What the portal is
The client portal is a simple, mobile-friendly page that lives at its own web address, separate from the system you work in. There's nothing for your client to install. They tap their link, and they're in — straight to a page that already knows who they are and which pets are theirs.
It's the gentle, self-service side of Woofle. Rather than ringing you to ask when their next groom is, or you chasing them for a new phone number, a lot of that back-and-forth can happen quietly through the portal instead.
What your clients can see
When a client opens their portal, the home page brings together everything relevant to them:
- A welcome message — your own greeting and a short introduction at the top, in your words.
- Things to do — any outstanding jobs you've asked of them, such as confirming their own contact details, completing a pet's profile, or approving a document. Once they've submitted something, it's marked as done.
- Upcoming appointments — what's booked in, so they always know when their dog is due.
- Their documents — anything you've shared with them, ready to read and, where needed, approve.
- Their pets — each dog has its own page with details, past appointments, and photos.
- How to find you — your address, an "Open in Google Maps" link, and any parking or arrival notes you'd like to add.
Each pet's page is worth a special mention. Alongside the dog's details and grooming history, it shows a photo gallery — the before-and-after shots and snaps from recent visits that you've chosen to share. It's a lovely touch that clients genuinely enjoy. Only photos you've marked to show on the portal appear here; anything you keep for your own records stays private to you.
That's the full picture — but you don't have to show all of it. The appointments, pets, and photo sections can each be switched off, so you can shape the portal around how you want to use it. More on that in Choosing what to show below.
How clients reach their portal
The way in is the client's personal link. Every client has their own, containing a unique, unguessable code — so two clients never share a link, and nobody can stumble onto someone else's portal.
You can hand this link over in a few ways:
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Text it to them
The tidiest option. In your message templates you can drop in the [PortalLink] token, and Woofle swaps it for that client's personal link when the text goes out. An onboarding request — "please pop in your details" — is the classic example, but you can include it in any message where it makes sense.
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Copy it from their record
Open a client's page and use Copy Link to grab their personal link, then paste it wherever you like — an email, a chat message, anywhere.
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Open it yourself to take a look
The Client Portal button on a client's page opens their portal in a new tab, exactly as they'd see it. Handy for checking everything looks right before you send the link on.
If a client ever feels their link has gone astray — forwarded to the wrong person, say — you can regenerate it from their record, and the client can do the same from the "Your Personal Link" page inside their own portal. Either way, a fresh link is created and the old one stops working straight away.
Making it look like yours
The portal carries your branding so it feels like a natural extension of your salon, not a generic system. You set this up in two places, and it applies to every client's portal at once.
Your name and logo
Your business name and logo come from your Settings page — the same name and logo that appear on your documents. Add them once (you'll find a Logo section and a Business Name field there) and your logo shows at the top of every client's portal. If you haven't added a logo yet, your business name simply sits at the top on its own until you do.
The Client Portal page
Everything else lives on the Client Portal page in your settings, split into four simple sections:
- Introduction — a salutation (the greeting at the top, such as "Welcome, [ClientFirstName]!") and a short introduction message beneath it. These can use tokens like [ClientFirstName] and [BusinessName], which Woofle fills in with the real names for each client.
- Directions — your address, postcode, and any free-text notes. Fill these in and the portal shows a "Find Us" section with a map link; leave them blank and it simply doesn't appear.
- Colours — pick an accent colour from the swatches. That colour threads through the portal's buttons and highlights, so it matches your brand.
- Features — switches for hiding parts of the portal you'd rather not show your clients. There's a section on these just below.
You only need to do this once. From then on, every client's portal — existing and new — picks up your wording, colours, name, and logo automatically.
Choosing what to show
The portal works beautifully showing everything, but you decide how much of it your clients see. In the Features section of the Client Portal page you'll find three switches, all off to begin with:
- Hide Pets — turns off the "Your Pets" section, so clients no longer see their pets' pages, details, or histories.
- Hide Photos — keeps the photo gallery off the pet pages, even for photos you'd otherwise share.
- Hide Appointments — removes the upcoming appointments from the home page and the grooming history from each pet's page.
Flick one on and that part simply disappears from every client's portal; flick it back off and it returns. There's nothing to lose — you're only changing what's shown, never the underlying records.
It's worth knowing what happens if you turn on all three. The portal then becomes a focused onboarding and document-approval tool: clients still confirm their own details, complete their pets' profiles, work through their things to do, and read and approve the documents you share — but without the appointment, pet, and photo sections. It's the same private, branded page, pared back to just the jobs you need your clients to do.
A note on what stays private
A client's portal only ever shows their information — their pets, their appointments, their documents. There's no way to see another client's details, and the unique code in each link is what keeps it that way. Internal notes and any photos you haven't chosen to share never appear. The portal is a window onto a client's own world with you, and nothing more.
Getting started
It's a quick set-up for a feature your clients will notice. Pop your logo on the Settings page, write a warm welcome and add your directions on the Client Portal page, choose your colour — then start sharing links. The easiest first step is to add [PortalLink] to your onboarding message, so the next time you ask a client to confirm their details, the way in is built right into the text.
Want to see how the portal ties in with onboarding, documents, and photos? There's a guide for each on the guides index.