28 active clients. 400 emails/week. One client portal fixed it.
A design and development agency was managing client communication, approval workflows, file delivery, and project status updates entirely through email. 28 active clients generated 400 emails per week, shared between 2 account managers and a project manager who were spending 60% of their time on email management. A client portal reduced that to 40 emails/week.
An agency was spending 60% of account management time on email — status updates, approval requests, file delivery, and revision rounds that could be managed in a structured system but weren't.
The agency was a 12-person design and development shop with 28 active clients at any time. The account management workflow was entirely email-based: project kick-offs were initiated via email, deliverable reviews were attached to emails, revision requests were in email threads that spanned weeks, file delivery was via email with Google Drive links, and approvals were confirmed by email replies that needed to be manually logged in the project management tool.
The 400 emails/week figure came from the agency owner counting actual emails over a 2-week period. 60% of the account managers' time was in email. The account managers were billing at $85/hour — meaning 60% of their time in email represented $3,400/week in potentially billable time converted to email management.
The direct cost: the account managers were consuming their billable capacity on communication overhead. The indirect cost: client experience was inconsistent — some clients were well-served because their account manager was organised; others fell through the gaps during busy periods.
A branded client portal handling project status, approval workflows, file delivery, and client communication — reducing email volume by 90% and freeing account managers for billable work.
Project workspace per client
Each client has a project workspace with the current project status, milestone timeline, deliverable history, and communication thread. No more digging through email threads to find the status of a deliverable.
Deliverable review and approval
File upload to the deliverable record. Client review directly in the portal — annotatable PDFs for design deliverables, video player for motion work, and a structured approval or revision request form (no more "looks good!" emails that don't log an approval in the PM tool). Approval triggers automatic status update in the PM tool via webhook.
Revision request management
Structured revision request form with the deliverable linked, the specific feedback documented, and the revision round number tracked. Revision history per deliverable — the full history visible to both client and account manager.
File delivery
Deliverable files uploaded to the portal rather than emailed. Client downloads from the portal. Full delivery history per client.
Client notification system
Email notifications to clients when a new deliverable is ready for review, when a revision has been completed, or when a project milestone is reached. The agency team gets notified when a client approves or requests revisions.
One honest number to start.
Fixed-scope, fixed-price. The number below is the starting point — final scope is built from your brief.
A branded client portal handling project status, approval workflows, file delivery, and client communication — reducing email volume by 90% and freeing account managers for billable work.
Three steps, every time.
The same repeatable engagement on every project. No surprises, no mystery, no billable ambiguity.
Brief & discovery.
We send you questions, then get on a call. Output: a written scope with every step, feature, and integration listed.
Build & ship.
Fixed schedule, weekly reviews. No scope creep unless you change the scope — and if you do, we reprice it transparently.
Warranty & retainer.
30-day warranty on every launch. Most clients stay on a monthly retainer for ongoing features and maintenance.
Why Fixed-Price Matters Here
The agency owner needed to justify the investment to partners. Fixed price with a clear ROI (account manager time recovery) made the decision straightforward.
Related engagements.
Questions, answered.
The onboarding email framed the portal as the client's project home base — always up to date, always accessible, no more hunting for files in email. Of the 28 active clients at launch, 24 were actively using the portal within 2 weeks. The 4 who resisted were accommodated — their account managers continued to send email updates while also maintaining the portal records.
At 3 months post-launch: 43 emails/week across the 28-client portfolio, down from 400. The residual emails were client-initiated questions that weren't covered by the portal (scope discussion, billing questions, new project inquiries).
Asana. Approval events in the portal create task completions in Asana via the Asana REST API. New revision requests create new tasks in the relevant project. The agency's PM tool remained the source of truth for the internal team; the portal was the client-facing layer.
$32,000 for the client portal with file delivery, approval workflows, revision management, and Asana integration. 10 weeks.
Account manager time recovered from email management: approximately 24 hours/week across the two account managers. At $85/hour blended billing rate: $2,040/week in recovered capacity. The portal paid for itself in 16 weeks.
Tell Ryel about your project.
Describe what you’re building and what outcome you need. You’ll have a written, fixed-price scope within the week.