their customers' details. You can create exclusive portals for the franchise owners, where they will be able to view and edit the relevant records right from the CRM.
  1. In the automobile industry  - You have an automobile shop and want to track your customers' details, your sold vehicles, and servicing schedules. To do this, you can create a portal and share it with your portal users. The customers can view and edit their details in the portal, and they will be updated in your CRM records. Similarly, if they want to get their vehicle serviced, they can fill in their details using the portal.
  1. In the FMCG industry - At a retail store, you can send bulk invitations to all the vendors that supply products to your store to keep track of inventory flow. This way, vendors can modify orders and access and edit details like pricing, stock availability, contact information, and delivery discrepancies.

  2. In an educational institute  - If you run a school, instead of manually entering every student's details, you can provide parents with access to the portal. They can add, update, or view their child's details in the portal, and share the students' grades and performance scores with the parents through the portal.
  1. For business partners  - You run a software company and use CRM to follow up with your contacts and leads, or to track multiple deals that are at different stages. There is a meeting with the partners, and you want to discuss all the contacts and the deals that have the highest revenue. Imagine how tedious it would be to share this complex information with individual partners. You can easily manage this situation by creating a portal for the partners, where you give them access to the Contacts module and add a contact lookup in the Deals module in CRM. This will enable them to view the contacts and their associated deals and add or remove details in the modules based on their permissions.
  1. For employees - You can utilize the enhancement to invite your employees to access the Portal for viewing, editing, and performing specific tasks. This can also be used as a self-update portal if there is a custom module with the database of your employees.
Availability
Permission Required 

Users with the Manage Portal Profile permission can create a portal and invite customers.

Here are a few details about portal-related pricing and the number of portal user groups you can create.
  1. You can configure up to five portal user groups. By default, you can invite a total of up to 1,000 users across the user groups (Leads, Contacts, Vendors and Custom modules) for free. 
  2. To purchase additional portal user licenses, refer to the table below for prices. If you need any help regarding the purchases, contact support@zohocrm.com.

    Let's say that you need a portal for your retailers and portal user licenses for them. You can create a portal user group called "Retailers" and invite your retailers to the portal. As your business scales, the number of retailers increases. Let's see how much it costs to add them to the portal:
  1. For 500 portal users:
    The first 1,000 users are free. Since all 500 users fall within the free slab, there is no charge.
    Total monthly cost: $0

  1. For 5,000 portal users:
    First 1,000 users: Free → $0
    Next 1,000 users (1,001 - 2,000): 1,000 × $3 = $3,000
    Remaining 3,000 users (2,001 - 5,000): 3,000 × $2 = $6,000
    Total monthly cost: $0 (free) + $3,000 + $6,000 = $9,000

  1. For 12,000 portal users:
    First 1,000 users: Free → $0
    Next 1,000 users (1,001 - 2,000): 1,000 × $3 = $3,000
    Next 9,000 users (2,001 - 11,000): 9,000 × $2 = $18,000
    Remaining 1,000 users (above 11,000): 1,000 × $1 = $1,000
    Total cost: $0 (free) + $3,000 + $18,000 + $1,000 = $22,000

Actions that a portal user can perform

Create, edit or delete records - They can create, edit or delete records they create in the CRM module to which they have access. 
  1. Edit associated records - A portal user can edit records that are associated with them, that are added by other CRM users, if they have the Edit (Shared) permission. For example, if a deal or account is associated with the portal user, then he can edit the details of those records. 

  2. Edit information in a record - They can edit the fields (even the ones present in subforms) on a record that is shared with them, such as address, phone number, email address and other details. The changes will reflect in the CRM.
NotesNote: Subform permission needs to be maintained separately. Permissions set in the parent module's Portal Module Configuration will not be applicable for subforms. 
  1. Clone records associated with the leads/contacts (deals, invoices, quotes, etc.) - They can clone other records that are associated with them and add more details as required. For example, if a portal user wants to replicate a deal, quote, or invoice, then instead of creating a new record from scratch, they can clone an existing record and make edits wherever necessary. 

