The TimoDesk client portal is a private, read-only website where each of your clients signs in to see the work on their own projects: tracked hours, activity, tasks, boards and reports. You pick the projects and the pages each client can open, send one email invitation, and the client checks progress whenever they want.
Without a portal, the same question comes in every week: how many hours went into the project? Someone on your side exports a report, tidies it up and sends it. With a portal, the client reads the answer themselves.
What is the TimoDesk client portal?
The client portal lives at client.timodesk.com, separate from your TimoDesk dashboard. Your team keeps tracking time with the desktop app and working in the dashboard as usual. Each client gets a view built from that same tracked time, limited to the projects you share with them.
The sidebar shows your organization's logo and name, so clients know whose portal they are in. Dates and times use your organization's time zone.
The portal fits any team that reports its work to someone outside the company:
- Remote staffing and talent providers whose clients want to see the work of the people placed with them.
- Agencies that run several client projects and want each client to see only their own.
- Any team that bills by the hour and sends the same report every week.
How do you invite a client to the portal?
Open Clients from the sidebar. Organizers and Business Managers can see this page. Team Managers and Staff cannot. Click Invite Client to open the Invite a Client form.
- Enter the client's Email. The invitation goes there, and it becomes their portal login.
- Add Company, First Name and Last Name if you like. They are optional, and the client can fill in their name when they accept.
- Pick at least one project under Projects they may see. Everything in the portal is limited to this list.
- Set the switches under Portal access to choose which pages the client gets.
- Click Send Invitation.
Each email address can belong to only one client in all of TimoDesk. Until the client accepts, they sit on the Pending invitations tab, where you can resend or revoke the invitation. Resending sends a new link, and the old one stops working. The Clients guide covers every option on these screens.
Choosing which pages a client can see
Every client has the Dashboard. Every other page has its own switch: Projects, Time & Activity, Project Timing, Weekly Worklog, Time Calendar, Tasks, Kanban board, Screenshots, App usage, and Websites & URLs.
Screenshots, App usage and Websites & URLs start switched off for a new client. They show the most about your team's day, so sharing them with a client is a choice you make on purpose. Talk to your team before you turn them on.
One more switch, Team members, is not a page. It decides whether the client sees the names and photos of the people doing the work. Turn it off and the client still sees all the time and activity, just not who tracked it.
To change them later, open the client's Portal Access tab, adjust the switches and click Save Access.
How does a client sign in?
The client gets an email with an Open Your Portal button. The invitation link works once and for seven days, and the page shows the date it expires.
On the Accept your invitation page, their email is already filled in. They enter a first and last name, choose a password of at least 8 characters, and click Create my account. They are signed in right away.
After that, they sign in at client.timodesk.com/login with their email and password. A Remember me option keeps them signed in on that browser, and Forgot password? emails them a reset code. Clients do not need a TimoDesk plan or the desktop app. The portal runs in the browser.
What do clients see in the portal?
The sidebar lists only the pages you switched on, so two clients can have quite different portals. Here is everything that can appear.
| Sidebar group | Page | What the client sees |
|---|---|---|
| (top) | Dashboard | Key figures for the period, the work day timeline and where the hours went |
| Your work | Projects | The shared projects, each with its own details page |
| Your work | Tasks | Tasks by project, with status, due date, progress and time spent |
| Activity | Screenshots | One day of screenshots at a time, with an Activity Benchmark |
| Activity | App Usage and Websites & URLs | Apps used and websites visited during tracked time |
| Analytics | Time & Activity | Tracked time and activity by date, member or project |
| Analytics | Project Timing | Total time on each project, opening to its days or members |
| Analytics | Weekly Worklog and Time Calendar | Tracked time as a week grid or a month grid |
| Account | Profile | Their own name, photo and password |
Dashboard
The dashboard greets the client by name and has a Reporting period picker. The key figures are Hours tracked, Avg. activity, Members active, Avg. day / member and Idle share, plus Tasks completed if the client can see tasks.
A Team Day card shows who worked when on a chosen day. If team names are hidden, the card is called Work Day and shows when each project was worked on. Time Allocation splits the hours by project. If the client can see tasks, Needs Attention lists overdue tasks, tasks over their estimate and tasks due in the next 7 days.
Projects, tasks and the board
Each project has an Overview tab, followed by tabs for the pages you allowed: Tasks, Members, Time & Activity, App Usage, Websites & URLs and Screenshots. A client with the Kanban board switch also gets an Open Board button. The board is read-only. If you have not set up boards yet, see how the TimoDesk task board works on your side.
