Let's take a look at portals.

Harmony provides you with portals, where the people you serve interact with you.

This includes unique portals for tenants, guests, association members, associations, owners, and vendors.

Each person you serve can have portal access, with the function categories you choose to enable for them. You can also choose to enable or disable individual items...for example, including documents as a portal category, but excluding one confidential document in their account.

Portals are integrated directly into your website when you have a HERO Website. If you don't have a HERO Website, you can still use portals in non-integrated mode.

We'll see how all this works in just a minute.

But before we dive into portal configuration and functions, it's worthwhile understanding the structure of your Harmony portals.

When a person uses Harmony portals, they have a portal login, and one or more connected managed accounts. They control their portal login, while the managed accounts, and their features and functions, are controlled by you.

This two part structure provides a number of advantages.

First, the user controls their own login, which relieves you of having to set up and manage log ins, while at the same time eliminating the exposure that comes from having access to a person's login credentials.

Second, if a person has multiple managed accounts with you, they can manage them all with the same login. They do not need to log in to each managed account separately and individually.

Third, if a person has other managed accounts with other property management companies elsewhere, they can access all their accounts through the same not. If you have an owner who has a managed account through you, and they also own other properties in places where you do not manage, they can access all of their managed accounts, from all of their property managers, through a single login.

Fourth, if multiple people need access to the same managed account, this is easy - without the abominable practice of password-sharing. If you have an owner with a managed account, and he wants to see his account, that's easy. But then he also wants his wife, his cousin, his business advisor, his investment advisor, and his dog trainer to all have access to view the account, but he's not keen on the idea of giving out his password. With Harmony portals, each of these people can set up their own login, and connect to his managed account, with his authorization.

We'll see how this works in a little while. Understanding the structure will help you understand what you're doing, as you work through portal configuration and setup invitations. Rest assured, Harmony makes this all extremely simple for you and the people you do business with.

Recognize, when you're looking at portal configuration, you're looking at the configuration of the managed account that a person sees when they log in to their portal. You don't have to worry about user logins, at all.

Let's take a look at some portal configuration options, then circle back and look at portals from the perspective of a user.

In Harmony, select Settings, then Portals.

Select, "Portal Options".

Here we see options that apply to each type of portal user for whom you manage accounts. The portals are unique to each type of person. An owner portal, for example, is different from a tenant portal, which is vastly different from a vendor portal. Each portal contains options unique to that type of user.

Select Authorizations for a type of user to select the default authorizations for all portals for this type. We'll come back to how you can make authorizations different for individuals; right now we're setting our starting point. Here we're selecting the, "owner portal" default authorizations.

Select the default authorizations that you want to start with for all new owners you add. Whatever you enable here will be turned on when you add a new owner, and you can change this from their individual account.

If you want to update authorizations for owners that you already have in Harmony, select the option to, "Update Existing Owners Previously Configured", with these new settings. 

When you're done, select Save.

Next, we'll look at "Change-Log" Notifications. Select this.

Like authorizations, the configuration here applies to new owners, unless you select the option to update existing owners.

Change logs are a powerful Harmony feature. Like many portal functions, they can be enabled by email or text as well, allowing a person to receive a message with something that would otherwise typically be limited to a portal.

A change log is just like it sounds. It's a log of all changes you've made to a managed account. First, select your default for whether you want change logs to be viewed in portals, sent as a message, or both.

Then, select the categories of changes that you want to include. If you want an owner to see when you've recorded a change to their phone number for example, but you don't want them to see when you billed them for something, select, "Profile Changes", but not, "Charges/Bills". Remember, we're configuring our system-wide defaults that serve as a starting point here - all of these can be different for each individual owner you manage for.

When you're done, select save.

The next three options are related to messages you want all owners to see when they log into their owner portal. Unlike the previous settings, these apply to all owners across the board, and are not different for individual owners - although some do support merge fields for customization.

First is the, intro message. Let's select it.

The intro message is what an owner will see when they initially log in to their portal. By default, this is off, so owners just see a system welcome message.

You can customize it to contain anything you wish. You may want to include information about your company, about your portals, a link to your latest newsletter or blog entry, or a blurb of advice. If there's something you want to say to all your owners, say it here.

Position your cursor and select a merge field to include merged data related to the portal user's account. 

You can get as creative as you want in styling this message. The layout, images, colors, sizes, and everything else are under your control. If you're not familiar with editing templets in Harmony yet, this might be a good time to explore your options, which are covered in other help resources.

If you have not previously enabled this portal message, select, On, in the Enabled options, to turn it on.

