Client Portal

Client Onboarding: Let Clients Fill In Their Own Details

Typing out a new client's name, address, mobile and their dog's breed and birthday is the boring part of the job. Onboarding hands it to the client instead — you send a link, they fill in the gaps from their own phone, and you simply approve what comes back.

Nothing changes until you say so. Whatever a client types lands in a holding area, not on their record. You see their answers side by side with what you've already got, and only the boxes you tick get saved. Their record stays exactly as it was until you approve a single field.

How the loop works

Onboarding is a three-step round trip, and it's worth picturing the whole thing before you start:

You send — you pick whose details you'd like filled in (the client, their pets, or both) and send them a message with a personal link to their portal.
They fill in — the client opens the link on their phone, sees a short to-do list, and fills in the forms in their own time.
You review — their answers come back as a proposed set of changes. You compare them against what you already have, tick the ones you want, and approve.

That last step is the important bit. Onboarding never edits a record behind your back — it just saves you the typing and lets you be the final word.

Sending the request

Every client has an Onboarding button on their record. That opens the onboarding page, where a Start Onboarding button gets things going.

Choose what to include

A window opens listing Client Details and every pet on file, each with a switch. They all start switched on, so by default you're asking for everything. Switch off anything you don't need filled in — perhaps you only want one dog's details updating, not the client's address.
Write the message

Below the switches is the same compose box you'll know from elsewhere in Woofle, pre-written from your onboarding template. It includes the client's personal portal link, so they can tap straight through. Read it over, tweak the wording if you like, and you're set.
Press Start Onboarding

This does two things in one go: it opens up the forms on the client's portal, and it sends them the message. From this moment the client can fill things in, and the request shows on the onboarding page as awaiting their reply.

If you'd rather not send a text right now — say the client is standing in front of you, or you'll email the link yourself — the onboarding page also has Copy Link and Client Portal buttons so you can grab or open the portal link directly.

What the client sees

When the client opens their link, their portal home page shows a tidy to-do list of what you've asked for — their own details, and a form for each pet you included. They tap through, fill in the boxes, and confirm.

The forms come pre-filled with whatever you already hold, so the client is correcting and topping up rather than starting from a blank page. For themselves that's the usual contact details — name, phone, address, an alternative contact, their vet. For each dog it's the things that change or get missed at sign-up: date of birth, breed, colour, whether they're neutered, whether they're vaccinated, and any medical notes.

Before each form is submitted, the portal asks the client to confirm — a gentle "are you sure?" so nothing goes off half-finished. Once a form is in, it shows as done and can't be re-edited, which keeps their answers settled while you review them.

They can take their time. The client doesn't have to do it all in one sitting, and you don't have to wait by the screen. Each part they finish quietly appears on your side, ready whenever you next look.

Reviewing and approving

You'll know there's something to look at in a few places: an Onboarding pending badge appears next to the client in your client list, a note shows on their record, and the whole pile of outstanding submissions gathers on your dashboard so nothing slips through.

Open the onboarding page and you'll see a section for each thing you asked for. A part that's still awaiting the client simply says so. A part they've submitted shows a neat review table with a row per field and two columns side by side:

Current — what's on the record right now.
Submitted — what the client just told you.

Rows where the client's answer differs from what you hold are highlighted, so your eye goes straight to the real changes. Each row has a tick box. Tick the answers you want to keep — or use the tick box in the table header to select the whole lot at once — then press Accept. Only the rows you ticked are written onto the record; anything left unticked is ignored, and the old value stays put.

This field-by-field control is the point of the whole thing. If a client has updated their mobile but mistyped their postcode, you take the mobile and leave the postcode. You're never forced to accept an entire form to get the one detail you wanted.

Turning a request down

Not every submission needs keeping. Next to Accept is a Dismiss button, which clears a submission away without changing anything on the record — handy if the client filled it in by mistake or you've already sorted the details another way.

And if you've sent a request the client hasn't answered yet and you've changed your mind, the awaiting section has a small Cancel link. That switches the forms back off on their portal, so they're no longer asked for details you no longer need.

Once you've accepted or dismissed a part, it's done — the holding area is emptied and that section drops off the page. When every part is cleared, the client is fully onboarded and the pending badge disappears.

When to reach for it

Onboarding earns its keep most with brand-new clients — book the first appointment, fire off the link, and let them fill in the detail while you get on with your day. It's just as handy for a spring-clean of your existing list: send a few regulars a request and ask them to check their number and their dog's details are still right. Either way the typing is theirs, the final say is yours, and your records get more accurate without you touching a keyboard.

Want to see how the portal link and the message itself work? Those have their own write-ups over on the guides index.