Portal for trial edition

The Enterprise and Ultimate trial edition users can configure and use the portal for the 30-day trial period. Once configured, the system-defined portal user group for the Contacts module will be created, to which they can add a maximum of 10 users. New portal user groups cannot be created in the trial edition.

In case the trial account is not upgraded to Enterprise or Ultimate paid edition, the following actions will be taken:
  1. If you subscribe to Standard or Professional paid editions, then the portal created in the trial edition will be retained.
  1. If you subscribe to Free Edition, then the portal details will be deleted after 30 days.

Setting up Portals

Setting up a portal involves the following four steps:
  1. Configuring Portals
  2. Creating a portal user group
    1. Providing user group details
    2. Configuring the portal module
    3. Specifying field permissions
By default, your company's name will be taken as the portal name, and it will be used to generate a URL, which your customers will use to access the portal. 

Configuring Portals

  1. Navigate to Setup  >  Channels  >  Portals.
  2. In the Portals page, click Get Started Now.
    Your company's name will appear as the default portal name.

  3. Edit the Portal name, if required. If the portal name is already in use, Zoho CRM will prompt you to change it. You can change the portal name while creating the portal.

  4. The customer portal URL will be generated, and the portal name will be available. Click Configure Now.

  5.  Your portal is now created. You can now invite your contacts or do it later.

Next, create a portal user group, configure it, set field permissions and invitation preference. Currently, invitation preference and the ability to send portal invitations to phone numbers are only supported for companies registered in India.
Once a portal is configured, you will not be able to delete it.
Note
  1. When you create a portal, a default portal user group called Client Portal will be created that cannot be deleted. However, you can turn the Status off and on the user group whenever required.

  2. You can create four other user groups and invite a up to 1,000 users in total without payment. To add more users, you need to purchase. Learn more about licenses and pricing.
  3. You can invite and add users of the same email domain as that of the super-admin to the Client Portal user group, for example, your employees or partners. 
  4. Setting invitation preference as phone will only be available if you've enabled Notification SMS integration.
    1. For now, invitation preference and the ability to send portal invitations to phone numbers is only supported for companies registered in India.
    2. You can send portal-related SMS messages from your registered sender IDs to customers in India.
    3. Phone number-based invitations and logins will be made available to organizations worldwide in our future releases.
  5. After the invitation preference is set for a portal user group, you will not be able to modify it once users have been added to it or if a portal form has been created for it. If you need to do so, please contact support@zoho.com.
Portal configuration across modules with nuanced options
The assignment of List, Detail, and Create Views appear inside the configuration page.

The portal configuration section includes dedicated columns for List View, Detail View, and Create View.  

  • List View - You can select the List and Canvas views

  • Detail Views - You can select List, Canvas, and Template (only for Inventory modules like Quote, Invoice, Sales Order and Purchase Order).

  • Create View - You can select the default Create Page or Wizards.

It makes it easier to customize what clients see and access, ensuring that they interact with only relevant, contextual data for their needs. 
Notes

Note.

Available view options reflect user permissions dynamically:

  • If a user lacks Create permission, the Create View option is disabled and shows a tooltip: “You don’t have permission for the Create View.”

  • This applies to all view types, enhancing usability by ensuring that only authorized views are visible and selectable.

Template view or Inventory modules for portal users
The portal configuration page now allows you to assign the Template View as the detail view for inventory modules. This aligns with how users typically view these in external systems (such as Amazon) - as the detail view for Inventory modules like Quotes, Invoices, and Sales Orders, Purchase Orders etc. This will help them experience data in a familiar, structured format that enhances clarity and usability.

Notes

Notes.  

  • Only on assigning a template view in the Inventory modules, can one view the same from the Portal account.

  • Pre-defined templates will be available by default for Quotes, Invoices, etc.

  • You can also include custom-created templates for even more flexibility.

  • It ensures portal users can view inventory-related records in a format that matches expectations and industry standards. 

PDF Export from Portal
An Export to PDF option - under the More menu - is also extended to portal users.

The default template set will be used when the portal user opts to export to PDF.
Notes

Note. The template selection to download pdf will be available from Settings > Inventory PDF View.


