Customer Portal: what your customers see

The Customer Portal as one of your customers meets it, screen by screen, with what you control from Business Central at each step.

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There is a companion page written for your customers: Customer Portal: a guide for your customers. It shows the same screens without the Business Central detail, and you can send it to them as it stands.

This page follows the portal in the order a customer meets it, and says at each step what you control from Business Central. Installing the portal and switching it on has a page of its own: Customer Portal: installation and setup. The Customer Portal is a licensed part of Essential Rental and is in preview.

The drawings use an invented customer, Brightwater Civils Ltd, hiring from Example Hire Ltd, and read as they would on 20 October 2026. They show the portal in its own colours. Yours carries your company's name, logo and colours. The portal's wording is in English.

Getting in

Nobody can register for the portal. A person gets in because you invited them, and they prove who they are with a code sent to their email address. There are no passwords.

The invitation

On a customer's card, choose Portal Users, then Invite, and enter the person's Full Name and Email. Business Central emails the invitation within about a minute. The installation guide shows the list.

The invitation's subject is "You have been invited to the Example Hire Ltd customer portal", with your company's name in place of Example Hire Ltd. The email:

A person who already signs in to the portal is not emailed when you give them another customer. The new account is there the next time they look. Resend Invitation works only until the person has signed in for the first time, when their Status changes from Invited to Active. A customer that is blocked for All, or privacy blocked, cannot be given portal users.

Signing in

The person opens the portal's address, enters their email address and chooses Continue.

Illustration. The real screen can differ in detail. The sign-in page. The name at the top is the hire company's. It asks for an email address and nothing else.

The portal answers with Check your email, and Business Central emails a 6-digit code, with the subject "Your sign-in code for Example Hire Ltd". The person types the code and chooses Sign in.

Illustration. The real screen can differ in detail. The page that follows, with the code typed in. It reads the same for every address, whether or not that address can use the portal.

Business Central sends portal emails once a minute, so the code can take a minute to arrive. If the portal cannot reach Business Central when a code is asked for, it tries again after 30 seconds, 1 minute and 2 minutes, and then gives up. A code that Business Central has not sent within 10 minutes is not sent at all. In both cases the person asks again.

What the portal enforces

How long a code lasts
10 minutes from the moment it was asked for, not from when the email arrived. It works once.
Wrong codes
The first four wrong tries answer "That code is not right. Check the email and try again." The fifth ends the code: "That code has expired or has been tried too many times. Send a new code."
A new code
Send a new code leads back to the sign-in page. Asking for a new code ends the one before, so only the newest email works.
How many codes
The portal sends an address at most 3 codes in 15 minutes, and takes at most 10 requests from one network address in that time. Business Central keeps a limit of its own: 5 codes for an address in 15 minutes. A request over a limit is ignored without a word: the page looks the same, and no email is sent.
Many wrong codes from one place
After 20 wrong codes from one network address in 15 minutes, the portal refuses more from it: "Too many wrong codes have come from your network. Wait 15 minutes, then try again."
An unknown address
The portal never says whether it knows an address. Someone who types an address you have not invited sees the same Check your email page as everyone else, and no email is sent. The same goes for a person you have disabled.
A mistyped address
An address that is not shaped like an email address is refused on the spot: "Enter a valid email address, like name@company.com."
How long a sign-in lasts
30 days from the last visit, in that browser. Each visit starts the 30 days again, so someone who looks every week is not asked for another code.
Signing out
The person's name at the top right opens the Account page, which has Sign out and Sign out of all devices.
Access taken away
When you disable or remove the last access a person has, the portal signs them out within about a minute. If they then type a code that was already on its way, the answer is "This email address no longer has access to the portal. If you think that is wrong, contact Example Hire Ltd."

Choosing an account

An account is one customer of one company. Most people have one account and never see this page: after signing in, the portal opens their account's Overview.

A person you have invited for several customers has an account for each. The portal opens the first, by customer name, and the banner of every page then carries a Switch account button. It opens Your accounts.

