Customer Portal & Support

SurelyCrm includes a self-service customer portal and a full support ticketing system. Give customers visibility into their records while keeping internal conversations organised and accountable.

Customer Portal

The Customer Portal is a branded, secure area where customers can view their own data and interact with your team. Each customer has a unique portal URL:

https://app.surelycrm.co.uk/portal/{customer-id}

Portal Features

• Profile Overview — View contact details, balances, plans, and status
• Payments — Pay an outstanding balance online or by bank transfer
• Automatic Payments — Set up a recurring payment subscription (if enabled)
• Invoices — View and download issued invoices and pay any outstanding balance (if enabled)
• Forms — Complete forms assigned by your team
• Document Access — Download uploaded documents (if enabled)
• Notification Preferences — Opt in or out of marketing communications
• Support Messaging — Create and reply to support requests

Paying a Balance Online

When Customer Payments is enabled, the customer has an outstanding balance, and the tenant has at least one active online payment provider or active bank account enabled for customer transfers, the portal home page shows a payment alert with a Pay Now button. Customers can also go directly to the payment page at:

https://app.surelycrm.co.uk/portal/{customer-id}/pay

To pay online with a provider:

1. Enter the amount to pay. The full balance is entered by default, and the customer can pay part of the balance instead — the amount can never exceed what is owed.
2. Choose one of the available payment methods (configured by administrators under Settings > Payment Providers).
3. Click Proceed to Payment. The customer is redirected to the payment provider to complete the transaction securely.

On a successful payment the customer is returned to the portal with a confirmation message and the balance updates automatically. If the customer cancels at the payment provider, they are returned to the portal, no money is taken, and they can try again at any time.

To pay by bank transfer, the payment page lists the tenant's active bank accounts that are enabled for customer transfers. For each of those accounts it shows only the account name, bank name, account number, and sort code; inactive accounts, accounts not enabled for customer transfers, and internal notes are never shown. The customer sends the money from their own bank using those details. Viewing the instructions creates no payment, and the balance updates only after your staff record the received payment in Surely CRM through the existing manual payment path.

Payments are controlled by the Customer Payments feature toggle and need at least one active online provider or an active bank account enabled for customer transfers. While disabled, the payment page and Pay Now button are hidden.

Automatic Payments (Subscriptions)

If subscription payments are enabled and the customer has a plan with a recurring billing frequency, the payment page also offers Automatic Payments:

1. Open the payment page and choose Automatic Payments instead of a one-time payment.
2. Select a payment method and a billing frequency — weekly, monthly, or yearly, based on the customer's plan.
3. Click Set Up Automatic Payment and approve the subscription with the payment provider.

Once approved, future payments are taken automatically. The payment page lists the customer's active subscriptions with their frequency, amount, status, and next payment date.

Subscriptions require the PayPal Subscription feature toggle in addition to the Customer Payments toggle.

Invoices

When the Invoices feature is enabled, the portal shows an Invoices tab and a dedicated page at /portal/{customer-id}/invoices. Only invoices that have been issued (have a PDF) and are not cancelled are listed, so drafts remain internal. Customers can download each invoice as a PDF. When a balance is still due, the Pay action opens the portal payment page, subject to the Customer Payments settings.

See Invoicing for creating, issuing, and correcting invoices.

Forms

The portal's Forms tab lists any forms your team has assigned to the customer, along with forms they have already completed. Pending forms show a Complete Form button, and the tab badge shows how many are outstanding. Forms with an expiry date are marked as expired once it passes and can no longer be submitted. See Forms for details on creating and assigning forms.

Portal Authentication

Administrators can configure whether the portal requires login:

• Open Access — Anyone with the link can view the portal (useful for sharing with partners)
• Password Protected — Customers must register with an email and password to access their portal

To invite a customer to set up portal access, open their profile and click Send Portal Invitation. They will receive an email with a secure registration link.

Setting Portal Preferences

Customers can toggle their notification preferences from the portal settings page. When disabled, the customer will not receive marketing emails or SMS, though transactional messages (payment reminders, support updates) may still be sent depending on your configuration.

Support Ticketing

The support system lets customers raise requests and lets your team manage them efficiently.

Creating a Support Request (Customer)

1. Log into the customer portal (if required).
2. Navigate to Messages or Support.
3. Click New Request.
4. Select a Category (configured by admins).
5. Enter a subject and message.
6. Submit the request.

Managing Support Requests (Staff)

Go to Support in the sidebar to see all tickets. The list shows:

• Open request count
• Unread message count
• Status filters (Open, In Progress, Waiting, Closed)
• Assignment filters

Ticket Actions

Action	Description
Reply	Send a message to the customer. When a Support mailbox is configured, the customer is emailed from that mailbox and their reply threads back onto the same ticket. Mark as internal note if it should not be visible to them.
Assign	Transfer ownership to another team member.
Change Status	Update to Open, In Progress, Waiting, or Closed.
Close	Mark the ticket as closed. If a customer replies by email to a closed ticket, it reopens automatically.
Internal Note	Add a comment only visible to staff.

Support Categories

Administrators define support categories in Settings > Support Categories. Categories help you route tickets to the right team and analyse support trends. Examples:

• Billing & Payments
• Technical Issue
• Account Change
• General Enquiry

Two-Way Messaging

Both staff and customers can reply to support requests, creating a threaded conversation history. Staff messages marked as internal are hidden from the customer portal. When a customer replies to a closed ticket, the status automatically reopens to ensure nothing is missed.

Customer-facing staff replies are also emailed to the customer from the configured Support mailbox. The email uses standard threading headers and the ticket reference, so a customer's reply is picked up by the Email Agent and added to the same ticket. If no Support mailbox is configured, the Support area shows a warning and replies are saved without emailing the customer.

Portal Invitations

To send a portal invitation:

1. Open the customer's profile.
2. In the Portal Access section, click Send Invitation.
3. The customer receives an email with a unique registration token.
4. The customer clicks the link, sets a password, and gains access.

Invitations expire after a set period for security. If a customer loses their link, simply send a new invitation.