Logging in to the Admin Portal
Once your firm has had an account established in the HowNow Portal, you can login to start setting up your clients, accounts and changing any settings.
You will be directed to Business Fitness Identity - enter your account credentials in the appropriate fields then click sign in.
The navigation bar on the left side of the portal screen is used to easily access different areas of the system.
Settings in the Portal
Settings are located inside the Settings tab - Administrators on the portal are able to configure global settings for all users of the firm. These settings include:
- Employees - adding and managing employees
- Signing - create and edit signing reminders
- Notifications - set notifications reply to address and customise notifications for events that occur on the portal
- Filters - default document filters for each client when they initially join the portal
- Branding - gives you to ability to add your own logo and change the colours - from this area you can also generate embedded branding for your website
- Authentication - this provides for additional levels of security when your clients are using the Portal
Managing Employees
From the Employees area under settings, you can manage the employees of the firm who will have access to the portal. The options available will be dependent on the current role of the employee.
Add an Employee
From the Employees area, you can add your employees to enable access to the portal. Select the Add button to create a new employee. Once you have added the employee, they will be sent an invitation to join the portal and will be able to add their own password.
Manage Existing Employees
Select the employee and click on one of the buttons for the following options:
- Edit - allows changing any of the details about an employee (this is the same form as the "Add Employee" form)
- Inactivate - this makes the employee inactive in your portal - they will no longer be able to access the portal, but can be made active again at a future time - if the employee is set up as the default email recipient you will be asked to remove them as the default recipient before deleting/inactivating them to avoid the reassigning process. If the employee is the only person allocated to specific clients, you will be asked to reassign these clients to another employee.
- Demote to Employee - if the employee is set as an administrator on the portal, they can be demoted to employee (there must be at least one administrator on the portal admin site).
- Promote to Admin - if the employee is a standard employee in the portal, they can be promoted to an admin.
- Set or Remove as Default Recipient - a default recipient is set to receive ALL notifications about events on the portal - you may have one or many default recipients, but if there is no default recipient set, then each client requires a recipient for notifications, otherwise notifications will not be received by the firm.
- Delete - allows an employee to be completely removed from the portal - ensure that if an employee is removed that a default recipient for emails exists.
- Resend Invitation - this option allows you to send an new invitation where an employee has not already accepted.
- Create Adobe Sign Account - each employee needs to create an Adobe Sign account in order to be able to mark documents for signing - this can be done from this option or the employee will be asked to create the account the first time they select a document for signing.
When you delete an employee, you may be promoted to reassign subscriptions if the employee has notifications subscribed to them.
Setting Up Signing Reminders
Your firm can set a period (in days) after which the Portal will automatically resend the "Document requires signatures" notification to all signatories that are still to sign the document, including employees.
To enable this functionality go to Settings > Signing. Tick the box "Enable automatic signing reminder emails". This will activate the field to set the duration in days to wait before sending the signing reminder email. Click "Confirm" to save your changes.
Customising Notifications
Set Notifications Reply Address
Notifications are the way you and your clients know of actions on the portal. They are sent when an individual task has been performed on the Portal. When notifications are sent from the Portal, the email will show:
[Firm Name] via HowNow Portal – with an actual email address of portal@hownowhq.com, so the from address on notifications will look like this:
Your Firm via HowNow Portal <portal@hownowhq.com>
When a client replies to an email sent from the portal, you can have that go to an address in your Firm. To set the “Reply To” address, from Settings> Notifications> Set Notifications Reply Address and add the email address for your firm e.g. info@firmname.com.au. Unless this reply address is set, emails will be addressed from no-reply@hownowhq.com and clients will not be able to reply to that address.
You will also want to personalise notifications that are sent from the Portal on your behalf. When customising notifications there is an option to include an image on any or all of the notifications. This is done by having the image hosted on an web page and adding the link to the web page.