The templet options and preview function are covered in more detail in other resources.

When you're done editing, select save. If you turned this message on, owners will see it the next time they log in to their portals.

Next is the, "Special Info" message. This is edited and managed just like the Intro Message, but has a slightly different purpose. Instead of something you want to display always, this is for cases where you need to temporarily show something out of the ordinary, and call the user's attention to it.

Most property managers use this for things like special holiday hours, essential notices of staff changes, or special instructions surrounding a natural disaster. You'll normally keep this "Off", unless you have special information to convey.

Last is the Privacy Policy. If you have a specific privacy policy for these portals, enter it here. If you are required to direct portal users to your website privacy policy, enter information with the link here. Always check the laws in your jurisdiction regarding compliance and disclosure requirements for privacy policies.

If you turn this "Off", from the Enabled option, no privacy policy link will display on these portals.

Some portal types have additional configurable items. Here, in tenant portals, we have the option to provide instructions for work requests.

When an item is enabled, its icon status will indicate this.

Go through all portal types enabled in your account, configuring each of them.

Next, we see a nifty Harmony feature called, "log inless" portal functions. Have you ever heard of, "the meeting that should have been an email"? Likewise, there are some portal functions that could have been an email or a text message.

"log inless" portal functions allow for an email or text link to connect to a simple, one-off, function that would otherwise be done in portals. When you merge the "log inless" link into a CRM text or email templet, the user is directed to a page where they can perform the related function quickly without logging in, but only on that specific item.

For example, if you merge the, "payment link" into your templet for notification of a new charge, the recipient can pay that charge from the link, rather than logging into their portal to pay it.  The same goes for vendors accepting a work order, owners approving a work order, owners approving an invoice for payment, and a host of other items.

Like portals, these "log inless" pages are integrated directly into your website, when you have a HERO Website. If you do not have a HERO Website, they are stand-alone pages.

We'll circle back to adding "log inless" links in your CRM templets; right here what you're looking at is the custom information for those pages. These usually contain specific instructions you want the recipient to be aware of, or follow, as they proceed through the page.

Like your other portal templets, you can customize these as you wish, and turn them, "On", or, "Off", with the Enabled option. When you've changed one, select Save.

After going through all portal authorizations and content, select "Done".

Let's select Preferences to take a quick look at our portal preferences.

Like elsewhere in Harmony, each of your configuration options includes a help tip with guidance. Select any help tip to see more information about what you're configuring and what it means.

Your portals will work fine without configuring any of these options. In fact, all of Harmony works without configuring anything. But one major benefit of Harmony is how you can "tune" it specifically to your business. Taking the time to customize your configuration allows Harmony to act like an employee you train, who does the work for you - in exactly the way you want it done.

We'll take a quick spin through the options in "preferences".

The visual theme lets you set a color scheme consistent with your company's brand.

The date format lets you set the preferred date format your portal users see. 

The default folder list allows portal items to be automatically organized into folders for each user. 

For example, if you want all documents that have the word "statement" in their name, placed into a document folder called, "Statement", include this in your list. Portal users have final control over their folders, but this gives them a default starting place. Include each word that you want matched into a folder name, separated by commas.

Earlier we mentioned that, even when a portal user has access to a category, it's up to you whether an individual item is visible or not. You can approach this in two ways: either leave the defaults, "off", and turn on the ones you "WANT" someone to see, or default them to, "On", and turn off the ones you "DON'T" want seen.

Money and Payments is a frequently visited portal function, and displays a summary of a person's account balances. By default, they can see all relevant numbers. However, if you want to exclude specific balance categories from a money and payments view, do so here. Remember, what you're checking is what you're "Excluding" from display.

Select "Done", when you're finished.

Next we'll look at some message and letter templets related to portals.

Select Messages & Letters, then System Message & Letter Templates.

In the "portals" section, select "Portal Setup: Any", to customize the templet for messages you send inviting people to set up their portal.

You'll see that a system templet has already been installed for this one. You can customize it to your heart's content, with styles, layout changes, colors, and images. This is one that you should definitely customize, as it's typically used as the first contact after onboarding a new owner, tenant, guest, association member, or vendor, and should perform the duty of welcoming them into your system. Again, see other help resources for more on managing templets.

In this case, we've adjusted the system templet to add the person's, "Individual Authorization Code". We'll show you where to set the person's authorization code in a moment. For now, we'll give you an overview of what this means and why you might want to include it a message, or why you may insist on avoiding it in all messages.

