Client chat

What it is

Chat → Clients is external messaging with your clients through the client portal. It is a separate screen from team chat, marked with an amber "External" badge, so internal and client conversations are never mixed up. Everything written here is visible to the client contacts in that conversation.

Who can use it

• Staff who can work with activities can use Chat → Clients.
• Firm admins can open every client conversation. Other staff see conversations they are a member of or that belong to a client they are assigned to.
• Clients use Messages in the client portal.

Start a conversation

• Open Chat and click the Clients button at the top of the Conversations list, or go to Chat → Clients directly. A "Team chat" button takes you back.
• Click the + button ("New client conversation").
• Choose a direct conversation with one client contact, or a client group. Search contacts by name, email or client.
• For a group enter a Group title, for example "Client name - ITR FY26", and pick the client contacts and the assigned staff. You are added automatically.
• Contacts marked "No portal login" cannot read messages until a portal login is set up for them.

Writing messages

• A banner reminds you: "External - visible to the client." Keep internal notes in team chat.
• The box reads "Message <name> (the client will see this)…" and the send button says "Send to client".
• You can reply, open threads, react, attach files (up to 5 per message, 10 MB each), and mention teammates.
• Staff can delete messages in a client conversation; clients can delete their own.
• The list can be filtered with "Filter by client or person…", and groups are shown under their client.

What the client sees

• Clients see only conversations they belong to: their direct conversation with your firm and any client groups they were added to.
• They never see other conversations of the same company, other clients, internal team chat or internal notes.
• A client added to a group later sees only messages from the time they joined, not earlier history.
• In a group, clients see who else is in it.
• If a conversation is not theirs, it simply is not found. Removing someone ends their access.

Notifications

• Staff on a conversation get an in-app notification when a client writes.
• Clients with an email on file get a "new message" email with a portal link. To avoid a flood, they get one email per burst of messages rather than one per message.
• Mentioned teammates get a notification that they were mentioned in a client conversation.

Managing members

Open the members window (People in this conversation / Group members) to rename a group, add client contacts or staff, and remove people.