Portal lifecycle: open, closed and deleted
A portal is not a one-off. You open it, run it for as long as the intake lasts, close it when you are done, and reopen it when the next round starts. This article covers those states, what each does to the links people hold, and which you can undo.
The short version: closing is the finished-with-it action, not deleting. Closing keeps every document and reverses with one click. Deleting destroys the files for good.
Creating one
Click Portals in the sidebar, then New portal. The only required field is a name, up to 200 characters. There are no dates to pick and nothing to configure before you add people and build the request list.
Name it for what it is, since people see the name at the top of their own link: "Contractor register", "2026 induction", "Right to work checks".
Setting up what a portal asks for is covered in getting started and asking for documents and info.
Finding it again
The Portals list holds every portal you have, and search matches on the name.
Closed portals are hidden from that list by default. Tick Show closed portals, beside the search box, to bring them back. Check this before you conclude that last season's portal has been deleted.
Open and closed
Open a portal's settings and a banner at the top says This portal is open or This portal is closed, with the button that flips it. The pill beside the portal name on its page shows the same thing: Open or Closed.
Closing turns off both ways in at once. The self-registration form stops accepting sign-ups (it shows "Registration closed"), and every link already issued stops working. Anyone who opens their own link gets a card saying "This portal is closed", naming the portal and telling them to contact the organiser. There is nothing on it they can submit. Automated emails to them stop as well, including expiry reminders, so leave a portal open while you still want renewals from the people on it.
What closing does not touch:
- The documents. Everything submitted stays as it is, including approvals, rejections and expiry dates.
- Your own access. You can still open the portal, review and approve what came in, run reports and export it.
- The links themselves. They are switched off, not revoked. Reopening brings the same links back to life, so nobody has to be re-invited.
Reopen portal is the same button in the other direction, and takes effect immediately.
For a seasonal intake, close it at the end of the round and reopen it when the next one starts, rather than building a new portal each time. The people, their documents and their links are all still there.
Closing takes it off your usage
An open portal counts toward the active people on your account until you close it. A finished intake left open is the most common reason a usage figure looks higher than the work you are doing. See what counts as an active person.
Deleting one
Delete portal sits at the bottom of the Options tab in a portal's settings, deliberately out of the way.
It is permanent. Deleting a portal destroys every document uploaded to it, the expiry dates recorded against them and the approval history, and none of it can be recovered. When the portal holds files, the confirmation counts them ("This permanently deletes 34 uploaded files") and reminds you that closing the portal instead keeps them. It also counts the share links and request responses that go with the portal. Links already sent to people stop working once it is deleted.
Use it only on a portal with nothing in it, such as one you created by mistake or a test. For anything that has collected real paperwork, close it.
Getting help
If someone tells you their link is dead and you did not expect that, check whether the portal is closed. That is the most common cause, and the fix is one click. For anything else, open a help ticket.