Below is a list of the available notifications detailing what action triggers each notification:
| Template | Definition |
| Sent to the Account (Portal User) | |
| Account Invite | This notification is sent to an account when you have set them up to access the portal. From the link in this notification the account holder can access the portal and choose their own password. Once the account has accepted the invitation and successfully logged in to the portal, “Accepted” will show in the Accounts List. The invite link expires after 24 hours if not accepted. Should this occur, you are able to resend the invitation from the Accounts Page. |
| Account Reset Password | This notification is generated when an account holder selects “Forgotten Password” from the login page and allows them to reset their password from the link in the email. |
| Account Reset Password Occurred | This notification is generated when an account holder selects “Forgotten Password” from the login page and allows them to reset their password from the link in the email. |
| Document Requires Signatures | This notification is generated when an account holder selects “Forgotten Password” from the login page and allows them to reset their password from the link in the email. |
| Document Task Removed | If you have set a document up for signature the account holder(s) will have received the “Document Requires Signatures” notification. If you subsequently remove the Signing Task, the account holders(s) will receive this notification to advise them the signing has been removed. |
| Firm File Uploaded | This notification is sent to the account holders(s) when you have uploaded a document for them. It is sent to each account holder on the client who is set up to receive notifications (see instructions regarding this below). If a document is uploaded to the portal and, within 5 minutes, you add a signing task to the document, this notification will not be sent (the “Document Requires Signatures” notification only will be sent in that instance). |
| Sent to the Firm | |
| Account Document Signing Complete | This notification is sent to the Firm to advise that the signing of a document has now been completed. The notification is sent to the email address set-up to receive all notifications and/or any other email address set to receive notifications for the client associated with the account holder signing the document. |
| Account File Downloaded | This notification is sent to the Firm to advise that a file has been downloaded by an account holder. The notification is sent to the email address set-up to receive all notifications and/or any other email address set to receive notifications for the client associated with the account holder. |
| Account File Uploaded | This notification is sent to the Firm advising that a file has been uploaded by an account holder assigned to one of your clients. The notification is sent to the email address set-up to receive all notifications and/or any other email address set to receive notifications for the client associated with the account holder. |
| Account Signed Up | This notification is sent to the Firm advising that the account holder has completed their sign up to the portal. The notification is sent to the email address set-up to receive all notifications and/or any other email address set to receive notifications for the client associated with the account holder. |
| Documents Requires Employee Signature | When setting up a document for signature, you are able to elect to have it also signed by a firm representative. When the signing has been completed by the account holder(s), this notification is sent to the employee in the firm who has been selected as the person to sign the document, to advise that they can now sign the document. |
| Document Signing Complete | This notification is sent when the client has completed signing the document. |
| Document Signing Declined | This notification is sent when the client has declined to sign the document. |
| Employee Accepted Invite | This notification is sent to the Firm to advise that the relevant employee has completed their account set-up. |
| Employee Added | This notification is sent to an employee when you have set them up to access the portal admin site. From the link in this notification the employee can access the portal and choose their own password. Once the employee has accepted the invitation and successfully logged in to the portal, “Accepted” will show in the Employees List. The invite link expires after 24 hours if not accepted. Should this occur, you are able to resend the invitation from the Employees Page. |
To edit a notification, select a notification from the list and click the Edit button to bring up the editor.
Each notification has an email template which can be customised using the merge fields provided to enable the auto filling of these fields with the appropriate information.
You can also add your firm's logo to the email notification by providing a link to the appropriate file. Select the image icon and complete the details shown below:
Managing Firm Filters
Filters are used to make it easier to view documents by grouping them under a filter. The Settings > Filters allow an administrator to set the "base" filters for all clients under the firm.
From this area you can add, edit or delete document filters. If you wish to add a sub-filter, select the filter you want to add a sub-filter to, press add and type in the name of the filter and press create. The filter will be added and automatically appear in the list. You can add a main filter (not a sub-filter), just by selecting the Add button from anywhere on this page. Similarly to Edit a filter name, select the filter and press the Edit button, change the name and select Update.
To delete a Filter, select the filter and press the Delete button.
Customise Firm Branding
Branding enables you to customise the look and feel of the Portal for your firm. From this area you can:
- Add your logo
- Change the colour of the portal to suit your branding
- Create a link to the portal
Authentication
There are two options firms can turn on for greater level of security when clients are logging into the portal.
The first option is force all accounts in the portal to have Two Factor Authentication (2FA). This means that when they login into the portal they will be required to enter an authentication code in the same way as employees do when logging into any of the HowNow products.
The second option is to force all accounts to login before signing. This means that when an account is sent a link to a document for signing, they will be required to login to the portal before signing the document. This creates an added security to ensure the required account is actually signing the document.
Firms can decide to use these options together, separately or not at all.
Force all account logins to use 2FA
Once this is activated, accounts will be required to set-up 2FA next time they login to HowNow. See Portal Users Help for further information on setting up 2FA.
Force login before signing
Once this option is activated, when the account clicks on the email link to sign the document, they will be presented with the Sign In page instead of being taken directly to the document.
Once they have signed in, they will be directed to the document to be signed.
