This tutorial is a continuation of the portal template tutorial series. If you have not already watched video 1 in this series, we recommend that you watch that video first before participating in this tutorial. The first tutorial in the portal template series is titled, “Automating the Sales and Booking Process” and can be found at help.releventful.com.

The previous tutorial reviews the settings available to you in steps 1 & 2 in the portal templates. This tutorial will discuss step 3.

Step 3 in the portal template contains settings to automate the planning process for the selected event type. The automations here most commonly occur after the sales process, but can be used at any point of time.

For example, most of the automations here pertain to items to assist in the planning of the event leading up to the event date, such as standard email messages, reminding the client of their upcoming payments and related tasks such as planning forms or song selection to-do’s. But you can also configure messages here to send prior to booking, such as client messages keying off of specific event statuses that are sent earlier in the sales and booking process.

For the first setting in step 3, you can configure four different settings specific to the event portal. As a reminder, each event will have a unique event portal where clients will communicate with you regarding their event. Select the edit pencil here to configure these portal settings. Keep in mind that these settings apply to all your event types and not just the event type you are editing in this portal template.

The first setting will allow or not allow clients to change the image on the event portal. This is the banner image at the top of the portal that is displayed alongside their event name.

The second setting will allow or not allow clients to edit the event timeline. If you would like the client to contribute to editing the timeline, this would be a great setting to enable for them. If not enabled, you will control the event timeline.

The third setting will allow or not allow the portal to-dos to be reordered. By default, the portal to-dos can only be reordered by you and your employees. If you want to give everyone on the event the ability to reorder the to-dos, you can toggle on this setting.

The last setting in this window will enable a timeline within the to-do menu. Each portal has its own timeline tab, however, if you would prefer to incorporate your timeline with the to-do menu, you can do so by toggling this setting on. If enabled, you have the ability to add times to the to-dos in the portal to make it function more like the event timeline. For more information on the to-do timeline settings, please refer to our tutorial on “To-Do Timeline.”

Select the edit pencil to the right of “Setting Up Your Client / Vendor Portal”. Here you will see the breakdown of “event to dos”, “event timeline”, “scheduled client messages” and “scheduled employee messages”.

Step 3 allows you to automate your clients' experience in the portal they receive access to. Here you can automate welcome messages and touch points during planning, request your client to fill out a form for additional planning information or to provide songs via song selection requests. Additionally, you can also schedule messages to go out to your portal team as general reminders and business touch points.

Our portal automations allow you to set up items in your clients portal based on a status or activity on their event.

In this tutorial, we will be reviewing what each of the sections in step 3 consist of at a high level. For more information and a deeper dive into these available sections, please refer to the additional tutorials specific to each section in step 3 at help.releventful.com.

Place items in the event to-do’s section that need to be completed by the client prior to the event. If you have a planning form or a song selection form, this would be where those items are placed. To add a to-do, click the “add” button. Each to-do can have a designated due date that the client is requested to complete the to-do by. For more information on creating a to-do item, please refer to the “Portal Template Event To-Do’s” tutorial.

You can add a default timeline to your event type here in the portal template. Select the “add” prompt underneath the event timeline section to do so. Here you can build out the default timeline that will display in the timeline section of the portal for all events in this event type. For more information on creating an event timeline within the portal template, please refer to the “Portal Template Event Timeline” tutorial.

The “Scheduled Client Messages” section is where any automated emails can be added and scheduled to be sent to your client. The difference between scheduled client messages and event to-dos is the scheduled client messages appear in the messages area of the portal and do not have any tasks associated with them. These messages truly are touchpoints that are sent to the client throughout the process leading up to their event start date, but no action is being required of them in the system.

The “Scheduled Employee Messages” section is an area where you can configure messages to be sent to employees included in the portal team. These messages will not go out to all your employees but will only be sent to employees who have been confirmed to work the specific event and are added to the portal team. This is a great place to send a preparation message to your employees working the event a week or so before with the guest count, booked inventory items, schedule for the events, etc.

For more information on setting up client and employee messages within the portal template, please refer to the “Scheduled Client & Employee Messages” tutorial.

We hope that this tutorial has been helpful in explaining the purpose of step 3 in the portal templates. For additional tutorials and resources, please visit help.releventful.com.