Set up a customer portal for catalog browsing, orders, invoices, RFQs, forms, documents, and account access in Sanka.
Last updated: May 29, 2026
Portal is a workspace feature that publishes selected Sanka information to a customer-facing site. Customers can browse approved items, place or review orders, submit quote requests, download documents, answer forms, and check shared information without relying on email attachments.Use this guide to understand what Portal is expected to show, how access is controlled, which records can be created from customer activity, and what to check before asking AI to change portal settings or troubleshoot customer access.
Claude/Codex
Review this customer portal before launch. Check visible items, customer access, login rules, forms, order fields, quote request flow, document templates, and whether private records are hidden from the wrong customer. Do not publish changes yet.
Reviewing portal setupI reviewed the portal setup. Confirm customer access, visible catalog items, order/RFQ fields, document templates, and privacy boundaries before publishing.
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What customers can do
Portal can support several customer-facing workflows from the same workspace.
Browse published items, collections, categories, prices, images, and item details
Add approved items to a cart and submit an order when cart checkout is enabled
Review order and invoice information shared by your team
Download customer-facing documents such as order PDFs or estimates
Submit request forms for updates, onboarding, support, or custom intake
Submit a request for quote when the customer needs special quantities, terms, or specifications
View quote request status and the estimate created by your sales team when that flow is enabled
Portal should only expose records, fields, and documents that are intentionally made customer-facing. Internal notes, private properties, unrelated customers, draft documents, and records outside the customer’s company should stay hidden.
Key settings and records
Portal setup usually combines workspace settings, visible records, and customer access rules.
Portal settings: portal name, URL, language, customer-facing fields, search fields, cart fields, order table fields, and document templates
Customers: which companies and contacts can log in, whether open registration is allowed, and whether contacts can act for their company
Items and collections: which products or services appear in the portal, how customers browse them, and which item details are visible
Cart and order intake: which item fields, quantities, order properties, files, delivery details, and customer notes are collected before an order is created
Quote requests: customer-submitted requests that sales can review, convert into estimates, and follow up on
Pages and forms: customer-facing content, FAQs, policies, forms, and custom record blocks
Documents: templates used for customer downloads, including order, invoice, and estimate documents where enabled
Basic setup flow
Open Workspace > Portal and define the portal name, URL, language, and customer-facing labels.
Set the customer access model: open registration, approved company access, contact login, or company-linked contact access.
Publish only the items, collections, pages, forms, and documents that customers should see.
Configure cart, order, RFQ, and form fields so required information is collected before records are created.
Test with a customer account and confirm login, search, item visibility, checkout, RFQ, forms, downloads, and access restrictions.
Review the resulting Sanka records, including orders, estimates, quote requests, messages, and audit history.
Ask AI to review portal configuration in draft mode before publishing changes.
Sample prompt
/sanka Check this portal setup before publishing. Confirm which customers can log in, which companies and contacts they can access, which items and collections are visible, which order and RFQ fields are required, which documents can be downloaded, and which private fields must stay hidden. List anything that needs manual review before launch.
For quote requests, keep the first response as a review or draft.
Sample prompt
/sanka Review this portal quote request. Check customer, contact, item lines, quantities, requested due date, notes, existing deals, related estimates, and whether this should become a draft estimate. Do not send the estimate or close the request yet.
Expected behavior
When Portal is configured correctly:
Customers can access only the portal URL, pages, records, and downloads allowed for their account.
Published items and collections appear according to item visibility, customer filters, and search settings.
Cart checkout creates an order only after the customer submits the cart and required order fields are valid.
RFQ submission creates a customer request that sales can review and convert into a draft estimate.
Forms collect responses without exposing unrelated customer data.
Order, invoice, and estimate downloads use the selected customer-facing templates.
Portal changes follow workspace permissions and do not bypass required fields, access rules, item visibility, document settings, or audit history.
Portal does not automatically publish every Sanka item, expose all order and invoice fields, create invoices from every order, or send estimates without review. Those outcomes depend on the fields, workflow, permissions, document templates, and operational process configured by your team.
Troubleshooting
A customer cannot log in
Check whether the customer is using the correct portal URL, whether their email is tied to an approved contact, whether their company is allowed, whether registration is open or restricted, and whether they are trying to access the wrong workspace or company.
A customer sees the wrong company or records
Review contact-company associations, duplicate contacts, selected company, customer access settings, and whether the portal is configured for company-linked contact access. Treat this as high risk because it can expose customer data to the wrong account.
Items are missing from the portal
Check whether the item is active, allowed in the portal, included in the right collection, visible to that customer, and not hidden by search, category, or customer-specific filtering.
Cart checkout did not create an order
Check item availability, required item options, required order fields, file uploads, customer login state, and whether the customer submitted the cart rather than only adding items to it.
A quote request did not become an estimate
Check whether sales reviewed the request, whether required customer and item information is complete, whether the request was canceled or already quoted, and whether the estimate was created as a draft before being sent.
A document download is missing or wrong
Check the selected document template, customer-facing fields, order or estimate status, permissions, and whether the record is associated with the logged-in customer.
AI cannot decide whether this is a bug
Ask AI to compare portal URL, customer access, company/contact associations, item visibility, required fields, checkout or RFQ status, document template, permissions, and audit history. Treat it as a product bug only after confirming the customer setup and source records are correct.
Checkpoints
Before launch or after changing portal settings, confirm customer access, visible records, item filters, required order/RFQ fields, document templates, form visibility, checkout behavior, quote request handling, and privacy boundaries.
