Customer Portal Settings

Use the Customer Portal page to decide what your customers can see and do when they sign in to the portal or open a shared link. Come here to turn the portal on or off, copy the portal login link for a customer, set how long shared links last, set a default cancellation fee, let customers set up payment plans, and choose whether a revised order waits for the customer’s sign-off.

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Before You Start

• You need the settings.view permission to open the page.
• There is no Save button. Each toggle saves the moment you click it, and each number or text field saves when you click or tab out of it. If a save fails, the field goes back to its previous value and an error appears.

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Open Customer Portal Settings

1. In the deck, open Settings.
2. Under Sales Channels, choose Customer Portal.

The breadcrumb reads Settings > Sales Channels > Customer Portal. You can also search for Customer Portal in the command palette, or follow the link from Settings > Shipping & Fulfillment > Returns.

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Portal Login Link

The Portal Login Link box shows the address customers use to sign in. Click Copy to copy it; the button reads Copied for a moment. Send the link to customers who have portal access.

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Decide What Customers Can Access

Use the Access section to decide whether customers can sign in and what they can do there: Use the What customers can see section to choose what signed-in customers see:

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Turning The Portal Off

When you turn Portal enabled off, the Disable customer portal dialog asks you to confirm: “Disable the customer portal? Customers will no longer be able to log in, and “Visit Your Portal” / “Update Payment Method” links are automatically removed from outgoing emails (tokenized Pay, Track, and View-Order links keep working). Re-enabling the portal restores both.” Click Disable portal to go ahead.

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Configure Shared Links And Branding

Shared links are tokenized public links used for customer-safe actions such as viewing an order, paying, tracking a shipment, or approving a quote. They work without a portal login. In the Share Links section:

• Default token expiry (hours): how long a new shared link stays valid. The default is 72 hours, and you can enter 1 to 8760 hours (one year). Links already sent keep their own expiry.
• Cancellation cutoff (hours after fulfillment): the default is 0. Whatever you enter, customers can cancel only orders that have not been fulfilled yet.

In the Branding section:

• Portal header color (hex): pick a color or type a hex value. Leave it empty to use the Arcus blue.
• Welcome message (shown on portal dashboard): the greeting customers see after they sign in.

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Cancellation Fee

The Cancellation Fee (default) section sets a flat fee that is the fallback when an order is cancelled. A cancellation rule you create on Settings > Products & Pricing > Adjustments & Coupons with “Applies to: Cancellations” takes precedence over this flat fee.

1. Turn on Charge a cancellation fee when an order is cancelled. The fee then applies automatically when an operator cancels an order, and it can be overridden or waived per order in the refund and cancel wizard.
2. Choose the Fee type: Percentage of order subtotal or Fixed amount.
3. Enter the Fee percentage (%) or Fee amount ($).
4. Enter the Fee label (shown in cancel dialog). The default is “Order Cancellation Fee”.
5. Optionally enter Only charge if cancelled more than N hours after order creation. Leave it empty for No cutoff.
6. Turn on Charge tax on the cancellation fee when your jurisdiction taxes the fee. Tax is then recalculated with the fee in the taxable base.

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Payment Plans

Turn on Allow customers to set up payment plans to let customers split an open invoice into installments and opt into auto-pay with a saved card or bank account. Two more settings then appear:

• Auto-approve customer plan requests: when off, you review and approve each requested plan before any auto-charge runs. When on, requested plans activate immediately.
• Maximum installments a customer can choose: 2 to 60. The default is 12.

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Order Revisions

Require customer acknowledgment on order revisions is on by default. While it is on, payment, fulfillment, and invoicing of a revised order are blocked until the customer clicks “I agree” on the revised order, and an acknowledgment request email is sent automatically when you revise an order that was already sent. When you turn it off, the page shows: “Acknowledgment gate is disabled. Revised orders will proceed to fulfillment and payment without waiting for customer sign-off. The revision banner will still appear on the customer portal view.”

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Messages You May See

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What Changes Elsewhere

• Customer emails: with the portal off, “Visit Your Portal” and “Update Payment Method” links are left out of outgoing emails. Pay, Track, and View Order links still work.
• Order cancellations: the default fee is added when an operator cancels an order, unless a cancellation rule matches first or the operator waives it.
• Invoices and payments: approved payment plans charge installments automatically to the saved card or bank account.
• Order revisions: with the sign-off on, a revised order cannot be charged, packed, or invoiced until the customer agrees, and the customer is emailed a request.
• Audit trail: each change is recorded in the Audit Log as an update to the customer portal settings, with the fields that changed.

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What To Test

After changing portal settings:

1. Sign in as a test customer.
2. Confirm the dashboard opens and shows your welcome message and header color.
3. Open orders, invoices, shipments, documents, quotes, addresses, and payment methods.
4. Open a fresh public order, payment, quote, or tracking link when that link type is used.
5. Confirm expired or revoked links show the expected unavailable state.
6. Confirm customers cannot see records from another account.

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Common Blocks

• Customer cannot log in: confirm Portal enabled is on and the account has portal access.
• Customer sees no orders: confirm the customer is linked to the correct account.
• Public link still opens after portal is disabled: public links are tokenized and separate from portal login.
• Portal payment is unavailable: confirm payment connector setup and customer-facing payment settings.
• Customer cannot request a return: confirm Allow customers to request returns is on, the order was delivered, and the order is inside the return window on Settings > Shipping & Fulfillment > Returns.
• A revised order is stuck: the customer has not acknowledged the revision. Ask them to agree, or turn off Require customer acknowledgment on order revisions.
• Branding looks wrong: review portal color, welcome message, logo, and company settings.

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