Customer Portal

Vehicles They Currently Own

Full Repair Order detail: labor items, parts, tech notes, and invoice totals. Customers can see everything that was done and what it cost during their ownership period.

Vehicles They Previously Owned

Repair Orders completed during their ownership period are still visible with full detail. Repair Orders from before or after their ownership show only the date and a “work was performed” note — not the full contents. This protects prior owner privacy while giving the current owner useful history.

Shop Contact on Receipts

Every receipt shown in the portal includes your shop’s name, phone number, and address as configured in Shop Settings. Customers can use this to reach you directly if they have questions about past work.

Overview

The landing page after login. Shows upcoming appointments across all linked shops, a preview of recent messages, and linked vehicles by VIN. Tapping a vehicle goes to its full repair history.

Repair Orders

All repair orders across every vehicle and every linked shop in one list. Tapping a row opens the full detail — labor, parts, tech notes, and totals — for any RO within the customer’s ownership period. ROs from before or after their ownership show only the date and a brief summary.

Payments

Separates outstanding balances from paid invoices and shows a running total of what is owed across all linked shops. Customers can pay directly from this tab when an online payment link is available on the RO.

Messages

The full message inbox. Lists every Repair Order thread the shop has sent a message on, newest first. Tapping a thread opens the full conversation — shop messages and customer replies in order. A reply box at the bottom lets the customer write back. The thread refreshes every 30 seconds automatically so new messages appear without the customer having to reload the page.

Shop Side

Open a Repair Order and go to the Emails tab. Use a template (e.g. “Ready for Pickup”) or write a free-form message. Clicking Send emails the customer and — if they have notifications enabled — also pushes a notification to their phone. Customer replies appear in the same thread with an amber “Customer reply” indicator.

Customer Side

The portal has a dedicated Messages tab that lists every thread by Repair Order. The Overview tab also shows recent messages as a quick-access preview. Tapping any thread opens the full conversation — shop messages and customer replies in chronological order. A reply box at the bottom lets the customer write back. Their reply lands in the RO’s Emails tab on the shop side instantly, marked with an amber “Customer reply” indicator. The thread updates every 30 seconds automatically so new messages appear without refreshing.

Android (Chrome)

Chrome shows an “Add to home screen” button automatically after the customer visits the portal. If the button does not appear on the first visit, ask the customer to visit once more — Chrome requires a brief engagement period before offering the install. They can also tap the three-dot menu and choose “Add to Home Screen” at any time.

iPhone / iPad (Safari)

Safari on iOS does not show an automatic install prompt — this is an Apple platform restriction that no website can work around. To install on iPhone or iPad:

1. Open the portal in Safari (not Chrome or Firefox for iOS).
2. Tap the Share button (the box with an arrow pointing up).
3. Scroll down and tap Add to Home Screen.
4. Tap Add to confirm.

Push notifications on iOS require iOS 16.4 or later and the app must be installed to the home screen first — they do not work from the browser tab.

Configuration Variables

Add these lines to config.local.php (or set them as server environment variables):

define('CSM_SMTP_HOST',       'smtp.gmail.com');
define('CSM_SMTP_PORT',       587);
define('CSM_SMTP_ENCRYPTION', 'tls');
define('CSM_SMTP_USERNAME',   'you@example.com');
define('CSM_SMTP_PASSWORD',   'your-password-or-app-password');
define('CSM_SMTP_FROM_EMAIL', 'shop@example.com');
define('CSM_SMTP_FROM_NAME',  'Downtown Auto');

Common Provider Settings

Per-Shop Override

Each shop can optionally configure its own SMTP credentials under Integrations → Email (SMTP). When a per-shop SMTP host is set, all outbound emails for that shop are sent through it instead of the platform defaults. Leave the shop-level fields blank to continue using the platform credentials.

Enabling Notifications (Customer)

The first time a customer visits the portal after notifications are configured, a banner at the top of the page reads “Get notified when your shop sends updates — Enable notifications.” Tapping Enable triggers the browser’s standard permission dialog. If the customer taps Allow, they are subscribed immediately.

If a customer taps Block, their browser will not ask again. To re-enable, they must go to their browser’s site settings and manually change the notification permission for your portal’s domain.

Enabling Notifications (Admin Setup)

Push notifications require a one-time setup by the platform administrator:

1. Log in to the CSM Admin panel.
2. Go to Integrations and confirm PWA / Push Notifications is switched On.
3. Click Configure → next to it.
4. Enter a VAPID Subject — your admin email in the format mailto:you@yourshop.com.
5. Click Generate Keys. The system creates the encryption keys and saves them automatically.

This is done once. Do not regenerate keys unless absolutely necessary — doing so invalidates every existing customer subscription and customers will need to re-enable notifications on their next portal visit.