Internal client notes: what stays with your team

Internal notes on a client record are read by your team and never reach the client's portal. Each note keeps its date and the name of the person who wrote it, and it can carry a follow-up reminder. What you need to decide is what goes in that note, what stays in your personal notes and what the client should actually read.

Think of a consultancy that manages the account of a chain of clinics. After a call, the account lead knows three things: the new manager wants to renegotiate the scope, he seemed unconvinced by the last report, and the client asked to receive the progress update on Friday. All three are true, but they do not all belong in the same place. If she puts them together in an email to the team, they get lost. If she puts them together in a visible comment, the client reads an impression that was not meant for him.

Four places to write about a client

In AgentticCRM each kind of text has a place with a different audience:

• Your personal Notes. Only you read them. Your teammates cannot see them, nor can your organization's administrator, AgentticCRM's support staff when they enter your account to help you, or your clients from their portal.
• The internal note on the client record. Your team reads it and it never leaves the team. It is dated, carries your name, and you can schedule a reminder.
• Comments on a task. Only your team reads them, unless you choose to show one to your client on a project task.
• Team chat. Your clients never see it, not even from their portal.

The client, for their part, sees in the portal what you shared with them: their proposals, their invoices and balance, the projects you marked, their appointments and their tickets.

Back to the consultancy: the impression about the manager goes into personal notes, the intention to renegotiate goes into the internal note on the record, and the Friday delivery becomes a task with a due date.

What to write in the internal note on the record

The internal note is for the person who opens the record tomorrow without having been on the call. Write what that person needs in order to act: who decides on the client's side, what was agreed, what is in doubt and when to talk again. If you need to talk again, put the reminder on that same note; when the date arrives, you get the notice.

Write facts and agreements with the date you learned them. "On March 12 the manager asked to review the second-quarter scope" is useful to anyone. "I think he didn't like the report" is still an impression, and it belongs in your personal notes until it is confirmed.

Since the client never sees these notes, you can be direct about risks, prices or tension on the account. The record also holds their contacts, proposals, invoices, projects and files, so the note does not need to repeat what is already recorded. The clients and contacts page explains the record in more detail.

From a personal note to the team's work

A personal note is a good place to write quickly during a call: it opens over the screen you are on, whether that is a client, a ticket or an email, and it saves as you type. When that note turns up something someone has to do, you press Create task from note. The task form opens with the note's title and text already copied, and you choose who does it, by when and which client or project it belongs to.

The task shows up in the team's list. Your note does not change and stays private: only the text you sent in the form is copied. So clean up that text before creating the task if the original note had impressions you do not want to share.

If what you want to share is a longer text for the team to edit, or to send to the client later, the place for it is Documents.

What the client sees in the portal and how to check it

In the client portal each client arrives at their own company and sees only their own things. On the team's side stay the internal notes on their record, the internal comments on each task, what the work costs you and the rate you charge, and everything about your other clients. The portal also shows no projects or files you have not marked for sharing.

Before you invite anyone, View as client opens the portal exactly as they will see it. It is read-only, and the visit is noted in their history. For a full walk through the portal screens, the article Client portal: what clients can and cannot see covers it in detail.

When a comment should reach the client

On a project task you can choose to show a comment to your client. The decision is made comment by comment, so write the internal analysis and the message for the client separately. First the team discusses in an internal comment what to do about the delay; then someone writes, in a separate comment, what the client needs to know, and only that one is shown.

A practical rule: before you show a comment, read it as if you were the client. If it holds an opinion about their people or a cost figure, it goes in a different comment.

This separation matters more in busy seasons, when several people work on the same account at once. In tax season without missing client deadlines we look at how an accounting firm organizes it.

Frequently asked questions

Can my organization's administrator read my personal notes?

No. Each personal note belongs to one person. Your teammates, the administrator and AgentticCRM's support staff cannot read it.

Can the client see the internal notes on their record from the portal?

No. Internal notes on the record stay inside your team. The portal shows only what you shared with the client: proposals, invoices, marked projects, appointments and tickets.

How do I check what the client will see before giving them access?

From their record, with View as client. It opens the portal in read-only mode, exactly as they will see it.