The Vendor Portal

Important: This is an early-release feature and is subject to change. You are free to use it now and provide your feedback to Home Watch IT, but there may still be small hidden bugs in the product. Once it is considered stable and “General Release,” this message will be removed.

What the vendor portal is

The vendor portal is a link you send a vendor so they can see their own assigned work and act on it — without a login, a password, or anything to install. A vendor opens it in any browser, on their phone or a computer, the same way they’d open any web page.

It shows exactly what a vendor needs and nothing more: their own assigned reports and tasks, a way to mark one complete, a way to leave you a note, and a way to hand you their invoice or receipt directly. It does not give a vendor any way into Home Watch IT itself, and it never shows them anything belonging to another vendor or another customer.

Sending a vendor their link

1. Open Vendors and select the vendor.
2. On the Info tab, find Vendor portal.
3. Select Send portal link.

The vendor needs an email address on file for this to work — if the button isn’t available, add one and save the vendor first.

You only do this once per vendor. After that first email, the vendor can request a fresh link themselves straight from the page (see If the link stops working below), so there’s normally no reason for your office to resend it.

What a vendor sees on their page

• Your company’s name and branding.
• Their own vendor name.
• Every report or task currently assigned to them: its title, the customer’s name and address, the date, and whether it’s Open or Complete.
• Any note already on that assignment — the same Notes (or Auditor Hint, for MonitorQA companies) field you can see and edit yourself — shown highlighted if one is set.

Because that Notes/Auditor Hint field is the same one the vendor sees here, treat it as vendor-visible: anything already written there is exactly what the vendor will read, alongside anything they add themselves (see below).

What a vendor can do from their portal

Mark an assignment complete

A Mark complete button appears on each assignment while it’s still open. Selecting it:

• Marks that report or task complete in Home Watch IT immediately.
• Automatically closes any Action (office follow-up item) linked to that same report or task.
• Emails whoever the assignment is assigned to internally, letting them know this vendor marked it complete.

Leave a note

A vendor can add a note of their own. It’s appended — with their name and the date — to that assignment’s Notes/Auditor Hint field. It never replaces or erases anything already there, including anything your office wrote; the vendor’s note simply gets added after it.

Upload their invoice or receipt

A vendor can attach a photo or PDF of their own invoice, along with an optional invoice number and amount. This creates a new bill for that vendor and customer in your Vendor Bills/Bills list — the same place you’d record one yourself.

Uploading does not price or bill the customer automatically. Your office still opens that bill afterward to set the markup and decide whether to bill the customer, exactly as with any vendor bill you enter directly. See Vendor Bills and Receipt Charges for that part.

If the link stops working

A vendor’s link is good for a long time — about a year — as a backstop, but nobody has to track that. Right on the page is a button, Email me a fresh link, that lets the vendor renew their own link at any time, even after it’s expired. If a vendor tells you their link “isn’t working,” that button is the answer — you don’t need to do anything.

What a vendor cannot do

• Log in to Home Watch IT itself, or see any page other than their own portal.
• See any other vendor, any customer they aren’t assigned to, or your pricing, markup, or accounting details.
• Edit their own vendor record — name, insurance, and so on stay office-managed.
• Bill a customer on their own. Uploading an invoice only records it; your office finishes the billing.

Frequently asked questions

Does the vendor need to install anything or create an account?

No. It’s a plain web page — no app, no password, no account. Holding the link is what identifies them.

What if a vendor loses their link or says it isn’t working anymore?

They select Email me a fresh link on the page itself, and a new one goes to the email address already on file for them. You don’t need to resend anything yourself.

Can I revoke a vendor’s portal access?

Not from the app today — every link stays valid until it naturally expires (about a year) or the vendor requests a fresh one. If you need one turned off immediately — for example, you’ve stopped working with that vendor — contact Home Watch IT support.

Can I send more than one vendor their own link?

Yes. Each vendor’s link only ever shows that vendor’s own record and assignments, so send one to every vendor you want using the portal.

Does marking something complete from the portal skip our normal completion process?

No. It’s the same completion your office could make from inside the report or task itself — Home Watch IT doesn’t treat a vendor-completed item any differently, beyond also closing any linked Action and notifying the assignee automatically.

Can a vendor see bills or invoices for other customers?

No. A vendor only ever sees their own assigned reports and tasks, and only ever creates a bill against the customer and assignment they’re uploading from.