If you are a subscriber, you can use Inform Direct’s automated client approval workflow to send approval documents and reminders about confirmation statements to directors or clients for electronic sign-off and review.

One setting is to email approval documents to clients with a portal link to confirm the confirmation statement can be submitted, make the filing or provide feedback.

For full details of the confirmation statement automations available, please see: How to set up Automated Confirmation Statement Workflows.

Before you can start using the portal for gathering sign-off from your clients, there is some configuration to-do.

1. Go to your account button and then click the manage client portals button.

2. You will be able to click the add client portal button, which will take you into the configuration screen shown below. The screen contains the following fields:

• You can enter the name of this portal configuration.
• A name you would like to be used on the portal URL, you can then select the informdirect.co.uk domain, this will appear in your client's URL bar e.g Bestaccounts.informdirect.co.uk
• You can upload your company logo to be shown in the portal area.
• Primary and Secondary colours can be added to match your company's colour scheme. These are entered as an HTML colour value, allowing you to ensure the best match to your branding. If you are not familiar with HTML colour value, help is available via all search engines. 
• In the page footer section you can include your address or any contact details. 
• Your company's website can be entered in the final section.

Note: The above areas will be editable and multiple portals can be created on your account.

Once you have entered your configuration for the portal, you can preview how it will look to your clients by clicking the Preview client portal button

Once you have finished reviewing the portal and are set with your settings, click the Save portal button

3. ACTION REQUIRED: Contact Inform Direct to complete this step.

Now that you have created your portal, the Inform Direct technical team will need to complete one final step on our side. So that we can action this as soon as possible for you, please email support@informdirect.co.uk confirming your account name and the name of your portal. 

Once we have completed our steps, we will email you to let you know and the status shown below will change from Pending to Ready for use.

4. If you have not used any work flows before, continue with Sender email settings section below. 

5. If you have previously set up a workflow to email confirmation statements to your clients, you can change your current workflow configuration and include the portal option within this. Any Companies that have this workflow assigned will now be updated to use the portal without the need to update each company. See section 1 of How to set up Automated Confirmation Statement Workflows to edit your current workflows. 

You can always create a new workflow if you wish to leave your old ones in place.

6. Auto-file on client approval is optional and can be confirmed within the workflow settings. If set to yes, any cases of this workflow will see the filing made by the client confirmed that all information is correct.

Should you opt not to have the auto-file on client approval, it will generate an email and an alert on your dashboard to confirm their approval. You can then make the filing when ready via the pending approval. 

7. The message received by the client will contain your preferred wording and signature. The key items for the client will be the attached PDF summary of their data, and a link to approve or recommend updates. When they follow the unique link, the below page will appear for them, with your preferred colouring, logo and footer:

If the client clicks All information is correct this is a one click button and will confirm acceptance. An email will be sent to you and a notification will appear on the company Dashboard to confirm that it has been approved. The filing will be made if auto-file with client approval is switched on.

Should the client click Some changes needed they will be given a text box to report the updates required to you and no filing will be made. This will generate an email to you and alert on your Dashboard tab, with details to review their text.

Sender email settings

1. Sender email addresses can be set up within your Account. We recommend setting these up prior to following the steps below. See Setting up sender email addresses.

2. Review or create your workflow. Under the Account tab at the top of the screen, please select View Workflows. This will show existing workflows, including the default Generate approval & email it on MUTD (made up to date). 

You can edit the existing setting, or Add a new workflow on the right of the page. 

For further details, please see How to set up Automated Confirmation Statement Workflows. 

3. To automatically apply the setting to any newly formed or imported companies, set your preferred Generate approval & email workflow as a Default workflow.

Please see step 4 for details of applying the workflow to existing companies in your portfolio.

Once set as a default workflow, it will prompt adding the required email address for new companies.

For newly formed companies, or companies imported where this was not set up, a Check Alert will appear on the company dashboard as shown below.

Selecting the Blue arrow will allow you to enter the required information.

While importing companies, it will prompt adding this at the last stage of the import process. Please see:

4. Existing companies in your portfolio will need to have the desired workflow applied to them individually. This is managed under the Company tab in Edit workflows. It appears exactly as the image above for imported companies. 

5. Upon selecting the workflow, you will then be able to select the preferred Sender email address. To add further options, see Setting up sender email addresses.

When setting up sender email addresses, you can also add the signature on the email. 

6. The Email recipient can then be selected. You have three options when setting this up for each company, it can only be sent to one. The options are:

• Company officer’s email address - Within the personal details of the officers within the company, there is an email address field. Selecting this will bring a drop-down box where you can select the officer name. If no email address has been entered yet for the officer, a field will appear to enter one.
• Company registered email address
• An alternative email address -This opens a text box below to enter the required email recipient.

7. The saved automation will then take place on the set number of days before the confirmation statement due date, as specified in your automation setting. An email will be generated to your client and you will be notified that it has taken place via email too. 

The email template is editable, new ones can also be created and applied to a workflow. See How to add an email template.

8. Under Recent Activity on the company Dashboard, it will show that the email has been sent with an orange icon, or delivered with a green icon.  

9, A pending approval will appear on the company dashboard. Once you have approval from the client, you can file it by following: How do I complete a Pending Approval? A dashboard notification will be raised when the client has responded to the approval request. The alert will show if they have provided feedback or approved the confirmation statement. 

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"external reminders", "CS01 approval emails", "email directors", "client notification"