How to Access These Settings  

  1. Go to Setup → Channels → Portals.

  2. Select the portal and click Configure.

  3. In the configuration grid, define views and templates for each module under the columns:

    • List View

    • Detail View

    • Create View

Portal users will only see and access views that align with their permissions.
Editing a portal URL
You can edit the portal name once it is created. The portal users will be notified about the URL change so they continue having unhindered portal access.



Portal user groups
The first step after you create the portal link is to decide the user group in order to create one. Determine which type of users the portal user group is created for.
For example, Portal users can be
  1. Partners who are generating leads for you
  2. Vendors who are accessing your database for stock information
  3. Students managing their profile and curriculum
  4. Patients managing their profile, diagnosis, prescription, and appointments
  5. Resellers who sell your products
Users who have gained access to the portal you created will be eligible to view, create, edit, and delete records in your CRM based on their permissions. Before creating a user portal user group, let's quickly go over the following terms:
  1. Primary module: The primary module contains personal details of the user group, which comprises clients authorized to access the portal. They can view, create, edit, and delete records, subject to permissions.
    For example: For the user group Customers, the primary module could be the Contacts module. The customers can access their personal information upon logging into the portal, update their profile and preferences, attach request forms, and so on.

  2. Related modules: Related modules contain transactional information of the record(s) in the primary module. That is, these modules are connected to the primary record owing to the transactions they made.
    For example: Deals are transactions made by your contacts. If the Contacts module is primary, then you can configure the Deals module to be the related module. Likewise, transactional records from different modules can be configured as related modules.

  3. Public modules: A public module may also be a related module in some cases. If such a module is selected in either the related modules section or the public modules section, it will be taken out of the other category.

  4. Web tabs: As an organization, you may have a few customers who access your CRM with the help of portals. In addition to viewing the modules and its related records, they can get access to the web tabs as well. 
    Consider an apparel store that has a webpage www.zylkerapparels.com/announcements, to post important business updates such as sponsorships, tie-ups, new acquisitions, etc. for internal users and stakeholders. They can share this web tab with the stakeholders via the portal to provide quick access and easy navigation from within CRM. All the web tabs that you have created in Zoho CRM will be listed for selection.
Please note that the first portal user group must be a customer. 

Creating a Portal User Group

  1. Navigate to Setup → Channels → Portals
  2. Click Create User Group

After this, there are three major steps in the creation of user groups: 
User Group Details
Portal Module Configuration
Field Permissions
User Group Details
  1. Define your portal user group. In the field Portal User Group Name, enter a name, such as parents, partners, or service agents.
  2. In the next field Primary Module, choose the main module that will determine the users of that portal user type.

  3. After selecting the primary module, more fields follow. In the Other Module(s) field, choose the related modules, including public modules and web tabs, applicable for that portal user group.

  4. Under Portal Invitation Preference, in the field Send Invitations Via, select your primary invitation mode from one of the two modes: Email/Phone.
    You can decide the mode (email or phone) by which external users are invited to a portal. Templates can be created for both email and phone invitations:
    1. To learn about portal invitation templates for email, see Email templates.
    2. SMS templates for portal-related messages can be used once they've been DLT-approved and verified by Zoho.
  5. In Related Field, select the field that holds the email address or phone number. The portal invitation will be sent to those email addresses or phone numbers.

  6. Click Next.
Choosing invitation preference:
  1. The option for portal users to log in with their mobile number and receive SMS notifications will not be available to all users and is currently supported for companies registered in India.
  2. You can send portal-related SMS from your registered sender IDs to customers in India.  To send invitation to users, mobile number should start with +91.
  3. Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has enforced DLT (Distributed Ledger Technology) to ensure only legitimate SMS messages are sent to customers in India. The portal invitation SMS message must be sent via an Indian Sender ID, registered with the DLT.
  4. This option will be available for organizations throughout the world with our future releases.
The option to set invitation preference as Phone will only be available if you've enabled Notification SMS integration. Credits for sending portal-related SMS messages will be consumed from the Notification SMS integration's credits.

