What your client sees
Your client doesn’t create an account or download anything: they open the link, review, sign, and pay. Here’s what each part looks like and what your team learns from their visit.
What it is
Every quote has a unique public link. It’s a page with your logo and colors where the client sees the full proposal and acts on it. The link is the credential: whoever has it can see the quote, so share it only with your client.
To see it the way they will, use Preview or Open link from the quote detail while signed in (see Preview and sending).
Requirements
- For the client: just the link and a browser. No account needed.
- For your team: the quote must be sent. Live presence and per-section attention require the Pro plan or higher.
- Country: the same in all 12 markets; the language, currency, tax name, and payment rails change.
What they see, top to bottom
- Header with your logo, the quote number and, if you set them up, the top announcement and the welcome message (in Settings › Brand appearance › Client portal).
- FOR, VALID UNTIL, and TERMS. Next to the validity date there’s a notice: “Due in N days”, “Due today”, or “Expired”.
- TOTAL DUE, with the currency. If you asked for a deposit, below it says how much they pay on approval and what balance remains; if it’s a retainer, how much is charged each month.
- Lines: item, quantity, unit price, and amount. When the negotiated price is lower than the list price, the list price appears struck through next to the one they pay. The table doesn’t show your cost or your margin.
- Subtotal, taxes, and total: one row per rate with your country’s tax name (IVA, VAT, GST, Sales tax) and, if applicable, withholding subtracted.
- Notes for the client, if you wrote any.
- Actions: approve, download PDF, or reject.
- Conversation, if you have it turned on.
- Contact: “Questions about this quote? Contact [your business]” with WhatsApp, email, or phone, depending on your business contact details.
At the bottom is Cord’s branding (“Legally binding signature · Verified by Cord”). From Starter you can remove it in Client portal › Show Cord branding.
The steps: review, sign, pay
- Review. The client reads the proposal. Each line has the checkbox Include this line in your approval: if they uncheck any, they see how many lines they’ll approve and the recalculated total to approve.
- Sign. With Approve quote the same card moves to Digital signature: a summary of the quote number and total, Signer’s full name, Email (optional), the acceptance checkbox, and Confirm and sign. See Approval and evidence.
- Pay. After confirming, Quote approved appears with the audit stamp. If your account collects online and an amount is due today, PAY NOW and Pay securely appear. On credit, they see the date their payment is due; with a deposit, the Payment plan with deposit and balance.
On mobile, a bar with the total and the Approve button sticks to the bottom as they scroll. From review they can also choose Reject, write an optional reason, and Confirm rejection (see Negotiation and counteroffers).
Language, format, and currency
- Language: the quote’s, which the quote takes when sent: the one your client has in their record or, if they have none, your organization’s (Settings › General). It doesn’t depend on the client’s browser, and changing the record later doesn’t change a quote already sent. The payment page and its form appear in the same language. See Document language.
- Date and number format: that of the quote’s language, with your country’s variant when there is one.
- Currency: that quote’s sales currency. A business in Madrid quoting in EUR shows euros; if you quote in USD, the client sees and pays dollars (see Advanced options).
PDF and printing
Download PDF opens the browser’s print dialog with a clean version of the quote (no buttons, chat, or contact block), which the client can save as a PDF. After approval, the same button is called Download receipt.
Conversation and presence
If you left Comments and counteroffers on (in Client portal), the client sees the CONVERSATION section to write messages or send a counteroffer, and a comment button on each line. Each bubble says who wrote it: You for the client and your business name for your replies. See Chat and comments.
While the proposal is open, a strip shows the connection status:
- Connected in real time when nobody from your team is looking at it.
- [Name] is online when someone on your team has that quote’s detail open (Pro plan or higher). Cord uses the member’s profile name, or their email if they have no name.
- [Name] is typing… when that person is writing a reply.
If you change the proposal with Modify and resend while the client has it open, the amounts update without reloading and The proposal was updated appears with See changes (see Negotiation and counteroffers).
What your team sees of the visit
| Signal | Where you see it | Plan |
|---|---|---|
| Viewed (first open) | The quote moves to Viewed, the activity logs that the client opened it from the link and, if you turned it on, the Quote viewed alert arrives. | All |
| Viewing now | Badge next to the client’s name on the detail, for example “Viewing now — Line items”. | Pro or higher |
| Client attention | Detail block with distinct devices per day, opens, first and last visit, time per section (Summary, Line items, Notes and terms, Approval and payment, Conversation), and total time. | Pro or higher |
| New message | New appears in Conversation when the client writes while you have the detail open. | Pro or higher |
What counts and what doesn’t
Cord only counts what the client does, and it measures it from the open page itself:
- Your team doesn’t count. Anyone who opens the link with an active session in your organization sees “Preview — this is what your client sees. Your visit is not counted as a view.” and generates no view, client presence, or attention.
- Link preview generators don’t count. When you paste the link into WhatsApp, Slack, or an email, the service that builds the link card isn’t recorded as the client.
- It’s measured with the page visible. The view is recorded when the link is open in a visible tab and the page has finished loading; a background tab adds no time.
- The view is counted once. Reloading or reopening doesn’t trigger new view alerts. In Client attention, each new tab adds one open.
If you open the link from another browser without a session, Cord can’t tell you apart from the client and will count your visit.
Transparency notice
Below the card, the client reads: “Whoever sent you this proposal can see when you open it and which sections you review.” This notice isn’t shown in your preview. IP addresses for these signals are stored as a hash, not in clear text; the full IP is kept only as signature evidence.
Below it is the Platform Privacy Notice link, which opens Cord’s privacy notice in the quote’s language, even if you’ve hidden the Cord brand mark. If you set your business’s Privacy Notice in Settings › General, it goes first, as [your business] Privacy Notice. The invoice link and the portal carry them too.
Behavior and edge cases
- Expired quote: the link still opens with “Expired”, but Cord no longer accepts the signature and tells the client the quote can no longer be modified.
- Rejected: the link shows Quote rejected and “We notified [your business]. If you change your mind, contact them directly.”
- Paid, rejected, or expired while open: the page reloads by itself to show the final status.
- Test quote: the ribbon “Test quote — no commercial or fiscal validity” appears.
- Quote builder embedded on your site: if the quote is shown on a site that isn’t authorized, it appears read-only with Respond from the secure link and the Open proposal button (see Cord Elements).
Limits by plan
| Free | Starter | Pro | Scale | Developer | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Public link, signature, and PDF | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Remove Cord branding | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Live presence and client attention | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Common problems
The quote was marked as viewed and the client says they didn’t open it. Someone else with the link may have opened it, or you opened it without a session. Check Client attention to see how many distinct devices opened it. The figure is approximate: Cord stores nothing on your client’s device, so the same device counts again on another day or network, and two with the same browser on the same network count as one.
The client doesn’t see the pay button. They haven’t approved yet, the payment is on credit and not yet due, or your account has no active payment rail.
The client doesn’t see the conversation. It’s turned off in Client portal › Comments and counteroffers, or the quote was already approved or rejected.