Give staff the portal
The staff portal is where your team see their payslips, apply for leave, clock in and out, and send expense claims, from their own phone. They sign in with their email and a six-digit code. There is no password and nothing to download.
Screenshots use a fictional business and staff. Select an image to view it full size.
Add their email
Go to Payroll, then Employees, and edit the person. Type their Email. Any personal email works.
This email is how they sign in, and where their payslips are emailed. Nothing is sent to them when you save.
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Press the round account button beside their name. The Staff portal window shows whether they can sign in, and the email they sign in with.
Aisha is ready to sign in. Nothing has been sent to her yet.
Send them the link
Pick one of the three buttons. It is always your choice, so a mistyped email never reaches a stranger.
- Email them the link sends an email titled Your staff portal is ready, with an Open the staff portal button.
- WhatsApp the link opens a chat with them, with a message already written. If we have no mobile for them, WhatsApp asks who to send it to.
- Copy link copies the link, to paste anywhere you like.
Afterwards the window shows when the link was emailed, and later when they last opened the portal.
How they sign in
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They open the link, check their email is filled in, and tap Email me a code.
The link fills in their email for them. -
They type the code from the email and tap Sign in. A code works for 10 minutes. They stay signed in on that phone for 30 days.
A six-digit code, every time they sign in.
Tip for your staff: add the page to the phone’s home screen, and it opens like an app.
What they see
Five tabs along the bottom: Home, Leave, Clock, Claims and Me.
- Home: clock in or out, quick buttons to Apply leave, Submit claim, see Payslips and My documents, anything still Waiting for approval, and their leave balance.
- Payslips: each finalised month, with the full breakdown and Download PDF.
- Me: their employment details, which only you can change, and their contact and bank details, which they can correct themselves with Edit contact & bank.
When you approve or reject something, it appears under the bell at the top of their screen.
Switching it off
Untick Can use the staff portal in the same window. They cannot sign in from their next tap, and nothing else about them changes. Someone marked as left in Payroll is closed out automatically.
Questions
They say the code never came.
Ask them to look in junk or spam first, then check the email on their employee record is the one they are typing. The sign-in page never says whether an email is on your staff list, so a typo looks the same as a code on its way.
Can they change their own email?
No. It is who they sign in as and where payslips go, so only you can change it, on their employee record. They can change their mobile, address, bank details and emergency contact.
Someone works for two of my businesses.
If both businesses use SME AI Office and have the same email for them, they sign in once and pick the company at the top.
Is my team on the portal the same as my team on the back office?
No. The staff portal is for employees. Someone who helps you run the business, such as a manager or a bookkeeper, is added under Settings, Team, and signs in to the back office instead.