For planners · Client workflow
What Should a Wedding Planner Client Portal Include?
Design a wedding planner client portal around the work couples need to complete, with a practical content, permission and ownership matrix.
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Give clients one clear front door
A useful portal helps clients see what happens next, provide requested information, review or decide, find the current detail, and understand progress. It is not a display cabinet for every internal system. The useful boundary is between client jobs and the team’s private operational work.
| Information or action | Client job | Client permission | Internal visibility | Source of truth | Update owner | Review cadence |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Next actions | see what happens next | view | team view | timeline | planner | weekly |
| Timeline | understand progress | view/comment | team view | timeline | planner | milestone |
| Budget visibility | review agreed direction | view | private notes hidden | budget record | planner | decision point |
| Decisions | approve a choice | decide | team view | decision record | named owner | when due |
| Questionnaire | provide information | answer | team view | questionnaire | client | staged review |
| Files | find current detail | view | team view | named file record | planner | on update |
| Guest information | check details | limited view | team view | guest record | agreed owner | before final count |
| Messages | ask a non-urgent question | comment | team view | agreed channel | both | as agreed |
Name the permission deliberately: view, answer, comment, decide and edit are not interchangeable. Keep team tasks, commercial detail, private notes and other weddings internal. At kickoff, say: “Use this link to see next actions and current decisions. Items needing you are labelled clearly. Final choices live in the decision record. For urgent matters, use our agreed contact channel; reply here if you need help finding something.”
Reduce learning friction with one walkthrough, one consistent link, plain labels, minimal duplicate entry and a fallback communication path. In the first month, ask whether clients knew the next action, knew where to answer, duplicated information, saw private work, or could identify the final version. Cakd’s Business and Agency plans provide a client portal; describe only the client-visible areas you have configured, not competitor features such as contracts or invoices. Give the boundary a written form in a client communication charter.