Onboarding a Client and Running Their CRA Compliance
Audience. A compliance consultancy or reseller onboarding a manufacturer client and running that client's product through CRA self-assessment on their behalf.
Outcome. A client workspace linked to your partner account, billing routed correctly, a partner seat inside the client, and their product taken through classification and technical file preparation.
Why it matters. The partner seat model means you work inside the client's own tenant rather than holding their data in yours. Every change is recorded in the client's audit log under your name, and the client can revoke the seat at any time. That property is what makes the arrangement defensible when an authority asks who did what.
Time required. Onboarding a client takes about 10 minutes. The compliance work per product follows SOP-02 and is a project, not a session.
Prerequisites.
- A partner account with the partner console enabled. Access derives from the ADMIN of the partner owner company.
- The client's company name and the work email of the person who will own their workspace.
The flow at a glance
The diagram shows the whole onboarding on one page, from your partner account to the client's CRA work. The steps below explain each part. Select the diagram to open it at full size. The partner and the client in the example are fictional.
Step 1. Open the partner console
Sign in and open /partner.
The console lists every client workspace linked to your partner account, with plan, billing arrangement, readiness summary, and the two ways into each workspace.
The five sections of the console are Clients, Deal registration, Bulk intake, Review queue and Notifications. Your own dashboard returns you to your own company's workspace.
Step 2. Create the client workspace
There are two ways to bring a client on.
Direct creation. In Create a client workspace, enter the client company name and the founder's work email. The founder receives a set-your-password email and becomes the workspace ADMIN. The link in the email stays valid for 7 days.
The console refuses an email from a public provider, such as gmail.com. It also refuses an email that already has a CVD Portal account. The signup link cannot help in that case, because registration also refuses an existing account. You cannot link an existing workspace to your partner account in the portal. Write to support@cvdportal.com with the client name and the founder email.
Select Create client workspace. The client appears in the list immediately, here as Baltic Sensor Works OY on a 14-day trial. The billing arrangement starts at the default of your partner account.
Until the founder sets a password, the row shows Activation pending. When the link has expired, the row also shows Link expired. Select Resend activation email to send a new link. You can resend up to 3 times per hour for each client.
Self-signup. Alternatively, send the client your signup link. Anyone who signs up through it is linked to your partner account automatically. The link holds for 30 minutes after the client opens it, so the client must complete the signup in that time. A client who signs up this way starts on Client direct billing.
Use the signup link when the client wants to own the account creation themselves, which is common where procurement or IT has to approve the vendor relationship. Use direct creation when you are onboarding in a workshop and want the workspace live in the room.
Step 3. Set the billing arrangement
In the client row, set Billing to either Client direct or Partner invoiced.
Under partner invoicing you also assign the tier, Free, Reporting or Compliance. Tier assignment activates once wholesale pricing is configured on your partner account. A paid tier also needs your billing details. Add your legal name, address and VAT number under Billing details first.
When you move a client back to Client direct, the plan drops to Free, unless the client has a live subscription of its own.
Agree the billing arrangement before the client starts work. Changing it later is possible but produces a conversation about who owes what for the period already elapsed.
Step 4. Enter the client workspace
Each client row offers two ways in.
- Work in takes a partner seat with write access. Use this to do the work.
- Look is a 30 minute read-only drill-in. Use this when you only need to check something.
Select Work in on the client you are working.
A banner confirms the seat for the whole session. It names the client, states that you are on a partner seat with write access, notes that every change is recorded in that client's audit log under your name, and confirms the client can revoke the seat at any time. Return to your own workspace exits the seat.
Check the banner before you start typing. It is the only thing distinguishing the client's workspace from your own, and the layouts are otherwise identical.
Both routes in are recorded in the client's audit log. Both also send the client's admins an email and an in-app notice. Work in sends at most one notice per consultant each hour.
When the client turns partner access off, the console refuses both routes, and a live session ends at its next request. Your seats also end at the next request when you are no longer an ADMIN of your own company.
You can enter a client workspace before the client has activated their own account. The client's public portal stays closed until they verify their email and activate their workspace. This means you can begin compliance work immediately after provisioning, without waiting for the client to complete their setup.
Step 5. Run the client's products through CRA compliance
Inside the client workspace, open Products.
From here the process is identical to a manufacturer working their own product. Follow SOP-02, Taking a Product Through CRA Compliance, in full.
The classification decision under Article 13(4) and the risk assessment both require input only the client can give. Draft them, then have the client confirm. A classification you decided alone is a liability you took on unnecessarily.
Review the client's overall position under Readiness.
