Firm Portal
The Firm Portal is the central surface for accounting professionals managing VAT compliance across multiple client businesses. It exposes the firm-wide dashboard, the client grid with search, batch and per-client filing surfaces, multi-client reporting, staff productivity, and (where applicable) the §32 attestation entry pathway for restricted-segment clients.
Who uses the Firm Portal
- Accounting firms managing client VAT compliance under a single firm umbrella
- Bookkeepers handling multiple business clients on a shared team
- Tax professionals preparing and lodging client VAT returns
Each of these workflows is shaped by the same access traversal — see How Firm-to-Client Access Works for the model that determines which clients appear in your grid.
The dashboard at a glance
The Firm Portal landing page renders seven KPI cards drawing on aggregate data across every active client your account has access to. The cards are designed to surface the highest-stakes items first.
| Card | What it shows | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Total Clients | Count of active client businesses in your access set | Excludes archived clients |
| Pending Filings | Count of returns in ReadyToFile / AwaitingDirConfirmation state across clients | Bridges to Filing Wizard |
| Pending Re-attestations | Count of clients with no active §32 attestation or with a stale attestation (text-drift detected) | Clickable — links to the client grid pre-filtered to ?filter=pending-reattestation. Surfaces the §32 Attestation Entry Pathway for the firm administrator |
| Compliance Score | Aggregate firm compliance health with High / Medium / Low / Not-Assessed chips | Computed from per-client compliance scores |
| Portfolio Net VAT | Sum of net VAT due / refundable across the period | Negative if the portfolio is a net refund |
| Returns Filed This Quarter | Count of returns that reached Lodged or Lodged & Paid in the current quarter | See the canonical lifecycle for state definitions |
| Next Deadline | Countdown to the next filing deadline across your portfolio | Displays an overdue overlay if any return is past its deadline |
The Pending Re-attestations count is the firm-administrator's view of clients that cannot currently be filed for under the §32 pathway. Clicking it opens the client grid filtered to those clients so each can be routed through the §32 Attestation Entry Pathway. Treat a non-zero count as actionable work, not a status indicator.
Quick actions
The Quick Actions row sits below the KPI cards and offers four navigation shortcuts plus a refresh:
| Button | Destination |
|---|---|
| Add Client | /firm/clients/onboard — see Adding a client below |
| Batch VAT Filing | /firm/batch-filing — see Batch Filing |
| Multi-Client Reports | /firm/reports — see Firm Analytics |
| Staff Productivity | /firm/productivity — workload distribution + per-staff metrics |
| Refresh | Reloads dashboard data without leaving the page |
The client grid
Below the KPI cards and Quick Actions, the Firm Portal renders a paginated client businesses grid with columns BusinessName, TIN, VAT#, Status, FilingFrequency, ComplianceScore, NetVAT, NextFilingDue, LastActivity, and Actions. Each row exposes per-client navigation (View Dashboard / VAT Returns / Import Transactions).
Finding clients
The client grid supports search across the business name, TIN, and VAT number columns. Type at least two characters in the search input above the grid; results filter live with a short (300 ms) debounce, and a screen-reader-friendly live region announces "N clients match" alongside the result count.
The search composes with the Filing Frequency filter (All / Monthly / Quarterly) — both apply together. The grid paginates and sorts server-side.
If no clients match, an empty-state panel describes the active filters so you know whether to broaden your search or clear the filing-frequency filter.
The search is being extended with additional matching modes (fuzzy / tokenised) tracked under Comply #3125. The current shipped behaviour described above is stable.
Adding a client
From the Firm Portal landing, click the Add Client quick action (or the Add Client button on the Clients grid). This opens the Client Onboarding wizard at /firm/clients/onboard.
The wizard captures six structured sections (Business Identification, VAT Configuration, Contact + Billing, Address, Engagement, conditional Food Store License). It is gated to firm Owners only — non-Owners cannot onboard clients.
See Client Onboarding for the full capture sequence, the validation rules, and what onboarding does not do (specifically: it does not create a §32 attestation; that is a separate step for restricted-segment clients).
Managing permissions
The Firm Portal recognises two base permission levels — Owner and Accountant. Non-Owner access is further refined via the granular permission matrix, which lets an Owner toggle per-category access (Transactions, Reports, Compliance, Settings, User Management, Security) for any Accountant user.
There is no separate "View Only" or "Review Only" tier as a named third level — a read-only experience is achieved via granular permissions on an Accountant.
See User Management for the canonical permission reference, the Last-Owner protection, and the client invitation lifecycle.
§32 attestation in the Firm Portal
The Firm Portal is the entry point for the firm-administrator side of the §32 attestation lifecycle. The Pending Re-attestations KPI card surfaces clients that need attention; clicking through routes you to the §32 Attestation Entry Pathway, which walks a practitioner through the carve-out qualifying screen and the regulatory acknowledgement modal that ultimately writes the ATTESTATION_CREATED audit event.
The lifecycle states themselves (Active / Superseded / VoidedByAssignmentChange) and the relationship to the per-return Signatory Capacity Declaration are documented separately at Section 32 Attestation Overview.
Subscription tiers
All Firm Portal features are available at no cost during open beta. Subscription billing begins after open beta.
| Tier | Max Clients | Price | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Founding Member | 25 | $99/mo | Locked for life — limited to 20 spots |
| Accounting Firm | 25 | $499/mo | Standard pricing |
| Enterprise | Unlimited | Custom | Dedicated support, SLA |
Next steps
- How Firm-to-Client Access Works — the access model that resolves your client set
- Client Onboarding — the 6-section wizard for adding a client
- §32 Attestation Entry Pathway — what to do for restricted-segment clients
- Batch Filing — file multiple returns in a single workflow
- Firm Analytics — cross-client trends and staff productivity
- User Management — permissions, granular access, and the client invitation lifecycle