Illustration. The real screen can differ in detail. The accounts of a person who can see two customers. Each line gives the customer's name, its number and the hire company. The square shows the customer's logo, or its initials when it has none.

If the portal serves several of your companies, a person's accounts in all of them are in this one list, and each line says which company the account is with. The square beside each name is the picture on the customer's card in Business Central. A customer without a picture gets its initials.

Overview

Every account opens on its Overview. The heading counts the units on hire now. Under it is the hire horizon: 12 weeks of the customer's hire on one chart, from 8 weeks back to 4 weeks ahead.

Illustration. The real screen can differ in detail. The Overview as it would read on 20 October 2026, for a person who can see billing. In a wide browser window the three small cards sit to the right of the chart. In a narrower one they come below it, as here.

Reading the hire horizon

The bands
A band for each site. Its height on a day is the number of units that were there, so it steps up at a delivery and down at a collection. By order and By type draw a band for each rental order or each item type instead. The group with the most on hire now comes first. A small group is drawn taller than its share, so that it still shows beside a large one.
Today
The vertical line. Left of it is what happened. Right of it each band carries on as a dashed line at today's count, because nothing after today is known.
The units
Choosing a band opens it, to show up to 10 of its units. A unit's dark bar is its time on hire: a bar that reaches Today is still out, and a shorter one has come back. A unit posted as lost has a red bar. A group with more units ends with a link to all of them on the Equipment page. When there is only one group, it is open from the start, as in the drawing.
The line under a bar
The unit's certificates, day by day. Green: valid. Amber: running out. Pale green: covered by a certificate that has since been renewed. Dashed red: a certificate had expired and nothing had replaced it. A unit still out has its line drawn on past Today, to show what its certificates will do.
The dots on a band
An amber dot marks the day a certificate of a unit on hire runs out. It turns red once that day has passed.
The notes under a name
A group says how many are on hire now and how many certificates are running out or expired. A unit on hire carries one note: an expired certificate, else the next to run out, else a renewal made in the weeks shown.
Other weeks
When the customer had equipment before the first week shown, an Earlier link moves the chart back 4 weeks. Later and Back to today bring it forward again, never past the 4 weeks ahead.
The Billing lane
Only for a person who can see billing. A dot for each invoice posted in the 12 weeks, the newest named with its amount before tax. Right of Today, the amount that is next to be invoiced.

Grouped by order, each band also gives the customer's PO number, which is the order's External Document No. A person who can see billing reads the order's next invoice there too. An opened order ends with a Download certificates button for that order.

Under the chart, or beside it in a wide window, are the cards. Certificates running out lists up to 5 certificates of equipment on hire that are running out or have expired, the soonest first. Recent deliveries lists the 5 newest deliveries. Next to be invoiced is there only for a person who can see billing.

The portal's "today" is the date on its server in UTC. Around midnight it can be a day away from the customer's own date.

Equipment

Equipment lists the customer's units. On hire now is what they have today. Everything hired adds every unit they have had from you before, with the date it came back.

Illustration. The real screen can differ in detail. The Equipment page, showing what is on hire now. The list is in order of site, then description. A unit's number opens its own page.
Unit no.
The rental item's number. It opens the unit's page.
Serial number
Blank when the unit has none.
Site
The ship-to name on the shipment that took the unit out, or its ship-to code when it has no name. When both are blank, the portal writes Main address.
Order
The rental order, with the customer's PO number under it when the order has one.
Out
The date the unit went out to the customer.
Status
On hire, or a count such as "3 on hire" for a unit hired in quantity. Under Everything hired: Returned or Lost, with the date.
Certificate
For a unit on hire: the most urgent status among its current certificates, or None when it has no certificate.

The search finds a unit by its number, serial number or description. The list can be narrowed to a site, an order or an item type. It is in order of site, then description, then unit number, with 100 units to a page. Download certificates makes a certificate pack for every unit in the list as filtered: see certificate packs.

A unit's page

Illustration. The real screen can differ in detail. A unit's page: what it is, each time it was with the customer, and the certificates that covered it during that time.

