Self service is a set of customer-facing web pages that let your customers act without calling you. They book their own appointments, pay their own invoices, accept proposals, send you photos, and track a technician on the way. Every action writes straight back into Commusoft, so your office team sees the result without touching it.

How self service works

Every portal follows the same shape. You send the customer a link, the customer opens a branded web page, they do one thing, and Commusoft records it.

The link is carried by a tag in an email or SMS template, so it is generated fresh for each customer and each job. Customers do not create an account or install anything. They open the link on a phone or a computer and act.

Three things sit underneath all of the portals:

The scheduling engine: decides which appointment slots a customer is offered on any booking portal
Communication templates: carry the portal links out to the customer by email or SMS
Self service branding: controls the logo and colours the customer sees on the page

Note: Self service branding does not apply to the website booking portal, the legacy booking portal or the Customer portal.

The portals

Self service is not one portal. It is a set of them, each doing one job, all configured in the same place.

➡️ Click your Profile icon > Settings > Self service

Each portal has its own View link on that page, opening its own settings.

Booking and rebooking

Portal	What the customer does
Job booking portal	Books an appointment for a job. Covers both the work address contact, such as an agent or landlord, and the primary customer contact.
Website booking portal	Books a job from a form on your own website, rather than from a link you sent.
Service reminder portal	Books the routine service their reminder is chasing, and prepays for it if you ask them to.
Rebook portal	Chooses a new slot when an appointment needs to move.

Money

Portal	What the customer does
Invoice portal	Views an invoice and pays it online. You control when card payment is offered.
Payment portal	Pays online.
Statement portal	Views their account statement and settles what is outstanding.
Proposal portal	Reviews a proposal and accepts it.

Job updates and feedback

Portal	What the customer does
On our way portal	Tracks the appointment once the engineer is on the way.
Media portal	Uploads photos and videos of the job, so you can quote without a site visit.
After sales care portal	Leaves feedback once the job is done.

The Customer portal is a separate, older feature. It gives a customer a username and password for an ongoing account view rather than a single-action link, and it is not covered by self service branding.

What you need to have set up

The portals are switched on, but they are not useful until the settings behind them are in place. A customer who opens a booking link with no shifts or service windows configured sees no available appointments.

Scheduling foundations

Any portal that offers an appointment relies on these. Miss one and the customer's journey stops.

Skills: assigned to users, so the right engineer is matched to the job
Shifts: assigned to users, so the system knows who is working when
Service windows: determine how timeslots are displayed to the customer
Scheduling rules: control how far ahead customers can book, and keep service jobs inside their due date
Job description templates: configured for service jobs and for automatic invoicing

Payment integrations

Any portal that takes money needs a payment integration connected first. Commusoft supports Stripe and GoCardless.

Stripe: card payments, including Apple Pay and Google Pay
GoCardless: bank payments, including instant bank pay and Direct Debit

Without a Stripe or GoCardless integration, prepayment cannot be enabled and the prepayment section does not appear in the service reminder portal settings.

Prepayment collects the money before the job is scheduled. When you request it, the invoice must be paid in full at the time of booking. On the invoice portal you can go further and cap card payment, so invoices above a set total can only be paid by instant bank pay through GoCardless.

Communication templates

The portal link reaches the customer through a template, so the template has to carry the right tag. Templates worth checking:

Service reminder email and SMS: must include the [service_reminder_booking_portal_url] tag
Work address job access and estimate access templates: sent to the contact when a job or estimate is created for a work address
Customer job confirmation email: tells the customer their booking landed
Media request template: carries the upload and view tags for the media portal

Branding

Branding is configured separately from the portals themselves.

➡️ Click your Profile icon > Settings > Branding > Self service branding > View

Upload a logo and a favicon, set your colours by hex code, and preview each portal on the right before you save. Until you set them, the portals use Commusoft's default colours.

What's included on each plan

Plan name	Client region	Plan includes self service portals
Legacy plans	All	No
Go paperless	UK	No
Customer journey	UK	Yes
Automation	UK	Yes
All-in-one	US	No
Customer journey	US	Yes
Field automation	US	Yes

Note: Self service branding is the exception. It is available on Go paperless and above. Automation and Field automation are not currently sold to new clients.

Where to go next

We have broken the self service articles down by portal.

Booking

Money

Job updates and feedback

Setup and appearance

Common questions

Do customers need a login to use a self service portal?

No, customers do not need a login to use a self service portal. Each portal opens from a unique link sent to them by email or SMS, so they act and close the page. The Customer portal is the exception, and does use a username and password.

What's the difference between self service and the Customer portal?

Self service portals are single-action links for one job or one invoice, sent when you need something from the customer. The Customer portal is an ongoing account view, where a customer logs in to see their properties, invoices, certificates and diary events across all their jobs.

Why can't my customer see any available appointments?

If a customer sees no available appointments, the scheduling foundations behind the portal are usually incomplete. Check that your users have skills and shifts assigned, that service windows are configured, and that your scheduling rules are not blocking the dates the customer is trying to book.

Can I take payment before a job is booked?

Yes, you can take payment before a job is booked by enabling prepayment on the service reminder portal. This needs a Stripe or GoCardless integration in place first, and the invoice must be paid in full at the time of booking.

Do the portals use my own branding?

Yes, the portals use your own branding once you set it in self service branding. The website booking portal, legacy booking portal and Customer portal are the exceptions and are not covered by it.