Using the Customer Portal
The Customer portal is your own window onto the service you receive: your calls, the engineer visits booked at your site, and your account with your service provider. You sign in with your email address, pick the account you want to look at, and move around with the menu: Home, Account, Account history, Calls and Visits. Your service provider decides what your sign-in may see and do, so your portal may show fewer pages or buttons than are described here.
What can I do in the Customer portal?
In the Customer portal you can report a new fault or ask for a visit, follow your calls from start to finish, see when an engineer is coming, and check your account, your balance and your invoices, all without having to phone your service provider. Everything happens on the account you are looking at, named at the top of the menu.
- Report a problem — select Log a call at the top of Home, Account or Calls, describe it, and select Log the call. Your service provider sees it straight away and books the engineer.
- Follow your calls — Calls lists every call your sign-in may see, with its status and the next visit. Open one to read the details you gave and What was done, the engineer's notes, as soon as your service provider has added them.
- Correct a call — while a call is not finished, Edit beside its heading lets you change the kind of call, the one-line description, the purchase order (PO) number and the details.
- See engineer visits — Visits shows the visits coming up and the earlier ones, with the engineer's name.
- Check your account — Account shows the details your service provider keeps and the balance due; Account history lists your invoices, credit notes and payments, with copies to download.
The Customer portal does not let you choose the engineer or the date, cancel a call, move a visit, change your account details or pay a bill, and it sends no emails when something changes. For any of those, contact your service provider the way you normally do, quoting the call number when it is about a call.
What doesn't the Customer portal do, and what do I do instead?
The Customer portal shows your calls, visits and account and lets you log and correct calls, but several things people expect from it are not there. Each one below has its way round, which is usually to contact your service provider.
- It has no place to choose an engineer, a date or how urgent a call is: say it in the details when you log the call, and phone your service provider as well if it cannot wait.
- It cannot cancel a call, or move or cancel a visit: contact your service provider and quote the call number.
- It cannot change your account details, your name or your sign-in email address: your service provider can. To change your password, ask your service provider, or use Forgot password on the sign-in page, which switches your sign-in off until they switch it back on.
- It sends no emails or text messages when a call or visit changes: open Calls and Visits to check.
- It has no button to export or print your calls, and it takes no payments: ask your service provider for a report, and pay the way your invoices ask.
- It shows no phone number or email address for your service provider, and has no way to send them a message: contact them the way you normally do.
- It does not show who at your service provider is dealing with a call, when its status changed, or what the work costs: ring them and quote the call number.
- It has no button to attach a file: on a computer you can paste a picture into a call's details, and other files, such as a PDF, go to your service provider by email with the call number.
- It shows one account at a time and changes one call at a time: switch accounts from the account name at the top of the menu, and ask your service provider for a summary across all your sites.
For every other "can I …?" whose answer is no, read What Can't I Do in the Customer Portal?
How do I get into the Customer portal?
You get into the Customer portal by opening the address your service provider gave you and signing in with your email address and password on the page headed Sign in to see your calls. Your service provider creates your sign-in first; you cannot sign up on your own.
- First visit — if your service provider did not give you a password, select Set your password on the sign-in page, type your email address, your name and a new password twice, and you are signed straight in. The only rule for a password is at least eight characters: it does not need a capital letter, a number or a symbol.
- Every other visit — type your Email address and Password and select Sign in. There is no "remember me" box: you normally stay signed in on that browser until you sign out, or until thirty days pass without use. You may be asked to sign in again sooner, for example when your service provider changes your sign-in or restarts or updates their system.
- An older, shorter password — the eight-character rule is checked only when a password is set, never when you sign in, so a password shorter than eight characters that you already have still lets you in.
- Forgotten password — select Forgot password on the sign-in page and choose a new one on the screen; no email is sent. Your sign-in is then switched off until your service provider switches it back on, as a check that it was really you, so contact them and ask.
- Signing out — select Sign out beside your name at the bottom of the menu. Always do this on a shared computer, because closing the browser does not sign you out.
There is no way to sign in with a Microsoft or Google account, and no two-step verification. If the sign-in page shows a message, it says what to do next; most messages mean something only your service provider can change, such as a sign-in that has not been switched on yet, so contact them and give them the email address you tried.
For the full steps and every message, read How to Sign In to the Customer Portal and How to Reset a Forgotten Customer Portal Password.
How does the Customer portal work with several accounts?
The Customer portal always shows one account at a time. If your sign-in is linked to several accounts, for example several sites or branches, you pick one on the Choose an account page after signing in; if it is linked to just one, the portal opens that account for you and you never have to choose.
To switch to another account, select the account name at the top of the Customer portal menu, marked Account · press to switch, and choose again. Every page, from Home to Visits, then shows the new account, and a call you log is logged on the account you are looking at. When there are more than three accounts, a Search box on Choose an account finds one by its name, code or address. On a phone the account name is not in the menu, so turn the phone sideways until the full menu appears down the side; if the screen is still too narrow, open the Customer portal address again, which takes a signed-in person with several accounts straight to Choose an account.