Time and analytics pages
These match the reports your managers already use. Time & Activity shows Total Worked Time and Average Activity above a table you can open level by level. Weekly Worklog and Time Calendar show the same hours as a week grid and a month grid. Our guide to the reports managers check every week explains how to read them.
Screenshots, apps and websites
The Screenshots page shows one day at a time. The client can switch between By Interval and All Screenshots, and the Activity Benchmark sums up the day's work time and average activity. Websites show by site name only, never full page addresses.
Time your team added through an approved manual time request stays marked as manual here, and it has no screenshots. Manual time counts as worked time but is left out of activity averages.
Can clients filter and export reports?
Yes. Most pages have a date picker with presets for Today, Yesterday, Last 7 Days, Last 30 Days, This Month, Last Month and All time, plus a custom range. Pages open on Last 30 Days. Weekly Worklog, Time Calendar and Screenshots use their own week, month or day picker.
Other filters depend on the page:
- Project: on Tasks, App Usage and Websites & URLs.
- Member: on the time pages and Screenshots, when team names are visible.
- Group by: on Time & Activity, Project Timing, App Usage and Websites & URLs.
- Status and Updated within: on Tasks.
Time & Activity, Tasks, App Usage and Websites & URLs have an Export button. The client picks PDF or CSV and clicks Download, and the file follows the dates and filters on the page. No more weekly report emails.
What can't a client see or do?
- Other projects. A client sees only the projects you assigned. Time, tasks, screenshots and usage from any other project never appear.
- Pages you switched off. They are missing from the sidebar, and a saved link to one shows Page not found.
- Team names, if you hide them. With Team members off, names, photos, member filters and Group by Member options all disappear.
- Who is working right now. The portal never shows who is online or who did not work on a day.
- Anything to edit. Clients cannot add or change time, tasks or members, and cannot invite other people. They can only change their own name, photo and password.
A client with no projects assigned can still sign in, but the dashboard says that no projects have been shared yet.
How do you manage client access over time?
Projects start and end, so access needs to move with them. On a client's page, click Assign Project to share more projects, or use Remove Access on the Projects tab to stop sharing one. You can also manage a project's clients from the project itself.
The client gets a portal notification when a project is added or removed, and an email when a new project is shared after they have accepted their invitation.
To cut a client off, use Disable Access and add a reason if you want. The client gets an email, and the next time they open the portal they see an Access turned off page with your reason. Clients cannot be deleted, so Enable Access brings them back with the same projects and pages.
The Last Seen column on the Clients list shows who actually uses the portal.
How does a client portal help staffing providers and agencies?
Client reporting usually takes too much of your time or arrives too late to help. With a portal, the client checks hours when the question comes up, and questions about a bill get shorter because both sides have seen the same record all month.
You can also share at your own pace. Start a new client with the dashboard, projects and time pages, and add screenshots or app usage later if the relationship calls for it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can a client see other clients' projects in the portal?
No. A client sees only the projects you assign to them, and every page in the portal is filtered by that list. Other projects and other clients never appear, and you can add or remove projects at any time.
Do clients need a TimoDesk plan or the desktop app?
No. Clients accept an email invitation, choose a password and sign in through their web browser at client.timodesk.com. There is nothing to install on their side. Only the people on your team who track time use the TimoDesk desktop app.
Can I share hours with a client without sharing screenshots?
Yes. Screenshots, App usage and Websites & URLs each have their own switch on the client's Portal Access tab, and all three start switched off for a new client. Hours, tasks and reports can be shared on their own.
Can a client download a report from the portal?
Yes. Time & Activity, Tasks, App Usage and Websites & URLs each have an Export button. The client chooses PDF or CSV, and the file follows the dates and filters set on the page.
How long does a client invitation last?
Seven days, and the link works only once. If it expires, open the Pending invitations tab and resend it. The client gets a new link that works for another seven days, and the old link stops working.
How do I remove a client's access?
Use Disable Access on the client. They lose access right away, but their account, projects and page settings are kept, so Enable Access restores everything later. To stop sharing a single project, use Remove Access on that project instead.
Give every client one place to check the work
The TimoDesk client portal turns the time your team already tracks into a private, read-only view for each client. You pick the projects, switch on the pages you are comfortable sharing, and send one invitation. The client gets hours, tasks, progress and exports on their own schedule. For a page-by-page tour of what clients see, read the client portal guide.
TimoDesk costs $1 per user per month with every feature included. Start your 15-day free trial, no card needed, then open Clients and invite your first client.
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