Once you have configured your courses, you can begin giving your clients access by assigning those courses to memberships. Customers with active subscriptions to those memberships will then be able to view and interact with any assigned courses through their Client Portal account. In this guide we will explore what courses look like from your clients' end of things and how you can easily track your customers' progress through the course content.

For more information on how to configure your courses, check out any of the articles in the Online Courses subsection under Building Your Service Offerings in our Help Centre.

When a customer has an active subscription for a membership to which one or more courses have been assigned, they will be able to access all of the relevant course content through their Client Portal account. This ensures that only those customers that have subscribed will be able to view and interact with your courses.

After logging into their portal account, clients can access any of their available courses by selecting the Courses icon in the left-hand menu bar.

All of the courses that the customer has access to will be accessible from this page. The tabs at the top of the page can be used to navigate between each available course.

On a narrower browser view these tabs are replaced with a drop-down menu for easy navigation.

The Continue Where You Left Off section will display the course and unit containing the next lesson the customer has to complete followed by the lesson's name and a preview of its written content. If the customer has not yet completed any lessons, this section will display the first lesson in the course.

The Course Overview section will list the course name and description, followed by information on their progress (i.e. number of completed units) and a list of its included units. Selecting the arrow at the right-hand side of any unit opens a list of its lessons.

When the client begins working their way through the course, the colour of each listed lesson will indicate how far they have made it through the unit. Incomplete lessons and units are displayed in purple, while completed lessons and units are shown in green. Selecting any lesson in the list takes the customer to that lesson's page.

Each lesson's page will include buttons at the top that allow the customer to navigate to the previous or following lessons. These buttons will be followed by the selected lesson's name, then the lesson content. Video will always display at the top of the content section, with any included text and images showing below.

The Message the Trainer section appears at the very bottom of the page, following all of the lesson's content. Note that this option only populates if you have chosen to enable comments on your courses. This message field allows clients to ask questions or provide other feedback related to the selected lesson. All of a customer's previous comments as well as any of your team's responses will be listed above the text box. Each comment will be shown with the name of the person that sent the message, the date it was sent, and the message itself. Clients can remove any of their own comments by clicking the trash can icon on the right side of where it is listed.

For more information about viewing and responding to lesson comments, check out the Customer Messages section below.

As customers work through the course, they can mark lessons they have already finished as completed. This is done differently depending on the content included in the lesson.

Lessons with video content will be automatically marked as completed when the customer finishes the full video and navigates to the next lesson.

Lessons without video content need to be manually marked as completed. All lessons with only text, photos, and/or attached documents will have a "Complete Lesson" button at the top of the page, to the right of the title. Clicking this button marks the lesson as complete.

All completed lessons and their content will remain accessible to the client so long as they have an active subscription for a membership to which the course has been assigned. The only difference from the customer's end is that the lesson will be marked as "Completed" at the top of the page and on their Courses list.

Now that we have seen what courses look like within the Client Portal, let's discuss the many ways that your clients can get there! There are three main paths to consider:

When a customer purchases a membership through the Public Membership Portal, or through a membership's Direct Link, they will be automatically prompted to log into or create a password for their Client Portal account.

After payment has been completed, if the email used to purchase the membership belongs to a client that has previously logged into the Client Portal, they will be prompted to enter their password to log in and view their account.

If the client is new or has yet to create a password for their Client Portal account, they will instead be prompted to choose a password.

In either case, entering their password and clicking the "Sign in" button will take the customer to their Client Portal Dashboard. As mentioned in the previous section of this guide, any courses linked to the chosen membership will then be accessible at the bottom of their Dashboard.

Clients can also log into their account by clicking the link to your business' Client Portal. This link is located on your Links & Integrations page. To get the URL, start by clicking the "Links/Integrations" icon in the left-hand menu bar.

Scroll down the page to locate the "Private Client Portal" card. This card includes the Link to your Client Portal and code for its Website Integration. Both the link and the widget will allow your clients to log in and access their account. Add the link to your website, social media pages, or emails to allow clients to easily access the login page. For more information about incorporating the Private Client Portal into your website, check out our guide on Using Links & Website Integrations.

You can also send clients the link to the Customer Portal directly from their Customer Profile page. Once you have located the customer to whom you would like to send the link, click the "Actions" button at the top of their profile, then select "Send Forms/Documents" from the drop-down menu.

That will open a pop-up with options to message the customer. Select "Client Portal Access" then click the "Send" button.

The customer will be send a copy of your Client Portal message, including a link they can use to access their Client Portal account. To edit the template for this email, head to your Client Notifications page.

Should you choose to enable comments on a course, your customers will be able to send your team messages from the lessons it contains. This setting can be found at the top of the form whenever you are creating or editing a course. Note that all customer comments and related replies will be visible only to your team and the client that sent the message.

When a customer adds a comment, it will be accessible from a couple of different places on your account. To begin with, all comments will display in the Most Recent Activity feed on your Courses Dashboard. Each comment listed there will include the name of the customer that left it as well as the lesson it refers to and the course containing it. Click the "Reply in Thread" button to respond to the comment.

Comments are also listed on the lesson's information page. Each message is listed with the name and profile photo of the client that sent it along with the date it was sent and the body of the comment. Select the customer's name to navigate to their profile page or click the trash can icon to the right of their comment to remove it from the lesson. Click "Reply in Thread" to respond to the comment.

This will open a message window displaying the customer's most recent comment and a text field within which you can compose your reply. When your response is ready, click the "Send Message" button. As previously mentioned, the initial comment and any subsequent replies will be visible only to your team and the customer that sent the message.

Once messages have been added, users can remove their own comment or any of the customer's by selecting the trash can icon to the right of the message. It is important to note that users cannot remove messages sent by other users, only their own or those from the client.

When a customer subscribes to a membership that provides them access to one of your courses, a "Courses" tab will be added to their profile page. To track a customer's progress through any courses they have or have previously had access to, start by navigating to their Customer Profile page. From there, select the "Courses" icon in their info tabs.

This tab will display any courses that the customer currently has access to as well as those that they have had access to in the past. Each course will be listed with its name and all of its lessons broken down into their separate units. Any lesson that the customer has marked as completed will be shown in green with a checkmark next to the its name. Lessons that the customer has not yet completed will be listed in grey. Selecting the name of any lesson will take you to that lesson's information page.

Note that, when customers lose access to a course it will not be removed from this tab. This ensures that you are able to reference their previous course progress, even if they are no longer enrolled.

If you would like to check whether or not a client still has access to a course, you can either check their membership list for any active subscriptions to memberships with assigned courses, or click the gear icon in the menu bar at the top of their profile page and select "Login as Client". That will take you to their Client Portal Dashboard.

Whether you have created a course for marketing purposes or to provide additional information to customers that have already booked services with you, you may find yourself wanting to give one or more clients access to course material without charging them. Courses however are accessed through memberships, and memberships cannot be created with a $0.00 price, so how can this be achieved? You can provide free access to course materials by adding the course to a membership then assigning a subscription to the profile of the customer that needs access. While that assigned subscription is active the customer will have full access to the course without being charged.

If you would like prospective customers to be able to request access to a free course, we recommend setting up a "Contact Us" form and linking or embedding it in your website. When new clients submit the form, a prospect profile will be created for them. You can then convert their profile to a customer and assign the membership. If you use this method, be sure to have your notifications turned on for completed forms! Notification options are found on the Your Profile page.

You now know everything about how to keep track of your customers' interactions with your courses and lessons. If you have any questions about how to create or edit your courses, check out our selection of other help articles on online courses: