Client portal
Client portal for freelancers: your task board, shared with clients
TaskOH is project management software with a client portal built in: a client portal for freelancers and small software teams that is not a separate app. Your client opens the same project you work in, sees only the tasks you share, submits new requests, approves estimates and signs off deliveries. The portal and approvals start on Solo at $1.99 per workspace per month, not per user. The Free plan has no client access.
What your client can do in the portal
A client portal is useful when it replaces the email thread, not when it adds one more place to check. TaskOH gives the client a short list of things to do and keeps each one on a task.
- Submit a request. A title is enough to start; the client can add a description and attach files. The request lands in your Inbox as a task of type Request, and your team gets a notification. You can switch client requests off per project.
- See what is waiting on them. The portal home lists open decisions under “Waiting on you”, followed by every task shared with the client, its status and due date.
- Answer an estimate. When extra work needs a decision, you send an estimate with a fee, hours or both. The client approves or rejects it on the task.
- Sign off a delivery. When the work is ready, you request delivery approval. The client approves it or requests changes, with a comment that says what to fix.
- Comment and add files. Feedback stays on the task it belongs to, next to the decision it affects.
Clients sign in with an emailed link that works once and expires after 15 minutes, so they do not need to remember another password. They can set one if they prefer. The two decisions, estimate and delivery, are explained step by step in the client approval workflow guide.
What clients see and what stays internal
Sharing your whole board with a client is how internal notes and half-finished estimates end up in front of them. In TaskOH, the default is internal, and you share on purpose.
| Item | What the client sees |
|---|---|
| Projects | Only the projects they are invited to. |
| Tasks your team creates | Nothing until you mark the task visible to clients. You can hide it again later. |
| Client requests | Visible to the clients in that project from the start. |
| Tasks with an estimate or approval request | Shared automatically when you send the request. |
| Comments | Shared messages only. Each message can be an internal note, and what your team wrote on a task before sharing it stays internal. |
| Planned hours and fee | Shown on shared tasks unless you switch off “Show hours and fee to client” for that task. |
| Billing, team settings, other clients’ projects | Never. |
Visibility is set per task, not per person. Every client invited to a project sees the same shared tasks, so give clients who should not see each other’s work separate projects.
A Kanban board with client access
Your team works on a Kanban board or a list with six fixed statuses: Inbox, Planned, In progress, In review, Needs client and Done. Two of them exist for client work. In review holds finished work that is being checked, and Needs client is where a task goes when the next step is the client’s. Sending an estimate or a delivery approval request moves the task to Needs client for you.
The client sees the shared tasks and their status, so “where are we?” gets answered without a status email. Internal tasks such as refactoring, deployment chores or bugs you have not triaged yet stay on your side of the board.
TaskOH vs a guest seat in a PM tool vs an all-in-one client suite
Freelancers usually choose between three setups. This comparison is by category; check the specific tool’s current plans before you decide. For a Trello-specific comparison, read sharing a Trello board with a client.
| TaskOH (Solo and up) | Guest seat in a PM tool | All-in-one client suite | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Built for | Client requests, scope, estimates and sign-off | Internal team planning | Running a service business end to end |
| Pricing model | Per workspace: $1.99, $3.99 or $9.99 a month. Clients count toward the per-project member limit | Usually per user; guest rules vary by tool and plan | Monthly, flat or per user; the portal is not always in the entry tier |
| What the client sees | Only the tasks you share | Usually everything on the boards they join | The portal pages you set up |
| Client requests | Built-in request form into Inbox | Varies: forms, email-in or add-ons | Usually forms or a request inbox |
| Estimate approval | On the task: approve or reject | Rarely built in | Usually through proposals or quotes |
| Delivery sign-off | On the task: approve or request changes | In some tools, often on higher tiers | Varies: proofing, forms or e-signature |
| Invoicing and payments | No | No | Yes, usually the core of the product |
| White-label portal | No | Generally no | Often available |
| AI assistant access | MCP server and REST API on every plan | APIs are common; MCP servers are spreading | Varies |
Pick a guest seat when the client is really a collaborator who should edit your board. Pick an all-in-one suite when you want proposals, contracts and invoices in one product and will pay for that. Pick TaskOH when you already invoice elsewhere and need a client-safe board with requests, estimates and sign-off at a small fixed price.
Set up your client portal in TaskOH
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Create a workspace and a project
Registration creates a Free workspace without a credit card. Create one project per client or engagement.
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Upgrade the workspace to Solo or higher
Client invitations, the portal and both approval workflows are included in Solo, Pro and Business. Choose the plan in Billing inside the app.
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Invite your client
Add the client to the project by email. Someone without an account receives an invitation with a sign-in link that is valid for three days.
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Decide what to share
Mark the tasks the client should follow as visible to clients. Keep the rest internal. Check “Clients can submit requests” in the project settings.
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Send the first decision
Mark extra work as out of scope, record hours and a fee, and send an estimate. Use the change request and out-of-scope email templates to explain why it is extra.
Member limits apply per project and include clients: 3 on Free and Solo, 10 on Pro and unlimited on Business. Solo also keeps the Free limit of 2 projects; Pro has 10. Compare plans and limits.
What TaskOH does not do
TaskOH is the client-facing layer for your delivery work, not an all-in-one business suite. It has no invoicing, payment collection, proposals, contracts or e-signature, no time tracking (it records planned hours), no white-label or custom domain, and no Gantt charts or sprints. Most freelancers who choose it keep their invoicing tool and use TaskOH for the work between the contract and the invoice.
If your clients send briefs as Word documents, AI task import turns a .docx into draft tasks you review before they reach the board.
Client portal FAQ
What is a client portal?
A client portal is a private, signed-in space where a client can see the work you share with them, send requests and make decisions without email back-and-forth. In TaskOH the portal is the shared part of your project: requests, task status, comments, estimates and delivery approvals.
Do clients need an account or a password?
Clients get an account when you invite them, but they do not need a password. They sign in with a link sent to their email address and can set a password later if they want one.
Can I control what each client sees?
Yes, by project and by task. A client sees only the projects they are invited to, and within a project only the tasks marked visible to clients. Internal notes stay with your team, and you can hide hours and fees per task. All clients in one project see the same shared tasks.
Is the client portal free?
No. The Free plan covers two projects for you and your team, with no client access. The client portal and estimate and delivery approvals start on Solo at $1.99 per workspace per month. Pro is $3.99 and Business $9.99, all billed monthly in USD.
Does TaskOH do invoicing?
No. TaskOH records scope, planned hours, fees and the client’s approval on each task. The Billable hours report totals completed billable tasks by client and month and exports CSV, so you can bill from the invoicing tool you already use.
Can I white-label the portal or use my own domain?
No. The portal runs on app.taskoh.app under the TaskOH name. If a branded portal on your own domain is a requirement, an all-in-one client suite is a better fit.
Can my AI assistant work with portal tasks?
Yes. Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Cursor or a ChatGPT Custom GPT can search, create and update tasks with your permissions through the TaskOH MCP server and API, on every plan and without AI credits.