The Portal link button on a customer's profile page (`/app/customers/[id]`) is how shop staff hand a customer their self-service portal link — the same 30-day magic-link URL that opens their personal SalesThumb portal (quotes, appointments, job status, warranties, and invoices). It sits in the page header, next to Message and History PDF, and is meant for any staff member working that customer's profile who wants to get them into the portal without composing a message by hand.
Opening the Portal link menu
Click Portal link in the customer profile's header row to open a small dropdown with three options:
- Copy link
- Text to customer
- Email to customer
Whichever option you use, SalesThumb generates a brand-new 30-day token behind the scenes at the moment you click — it doesn't reuse or look up a link generated earlier.
What each option does
Copy link generates a fresh token and copies the full portal URL straight to your clipboard — nothing is sent anywhere. The button's label briefly changes to a confirmation ("Link copied!") for about two seconds, then reverts back to "Portal link." This is the option to reach for when you want to paste the link into a phone call note, a different app, or anywhere else outside SalesThumb's own texting/email.
Text to customer generates a fresh token and sends it as an SMS, using the phone number on the customer's profile. The message includes the shop's name and a line inviting the customer to reply STOP to opt out. This item is greyed out — with a small "No phone" label next to it — when the customer has no phone number on file, or when they've previously texted STOP to opt out of SMS.
Email to customer generates a fresh token and sends it as a formatted email to the address on the customer's profile, with a button linking to the portal and a note that the link expires in 30 days. This item is greyed out — with a small "No email" label next to it — when the customer has no email address on file.
For both Text and Email, a successful send briefly swaps the button's label for a short confirmation ("Texted!" / "Emailed!"), and the send is also mirrored into that customer's Conversation panel (the messaging sidebar on the same profile page) as an outbound message — so anyone looking at the customer later can see that a portal link went out, and when.
Things to know
- Copy link doesn't touch the Conversation thread. Only Text to customer and Email to customer create an outbound message record; copying to clipboard is silent.
- Sending again doesn't revoke the last link. Every click — Copy, Text, or Email — mints its own new token rather than replacing an old one, so a link you gave a customer last week keeps working right up to its own 30-day expiry, even after you've sent (or copied) a newer one.
- Text to customer checks more than "has a phone number." It's also unavailable if that customer has texted STOP, since SMS can't legally go to an opted-out number — this mirrors the SMS opt-out badge you'll see on the Contact card elsewhere on the same profile page.
- The whole button locks while a request is in flight, so you can't double-click your way into firing two sends at once.
- If a send fails, the button briefly shows the error in place of the usual confirmation text rather than silently doing nothing.
- No extra permission gate found on this action. Reading the underlying code, neither generating nor sending a link is restricted to a specific staff role the way some neighboring controls on the same page are (for example, editing a customer's vehicles requires a manage-customers permission) — any signed-in staff member with access to the customer's profile can use this menu.
- What the customer actually sees once they open the link — their quotes, appointments, invoices, warranties, and so on — is covered in Customer portal — what customers can self-serve; this article only covers the staff side of getting them there.
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Frequently asked questions
Q: Where do I find the button to send a customer their portal link?
A: On the customer's profile page, in the header row next to Message and History PDF. Click "Portal link" to open the Copy link / Text to customer / Email to customer menu.
Q: Why are "Text to customer" and "Email to customer" greyed out?
A: Text to customer needs a phone number on file for that customer and requires they haven't opted out of SMS by texting STOP. Email to customer needs an email address on file. Either grey-out shows a small "No phone" or "No email" label so you can see why at a glance — Copy link still works regardless.
Q: Does clicking "Copy link" notify the customer or log anything?
A: No. Copy link only puts the URL on your clipboard — it doesn't send a message and doesn't add anything to the customer's Conversation thread. Text to customer and Email to customer do send, and both get logged as an outbound message in the Conversation panel on the same page.
Q: How long does the link stay valid?
A: 30 days from the moment it's generated, whether it was copied or sent. What the customer can do inside the portal during that window is covered in the Customer portal article.
Q: If I send the link a second time, does the first one stop working?
A: No. Each Copy, Text, or Email click creates its own new token rather than revoking a previous one, so any link you already gave the customer keeps working until it hits its own 30-day expiry.
Q: Who's allowed to send a portal link?
A: Any signed-in staff member who can open the customer's profile page. Unlike some other controls on that same page (editing a customer's vehicles, for example), sending or copying a portal link isn't restricted to a specific manager-level role.