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Sharing the run of show with your client

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Sharing the run of show with your client

Your crew have had a live link to the run of show since day one. Your client can have exactly the same thing: a private link into their own event that shows the timeline as it stands right now, updates while they are looking at it, and needs no login and no password. It turns "can you send me the latest timeline?" into a page they can check themselves, and it is one click to hand over while the quote is still out.

This article covers what the client's link is, giving one from the lead, the button that appears on their quote or confirmation, what they see when they open it, what it counts toward, and how to take it back.

What the client's link actually is

There is no separate client login to set up. A client with portal access is two things you already have: a contact set as the event's Client, and a share link to that event issued to them. That is the whole mechanism. The link is a long, unguessable URL (the /v/ shape your crew get), and holding it is the access.

Two things it deliberately is not:

  • It does not give the client a job on the event. Nothing is assigned to them, and nobody is emailed at the moment you grant it. What it does do is worth knowing: 1pm treats anybody holding a link to an event as crew on that event, so the client picks up a row in the event's Share panel (which is how you resend or revoke it) and will appear on that event's Crew report. If you print a crew list for the kitchen, they are on it.
  • It is not a setting you switch on. There is no "client portal" toggle anywhere. Either a live link exists for that person or it does not, which means nothing can ever claim to be on while pointing at a link that was never issued.

The one prerequisite is that the event has somebody set as its Client. Converting a lead does that for you, and a lead linked to an existing contact carries that contact straight through.

One click from the lead

The moment you most want to show a client the timeline is usually before they have paid you anything. Showing a prospect how their day is going to run is part of the pitch, so it lives on the lead rather than being something you configure after the deal is done.

In the Leads inbox, open the ⋯ menu at the end of a lead's row and choose Add [their name] to portal, the item with the globe. It appears only when there is something to give: the lead has a booking, that booking has a Client contact, and no link has been issued yet.

Two things worth knowing about that click:

  • Nothing is emailed. Issuing the link and sending it are separate acts, so you decide when and how the client hears about it. The three ways to get it to them are below.
  • Once the link exists, a globe appears beside the contact's name on the lead row. Click it and you open exactly what the client sees, in a new tab, which is the quickest way to sanity-check a portal before you point somebody at it. The menu item is gone at that point, because there is nothing left to grant.

Getting the link to them

  • On their quote or confirmation. The client opens the document you already sent and finds a button into their event. Covered in the next section, and for most bookings this is the only delivery you need.
  • In an automation email. The [portal link] field drops the client's link into any automated email you send them, so a "one week to go" note can carry the timeline with it. See automations.
  • From the event's Share panel. The client's row sits alongside your crew, with the same Copy link and Email link controls. Use this when you want to send it deliberately, or resend it to somebody who has lost it. See sharing the live link and resending a crew link.

All three hand over the same single link. Granting from the lead and letting an automation do it later will not leave a client holding two different URLs.

The button on their quote or confirmation

When a client with a link opens their quote, invoice or confirmation, a second button appears next to Download PDF reading Open your run of show, in whatever you call the run of show on your account. It opens in a new tab on purpose: a client part way through signing or paying should not have the document pulled out from under them. It is never printed and it never appears on the PDF.

It shows only when both of these are true:

  • The client holds a live link to the event the document is about.
  • The document is addressed to that person: either it is billed to the event's Client contact, or the bill-to email matches theirs exactly.

That second rule is the important one, and it is there because a share link is a credential. Quotes get forwarded far more freely than people forward their own working pages: to a partner, to a parent paying for the day, to an accounts inbox. If 1pm cannot prove the person reading the document is the person the link belongs to, it shows no button rather than putting a live link in front of whoever the document was passed to. For the same reason, proposals never carry it: a proposal has no bill-to, so there is nothing to check the reader against.

What the client sees

The same page your crew see, in your branding:

  • The event header: name, date, status, Space, and pax where you have set them.
  • A countdown to the next item.
  • The full timeline, in order, with the detail written on each item. The All / Mine toggle only appears for somebody with items assigned to them, and a client usually has none, so they see the whole run sheet.
  • Event Notes, any files you have attached to the event, and any invoices billed to them, which quietly makes the page their statement as well as their timeline.

It is read-only. A client can look, print, and mark nothing. Your edits reach an open page within seconds, so a timing change made in the office lands on the client's screen without you sending anything.

One glance is worth taking before you hand the link over. Event Notes and event attachments are seen by everyone with a link, client included. Internal notes are not: that box stays planner-only, which is exactly where the supplier margins and the "watch the father of the bride" line belong. See event notes.

What it counts toward

A client holding a live link to an active event counts as an active crew instance on your account, the same as a crew member does. It is honest about what is happening: they really do hold a working link. If you are near your allowance, revoking a link you no longer need frees it up in the same way. See your crew allowance and account usage.

Taking access back

Open the event, expand the Share panel, and revoke the client's link. Their URL stops working immediately and shows a "link not active" message, and the button on their quote and confirmation disappears with it, since that button is only ever a reflection of a live link.

A revoked link cannot be un-revoked. Issue a new one and send it, which is the safer behaviour if a link has gone somewhere you did not intend.

Two things called a portal

The word does double duty in 1pm, and it is worth separating them once:

  • This is the live event surface, the page a client or crew member opens on their link. The globe icon marks it wherever it appears.
  • A Portal is a record type for gathering documents from a group with no event attached, used for onboarding and compliance. That is a different thing entirely, covered in Portals.

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