In Harmony, there are cases where you want to know that someone is who they say they are, before they can perform certain functions like connecting to their portal. Basic authentication requires that they know their account ID, your account ID, and the email address you have on file for them. However, this isn't very secure - this information is pretty easy for anyone to obtain, or to guess.

For the next level of security, Harmony offers authentication with a unique, confidential authorization code, known only to you and to the individual. If you set this, it's required for them to authenticate themselves. If you don't set it, it's not required.

When you use authorization codes, you need a way to tell the person what their code is. The most secure way to tell them is to reveal it individually and privately. However, if you wish, you can include it in an email you send to them. For our demonstration, we've decided that email is private enough, and we've merged this code into their portal setup email.

Note that all generated Harmony links embedded into system messages encode authentication. It would be nearly impossible for someone to hack this link. With current technology, it would take 100 trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion years to figure it out. However, still, anyone with the email link is authenticated. The authorization code provides one level above this, requiring an additional piece of private information for the most secure functions, like authorizing their e-signature on a contract.

Again, this is an option in Harmony. Your individual company policies will determine if it's something you use.

When you're done customizing the setup templet, select Save.

Now let's edit the templet for, "Portal/Profile Changes".

Earlier we referred to the option to send someone a summary of changes that have happened in their account. A message based on this templet is what they'll receive if you enabled the option to send it. A system templet is already installed. Modify it, if you wish, then select Save.

A while back we talked about "log inless" links, and promised we'd show you where to add those. While we're here, let's take a look at one.

Scroll down to the, "Money" section and choose, Charges for Occupants. This is the templet that controls what's sent to an occupant when you add a charge to their account, and select the option to send them the charge as a message.

When we add the, "Payment Link", from the available merge fields, a pop-up provides guidance on adding this "log inless" link. When we save the templet with this link, every occupant who receives their charge as a message will have access to select the link and go to the one-time payment page for that charge.

Numerous other templet messages have "log inless" links available as merge fields. More on that is covered in additional help resources.

There's one final step in configuration. It only applies if you have a HERO Website. If you do not have a HERO Website, and use non-integrated portals, skip this step.

Select "My Account", then, "Profile & Contacts". Select the Main Contact to edit it. 

In "Website Portal Page", enter the website address of the portal page on your website. If you don't know it, select the help tip. The tip will instruct you to visit your website, then select the portal login page. Copy the address of this page, then paste it into your Harmony settings.

If you do not have a HERO Website, or you've disabled or deleted the portal page on your HERO Website, do not enter anything here. If you do, your portals will not work properly!

Now that we've configured our system settings related to portals, let's look at an individual's profile and their portal settings.

From, Management, select, Owners.

Here's our owner list, with their account status and portal status indicated by icons.

Each icon has a different meaning, which you can see when you hover over the icon. We'll highlight a few of the most common.

A red outline icon indicates this account is not eligible for a portal. In this case, it's the system account for all owners.

A red icon indicates this account has portal access disabled. 

A grey icon with an envelope indicates this person has not yet connected their login to this managed account. Select the icon to send them a setup message. The message will be sent based on the templet you configured, to the address configured in their account.

A blue icon with an envelope is similar, but indicates that you already sent their setup message, and they have not yet connected. Select the icon to resend the message.

A faded grey icon with an envelope means this person has not yet connected, but they cannot be sent a setup message. This is usually because they do not have an email address in their profile, but hovering over the icon provides the specific reason for each case.

A grey icon means all is well. This person has a connected, enabled portal. Select this icon to open their portal in property manager mode. This mode allows you to see their portal from their perspective, but with some restrictions.

Let's send a setup message. Select any enabled icon with the green envelope. When the message is sent, the icon turns green.

The owner now has a message with their portal setup link. You'll notice this one includes the optional authorization code that we chose to configure.

While sending this setup message is generally the cleanest, easiest way to invite a person to set up and connect their portal account, it's not a requirement. Any time you send someone a system message containing a portal link, clicking that link will prompt them to set up their portal if they have not done so already.

Many property managers skip the setup message altogether, and their users just set up and connect their portal the first time they click on a portal link from any system message sent to them.

Other property managers find the setup message beneficial, as it allows them to more easily track who has received the message, and who has acted on it, while also providing the benefit of adding custom instructions and guidance in the message content.

When the recipient selects the portal login link from their email, what happens next depends on the user's current status.

If they have a portal login, are currently logged in, and the login is connected to this managed account, they are taken to the linked item in the connected account.

If they "have" a portal login, but are not logged in; they simply log in and are taken to this linked item in the connected account.