Portal Module Configuration
Once you have defined the user group, it is time to configure the data type you wish to share with your clients.
Following are the terms involved in the configuration process:
  1. Layouts: Select one or more layouts, as well as the wizards available for those layouts for the portal users to access for the primary and other related modules.
  2. Permissions: You can set the permission level for each record in a module. Portal users will only be able to perform actions on the records based on their permission. For example, you can allow the portal users to view or edit their license number or mailing address, or give a vendor read-only permission to purchase orders. Choose create, edit, view, delete, or edit (shared) module permissions. The edit (shared) permission will allow portal users to edit those records that have been added by CRM users to the module. 
  3. Linked as & Conditions: Establish a relationship between the primary and the other modules to educate the tool about how records in this related module are related to the primary module. Choose the connecting lookup fields or multi-select lookup fields. This helps the tool display all the transactional information of the portal user in the portal and acts as the personal exposure of their data. 
    In addition to this direct transactional information, if you'd like to expose other records with a desired trait—that can be achieved by means of conditions. You can configure both linking fields and/or criteria to display records in the related modules.
    1. Match by value: Here, you can define a criteria based on their values. For example: You can choose to display all records in the Architects module if their experience is greater than 6 years.
      Architect experience >= 6 years
    2. Match by field: This condition is a comparison of values by field. For example: you can choose to display all the records from the related module if the value of the field from the primary module is/isn't/is equal to/does not contain the field value of the record from the related module.
      Warehouse state contains the Mailing province of contacts.

  4. View Type: Choose the desired module view orientation as either List view or Canvas view for the records.
Follow the below steps to configure the Portal user group:

Step 1: Primary module configuration
For the primary module, you will have a default view permission. If you'd like to give the users more permissions like create, edit, delete and others, you can do the same in this tab. You can also determine the layout/wizards which you choose to expose to the portal users. In addition to these activities, you can provide conditions as to what records from the module should be on display for the portal user.

Step 2: Related modules configuration
You can configure all the related modules you want to expose to the portal user, one after the other.
In summary:
  1. The primary record from step 1 is always visible for the portal user irrespective of the relationship they have with the related modules.
  2. If you have configured your related modules via lookup fields, the portal users' transactional records will be visible.
  3. If you have configured your related modules via conditions, then the records in the module matching the criteria will be exposed.
  4. If you have chosen to expose records based on both lookup and criteria, then the portal users' related records along with the records meeting the conditions will be exposed.
Step 3: Public module configuration
Portal users can access modules designated as Public read only or Public read/write/delete (through data sharing settings). These modules will be listed under the Public Modules section, allowing users to view records within them.
The Products module must be shared with the portal users to allow them to associate products with the records present in the Inventory modules.

Step 4: Web Tabs
The selected web tabs will be listed without requiring any setup as the main factor to consider here is Permissions. By default, only View permission is available for all the web tabs.

Step 5: Click Next.

Field Permissions
The related modules that you selected in the previous step (Portal Module Configuration) will be listed under the Field Permission section. You can select the fields that you want the portal users to access. You can also mark the fields that you do not want the customer to edit as Read Only. The mandatory fields inside the CRM will also be marked as mandatory in the portal. You can also share subforms with the portal users.
Portal users can view the price of a product only if they have view permission for the "Unit price" field in the Products module.  
To specify field permissions
  1. In the Field Permissions page, select the check boxes for the fields that need to be available for the portal users.
  2. Click the Read Only checkbox, if required.
  3. Click Save and Next to move to the next layout or module to define field permissions.

    NotesField permissions are specific to each module. They are not specific to layouts.
  4. Repeat the above steps for all the modules and layouts.
  5. If the parent module has subforms, select the subforms and set the respective permissions.
  6. Click Finish to save all the details.

View Portal Preview

View portal preview

Once the portal configuration is complete, you can preview the portal to see how the customers will see the records.

To view the portal preview
  1. Go to Setup > Channels > Portals.
  2. In the Customer Portal Configuration page, click Preview.
  3. Select the Portal User Group from the drop-down list to view the preview.
Notes
Note
You can view the portal summary after the portal module configuration is completed. You can modify the Portal Module Configuration and Field Permissions anytime later.



