A client portal for accountants that stops the chasing
Built for accounting and tax firms · Under your brand and domain · SOC 2 ready
The problem a portal has to solve
Every firm owner we talk to describes the same season. Clients who were shown how to keep their own books procrastinate and then dump a year of it on you in March. Half of them call to ask what they should bring. The rest send a shoebox, a phone photo of a 1099, and a bank statement missing December. The tool you bought to fix this is a file share that nobody opens, so the documents still arrive by email and someone on your team still spends the first week of April sorting them.
A portal only fixes that if two things are true: clients actually use it, and what they put in it goes somewhere useful without a human in between. That is what this one is built around.
What clients do in the portal
- Upload documents that route themselves. A bank or card statement goes to bookkeeping and gets extracted. A W-2, 1099, K-1, 1098 or 1095-A goes to the tax documents and the matching workpaper tile. A receipt goes to receipts. The client never chooses a folder.
- Answer document requests. You request December's statement or a missing 1099; the client sees exactly what is outstanding, and the request closes itself when the file arrives.
- Complete a guided organizer. One question at a time, branching on their answers, with spouse co-fill for joint returns, in English or Spanish with wording your firm can edit.
- Sign engagement letters. E-signature inside the portal. When the client signs, LucaLedger creates the organizer, the document requests and the tasks for that engagement.
- Answer questions about transactions. "What was this 5,000 dollar transfer?" is a question in the portal, not an email thread, and the answer lands on the transaction.
- See their financials and shared work. Statements you choose to share, tax strategy summaries, and a cash outlook from your advisory scenarios, all read-only and current.
- Pay invoices. Invoices issued from LucaLedger are paid by card through a secure link.
- Connect a bank. Clients link their own accounts through Plaid from inside the portal, so feeds start without you handling credentials.
- Message your team. One thread per client, with your staff on the other side, and notifications by email so clients do not have to remember to log in.
What your firm controls
- Your brand, your domain. Logo, colors and font, served on a domain you own. Clients see your firm, not a vendor.
- Three modes per client. Off, documents-only, or the full guided tile board, chosen per client from their record.
- Who gets in. More than one portal user per client, invited from the client record and attached to a specific entity, so the people who need the business see the business.
- Secure links, no passwords to reset. Clients sign in from a link you send from the client record. When a return is locked, the client's tile board can freeze read-only until you re-engage.
- Phone-friendly. Everything above works from a phone browser, and a native client app with a document scanner is rolling out.
Clients are enjoying going in, and they're discovering things. One said, "Sign me. Send me my portal link now."
Kenji Ridley, financial advisor and accountant, Community Solutions Financial, Pennsylvania. 31 years in practice, clients in 35 states. Recorded August 2026. More customer stories.
How it compares
Most firms bolt a document tool (SmartVault, ShareFile, Liscio, Content Snare) onto a practice-management platform. TaxDome's portal is the benchmark in that category and its client app is genuinely good. The difference here is not the portal by itself. It is that the portal is the front door of the system that also keeps the books and prepares the return, so nothing a client sends has to be moved into a second tool. See LucaLedger vs TaxDome, vs Karbon and vs Canopy, or all comparisons.
Reselling the platform under your brand (planned)
On the roadmap, not live today.
The next step for white-label is module-level permissions per client: turn on bookkeeping so a client sees their own books, turn on financials, tax preparation or planning, and each client sees only what you enabled. That lets a firm resell the platform, not just brand a portal. It is not available yet; we will update this page when it ships.
Frequently asked questions
What is a client portal for accountants?
A client portal is the secure, firm-branded place where a client sends you documents, answers your requests, signs engagement letters, pays invoices, and messages your team, instead of doing all of that over email. A good one is connected to the work: what the client uploads lands in the books or the return without anyone re-sorting it.
Is the portal white-label?
Yes. Your logo, colors and font, and your own domain. Clients never see LucaLedger's branding.
Do clients have to create an account?
No. Each client gets a secure sign-in link from their client record. You can add more than one portal user per client, for a spouse, a bookkeeper or a business partner.
What happens to documents clients upload?
They route themselves: a bank statement goes to bookkeeping, a W-2 or K-1 goes to the tax documents and the right workpaper tile, a receipt goes to receipts. The client uploads; LucaLedger sorts.
Does the organizer support Spanish?
Yes. The organizer and the portal run in English and Spanish, with wording your firm can edit, and spouse co-fill for joint returns.
Can clients pay invoices in the portal?
Yes. Invoices are issued from LucaLedger and paid by card through a secure link, at card rates priced to the card rather than a flat rate.
How we describe this: based on LucaLedger's shipped capabilities as of September 2026. Security posture: encryption in transit and at rest, row-level isolation between firms and clients, SOC 2 readiness program complete with the audit underway. Last updated September 2026.