View the portal as a client

View as client shows you the client portal exactly as one client sees it. What a client sees depends on four settings — the theme, the sidebar, the dashboard and the onboarding cards — and each can be limited to particular clients, so this saves you working out which of them applies. Zendo also calls this impersonating a client. You find it in the ⋯ menu on the client's profile, and in the same menu on the client's row in the clients list. While you view the client portal as a client, you can also act on their behalf, as they would.

Open the client portal as a specific client

1. Open Clients and select the client. You can also start from the panel on one of their requests, on one of their orders, or in Messages.
2. Select View as client.
3. While you impersonate a client, a blue border surrounds the client portal and a Back button sits at the bottom. Select it to return to Zendo as yourself.

Each part of the view comes from its own setting

• The look comes from Settings › Brand › Appearance, or from the client's own theme under Settings › Brand › Client themes. See Set your workspace appearance and Create a client theme.
• The sidebar comes from Settings › Portal › Sidebar content, including items limited for this client. See Change what is in the client sidebar.
• The dashboard comes from Settings › Portal › Dashboards. See Build a dashboard.
• Onboarding cards come from Settings › Portal › Onboardings, including cards restricted to a service the client bought. See Create an onboarding card.
• The request types come from each type's own settings, plus whatever the client's purchases unlocked. See Decide who can submit a request type.

Unlike a preview of a sidebar or a theme, View as client shows the client's real client portal, with their real requests, orders and documents. Clients never see internal notes on requests, your notes on their profile, anything under Settings or your other clients.

View as client does not show emails, notification settings or a checkout

Emails. You cannot see what the invitation or a notification looks like in the client's inbox, or whether it arrives. To see this, add a second email address of your own as a client and go through the steps as that client.

Notification settings. Every client notification has a default, and each client can change their own, so you cannot see with View as client which notifications a client actually gets. See Every notification your clients can get.

A complete purchase. You can look at the Front Desk and the order page, but you cannot go through a Stripe checkout; a checkout with a manual payment method works. For a Stripe checkout, use a second email address of your own, or the Sandbox, where nothing reaches your real clients. See Try things out in the Sandbox.

Check again after every change

Use View as client before you invite a client, to see their first sign-in. You can also use it when a client says they cannot find something.

Related

• Show different things to different clients
• Create a client theme
• Change what is in the client sidebar
• A client sees the wrong sidebar, dashboard or theme
• Try things out in the Sandbox

Updated on: 09/11/2026