Purchase portal users

To purchase portal users from within the portal configuration page

  1. Go to Setup > Channels > Portals.
  2. Click Purchase.

  3. Enter the count of portal users you want to purchase and click Calculate Price.
  4. If you hover your pointer over the question mark, you will find details on how the price was arrived at. 

  5. Now, click on Make Payment and make the payment.

To purchase portal users from the Manage Subscription page

  1. Click your Profile icon and select Manage Subscription.

  2. Click Upgrade User / Add-Ons in the Subscription page.
  3. Select the number of portal users and click Proceed.
  4. Click Make Payment.

Working with portal user groups

Portal invitations

Invite users individually to a user group
Once you have created the portal, you can start inviting the customers. The email invitations will contain the portal URL details. Once the users accept the invitation, they will be prompted to set a password. In the portal, the customer must first set basic information like their preferred language, time format, time zone, and country. By default, these will be filled based on the locale information of the CRM user who sent the invite. The exceptions are the country and language details, which will be based on the portal user's browser information. They will then be redirected to the module page that they have been given access to.

To send an invitation
  1. Go to a module (Leads, Contacts, Custom module) and select a record.
  2. In the Record Detail page, click the More icon, and click Send Portal Invitation.

  3. Select the portal user group.

  4. Choose the template language to be used for the invitation email.
  5. Click Invite.

Invite users in bulk to a user group
You can send bulk invitations to leads, contacts, or others from the module for which a portal is created. For example, if you create a portal for the leads module, you can invite your leads to access the portal. Bulk invitations can be sent to users who are not invited to any portal yet and have a valid email address.

To send bulk invitation to users
  1. Navigate to Setup > Channels > Portal.
  2. Click on a portal and go to the Users tab.
  3. Click Invite users.

  4. Select the users from the list displayed and click Send Invitation.

  5. Choose the template language and click Send invitation.
Once sent, the Portal actions status dialog box shows you the number of users who have received and not received the invitation. You can check the reason for the failed delivery of the invitation by clicking on View failed invitees.

Note
  1. The invitation email will be valid for 7 days only.
  2. A portal user cannot be assigned as the record owner even if they create a record.
    For example: Russell Brown is a CRM user who invites Sage Weiser to access the portal with the permission to create contacts and deals. When Sage creates a contact through the portal, it will be added to the CRM database and Russell Brown will be the owner of the new contact.


View reasons for portal invitation failure
There are several reasons for a failure in sending portal invitation to the users. Once the invitation is sent, a message will pop in your CRM account showing the number of successful or failed invitations.

By clicking on the View failed invitees, one can see the users who failed to receive an invitation and the reason for the same. 


There can be following reasons for a failed invitation:
  1. Record is waiting for approval - If the record is awaiting approval from any approval process, then the invitation will not be sent as the record will be locked during this period.
  2. Record is waiting for review - If the record is part of the review process, then a portal invitation will not be sent to the record.
  3. Record does not have consent - If a user has enabled consent as part of the GDPR process, then portal invitation will not be sent.
  4. Email address has unsupported characters - Uppercase and lowercase letters in English (A-Z, a-z), Digits from 0 to 9 and special characters such as @. - _ + are supported in the email address. If the email address is not in the above format, the portal invitation will fail.
  5. Email address is anonymous - If the specific email domain is spammed, then you cannot send an invitation.
  6. Reached the maximum limit of user licenses for the portal - If the org has reached the maximum number of users that can be invited for a portal.
  7. Portal user already exists - If the user is already part of a portal user group, then you cannot send another invitation.
  8. No record exists - If a record is already deleted from CRM and due to any reason if an invitation is sent to the record, it will be declined.
  9. You don't have the permission for the module - If the CRM user doesn't have the permission for a module he is sending, then the invitation will be declined.
  10. You don't have the permission for the record - If the CRM admin doesn't have the permission for a particular module, then they will be restricted from sending invitations from that module.
  11. Record is in the recycle bin - If the record of the user to whom the invitation is sent is moved to the recycle bin due to any reason, then the portal invitation will not be sent.

Edit invitation preference
You can edit the invitation preference only when no users or portal forms have been added to the user group.