Send the client a link to one form
The Readiness page has one tab for each task. Each tab has a Copy link button. Click it and send the link to the client with a request such as "please fill this in". The link opens that tab in the workspace of whoever opens it. When the client is signed out, the link goes to the sign-in page first and then to the same tab.
| Part of the Readiness page | Link |
|---|---|
| September 2026 Article 14 Readiness (Overview) | https://cvdportal.com/readiness |
| Article 14 guide | https://cvdportal.com/readiness/procedure?section=article-14-guide |
| Vulnerability Handling Procedure | https://cvdportal.com/readiness/procedure |
| Reporting channel | https://cvdportal.com/readiness/reporting-channel |
| Preparation and intake groundwork | https://cvdportal.com/readiness/groundwork |
| Remediation and release groundwork | https://cvdportal.com/readiness/groundwork?set=remediation |
| CRA Implementation Roadmap | https://cvdportal.com/readiness/roadmap |
Links you sent before, in the form https://cvdportal.com/readiness?section=procedure, still work. They open the tab that now holds the part.
Step 6. Use bulk intake for document-heavy clients
Open Bulk intake when you are onboarding documents from several clients at once.
Upload up to 20 files per batch at 15 MB each, as PDF, images or text. Each document is read for its product and manufacturer, then grouped for your review.
Documents stay with you until you dispatch them, so nothing reaches a client workspace before you confirm the destination. Check the grouping suggestions in Step 2, Confirm destinations before dispatching.
The grouping is suggested, not authoritative. A misfiled document lands in the wrong client's tenant, which is the one error in this workflow that is genuinely awkward to explain.
Step 7. Work the review queue
Open Review queue.
The queue aggregates what is waiting on you across every client, with sign-offs first and routine checklist work counted separately. Each client shows the products with items waiting, what kind of item they are, and how much remains.
Clients with nothing outstanding are listed compactly at the bottom, so the queue stays readable as the client count grows.
Work sign-offs before checklist items. A blocked export stops the client from shipping. A pending checklist item does not.
Step 8. Configure notifications
Open Notifications.
Emails go to every admin on your own partner account, and each links to a phone-sized page so you can act without opening a laptop.
- Export sign-off requested. A client asked for approval to export a technical file. Their export stays blocked until someone decides, so this is the one worth being interrupted for.
- Client signup and activation. A company signed up through your link or matched a deal you registered. You get one email at signup and one when the client confirms its email address. You also get the second email when a client you invited activates.
- Bulk intake ready to confirm. Every document in a batch has been read and grouped. Nothing reaches a client until you confirm destinations.
- Daily review digest. One summary a day of what is waiting across your clients, sent only when something is actually waiting.
Signing off an export and confirming documents both require signing in, so a forwarded email never grants anyone access to a client workspace.
Step 9. Move client portals to your own domain
This step is optional. You do it once for your partner account. Until you do it, client portals use <slug>.cvdportal.com, and the compliance badge of each client links to a verification page on cvdportal.com.
- Email support@cvdportal.com to set up your portal domain, for example
disclose.<your company>.com. - Add the two groups of DNS records that we send you. One group is for the client portals and one is for email. We verify the domain only when both groups pass.
- When we confirm the verification, check one client whose founder has activated the workspace. Open
https://cvdportal.com/verify/<client slug>in a browser. The browser must go tohttps://<client slug>.<your domain>/verify. The page must show your brand and must not show the CVD Portal name or logo. - Select Work in on the same client and open Settings. Under Compliance Badge, the badge code must link to
https://<client slug>.<your domain>/verify.
When the page stays on cvdportal.com, write to support@cvdportal.com with the client name and the URL that you opened.
Your clients do not have to replace badge code that is already on their website. A visitor who clicks old badge code goes to the verification page on your domain. What your clients see lists all the changes that your domain makes.
Completion checklist
Per client onboarded.
- Client workspace created, or client signed up through your partner link
- Founder has set their password and holds ADMIN on their own workspace
- Billing arrangement agreed and set
- Partner seat tested with Work in, and the seat banner confirmed
- Client informed that they can revoke partner access at any time
- Products added and classification drafted for client confirmation
Per partner account, once.
- Wholesale pricing configured, if invoicing clients through your account
- Notification preferences set
- Review queue established as a recurring work item
- Portal domain verified, if you use your own domain, and one client verification page checked on it
Boundaries worth setting with the client
- The client's ADMIN owns the workspace. You hold a seat inside it, not the account.
- The client controls partner access from their own settings. Turning it off blocks both Work in and Look and ends live sessions. The client can also revoke one seat. A revoked seat stays revoked until the client allows it again.
- Every action you take appears in the client's audit log under your name. Tell them this at onboarding rather than letting them discover it.
- Generated conformity documents are drafts with placeholders. Where you are the one issuing advice on them, the review obligation is yours to state explicitly in your engagement terms.