The Customer portal does not remember the account you looked at last: with several accounts, you start on Choose an account each time you sign in. To go straight to one account, bookmark its Home page in your browser; the bookmark opens that account, through the sign-in page if you are signed out. There is no page showing all your accounts together, so switch to each in turn, or ask your service provider for a summary across them.
Your service provider decides which accounts each sign-in reaches. If one you expect is missing, or the portal says No customer account is linked to this sign-in; ask the company., contact them and ask them to add it to your sign-in. The same goes for a message on the sign-in page that names your email address and says the list of customer accounts your sign-in reaches has to be set, corrected or narrowed: your password was right, and only your service provider can fix the list.
How is the Customer portal menu organised?
The Customer portal menu runs down the left of the page on a computer and along the bottom of the screen on a phone. It has up to five pages for the account you are looking at: Home, Account, Account history, Calls and Visits. The account's name and code are at the top of the menu, under Customer portal, and your name with Sign out is at the bottom.
Home, Account and Calls are always there once you have chosen an account. Account history appears only if your sign-in may see the account history, and Visits only if it may see engineer visits. If you need one of them, ask your service provider to include it in your sign-in; once they have, sign in again, because a page you already have open does not change by itself. When you open a call, log a call or change one, the menu keeps Calls marked, because the call belongs to your calls list.
The menu has no settings or profile page, so you cannot change your name, your sign-in email address or your password there, or choose colours, a light or dark background or a text size; your browser's own zoom makes everything larger. There is no help page or contact page either, and the Customer portal does not show your service provider's phone number or email address, so contact them the way you normally do.
On a phone, the row of buttons along the bottom leaves out the account name, your name and Sign out; turn the phone sideways to see the full menu where the screen is wide enough. To switch accounts on a phone that is still too narrow, open the Customer portal address again to reach Choose an account.
For more, read Using the Customer Portal Menu.
What is the Home page of the Customer portal?
Home is the first page you see for an account in the Customer portal, and it shows what is happening on that account at a glance. Select Home in the menu to come back to it from anywhere.
Across the top of Home are up to four figures, each a button that opens the page behind it: Visits booked (the visits whose booked time has not ended yet, and when the next one is), Latest call (the most recent call logged, with its status), Logged this month (how many calls were logged since the first of the month) and Balance due (the total your account owes). Under them, Coming to your site lists the next engineer visits, and Latest calls lists the five most recently logged calls. Log a call sits at the top of the page when your sign-in may log calls.
Home is only a summary. Coming to your site shows no more than the next four visits and Latest calls no more than five calls, so select All visits or All calls beside them for the full lists. Home cannot be rearranged, and it has no figure for open or overdue calls; to see calls in one status, choose it from Status on the Calls list.
Visits booked and Coming to your site appear only if your sign-in may see visits, and Balance due only if it may see balances. A missing figure never means nothing is booked or nothing is owed; it means your service provider has not included it in your sign-in, so ask them to include it if you need it.
For what every figure counts, read Using the Home Page.
What does the Account page show in the Customer portal?
Account in the Customer portal menu shows what your service provider keeps about your account and how much is owed on it, in up to three cards.
- Account information — your address, phone, Accounts e-mail, account manager, where invoices go, payment terms and the other details your service provider holds. Only the details they have filled in are shown, so a missing line means nothing is recorded, not a fault.
- Balance due — the total owed, split by age from Current to 4+ months, and your Last receipt, the last payment recorded and its date. A dash under Last receipt means no payment is recorded; if you have paid and it does not show, ask your service provider whether they have recorded it yet. Where your account is billed to a head office, the figures are the head office's.
- Where we come to — a map pin at the place the engineers come to.
You cannot change anything on the Account page: tell your service provider if something is wrong, as the card says, Something out of date? Tell the office; these are kept by them. You cannot pay from it either; pay the way your invoices ask. The page does not show the notes your service provider keeps about your account for their own use, your credit limit, your service contract, your equipment or any prices; ask them if you need those.
The Balance due card appears only if your sign-in may see balances; if it is missing and you need it, ask your service provider to include it. Log a call is at the top of this page too, when your sign-in may log calls.
For the full detail, read How to See Your Account Details and Balance and What Is the Where We Come To Map?.
What is the Account history page in the Customer portal?
Account history in the Customer portal menu lists every invoice, credit note and payment on the account you are looking at, newest first, twenty-five at a time, with Previous and Next under the list. Select a file name in the Document column to download a copy, usually a PDF.
What Account history does not have, and the way round:
- No search, date filter or sorting — page with Next and watch the Date column, or ask your service provider for a copy of the invoice you need.
- No download of a whole statement — only lines with a document attached have a file name to select, and each file downloads on its own; ask your service provider for a statement.
- No choice of file name — a download is named from what your service provider stored with it, so a file called "Document" and a number is still the right invoice; rename it yourself once it has downloaded.
Where your account is billed to a head office, Account history lists only this account's own lines, while the balance on Account is the head office's, so the two are not expected to add up. If it says Nothing has been invoiced on this account yet., check the account named at the top of the menu, and look at Invoices go to on Account, which names the account your invoices are raised on.
Account history appears in the menu only if your sign-in may see the account history. If it is missing and you need it, ask your service provider to include it.
