How to add a client

A client is the account you bill. Everything else in CleanFlo hangs off one: the sites you clean, the cleans booked at them, the invoices you raise and the portal your client logs into.

In the app: Clients 7 min read Last updated 5 September 2026

On this page

The Clients screen
Filling in the sheet
Tags are for the doorstep
The portal section, in short
What happens next

Most people add their first client within a minute of finishing setup, and it takes about that long. The record itself is small: a name, someone to ring, and a few tags. The parts worth slowing down for are the tags, which your cleaners read on their phones, and the portal, which decides what your client can see.

The Clients screen

Open Clients in the sidebar. The page is titled Clients & Locations because it holds both: a client at the top level, and the sites you actually turn up at underneath. The three figures across the header count what you have.

app.cleanflo.io/clients

Clients

Thursday 8 October 2026 · 14 clients · 12 active · 1 at risk

Add client

All clientsMy clientsAt risk

Client Database

14 clients

Client	Contact	Sites	Owner	Status
RH Riverside Homes jane@example.com	Jane Lawson	3 sites	Sarah Brennan	Active
SM St Marks Medical Centre admin@example.co.uk	Dr Aled Pryce	1 site	Unassigned	Active
HL Harbour Lettings lettings@example.co.uk	Owen Trelease	9 sites	Sarah Brennan	Active
BV Bay View Offices facilities@example.co.uk	Marta Quinn	2 sites	Unassigned	Inactive

1–10 of 14 Export CSV

Clients in the sidebar opens this screen.
Add client is the main action on this screen.
New, in the title bar on every screen, adds a clean, client, quote, invoice and more.

The Clients screen. Header stats first, then the search, then the Client Database table. The Sites column is the number of locations on that client, not the number of cleans.

Add client: Opens the Add new client sheet. The only way in: there is no inline row you can type into.
All clients · My clients · At risk: Three filter tabs above the search. My Clients shows only the ones with you set as their Account Owner, empty until you set one, from a client's own page. At Risk shows active clients who have gone quiet against their own usual booking pattern, covered in full in Editing and removing clients.
Search clients…: Filters the table on the client name, the contact name and the email address as you type. It does not search locations.
Client Database: The table itself, with the row count underneath as {n} clients. Ten rows to a page.
Client: Tinted initials, the business name, and the contact email on a second line. Clicking anywhere in the row opens the client.
Contact: The named human, not the business. Blank shows a dash.
Sites: A pill counting the locations attached to this client. A client with no locations reads 0 sites and cannot have a clean booked at an address yet.
Owner: The member of staff set as this client's Account Owner, or Unassigned. Set from the client's own page, not from this table.
Status: A pill reading Active or Inactive. Inactive is a label, not a lock: nothing stops you booking work for them.
Export CSV: Downloads clients.csv with the columns Name, Contact Name, Email, Phone, Status and Sites. It exports everything matching your search, not just the page you are looking at.
Delete ({n}): Only appears once you tick something. See the warning further down: it takes the locations with it.

No clients yet Clients hold the sites you clean, the cleans booked against them and the invoices you raise. Add your first one to get started. Add client

No clients match your search Try a different name, contact or email address.

The two empty states this table can show. They are worded differently on purpose, and the difference tells you whether the record is missing or the search is.

Filling in the sheet

Press Add client and a sheet slides in from the right, headed Add new client with the sub-line "Create a new client record for your company". It is five labelled sections top to bottom. Only the first field is compulsory.

Name the client

Under Business / client name, fill in Client name *. The placeholder reads "e.g. Riverside Homes London". Use the name you will put on the invoice, because that is where it ends up. For a domestic customer this is simply their name.

Give yourself someone to ring

Under Primary contact there are three fields: Contact name ("e.g. Jane Lawson"), Email address ("jane@example.com") and Phone number ("+44 7700 900000"). All three are optional, but the email is what portal links and invoices are sent to, so leaving it out limits you later.

Tag anything a cleaner needs to know

Under Tags, the label reads "Quick-reference tags for cleaners". Tap the presets that apply. These are the ones that show up next to the client name in the app, so tag for the doorstep, not for your filing.

Decide about the portal

Under Client Portal, leave Enable client portal off unless you want this client logging in. Switching it on reveals a PIN, a visibility level and a requests toggle. Once the client is saved, you can come back to this at any time from the Client portal button on the record itself, rather than from Edit Details.

