Email PDF, Live Link or Client Portal?
The three formats, honestly
Emailed PDF
The record. Fileable, forwardable to the business partner who signs the checks, printable for the fridge. Its weakness is also its nature: nothing about a PDF tells you it was opened, and on a phone it is a download standing between the client and their month. Send it — but never send only it.
Live web link
The reading format. Full width in the mail app, no download, works on the phone where a meaningful share of reports are actually consumed. Because it is a page and not a file, it can carry the delivery log: sent, opened, reminded. The same report, same numbers, in two formats — the link is not a replacement for the PDF, it is the PDF's readable twin.
Client portal
The archive that wants to be a destination. Portals work when they hold several things the client needs — invoices, contracts, documents, tickets — and the login habit already exists. Reporting alone rarely justifies teaching someone a new place to go: the adoption math is brutal, and an unread archive looks identical to no archive at all from the client's side.
The decision rule
Put the report where the client already is. For recurring client reporting, that is the inbox — so the email carries both formats: attachment for the record, link for the read, and the link quietly carries the receipt. If your client already logs into a portal for billing, add the report there as the third copy. What you do not do is trade the email for the portal and hope the habit transfers; it does not.
The mid-month "can you send an update" case
Portal advocates win one argument: the client who wants something between scheduled sends can go look. The same argument has the same cure — the live link from last month's email still opens. A report archive that is reachable from the inbox is the portal's benefit with zero adoption cost; keep the portal for what genuinely needs a login, like contracts and payments.
What each format proves to the client
- The PDF proves the report exists and is theirs — branded, dated, on letterhead.
- The link proves it was read (or that it wasn't, which is the conversation you would rather start from a fact).
- The schedule — same day, every month, any format — proves more professionalism than any format does. Late is late in every file type.
Frequently asked questions
Should client reports be sent by email, link or a portal?
Email plus PDF plus a live link, in one message, is the pair that covers both behaviors: the attachment is the filed record, the link is what gets read on a phone. A portal adds value when clients already log in for something else — invoices, documents, tickets. A portal nobody has a reason to open is a report archive that accumulates unread items.
Do clients open report attachments on their phones?
Rarely, and that is the honest reason a link travels with the PDF. Attachment previews on mobile are cramped, downloads feel like work, and a report that needs a download to be read is a report that gets read later — a category that includes never. The web version opens at full width in the mail app itself.
Is a client portal worth setting up for reporting alone?
Usually not. Portals earn their login friction when they hold several things a client needs — contracts, billing, files, history. Reporting alone does not justify teaching someone a new place to go; the email is where they already are. Add the archive link to the email and you get the portal's benefit without the portal's adoption problem.
How do I know whether a client actually read the report?
Only the web version can tell you: opens are logged against the link, the emailed attachment is a shot in the dark. A per-report link also means the log answers who received what, which turns 'did you see it?' threads into a look at the delivery record.
Both formats, every send, from one run
The workspace emails the branded PDF with a tracked live link beside it — and keeps the archive behind the same link.
Open the workspace