Portal home

The external portal is where you follow the work a company does for you in TrakIT, if you work for one of its customers, transporters or suppliers. Depending on how your account is set up, you see your jobs and their work orders, the work orders you transport, your invoices, the bills you send, and your reports. A job is one shipment or assignment the company handles, for example the containers of one bill of lading; each container or load of a job is a work order.

The home page opens when you sign in. To come back to it, select Home in the menu.

This page also describes what every portal page shares: the menu, your user menu and the messages the portal shows.

Open the portal’s address, which the company gives you. It ends in /portal, for example https://trakit.example.com/portal.
Sign in, for example with your user ID or email address and your password. See Sign in.

The portal opens on its home page. If you followed a link to one of your records, for example the bill number in an email or the QR code on an invoice, it opens that record instead.

If you have forgotten your password, select Lost Password? on the sign-in page: see Reset a forgotten password.

The home page

The top of the home page shows today’s date and greets you by your first name, for example Good morning, Maria. Below it are the boxes with your figures, then your charts.

The boxes

Each box shows a number, and opens its page when you select it (View followed by the page’s name, for example View Jobs). You see a box only if your account gives you that page.

Box	Shows	Opens
Jobs	How many jobs you have, as the customer.	Jobs.
Open Work Orders	How many of the work orders you transport are still open, that is not closed or cancelled.	Work Orders.
Outstanding Invoices	How many of your invoices still have an amount to pay, out of all the invoices listed, for example 12 of 123.	Invoices.
Bills	How many of your bills to the company are listed, whoever added them and whatever their status.	Bills.

Each number counts the same records as the page the box opens.

Charts

Below the boxes, the home page can show charts chosen for you by the company, for example the number of work orders created each month. They are side by side on a wide screen, one below the other on a phone.

Each chart shows its title and, if it has one, a description, then the chart: a line, columns, or a ring. It has one point per month, from the oldest month on the left to last month on the right; the current month is not included. January also shows the year, for example Jan-26. Point to a month to see its number. A ring has a legend below it.

Chart	Counts
Work orders created	The work orders created each month on your jobs, as the customer.
Jobs created	Your jobs created each month, as the customer. A job counts in the month its first work order was created.
Work orders hauled	The work orders created each month that you transport, on the way out or on the way back.

Cancelled work orders are not counted. The titles of the charts are chosen by the company, so they may differ from the ones above.

If the home page shows no boxes and no charts, your account is not set up for them yet: contact the company.

The menu runs along the top of every page. It shows only the pages your account gives you:

Menu item	Opens	Shown when
Home	This page.	Always.
Jobs	Your jobs, as the customer.	You are linked to a company as its customer, and your account gives you jobs.
Work Orders	The work orders you transport.	You are linked to a company as its transporter, and your account gives you its work orders.
Invoices	Your invoices.	Your account gives you invoices.
Bills	Your bills to the company.	Your account gives you bills.
Reports	The reports you receive.	Your account gives you reports.

The menu can also have other pages that the company has added for its users. The item of the page you are on is highlighted, also on the pages you open from it, such as one job.

On a phone or a narrow window, the menu is folded away: select the menu button (three lines) at the top right to open it. Help and your user menu are folded into it too.

The logo at the top left opens the company’s website in a new tab.

Page addresses

Each page of the portal has its own address, for example the address of one job. So you can use your browser’s back button, bookmark a page, and open a page in a new tab. When you open a bookmark while signed out, the sign-in page appears first and then the portal’s home page.

Help

Select the question mark icon (Help) at the top right of every page, left of your initials, to open the help for the page you are on: for example Jobs on the Jobs page. The help opens in a separate tab or window, so the portal stays open.

Your initials, usually followed by your name, are at the top right of every page. Select them to open your user menu. It shows your name and email address, and these items:

Dark Mode

Select Dark Mode to switch the portal to light text on a dark background, or back. The switch next to it shows whether it is on. The change applies at once, charts included.

If your account allows it, the portal remembers your choice for your next visit. Otherwise the choice lasts until you reload the page or sign in again.

Change Password

Select Change Password.
In Current Password, type the password you use now.
In New Password, type the new password.
In Confirm New Password, type it again.
Select Change Password.

The popup says Password changed successfully. Close it with the cross at its top right. Changing your password signs you out of TrakIT in your other browsers; this one stays signed in.

The new password must be 8 to 20 characters long, and different from your current one. If the password is not changed, the popup says why:

Message	What to do
Current password is required	Type your current password.
Current Password entered is incorrect	Type your current password again. If you have forgotten it, sign out and use Lost Password? on the sign-in page.
The new passwords entered do not match	Type the same new password in both boxes.
New Password is required	Type a new password.
New Password must be at least 8 characters long	Use a longer password.
The New Password cannot be the same as the Current Password	Choose a password you are not using now.
Could not reach the server.	Check your internet connection and try again.

Your password is used only when you sign in with your user ID or email address and a password.

Sign Out

Select Sign Out to sign out of the portal. The sign-in page opens.

Messages

Not found, or no permission

When you open a job, work order, invoice or bill that you cannot see, the page says, for example, That job was not found, or you do not have permission to view it. The portal says the same whether the record does not exist or is not yours, for example after following an old link or changing a number in the address. Select the link below the message, for example Back to Jobs, to return to the list, or Back to Home if that list is not in your menu.

That page is not available here yet. means the address does not match any page of the portal. Select Back to Home.

Notifications

When something does not work, a notification appears at the top of the page, for example Could not reach the server. Check your connection and try again. It disappears after 8 seconds, or when you select its cross.

Notification	What to do
Could not reach the server. Check your connection and try again.	Check your internet connection, then try again.
The server returned an error followed by a number	Try again later. If it goes on, contact the company.
Your session could not be verified. Reload the page and try again.	Reload the page in your browser.
Not found or not permitted	The record is not available to you, or your account does not allow this action.

When a record cannot be loaded at all, a red message takes the place of the page, for example That job could not be loaded. Select Retry next to it to load the page again.

When your session ends

If your session ends while the portal is open, for example because your password was changed in another browser, or because your account signed in from another location or browser, the next thing you do takes you to the sign-in page, which shows Session Expired. Sign in again to go on. See When TrakIT signs you out.

Update warning

A yellow warning at the top of every page, This TrakIT installation has not been updated for followed by a number of days, means that the company’s TrakIT installation is due for an update. It appears in the last 15 days before the date from which nobody can sign in unless TrakIT is updated, and gives that date. Tell the company. Once that date has passed, you stay signed in until you sign out, but you cannot sign in again until TrakIT is updated.

The line at the bottom of every page shows the TrakIT build and its date, which helps if you report a problem.

Who can use this page

Every external user can sign in to the portal and open this page. What it shows depends on how the company has set up your account: the companies you are linked to, as their customer or their transporter, and your portal role. If you need a page or a box you do not see, contact the company.

For administrators, what each box, chart and menu item needs is described in Setting up the external portal:

Box or part	Needs
Jobs box and menu item	Read in the Jobs & Work Orders section, and a link as Customer.
Open Work Orders box, Work Orders menu item	Read in the Transporter Work Orders section, and a link as Transporter.
Outstanding Invoices box, Invoices menu item	Read in the Invoices section. The box also needs a linked entity.
Bills box and menu item	Read in the Vendor Bills section. The box also needs a linked entity.
Reports menu item	List Subscribed Reports in the Reports section.
Charts	View Dashboard in the Dashboard section, charts assigned to the role on Portal charts, and a link of the kind each chart counts.
Keeping Dark Mode for the next visit	Update Own Profile in the Profile section.