When you invest in a new tool or system for your business, you want to make sure you get the most out of it, right? Otherwise, you’re left juggling several different tools that do different things with no efficiencies in sight.
In the case of ClickUp, it can do so much more than project management. This is why we’re really excited to dive into one of our favorite features: client dashboards.
Client dashboards inside ClickUp can eliminate so much manual work for you and your clients. They act as personalized, central hub where clients can:
The best part? Once you build one client dashboard (i.e., a template dashboard), you can rinse and reuse it for every new client you acquire!
So, do you want to build a client dashboard with me? Before you dive in, let’s create a blank dashboard that we’ll build together.
On your left-hand menu under DASHBOARDS, select the + symbol and select ‘Simple Dashboard’ to build one from scratch!
Psst! Keep in mind that this tutorial is meant to inspire your own client dashboards! This is how we build all of DaSilva Life’s client dashboards, but don’t forget that you can add and remove whatever you want to cater to your clients.
Let’s get to work!
First thing’s first: Let’s create a welcome banner! This is the first thing your clients will see, so you want to make sure it’s inviting and exciting.
Any time you want to add a new section (AKA: widget) to your dashboard, you’ll select the + Add Widget button in the top right-hand corner. That’s where you’ll start for each of these sections.
For your welcome banner, you’ll want to add a Text Box and drag it across your dashboard, so the width fills the page.
Then, using Canva, you can create a branded banner. For DaSilva Life, ours simply says, ‘WELCOME TO YOUR CLIENT DASHBOARD.’ But you can get as creative as you want! I’ve seen other clients use:
Keep in mind: The more you personalize your banners, the more elements you’ll have to create for each new client dashboard (vs. duplicating what you already have). There’s no wrong choice here – just something to keep in mind!
Once your banner is finalized in Canva, you can click Share, then Save As Png. Once the saved file populates on the bottom of your screen (or wherever you save photos and images), you can simply drag and drop it into the text block on your dashboard. Tada! Your welcome banner is complete!
Next, if you have a welcome video for clients, you can drop it below the banner! For our client dashboards, we have a Loom video titled, ‘WATCH ME FIRST!’ where we walk them through their dashboard so they can get the lay of the land.
Pro tip: To make things more efficient, you can simply duplicate your client dashboard template for each new client, using a standard loom video that you can use over and over again. If you want to make it personalized, you can simply film quick intros and welcome clips to enhance their experience even more. Again, totally up to you, but just know that you have options for how to make this come to life!
Okay, back to adding the video! Once again, you’ll click select + Add widget and create another text block. Grab the link from your video and simply paste it into the text box! Then, you can drag the sizing of the text box to the width you want it to be.
In addition to a welcome video, we also love to add a welcome message – and this is where we make it more personalized. In our client dashboard template, we have a standard welcome message that we can quickly tailor to that specific client (like adding names and details about their business or project!).
For this welcome message, you’ll take the exact same steps as above: + Add widget, select Text Box, then copy and paste (or type) what you want to say!
Another widget we love to include with every client dashboard is our contact information and hours of availability. Not only is it helpful for clients to have access to, but it helps set boundaries with your business, too! When you clearly outline when you’re available, you set expectations for clients right away.
Once again, click + Add widget and select a Text Box. From there, we pull the text from the client dashboard template and copy and paste. Here’s the information we include, but feel free to tailor yours, as well:
Instead of sending a ton of emails back and forth with clients, they can communicate with you directly from their dashboard! Select + Add widget, then choose ‘Chat Widget.’ We always add emojis to our chat widget to make things more fun.
Within the Chat Widget, you can talk to clients about:
What’s more, you can feel totally confident that you’re not missing any important details that can get buried in your inbox – everything is right there!
To truly make client dashboards a one-stop-shop, add another Text Box that includes any additional important links and documents with short descriptions. For us, that looks like:
To keep clients in the know (and avoid extra questions filling up your inbox), we typically allow them visibility to their project timelines. There are two ways you can go about this:
There are a few scenarios in which we give clients access and permissions to the project timeline and tasks. This allows our team to assign deliverables to clients for review and for clients to update the status of tasks to ‘UNDER REVIEW,’ ‘NEEDS EDITS,’ ‘APPROVED,’ or whatever statuses make sense for your processes.
To bring this to life, select + Add widget and select ‘Add a task list.’ From there, you can select the project location within ClickUp and watch it automatically populate on your dashboard.
If you don’t want clients clicking around in your projects and tasks, you can still share project timelines – just in ‘View Only’ mode. To do this, you’ll first need to create a ‘Client View’ (one of several views you can create in ClickUp) within your task list. This is where you can add and hide fields that you do and don’t want clients to see. We typically only show the Task Name and Status.
Then select the three dots next to your view, select Sharing & Permissions, then click the toggle next to ‘Public link,’ then select ‘Copy public link.’
Back in your dashboard, you want to add a widget, then select Custom Embed. Rename it to ‘Project Timeline’ or whatever you want to label it, then paste your share link. Your Task List will automatically populate in the widget and update in real-time – only this one won’t be interactive for your clients.
Finally, as another nod to client transparency and expectation-setting, we like to add a text box that includes a quick bulleted list of project deliverables. We simply keep track of these by adding a green checkmark emoji next to completed deliverables so clients always know what’s finished and what’s still coming down the pipeline. This pairs super well with the Project Timeline widget, so we put them right next to each other in dashboards.
If you want this client dashboard built for you…plus lots of other client management templates for ClickUp, we have everything you need inside our Client Management Template Bundle!
Here are all the ClickUp templates you’ll get:
Client dashboards are just one aspect of client management within ClickUp. With this bundle, you can keep all of your clients, projects, tasks, and everything else streamlined and accessible in one place. How amazing is that?
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Pro tip: If you want all of these ClickUp templates plus instant access to 40+ more…check out our ClickUp Template Vault! It’s chock-full of plug-and-play ClickUp Templates and instructional videos on how to use them. And the best part? You get lifetime access to all current and future ClickUp templates!
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