Inviting clients to the customer portal
Updated
On this page
The customer portal is where your clients book, pay and message you. They need an account to use it.
Sending an invitation
Sidebar: Clients, then the Invite Customer button next to the search box. Enter the Email Address, optionally a first and last name, and send.
- Invitations expire after 30 days.
- Pending invitations appear in the "Pending Invitations" card on the Clients page, with Resend and Cancel.
- You will be told if that email already has a pending invitation, or already has an active portal account.
The client receives an email, sets a password (at least 8 characters, containing a letter and a number) and lands in the portal. If they already have an Alaga login they are asked to sign in with the password they have.
Clients who sign up themselves
If you share your public booking link, a client can register directly. Their account arrives in a pending approval state and the portal tells them so. Approve them from the "Pending Clients" card on the Clients page.
What a pet parent can do
- Book appointments and boarding or daycare stays.
- See their pets, add a new one and edit details such as feeding instructions, temperament flags, vet and emergency contacts. They cannot enter vaccination dates or upload documents — those are staff-only.
- View appointments and reservations. They can request a change to an appointment, and can cancel a reservation themselves (with the cancellation fee shown up front when they are inside your cancellation window). They cannot cancel an appointment on their own.
- Pay invoices and see what they have paid and what is outstanding.
- Message you, in a single thread that lands in your Messages inbox.
- Sign agreements, by drawing or typing a signature.
- Fill in questionnaires you have published.
- Manage their profile, including SMS consent, authorized pickup contacts, their password, and exporting their own data as JSON or CSV.
Booking rules worth knowing
- Appointments booked in the portal always arrive as Pending — your team confirms them.
- Choosing a time places a 10-minute hold on the slot, with a countdown, so two clients cannot claim the same slot while one is filling in the form.
- If required forms are incomplete, or the pet's vaccinations need attention, the submit button changes to tell them what to fix first.
- Reservation requests arrive as Requested unless you have turned on auto-confirm.
Your portal can carry your own logo, colours and welcome message — set those under Business Settings, Business Profile.