To edit invitation preference
  1. Navigate to Setup > Channels > Portals.
  2. Select a user group.
  3. On the top-right corner, click the edit icon near Sent to: [Invitation Preference].

  4. Make the changes and click Finish.

 

    Customize portal invitation templates 

    Email Templates
    SMS Templates
    Email Templates
    The following customization options are available for the templates:
    1. Customize templates specific to a language: Admins can edit and save templates in different languages.

      While inviting users, admins will be prompted to select the language for the invitation email. The template saved for that language will be used to send the email.

    2. Set default from and to addresses: You can set a default email address for sending invitation emails—e.g., zylker@portal-support.com (From)—and select an email address to redirect the reply emails—e.g., pattrick-jones@portal-support.com (To).

    1. Use customized email subject, or merge fields.
    2. Use merge fields in the email body: You can insert merge fields into the body of an email to fetch the exact field values.
    3. Format email text: All the basic text customization options, like font, size, style, color, background, alignment, etc., are available in the template customization window. You can also add images or hyperlinks in the email body.
    4. Set a button or link for accepting invitations: You can either provide a button or a link to accept the invitation.
    Note:
    1. Changing the language while sending an invitation email will automatically translate only the default system provided content of the email. The customized contents need to be translated for the particular language.
    2. You can remove the portal link. However, doing so will result in an error while saving the template. You can retrieve the original link and the content by clicking the reset to default link.
    3. In the Confirm Email Address template, the Confirm Email button will be available instead of the Accept Invite button.

    To customize templates for invitation and confirm email address emails 
    1. Navigate to Setup > Channels > Portals.
    2. Select the portal user group from the list of options.
    3. Click the Settings tab.
    4. Click the Email templates button.
    5. Customize the Accept Invitation, Confirm Email Address, or any other email templates.

    SMS Templates
    This option is currently supported for companies registered in India. See the points to remember section below for more details.
    The following customization options are available for SMS templates:
    1. You can set the template for three kinds of SMS messages: Portal invitation SMS messages, Verification SMS messages, and Forgot password SMS messages.
    2. You can insert merge fields into the body of an SMS message to fetch the exact field values.
    Points to remember
    1. Ensure that you have sufficient credits for the sending of SMS messages.
    2. You need to append the term "- Company name" in each template and copy the content to get DLT approval. To learn more about template guidelines, see Template guidelines.
    3. Templates need to be DLT-approved before they can be used.
    4. Ensure that the CTA in your template is whitelisted. Based on your CRM's DC, you'll need to whitelist one of the following domains:
      1. in.zcrm.to - IN
      2. ca.zcrm.to - CA
      3. us.zcrm.to - US
      4. eu.zcrm.to - EU
      5. au.zcrm.to - AU
      6. cn.zcrm.to - CN
      7. jp.zcrm.to - JP
    5. Read more about it here: Important TRAI mandate on URL whitelisting for Indian CRM customers.
    6. If you modify a template, the previously approved template will still be used until the modified template is approved. Once the modified template is approved, the previous template will be deleted automatically.
    7. In case you change the phone number of the user in the CRM, the user will be re-invited to the portal via the new phone number.
    1. SMS templates are NOT specific to individual portal user groups. Changes to templates will be reflected in SMS for all portal user groups with invitation preference set as Phone.
    2. For portal user groups with invitation preference set as Phone, you can invite portal users only when all the templates are approved. Until then, those portal user groups will be disabled.

    To customize the SMS templates for a portal
    1. Navigate to Setup > Channels > Portals.
    2. Select the portal user group.
    3. Navigate to the Settings tab.
    4. Under SMS Templates, hover the cursor on the required template and click the edit icon against it to modify.
    5. Click Save.

    6. Copy the template content and submit it for DLT approval.

      For guidelines related to sender ID, see: Sender ID requirements.
      For guidelines on the content, please see: Template guidelines.
      For guidelines on whitelisting CTA, please see: URL Whitelisting for Indian customers.

