Adding someone to the portal
This is the end-to-end process for giving a dealer contact access to CarBuddy — what each field means, and the two mistakes that cause almost every "they can't log in" problem.
You need an admin account to do this.
Before you start
Two things cause nearly every failed onboarding. Both take ten seconds to avoid.
1. Check whether they already exist
Go to Admin → People → Users and search for their surname before you do anything else.
People are often already in the system from an earlier client setup — half-configured and never invited. If you add them again you will get an error (User with email "…" already exists), and if you add them under a slightly different address you will end up with two accounts, only one of which works.
If they already exist, you don't need to add them — skip to If the person already exists.
2. Get the email domain exactly right
The address must be the one their company actually uses. A near-miss looks completely normal in the form, saves without complaint, and then silently fails — the invite goes to an address that doesn't exist, and the person just never receives anything.
The reliable check: search the Users list for anyone else at the same company and copy the domain they use.
Hendy staff are on @hendy-group.com, not @hendy.co.uk. All 45 Hendy accounts use hendy-group.com. An invite sent to hendy.co.uk would never arrive, and nothing in the portal would tell you it hadn't.
Adding a new person
Admin → People → Users → Add User
Account Type
Choose this first — it decides whether a login is created at all.
| Option | Use it when | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| Portal login | A real person who needs to sign in | A login is created and an invite email is sent automatically |
| Routing contact | An address that should only receive forwarded leads (e.g. sales@…) | No login, no invite. Just a destination for email |
Routing contacts deliberately don't count towards a client's user numbers.
Role
Pick the narrowest role that still lets them do their job:
| Role | Scope |
|---|---|
| Dealer Admin (one dealership) | One dealership |
| Group Admin (whole dealer group) | Every dealership in the group |
| Client Admin | Their assigned locations |
| Client User — single location | One location |
| Client Read Only | View only |
| Sales User | Leads and comms |
| Service User | Service and appointments |
| Shared Mailbox | A team inbox rather than a person |
Client and Dealerships
Choose the Client first — the Dealerships list only populates once you have. Then tick the specific branches this person should see.
Tick only what they should actually see. This is the main privacy control: a Dealer Admin for Crawley Nissan should not have Southampton ticked.
The same physical site sometimes appears more than once in the list, because different products feed it under different names — for example Crawley Nissan and Hendy Crawley Nissan/BYD.
They are not interchangeable. They carry different products. Picking the wrong one produces a user who saves cleanly, logs in fine, and sees nothing.
If you see two entries that look like the same branch and you're not sure which is which, ask the CarBuddy team before choosing. This is not something the form will warn you about.
Products
A ticked box means they CAN see that product. Unticked means it's hidden from them.
This trips people up because it reads like a list of things to switch on, and an empty list looks harmless. It isn't — if you tick nothing, they see nothing. They will log in successfully and find an empty portal.
Tick every product this person is meant to work with, e.g. Service to Sales.
This is the single most confusing thing on this page, so it's worth reading twice.
There are two separate gates on whether someone sees a product:
- The client must be set up for that product on those branches. This is configured by CarBuddy, not on this form.
- The product must be ticked on the person's record. That's this box.
The ticks here can only ever take away. Ticking a product the client isn't set up for on those branches does nothing at all — it doesn't grant access, and it doesn't show an error. The form saves happily and the person still can't see it.
So if you tick Service to Sales and the person still doesn't have it, the problem is almost certainly gate 1, not anything you did. Don't keep re-ticking it — check with the CarBuddy team whether that client and those branches are set up for the product.
Always confirm with View As rather than assuming the save worked.
Access Type
| Tick | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Portal Access | They can sign in and use the portal |
| Summary Emails | They receive summary emails containing real customer data |
Only tick Summary Emails if they should be receiving customer information by email. It's reasonable to leave it off until they've logged in successfully and confirmed things look right.
Save
Click Save Changes. The invite email is sent automatically — you don't need to send anything yourself.
If the login couldn't be created, the portal tells you so directly rather than pretending it worked. If you see that message, use Invite on their row to retry.
If the person already exists
You don't need to re-add them. Each row in the Users list has:
- Edit — change their locations, products, role or access ticks
- View As — see the portal exactly as they see it (the best way to check your work)
- ✉ (envelope icon) — send them an invite: creates their login, generates a temporary password and emails it
Once someone has signed in successfully, the invite icon disappears from their row — it's there to get people started, not to reset existing accounts. If someone who has logged in before is locked out, they should use Forgot password on the login page, or ask the CarBuddy team.
The Last login column shows Never for anyone who has never signed in. An account created weeks ago still showing Never almost always means the invite went to the wrong address. Correct the email first, then click the envelope to resend — otherwise you'll just send a second invite to the same dead address.
Checking your work
Rather than waiting to hear back, use View As on their row. It shows you the portal as that person sees it — the branches they can see, and the products they can't.
If View As looks empty, they'd see an empty portal too. Go back to Edit and check the Products ticks and the Dealerships ticks.
What the person receives
- An email from CarBuddy with a sign-in link and a temporary password
- They go to portal.carbuddyai.com
- Easiest route is the Email code tab — they enter their address, get a one-time code, and they're in. No password to remember
Troubleshooting
"They never got the invite." Almost always the email address. Check the domain against another user at the same company, correct it, then use Invite to resend.
"They logged in but the portal is empty." Check Products on their record — if nothing is ticked, everything is hidden. Also check at least one dealership is ticked.
"I ticked the product and they still can't see it." You've almost certainly done nothing wrong. Ticking a product only un-hides it — it can't grant access the client doesn't have. If the client isn't set up for that product on those branches, the tick saves successfully and changes nothing.
Re-ticking and re-saving won't help. Ask the CarBuddy team to confirm the client is set up for that product on those specific branches — and check you haven't picked a similarly-named branch that carries different products.
"They can see the wrong branches." Check the Dealerships ticks and the Role. A Group Admin sees the whole group regardless of individual ticks.
"Everything was working, now it shows no data." Usually an expired session. Log out and back in. If it persists, tell the CarBuddy team — the portal should be prompting for a fresh login rather than showing an empty page.
"I can't find the product I need to tick." Tell the CarBuddy team which product and which client. It may not be enabled for that client yet.