If they have a portal login, but this managed account is not connected, they are prompted to log in to connect it.

If they do not have a portal login, they are prompted to create one, then connect their account.

In this case, we have a new owner, who does not have a Harmony portal login. He does not have any other managed accounts with any other property managers who use Harmony portals.

His first step is to create a login.

This is really easy. He just needs to select a login email and password, and agree to the terms (which legally protect you).

At this point, he has an, "unverified" login. An email is sent with a link to verify the email address on his new login account.

Once he clicks the verify link, he can log in with his password, and voila, his managed account is connected and he's all ready to go.

Note that if this page does not look like your website, and you have a HERO Website, something is wrong in the settings we covered a few minutes ago. This should look like your website. That builds trust and confidence while also increasing the sense of connectedness of your owner with your company.

It's worth saying that numerous studies have been conducted across multiple industries to explore the benefits of keeping a client portal within your website, versus stand-alone portals. The integrated portals always win by a mile. Integrated portals increase adoption, reduce negative feedback, and foster connection that leads to better relationships. If you don't already have a HERO Website, it's worth taking a look for the value of integrated portals alone.

Notice this owner has access to his portal, and sees the intro message we configured a few minutes ago, but he doesn't have access to anything. All he can do is see his intro message, account list, and account settings. Before we look any further at his portal, let's circle back to your Harmony account and see what it looks like there.

Back at our owner list, we can see this owner now has a grey portal icon, without the invitation envelope, indicating he's connected to his portal. Select him, then select Portal from the menu bar, to view his settings.

Let's switch to edit mode with the edit icon, then go through all his portal settings from top to bottom.

First is the authorization code. We covered the function of this code earlier; the help tip provides additional details. An authorization code can be any word, phrase, numbers, or string. In this case, we chose to have the system assign a random code. 

He'll need this code for a few things, like manually connecting another login to his portal account; entering an authorized signature on an e-signed agreement; and a number of other things where you require this authentication level.

Next we see his, "portal authorizations". Only portal access is currently authorized, which exactly matches what we saw when he logged in. Previously, we set our system defaults for new owners, but we didn't change existing owners. 

For this owner, we'll enable all categories.

Below that, we see his, "portal prohibitions", in red. The only one available for this person is a Payment prohibition, which would block him from making any payment to you through his portal. It would be unusual for you to prohibit an owner from making a payment, but it's very common to prohibit a tenant from making a payment, under certain circumstances. More on this is available in Payment help resources.

Following that, we see, "Consent Authorizations". Whether or not your laws require specific consent authorizations, it's best practice to obtain consent for certain actions. You can indicate consent authorizations if you have received consent from an outside channel. 

If your portal user provides consent through their portal, an icon indicates this consent came directly from them. Hover over or click or tap, the icon for details.

The next section allows you to add custom links to this person's portal. Custom links give you a way to connect outside, non-integrated, or third-party resources to a person's portal. Remember that if you want to provide the same link to all owners, you can set this in the portal intro message or special info that we covered previously. This section is for links that are unique to this person.

Below this are items related to changes, including the, "Change Log", which we discussed earlier.

The, "Change" option determines whether the portal user can update their own profile information, or whether they must submit change requests to you, for you to enter.

The, "View", option determines whether the portal user can view a log of account changes in their portal.

The, "Message" option determines whether a daily log of account changes is sent as a message to this person.

The "Include" options determine which categories to include in this person's change log, both the viewable and the message version. We previously set our system defaults for new owners, but we didn't update them for existing owners. 

The final section addresses what a person is doing in their portal.

The, "Connections" displays a list of all portal logins connected to this managed account. If you need to remove a connection, do so here. 

If you need to re-send a setup message, you can also do this here. Because sending a new setup message to a person already connected is often a fraudulent phishing attempt, there is specific on-screen guidance for this process.

Let's save our changes, then take a trip back to the earlier example where the owner wanted his dog trainer to access the portal for his managed account. Subsequently, he had a falling out with his dog trainer. He politely asked the dog trainer to log in and remove his connection, but the dog trainer just barked his refusal. 

Your owner can contact you and request that you remove him.

When you remove a connection, it's important to understand that someone nefarious, like a dog trainer or ex-wife, could simply reconnect to the portal, if they still have the credentials required to establish their connection. If you have a situation where you need to remove a connection and ensure they don't reconnect, just change the authorization code to something they do not know, and they won't be able to establish a new connection. All existing connections, besides the one you removed, remain intact.