    7. Once the template content has been DLT approved, click Submit DLT Files.If you closed the Customise SMS Templates popup, repeat steps 1, 2, and 3 to access it.
    8. In the Submit DLT Files popup, click Upload file and select the DLT file.
    9. Click Next.
    10. In the CRM Template Mapping popup, map the DLT approved templates with the CRM templates.
    11. Click Save. Zoho will verify these templates.
    12. After verification, you'll see a notification saying the same. After you've enabled the portal user group, you can start inviting your portal users.


    User Management Actions

    Update a portal user's email address or phone number
    You can update an existing portal user's email address or phone number from the record details page. Please note that we are referring to the field that is used to send portal invitations. Upon updating, you will be prompted with the message that the portal access of the user will be changed.

    To update email address or phone number:
    1. Go to the record detail page in the specific module (Contacts, Leads, Vendors, etc.)
    2. Update the email address or phone number associated with the record.
    3. On the pop-up asking for portal access change, click Yes, proceed.
    Notes
    Note:
    1. If the email address is changed for a confirmed user, a new email will be updated and status will be changed as yet to confirm. A confirmation email will be sent.
    2. If the phone number is changed for a confirmed user, they will be able to login only with the new number.
    3. Upon clicking the Confirm Email button in the email, existing portal users can access their existing portals seamlessly without having to go through setting password again.
    4. If we change the email address for unconfirmed user, new email will be updated and the status remains the same as yet to confirm.
    5. In the case of deactivated users, if we change their email addresses, an email to confirm their email address will be sent when the user gets activated. Upon confirming they can continue having access to their existing portal account.

    Remove portal users
    You can remove users from a portal. Their portal access will be revoked. You can re-invite them, as and when needed.

    To remove users from a portal user group
    1. Click the portal user group.
    2. Navigate to the Users tab.
    3. Filter users using their status or search by their name.
    4. Select the users you want to remove and click Remove Users.

    5. In the confirmation pop-up, click Remove Users again



    Transfer portal users to another portal user group
    There may be occasions when you have to move a user from one portal user group to another. For example, you have created two different portals for customers interested in Product A and Product B. If the customer is no longer interested in buying Product A and wants to buy Product B instead, you can easily move them to the Product B portal user group. You can transfer users from one portal user group to another from any of the following places:
    • Record Detail Page - You can change the portal user group from the record's detail page.

    • Portal Users List - If you want to transfer multiple portal users to another portal user group at once, you can do so from the Portal Users List popup in the Portal Configuration page.
    • During conversion - In Zoho CRM, you can convert qualified leads to contacts either manually or automatically using the workflow rules. If you have created one portal user group for leads and two user groups for contacts and added your CRM leads and contacts to the appropriate portals, you will be prompted to choose one of the contacts portal user groups when you convert the leads to contacts in your CRM.

      For example, you have four leads, A, B, C, and D, in the Leads portal user group, and Contacts 1 and Contacts 2 as two portal user groups in the Contacts modules. When you convert leads A, B, C, and D into contacts in CRM, you will be prompted to choose the Contacts portal user group (Contacts 1 or Contacts 2) to transfer the leads to.


    Notes
    Note: You can transfer the portal user group for a user to another one that has the same invitation preference.
    Filter and perform bulk actions from the Users tab
    In the Users tab, you can filter the users as per their status and perform relevant bulk actions.


    The list of filters and the actions that can be performed are:
    1. All Users: All users invited and who have signed up to the portal, including deactivated users, are listed here.

      Here, you can remove users from the user group. 

    2. Active Users: These users have accepted the sent invitation or signed into the portal user group via portal forms and are currently able to access the portal. 

      You can deactivate, remove users from the user group, or change their Actions status.

    3. Confirmed Users: These users have accepted the sent invitation or signed into the portal user group via portal forms. This category includes all active users as well as deactivated users who previously had access to the portal. If a confirmed user updates their email address, they will be moved to the Unconfirmed and Deactivated stages. A mail will be sent to confirm their email update, and upon confirmation, the user will be transitioned to the Confirmed and Active stages.

      You can remove users from the portal user group, transfer users to another user group of the same module using the Change User Group button, or change their Actions status
    4. Unconfirmed Users: These users have either not accepted the sent invitation or not confirmed their update email address. If an unconfirmed user updates their email address, they will remain unconfirmed.


