One of the most time-consuming parts of a bookkeeper's week is not the reconciliation work itself — it is the surrounding communication. Emails asking clients to explain an unusual transaction. Calls chasing a missing bank statement. Approvals requested for a BAS draft that is sitting in someone's inbox. The ReconLink client portal is designed to eliminate that overhead by giving clients a purpose-built window into their own financial data, with the controls to take action directly.
What Is the Client Portal?
The ReconLink client portal is a separate, client-facing interface that sits alongside your practice dashboard. When you invite a client to the portal, they receive their own login — they see their data and only their data. They cannot access other clients' records, practice settings, or any part of the bookkeeper-facing dashboard.
The portal is designed for non-accountants: clean layout, plain-language labels, and only the information relevant to the client's own business. There are no chart of accounts, no GST codes, and no depreciation schedules — unless those are part of a transaction note the bookkeeper has added.
Setting Up Client Access
To invite a client to the portal:
- Navigate to the client's record in your practice dashboard.
- Select Portal Access from the client settings menu.
- Enter the client's email address and select their access level (View Only or Comment).
- Click Send Invitation.
The client receives an email invitation with a secure sign-in link. First-time portal users are prompted to set a password. Once logged in, they land on the client dashboard showing their current reconciliation period, the number of transactions needing attention, and their most recent BAS status.
Access levels:
- View Only: The client can browse their transaction history, reconciliation reports, and BAS worksheets. They cannot comment on transactions or upload documents.
- Comment: The client can add notes to transactions, respond to bookkeeper queries, and upload bank statements via the portal's document upload feature.
Viewing Coded Transaction History
The transaction view in the portal shows the client's coded transactions for any date range they select. Each transaction displays:
- Date, description, and amount (formatted in Australian dollars).
- The account code and GST code applied by the bookkeeper.
- Any note left by the bookkeeper explaining the coding.
- Status: coded, queried, or pending client response.
Clients can filter by date range, amount, or status. The view is read-only unless the client has Comment access, in which case they can add a note to any transaction — for example, to clarify what an EFTPOS charge relates to, or to confirm that a large payment is a supplier invoice rather than a personal expense.
This transparency dramatically reduces the number of explanation requests that come in via email. Clients can see how their transactions have been coded and raise questions in context — attached to the specific transaction rather than described in a long email thread.
Uploading Bank Statements via the Portal
Clients with Comment access can upload bank statements directly through the portal's document upload area. Supported formats include:
- CSV files (exported from online banking)
- Excel (.xlsx) files
- PDF bank statements (from most major Australian banks)
Once uploaded, the statement is queued for processing by the bookkeeper. The client sees an upload confirmation and a status indicator showing whether the statement is pending review, being processed, or imported. This eliminates the need for clients to email PDF statements as attachments — which creates version control issues and risks statements being missed in a busy inbox.
Collaboration Features: Transaction Comments and Queries
The comment feature is the portal's most productivity-enhancing tool for bookkeepers. Instead of sending a batch of queries in a spreadsheet or email list, the bookkeeper can flag individual transactions directly in the portal:
- Open the transaction in your practice dashboard.
- Click Add Client Query and type your question (e.g., "Was this $4,200 Bunnings purchase for the business or personal?").
- Save — the query appears on the transaction in the client's portal with a notification sent to the client.
The client sees the query on their transaction view, types their response in the comment field, and saves. The bookkeeper's dashboard shows the response in real time — no email required.
Queries and responses are retained as a permanent audit trail on each transaction, which is useful if the coding is later reviewed by the ATO.
Reconciliation Reports and BAS Visibility
Clients can view their reconciliation reports for any completed period — a read-only summary showing opening balance, closing balance, total debits, total credits, and coded vs. unreconciled transactions. This gives business owners a clear picture of their reconciliation status without needing to ask their bookkeeper.
For BAS periods, the portal shows a draft BAS worksheet that the bookkeeper has prepared, including the key fields (G1, G10, G11, 1A, 1B) with the amounts calculated. The client can review the draft and approve it via the portal, or leave a comment requesting a change — replacing the "here is the BAS for your approval" email exchange with a structured workflow.
Reducing Email Back-and-Forth
For bookkeepers managing ten or more clients, the cumulative time spent on email coordination is substantial. ReconLink's client portal centralises the communication around the actual work:
- Queries live on the transactions they relate to.
- Document uploads are associated with the client and date automatically.
- BAS approvals are tracked with a timestamp and the client's login record.
- All portal actions are logged in the audit trail.
Clients who use the portal actively typically require 30–50% fewer ad hoc email exchanges with their bookkeeper during a reconciliation cycle — freeing up time for higher-value advisory work.
Further Resources
- ReconLink Help Centre — Client Portal Setup Guide
- ReconLink Help Centre — Supported Bank Statement Formats
- ReconLink Help Centre — Managing Client Access Levels and Permissions
- ATO — Record-keeping obligations for business owners