For now, let's say that the replacement dog trainer needs to connect to this owner's managed account. The dog trainer can easily set up a new portal login, but it won't have any managed accounts connected, because you don't actually manage anything for the dog trainer or send him any Harmony emails.

When he attempts to log in, he'll see, "Add an Account", to add a managed account to this login. To connect manually, he needs three pieces of information: the property manager ID, the client ID of the managed account, and the email address or verification ID associated with the managed account.

Normally you, as the property manager, stay out of this. If the owner wants his dog trainer to connect, he can provide these pieces of information. The easiest way is just to forward his dog trainer the portal setup email he previously received. However, the owner may reach out to you for help.

You can growl back at this owner, "If you want your dog trainer to connect, it's on you to help him." Or, if you're confident you're not being scammed or phished (which happens way too often), you can give your owner the guidance they need.

The dog trainer now has access to the owner's account through their own portal login.

When we view the owner's portal settings again, we now see that both he, and the dog trainer, have a connection to this managed account.

Of course, it's extremely rare for an owner to have their dog trainer logging in to their managed account. However, it's really common for a spouse, relative, attorney, or accountant to do so. Harmony is non-discriminatory - if the owner wants to give someone access, he can.

In a different scenario, let's imagine your owner also has a managed property in another state, and uses another property manager. He can have one portal login connected to both managed accounts. When he logs in, he'll be prompted to select which account he wants to see. 

At any time, he can select, "Account List", in his portal menu to see his other account, and switch to it.

A single portal login can connect to an unlimited number of managed accounts. Some corporate tenants, who lease on behalf of relocating managers and executives, have dozens of managed tenant accounts with numerous property managers around the country. Similarly, some owners who are in investment clubs have many managed properties over a wide geography, each managed by a different company.

These people prefer dealing with property managers who use Harmony, because it greatly simplifies their life. No other portal system offers this level of flexibility and control.

Once a person is in their portal, they'll see all the options you've enabled for them. Each portal type is different, with different options. In "vendor portals", for example, your vendors can view assigned work orders, update work order status and cost, upload images of damage or repairs, and check in and out of a job site. Tenants can pay their rent, set up a preapproved plan for automating rent payment, and send "work requests" with photos and videos. Owners can run an account statement covering any dates, and see the status of applicants and leases on their properties. All of this is fully controlled by you.

We've covered the portal system defaults and individual authorizations in detail, but it's worth taking a quick look at the items visible to a portal user, and how you control this in Harmony.

We won't cover everything, but we'll look at a few examples.

Let's create a letter for this owner by selecting his documents menu, then the add icon, then Create document.

Earlier, when we configured settings, we indicated that we want this to be available in portals by default. The icon shows us this is set. We can select it for details.

After saving the letter, we can see in their documents list that it's in their portal.

Edit it to see and change the metadata. Metadata is a fancy term for information about a document.

We see that Owner Portal is checked in permissions, meaning this document will be visible for this owner when they view documents in their portal.

If you have not enabled documents in this owner's portal, that's okay. If you choose to enable documents in the portal down the road, this document will instantly be there.

We also see options for Tenant portal and guest portal here. That means this document is eligible to be shared across portals. 

Let's edit the document metadata with the edit icon. 

Now, we'll select, "Tenant Portal".

Guidance displays for this type of sharing. It tells us that all tenants of this owner will be able to see this document in their portals.

Sharing works both ways. You can share a tenant's document with their owner, or an owner's document with their tenants. A shared document doesn't need to be loaded into each account. You can upload or add it once, and then share.

Select, Save Document, to save these new settings.

Now we see that the document is in their portal, and it's also shared with all occupants.

Next let's select Maintenance for this owner, then the Add icon, then Add Work Order.

When we scroll down to the work order permissions, we see that Owner Portal is checked, because that's what we chose in our defaults. Once we assign a vendor, we can also make it visible in the vendor's portal.

One last one... Let's select the Activities menu icon, then set up a lunch meeting with this owner.

In the permissions, we see this will be visible in the owner's portal, since that's what we set for our defaults.

We could go one step further and also schedule an appointment confirmation email or text message to the owner, but that's another topic, covered in other places.

Select Save Activity, and we see that this is in his portal, as well.

Hopefully you get the gist. Broad categories are enabled or disabled in portal settings, and then each individual item can be included or excluded from portals, in its settings.

There's a lot more to learn, but, for now, it's time to relax. 

You've just implemented a solution that liberates you from your desk and phone, while increasing the satisfaction of everyone you do business with. Reward yourself with a tall cold glass of iced tea, and rock away on your back porch while your business hums along!

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