Hire history lists each time the unit was with this customer, the newest first, with the site and the order. A unit hired in quantity has a Quantity column as well. Under it are the certificates that covered the unit while this customer had it, with their files. Download certificates beside an order makes a pack of that order's certificates.

A customer sees a unit's time with them and nothing else: not where it was before, and not who had it.

Certificates

Certificates gathers the certificates of the customer's equipment into one list. On hire now shows the current certificates of the units on hire. Every certificate adds those of units that have gone back, and certificates that have since been renewed.

Illustration. The real screen can differ in detail. The Certificates page with Every certificate chosen, so that renewed certificates show beside the current ones. The most urgent is at the top. A file's name opens it.

Which certificates a customer sees

A customer sees a certificate when it was in force on at least one day that its unit was with them. A certificate that only covered someone else's hire is never shown, and neither is a revoked one. The list shows a certificate type by its description, or by its code when it has no description, with the certificate's number and External Reference under it.

Statuses

Valid
In date, and not yet within the notice period.
Running out
It expires within Certificate Expiry Notice (Days), set in Essential Rental Setup. Business Central calls this Expiring Soon.
Expired
Past its expiry date.
Renewed
Replaced by a newer certificate of the same type. Business Central calls this Superseded.

The list puts the most urgent first: expired, running out, valid, then renewed. It can be searched by unit number, serial number, certificate number or reference, and narrowed by site, order, certificate type and status. See Certificates for how certificates are issued.

Files

Each file attached to the certificate in Business Central is a link in the Files column. A PDF opens in the browser. Any other kind of file downloads. A certificate with nothing attached reads No files. The portal fetches a file from Business Central the first time someone opens it, and keeps a copy for next time. A file larger than 50 MB is not served.

Certificate packs

A pack is one zip file of many certificates' files, in a folder for each unit, with a list of what it holds, Certificates.csv. There are four places to ask for one:

The portal makes the pack in the background. Its page says how far it has got and updates itself every 10 seconds. When the pack is ready, the page offers it.

Illustration. The real screen can differ in detail. A certificate pack that is ready to download. While the pack is being made, the same page says how far it has got.

Deliveries

Deliveries lists the customer's posted rental shipments and posted rental returns, the newest first. The portal calls them deliveries and collections. Everything, Deliveries and Collections choose which are listed.

Illustration. The real screen can differ in detail. One collection and one delivery, the newest first. A document's number opens its page.

Units counts the units of your fleet on the document. Cancelled lines are left out, and on a collection a unit posted as lost is counted. The search finds a document by its number, or by the number or serial number of a unit on it. The list can be narrowed to a site or an order.

A delivery or a collection

Illustration. The real screen can differ in detail. A delivery's page. The two buttons give the delivery note as a PDF, and the certificates of the units on the delivery.

The page gives the date, the site with its address and contact, the order, the customer's PO number, the shipment method when the document has one, and the lines as posted. A kit's components are indented under the kit. A cancelled line is struck through and marked Cancelled. On a collection, a unit that did not come back is marked Lost. A unit's number opens its page.

A delivery has two buttons, and a collection has neither:

If Business Central cannot produce the note, the customer reads "Example Hire Ltd could not produce this delivery note as a PDF. Ask them for a copy."

Billing

Billing is for the people you choose. Tick Can See Billing for a person and a customer in the Customer Portal Users list, and that person gets three things for that customer: a Billing tab, the Next to be invoiced card on the Overview, and the Billing lane on the hire horizon. It is off until you tick it, and the billing appears within a minute or two of the tick.

Everyone else has none of these, and for them the Billing page's address answers Page not found. The portal does not hold a customer's billing at all unless someone can see it.

