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Adding your first client

A client in Workhouse gets their own view of the work and, when you're ready, their own portal login. Here's the path from "new client signed" to "client is in their portal."

1. Create the client

Go to Clients and use the Add client form:

  • Client name — what appears everywhere, including their portal
  • Website — optional
  • Color — the dot that identifies this client across boards and lists
  • Tier — Starter, Growth, Scale, or Enterprise; your own classification, clients never see it
  • Monthly revenue ($) — optional; powers the revenue column on your client list
  • Churn risk — Not assessed / Low / Medium / High; internal only

Tier, revenue, and churn risk are for your team's eyes — they show up on your client list and settings, never in the portal.

2. Create a project

Open the client and click New Project:

  • Template — optionally start from a project template
  • Project name — e.g. "Q2 Website Refresh"
  • Start date — defaults to today

Projects hold tasks, milestones, and status reports. One client can have several running at once.

3. Add tasks

Create tasks from the project page (or anywhere with the quick-create form). New tasks start internal — your client won't see anything until you explicitly share it. That's the core of how Workhouse works; see "Sharing work with clients" before you invite anyone.

4. Invite the client to their portal

When there's something worth seeing, give your client a login. Go to Team & invites:

  1. In the Send invite form, enter their Email
  2. Set Kind to Client user
  3. Pick the Client they belong to
  4. Click Create invite link

You'll get a link to share — it's also emailed to them. They set a password on first use and land directly in their portal, seeing only what you've shared for their client. Invites expire after 14 days; you can revoke a pending invite from the Invites card.

You can invite multiple contacts per client — each gets their own login, notification preferences, and action items.

What the client sees

Their portal shows the tasks you've made client-visible, your status reports, a discussion feed, and a request form. The client-side guides on this docs site (starting with "Getting started in your portal") are written for them — send those along with the invite.