Types of portal documents

1. Portal forms: these are customisable documents you edit within the portal then download or email to your client
   
2. On-screen PDFs: these provide instructions or details about a portal feature or a Gap service
   
3. Microsoft Office downloads: Word, Excel, and PowerPoint templates to download and customise
   
   

Finding a portal document

1. Use the Search  feature on the left-hand side of the App bar to find a portal document
   
2. Navigate to the bridges area, or the relevant tab in the Navigation panel, to find your portal document
   
   

Portal form features

Warning!
Do not use Gap Forms to request credit card or payment details!

Send as email, send as letter, or print

Important info

We recommend that you  send via email in the interests of efficiency.

1. Select a client then edit the Subject Line and email body
   
2. If you intend on sending the email to more than one recipient, we recommend customising the greeting to suit, e.g. 'Hi John and Jane' or 'Hi all'
   
3. After clicking Next, the Action page will appear and load your client's primary contact by default.
   
4. Click  to select between other available client Contacts and other members of your firm.
   
5. Add additional email addresses separated by a comma.
   
6. Review the email preview under Send as email. If required, click Back or Draft to edit the email body.
7. When ready, hit Send.
   
   

Note

If your firm has activated  the FYI integration and you have enabled a BCC Email, a BCC FYI email will show after the primary contact; click  in the BCC email if you don't wish to file to FYI.

Attention

If you accidentally highlight and remove the 'click here' link, the portal will automatically append the text 'Please  click here to read and submit the document.' to the bottom of the email.

Send as Letter

1. Select a client to fill in client details
   
2. Edit the letter's body as necessary
   
3. Download the letter as a PDF after clicking Next
   
   

Print

1. Select the Print checkbox
   
2. Click the Print to PDF button to download the portal form to your device
   
3. Access the PDF from your Downloads folder
   
   

Adding, modifying or deleting a Firm Logo

1. To change the current logo, hover over it with your mouse and click Replace Logo  to open the Select Logo popover prompt
   
1. To select a previously uploaded logo, click the logo in the popover prompt
   
2. To upload a new logo, click Browse... > select an image > Open. Logos must not exceed 5MB in size. All uploaded logos are visible firm-wide
   
3. Please note that logo change will not pull through to previously drafted documents
   
2. You can delete a custom logo by hovering over the image and clicking Remove Custom Logo ; the logo will revert back to the default logo in your Firms Settings
   
   

Tip

Consider changing your firm's logo to your client's logo on plan documents, e.g. Business Plan, Succession Plan, Marketing Plan, etc.

Editing toolbars

Tip

Made a mistake? Click the Undo  button.

Interactive fields

1. Input fields allow information to automatically populate portal forms, indicate where a user must enter information, or allow a client to input text into a client form
   
1. Small input fields are designed to input a single line of text
   
1. Some automatically populate with details from your firm settings, user settings or client profile
   
2. Some contain placeholder text (appearing as light grey text); you must enter text in these fields (placeholder text will not pull through to the outputted document)
   
3. Some contain information in black text which will pull through to the outputted document but may need to be updated, e.g. length of a meeting
   
4. Some are set up to repeat the information you input later in the form, e.g. facilitator name and pre-work due date in the initial text fields automatically repeats in text fields throughout the pre-work
   
2. Big input fields are designed to input multiple lines of text
   
1. Some automatically populate with your firm's address, e.g. in a meeting confirmation email
   
2. Some should be updated with a link, e.g. in an online meeting confirmation email
   
3. Most are used in client forms to allow the client to answer questions, e.g. Pre-work and Feedback
   
4. You can resize big input fields by clicking the double lines in the bottom-right corner of the box and dragging it up or down
   
   
2. An input field outlined in red is a required field for completing a form
   

Tip

Need an additional answer field in your pre-work? See instructions in the  Using pre-work article.

1. Checkboxes :
   
1. User checkboxes:
   
1. Checkboxes in proposals are used to include the suggested objectives, measures of success and value
   
2. Checkboxes in other portal forms are used to check items off a list, e.g. in the Administration Support Checklists
   
2. Client checkboxes:
   
1. Clients must tick the checkbox in the online acceptance section prior to submitting the proposal to indicate they accept the terms of the proposal
   
2. Clients must tick an additional checkbox in the online acceptance section of the Service Proposal in the Proactive Onboarding bridge to indicate they accept the Terms of Engagement
   

1. Radio buttons :
   
1. Round buttons used to select between options, e.g. the buttons for 'Yes' and 'No' in the Meeting Minutes in coaching bridges
   
2. Don't copy and paste these; if you need additional rows to record a yes/no answer, delete the radio buttons from the existing rows and type yes or no in all rows instead
   

Adding interactive fields

It's not possible to add your own interactive fields to a document, however,  we recommend reviewing the templates available in the Navigation panel >  Working files > Templates tab. We have a template for each of our main styles of documents, which are intentionally designed so you can match our systemised process for each service.