Illustration. The real screen can differ in detail. The Billing page: one invoice still to pay and not yet due, and October's hire, which can be invoiced from the end of the month. The Status column of Open items stays empty unless an item is overdue.
Balance
What is still to pay, in each currency, with the part that is overdue in red under it. A credit, or a payment not yet set against an invoice, takes the balance down.
Next to be invoiced
The amount of the next invoice to come, the period it covers, and the day from which it can be invoiced. Hire that could already have been invoiced and has not been is counted here as "invoiceable now". It is never called overdue.
Open items
The customer's open ledger entries, the soonest due first. One past its due date is marked Overdue.
The next 12 months
What will be invoiced on the customer's rental orders, by billing period, as Business Central works it out. The periods that make up the next invoice are marked Next.
Invoices and credit memos
Every posted sales invoice and credit memo billed to the customer, for hire or for anything else, the newest first. An invoice is Paid, Open or Overdue. A credit memo is Open or Used. The number opens the document as a PDF, which Business Central produces the first time someone asks.

Billing follows the Bill-to customer: an invoice shows in the account of the customer it was billed to. Amounts are written as a number and a currency code, such as 216.00 GBP. The tax is named after your Business Central country version: sales tax in the United States; GST in Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, India and Canada; VAT everywhere else.

How fresh the information is

The portal does not ask Business Central each time a page opens. It keeps its own copy of what your customers may see, and shows its pages from that. Under each list's heading a line such as Updated 3 minutes ago says how old the copy is.

People and access
Read every minute. An invitation, a disabled or removed access and a change to Can See Billing all take effect in about a minute. Your name, colours and logo are read at the same time.
Hire, deliveries, certificates and billing
Read every 15 minutes, for each company.
A customer nobody could see before
Its whole history is read within a minute or two of the first person being given access. Until then the Overview says "The portal is reading your equipment from Example Hire Ltd. It appears here within a minute or two."
Files and PDFs
Fetched from Business Central the first time someone opens one, then kept by the portal.

Refresh now

The Overview, Equipment, Certificates, Deliveries and Billing pages each have a Refresh now button, once the account has been read for the first time. It makes the portal read that customer's company from Business Central at once, without waiting for the 15 minutes to come round. The page then says what happened:

It read
"Up to date: the portal has just read your equipment from Example Hire Ltd."
It had only just read
"Already up to date: the portal read from Example Hire Ltd less than a minute ago." The portal reads a company at most once a minute, however often the button is pressed.
It was already reading
"The portal is already reading from Example Hire Ltd. Try again in a minute." Another read was still running after 20 seconds.
It could not read
"The portal could not read from Example Hire Ltd just now. This page shows the last successful read."

When Business Central cannot be reached

Business Central shows its side of this on Customer Portal Setup, under Portal Website: see Is it working? in the installation guide.

What you control from Business Central

The portal has no settings of its own for any of this. All of it is set in Business Central.

Who gets in
On a customer's card, Portal Users lists the people for that customer. Invite adds a person. Disable switches off that person's access to that customer, and Enable switches it back on. Remove takes the access away, and removes the person altogether when it was their last in the company. The Portal Users list, found by search, shows each person once: Disable Person and Enable Person switch a person off and on for the whole company.
Who sees billing
Can See Billing, for each person and customer.
Which customers
A customer is in the portal while at least one person who has not been disabled has access to it that is switched on. A customer blocked for All, or privacy blocked, is left out whatever its portal users. When nobody can see a customer any more, the portal deletes its copy of that customer within about a minute.
Which companies
Portal Enabled on Customer Portal Setup, in each company that is licensed for the portal.
Your name, logo and colours
The name and picture in Company Information, of the company marked Main Company. Brand Base Colour colours the banner, and Brand Accent Colour the buttons and highlights. Show Powered By shows or hides the line at the foot of each page.
A customer's own mark
The picture on the customer's card, shown on that customer's banner.
What is shown
Rental orders, posted rental shipments and returns, and certificates that are active or superseded, with their attachments. For billing: posted sales invoices and credit memos, open customer ledger entries, and the forecast. Rental quotes are not shown. Nothing can be changed in the portal, so correct a mistake in Business Central and the portal follows.
When a certificate is running out
Certificate Expiry Notice (Days) in Essential Rental Setup.

Setting these up for the first time, the email account the portal's emails come from, and what to check when something is not working are all in Customer Portal: installation and setup.