For the full detail, read How to View Your Account History and How to Download an Invoice or Other Document.
What is the Calls list in the Customer portal?
Calls in the Customer portal menu lists the service calls on your account that your sign-in may see, newest first, with each call's number, when it was logged, its type, its status, your PO number, your reference and when an engineer is next due. It holds the account's calls whoever logged them: you, a colleague, or your service provider after a phone call.
- Find a call — type in Search your calls, press a date button such as This month, or choose a status from Status.
- Open a call — double-click it, or mark it with the arrow keys and press Enter.
- Log a call — the button at the top of the Calls list, when your sign-in may log calls.
- Change a call — Edit beside a call's heading, when your sign-in may change calls and the call is not yet finished.
What the Calls list does not do: Search your calls looks only in the call number, the one-line description and your reference, not inside the Details, What was done or the PO number. There is no filter by type and no date range of your own, only the six date buttons and one status at a time; for another period, select All, which lists every call newest first, and select the Logged heading to turn it oldest first. There is no export or print button, so ask your service provider for a report. The list does not remember your page size or sort: opened from the menu it starts at 25 calls a page, newest first.
Your service provider decides which kinds of call and which statuses your sign-in shows, and how far back it goes, so a call you log may not appear in your list straight away. The portal tells you when that happens and gives you the call number to quote; do not log it again.
For the full steps, read Using Your Calls List, How to Find a Call, How to Log a New Call and Why Can't I See a Call or a Button?
What does a call's page show in the Customer portal, and what doesn't it?
A call's page in the Customer portal, opened from your Calls list, shows the call number, its type and status, the one-line description, and the facts of the call: Logged, PO number, Your reference, Who to ask for, Phone and E-mail. Under them are the Visits card, if your sign-in includes visits, with each booked visit's engineer, status, day and time, the Details you gave, and What was done, the engineer's report, which appears as soon as your service provider adds notes to it, sometimes before the call is finished.
What a call's page does not show:
- Who at your service provider logged the call or is dealing with it; the only name from their side is the engineer on a booked visit.
- When the status changed or the date the call was finished, and what the work costs.
- The engineer's own notes for each visit; What was done is the one write-up of the work on the call.
For any of those, ring your service provider and quote the call number. There is no reply box under What was done and no button to rate a visit.
Edit, when you see it, changes only the kind of call, the one-line description, the PO number and the Details; your reference, the contact details, the status, the visits and the account stay as they are, so tell your service provider if one is wrong. Saving a change does not alert your service provider, so ring them as well if it matters soon. Spell checking is switched off in the Details box, so read your text over before you save.
For the full detail, read How to Open and Read a Call and How to Change a Call.
What is the Visits page in the Customer portal?
Visits in the Customer portal menu lists the engineer visits your service provider has booked at your site, day by day, with the time, what the call is about, the call number, the visit's status and the engineer's name. It opens on Coming up, the visits still to come; select Earlier to see the visits whose booked time has passed.
On today's list, a line with the word now and the current time marks where the day has got to. Select any visit to open the call it belongs to. Where the service team is handling a visit rather than a named engineer, the visit says The office is handling this one.
What the Visits page does not show or do, and the way round:
- No engineer's notes, phone number, location or arrival estimate — the time shown is the time booked; if the engineer is late, contact your service provider and quote the call number beside the visit.
- No button to move, cancel or confirm a visit — contact your service provider with the call number and the day.
- No calendar invitation or reminder — note the day and time in your own calendar.
- Earlier holds only your fifty most recent past visits — for older ones, open the call from Calls, with All selected, and read its Visits card. A visit under Earlier means its booked time has passed, not that anyone confirmed the engineer came.
The Visits page appears only if your sign-in includes engineer visits. Without it, there is also no Visits card on a call's page, and every call's Next visit says Not booked; ask your service provider to include visits if you need them. After you log a call, nothing appears on Visits until your service provider books the engineer; you do not need to do anything.
For the full detail, read How to See Your Engineer Visits and Why Can't I See My Engineer Visits?
Why doesn't my Customer portal look like somebody else's?
Your service provider sets up each Customer portal sign-in separately, so two people can see different pages, figures and buttons. They decide which accounts your sign-in reaches, whether it may see visits, balances and the account history, whether it may log calls and change them, and which kinds of call and which statuses it shows. Those choices are one set for the whole sign-in, the same on every account it reaches: a sign-in cannot log calls for one of your accounts and not another, so different permissions for different accounts need separate sign-ins, each with its own email address.
A missing page or button is therefore not a fault. Log a call is missing when your sign-in may not log calls; Edit is missing when it may not change calls or the call is finished; Visits and Account history are missing when they are not included; the Balance due figure is missing when balances are not included. If you need something you cannot see, contact your service provider and ask them to turn it on for your sign-in.
Once your service provider has changed your sign-in, the Customer portal signs you out, at once or within about a minute, and a page you already have open does not change by itself. Reload the page or open another one from the menu, sign in again, and the new pages and buttons appear.
For each case, read Why Can't I See a Call or a Button?, Why Can't I See My Engineer Visits? and Using the Customer Portal Menu.