For more information, see our Managing custom templates article.

Removing interactive fields

To remove an input field, place the cursor after the field and then press backspace on your keyboard.

Note

 Some fields automatically populate with data and might be required to complete a document.

Document footer

Portal forms have a footer with a copyright symbol  © followed by the text your portal administrator has inputted into the Footer Text field under App bar >  Firm settings or Navigation panel >  Firm settings.

Preview

Save as draft

1. You can save a form as a draft at any time and continue editing it later
   
2. When you save a form as a draft, it can be accessed from the Navigation panel >  Working files > Drafts tab
   
3. The portal autosaves an open form every 30 seconds if an edit is detected
   
1. If client selection is required for a form, the autosave function only starts saving every 30 seconds after a client is selected and an edit has been detected
   
2. Exercise caution: while this feature is designed to prevent loss of data in unexpected circumstances, if two users attempt to edit the same draft, both drafts will autosave.
   

Warning!

To avoid potential data loss due to the autosave function, ensure you only have one document draft open on one device at a time. 

1. Click the Next or Action button to complete a form
   
2. The Next button remains inactive until all required fields are filled
   
3. If you need to tweak the form before sending, click the Back or Draft button
   
4. Completed forms can be accessed in the Navigation panel >  Working files > Completed tab or the client's Activity tab
   
   

Actioning your completed form

1. The primary contact's email address will be listed by default
   
1. This is the primary contact's email address as set up in your client's profile
2. If you need to CC yourself, click and select your email from the dropdown list
   
3. Click  and select further contacts from the dropdown or type in email addresses, separated by a comma. Check out our sending to multiple recipients article for more information
   
4. If your firm has activated the FYI integration and you have enabled a BCC Email, a BCC FYI email will show after the primary contact; click  in the BCC email if you don't wish to file to FYI
   
   

1. Below the Recipients list, you can review your email contents, including the subject line and any uploaded attachments
   
2. If the email contains a link to a client form, you can click this link to preview how the form will look to your clients
   
3. When ready, click Send
   

Important info

You can finish actioning your completed form by clicking Done. This will redirect you back to the Bridge subfolder of the document.

The Download to PDF section

1. There are up to two buttons that may be available in this section:
   
1. The Download to PDF button, which will download the form to PDF
   
2. The Download Letter button, which will download the letter to PDF (only available is 'Send as letter' was selected)
   
   

The File to FYI section

The portal will automatically attempt to select the appropriate client to whom you'll send the form but you can click to edit the client if required

1. If your firm has activated the FYI integration and you do not have a BCC email or if the form cannot be emailed, a File in FYI section will appear
   
   

Note

If you need to make a change to a completed document, navigate to the Navigation panel >    Working files > Completed tab and click the name of the document. This will create a new draft using the same content. Implement the changes, then click the Next or Action buttons again.  To keep your document records tidy, you may wish to delete the old document from the Completed tab and your client's Activity tab.

How will an email look to my client?

1. Review the email in the Email preview section, including clicking the link to the online form, prior to sending an email
   
2. To reduce firm setup requirements and ensure best email deliverability practices are followed, the portal sends all emails via the generic email address services@thegapportal.com
   
1. Client replies will be sent to the email address in the Reply-to field in your User Settings - by default, this will be the email address used upon account creation
   
3. Proposals will contain a link for online acceptance as well as a PDF of the proposal attached to the email for manual acceptance
   
   

Receiving documents from clients

When you send a document to a client that can be completed online, the following will happen upon document submission:

1. Your clients can choose to download or email themselves a copy of the document
   
2. You will receive an automatic email notification containing:
   
1. Details of the submitted document, including the client who submitted it
   
2. A PDF of the client's completed document
   
3. Any attachments your client added
   
3. The document and any attachments will also be available in both the Navigation panel >  Working files > Inbox tab and the client's Activity tab
   

Important info

If the document is a proposal, you'll need to mark the proposal as won or lost in the Proposals Open area of the Navigation panel >  Dashboard. For more information, see The portal Dashboard article .

On-screen PDFs

1. On-screen PDFs are embedded in the page and can be printed or downloaded
   
2. Click the Print button at the top right to open your system print dialogue and print the PDF
   
3. Click the Download button in the top right-hand corner to download the PDF to your desktop
   
   

Microsoft Office downloads

1. These will automatically download when you click the name of the document
   
2. Access the file from the Downloads folder on your device