Add anything private

Under Notes, Internal notes (optional) has the placeholder "Any additional info about this client…". Internal means internal: it never appears in the portal and cleaners do not see it.

Save

Press Add client at the foot. A toast confirms with Client "Riverside Homes" added and the new record appears at the top of the table.

Add new client

Create a new client record for your company

Business / client name

Client name * e.g. Riverside Homes London

Primary contact

Contact name e.g. Jane Lawson

Email address jane@example.com

Phone number +44 7700 900000

Tags are for the doorstep

Tags exist for one reason: a cleaner standing outside a property at half seven in the morning needs to know whether there is a dog behind the door and where the key is. There are seven presets, each with its own colour so they are readable at a glance rather than needing to be read word by word.

Key HolderPet On SiteAlarm CodeParking AvailableAccess InstructionsFragile ItemsEco Products OnlySecond floor rear

The seven preset tags in the order the selector lists them. Anything you type into "Add custom tag..." joins them in a neutral grey rather than picking up a colour.

Tag	Colour	What people use it for
Key Holder	Sky blue	You hold a key rather than being let in. Worth knowing before someone drives over.
Pet On Site	Amber	A dog or cat is loose. The cleaner keeps the front door shut behind them.
Alarm Code	Red	The property is alarmed. Put the code itself in the location Access Notes, not in the tag.
Parking Available	Green	There is somewhere to leave the van. Saves a phone call on a first visit.
Access Instructions	Purple	Getting in is not obvious. Flags that the notes on the location are worth reading.
Fragile Items	Pink	Antiques, glass, instruments. Sets the expectation before anything is moved.
Eco Products Only	Teal	The client has asked for specific chemistry, so the usual kit is wrong.

The field under the presets, Add custom tag..., takes anything you type and adds it with Add. Custom tags are neutral grey, which is a useful signal in itself: coloured means one of the seven safety-and-access facts, grey means something local to you.

The portal section, in short

You can switch the client portal on while you are creating the record, and it is the same set of controls you would find later in the record’s own Client portal sheet. There is a whole guide to what the client then sees, so this is only what the four controls do.

Enable client portal: Off by default. Switching it on generates the link and reveals the three settings below it.
Portal PIN (4–6 digits): Digits only, four to six of them. Anything shorter or longer is refused on save with the message Portal PIN must be 4–6 digits. The link alone is not enough to get in: the PIN is the second half.
Visibility Level: Three cards, one choice. Full Transparency shows clean history, staff names, invoices, checklists and upcoming cleans. Moderate shows clean dates and status plus invoice totals, with no staff names or checklists. Minimal shows summary counts and the outstanding total only.
Allow clean requests: Lets the client ask for work through the portal. Requests land on your Dashboard and in the Schedule for you to approve. Nothing gets booked without you.

What happens next

A saved client is an empty shell until it has a location. The client page opens on its Locations tab showing No locations yet and the line "Add the first service site for Riverside Homes." until you add one, because a clean needs an address and the client record does not hold one.

No locations yet Add the first service site for Riverside Homes. Add Location

The empty state on a brand new client. The Add Location button here is the same one in the page header: there is no other route to a first site.

From there the order is always the same: client, then location, then clean, then invoice. You can add several clients in a sitting and come back for the addresses, but nothing can be scheduled until at least one location exists.

Common questions

What is the difference between a client and a location?

A client is who you invoice. A location is where you clean. A letting agent might be one client with forty locations, and a family home might be one client with one. Cleans, cleaning statuses and access notes all live on the location; invoices and the portal live on the client.

Can I import a spreadsheet of clients?

Not at the moment. Clients are added one at a time through the sheet. You can export what you have as CSV from the table footer, but there is no matching import, so a large existing list has to be typed in.

Do I have to fill in an email address?

No, the only required field is the client name. An email address is worth adding though: it is the address invoices are emailed to and the address the Email Portal Link to Client button uses. Without one, both of those have to be done by hand.

What does the Inactive status actually do?

Very little on its own. It changes the pill in the Status column, removes them from the Active header count, and gives you a way to filter your own list. It does not block cleans, invoices or the portal for that client.

What’s next How to edit or remove a client The client page, its rail of everything about the record, the Locations/Activity/Invoices/Complaints/Property issues tabs, the Edit client drawer, and what deleting a client actually removes compared with marking them inactive.

Previous: How to add bank details and brand your invoices

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