      1. Invitation not yet accepted: These users have not accepted the invitation to the portal. Accept Invitation email will be sent upon performing the mass reinvite action.
      2. Login Suspended: Portal users who did not confirm their updated email addresses after they were updated in CRM. These users should confirm their updated email addresses.

    5. Deactivated Users: These users are those whose portal accesses were terminated from the organization. You can activate access, change the portal user group, or remove users.
    6. Users Awaiting Portal Access: These users have signed up using portal forms but haven't accessed the Portal user group yet. This happens when the Portal portal form access limit is reached. Once the admin has purchased sufficient licenses to admit them into the user group, they can grant access to the awaiting users.



     

    User Activity & CRM Visibility

    Users with portal access can create, edit, delete notes, attach files, or delete attachments to the notes as part of portal activity. However, they cannot add, view, edit, or delete attachments as a separate related list to the record shared via portals.
    View information added by the portal users in CRM
    Records, notes or values added by a portal user can be viewed in Feeds or right inside the CRM module.

    For example, Russel is a CRM user who invited Sage to access the Contacts module portal with the permission to create contacts and deals. Since Sage was invited by Russel, whenever Sage creates a new contact in the portal, and saves the record, Russel can view it inside the Contacts module in his CRM account and by default becomes the record owner.



    Notifications on every update will be received in Feeds. For example, if a note is added to a record you will get notified via Feeds. You can also reply to the note from the feeds. 

    Remember to add the module that you have given access to the portal user in Feed preference, only then you will receive a notification. 
    (Type Feeds in the top panel where the modules are listed. Click Feeds > Feeds Preferences > Check the modules > Click Save.)



    Delete/Deactivate a portal user group

    Delete a user group
    There may be instances when you want to remove a particular portal user group. In that case, you will first have to transfer the users to another portal user group and then delete the portal user group. You can only transfer the users to another portal user group if you want to delete their original portal user group. If you have not associated any user to a portal user group, you can delete it as it is.

    To delete and transfer a portal user group
    1. Go to Setup > Channels > Portals.
    2. Select a portal user group, hover over it, then click the Delete icon.
    3. If there exist users in the user group and another user group of the same module, then to transfer the portal users, choose a portal user group from the drop-down list and click Transfer and Delete.
    4. If there are no users in a user group, you can directly delete it by clicking Yes, Proceed.

    Notes
    Note
    Notes
    1. The Client Portal user group, which comes with the Contacts module by default, cannot be deleted.
    2. If there exist users in the user group and no other user group of the same module, you will not be able to delete a portal user group.

    3. If you want to rename a portal user group, click the Edit option in the Portal Configuration page.
    4. You can deactivate users who are added to a portal if you don't want them to be a part of it anymore. You can add another user instead, as deactivated users won't count towards your user license.
    Deactivate a user group
    You can deactivate a portal user whenever you need to.

    To deactivate a portal user
    1. Select a portal user group and click Users.
    2. In the Users tab, filter the confirmed users
    3. Turn the Actions toggle of the user off 

    Managing Data Privacy of Portal Users

    Data processing basis
    As a Data Controller, to be GDPR compliant you need to process data based on one of the lawful bases. Based on your business requirement and discretion, you can choose a processing basis from the following bases: legitimate interests, contract, legal obligation, vital interests, public interests, and consent. If consent is the lawful basis used to process data, Zoho CRM provides an option to allow portal users to access the details you store about them and provide consent to process their personal data.

    You must consider the below points when setting data privacy for the portal users:

    • The data privacy tab will be displayed for a record only if the compliance settings are turned on.
    • The portal user can view the data processing basis in their account only if the data processing basis is Consent.
    • The portal user can also update the consent details of the leads or contacts that they have added.
    • The portal user can update their consent details from within the portal.


    Data subject rights
    Under GDPR, the portal users have certain rights regarding their personal information. They can manually add a request from the data privacy section in the portal for the following rights:
    • Right to delete
    • Right to stop processing
    • Right to export
    • Right to rectify

    They can also add requests in the portal on behalf of the contacts or leads that they add to the portal. See Also Data Subject Rights


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