Selecting CRM in the sidebar opens the Dashboard — and despite the name, this screen is not a summary of your CRM data. It is a live preview of the customer Online Portal, letting you look up any customer and see the portal exactly as they see it.
Looking for what the CRM module covers, how it connects to the other modules, and where customers, invoices and payments live? See CRM - Module Overview. This article covers only the Dashboard screen itself.
Why This Screen Matters
Most portal questions from customers are impossible to answer confidently from the staff side, because what a customer sees is assembled from their own account. "I can't find my invoice", "my balance looks wrong", "the payment button isn't there" — this screen lets you look at their portal rather than guessing. Use it to:
See a customer's portal as they see it, while they are on the phone
Confirm an invoice, payment, or credit memo is actually visible to them
Check what a customer can and cannot do before telling them where to click
Verify the portal is configured and working after a change
Using the Screen
Select CRM in the left navigation pane. The Dashboard loads automatically.
Use the Search and select customer box at the top to find a customer by name.
Select them. The portal loads below, populated with that customer's account.
Move between the portal's sections to see what the customer would see in each.
Note: Until you select a customer, the area below the search box has nothing to show. An apparently empty screen usually just means no customer has been chosen yet.
What the Customer Sees
The portal is organized into these sections. Which ones appear depends on what your property has enabled and on the customer's own activity:
Section | What the Customer Can Do |
Dashboard | Account overview — their starting point |
Invoices | View and pay invoices |
Payments | View payments already made |
Credit Memos | View credits issued to them |
Marina | View their marina spaces |
Campground | View their campground spaces |
Booking | Manage their reservations |
My Account | Edit their profile details |
Saved Payment Methods | Add, change, or remove a stored card or bank account |
Gift Cards | View gift cards held on their account |
How This Differs From the Real Portal
This is the same portal your customers use, with two deliberate differences:
No customer login. Customers sign in with their own credentials; here you pick a customer from a search box instead. You are viewing their portal without needing their password.
It runs inside Sharper. Customers reach the portal at your public portal address; this preview is embedded in the CRM module.
Because this is the customer's real account rather than a simulation, anything you do here happens for real — saving a payment method or paying an invoice from this screen affects the customer's actual account. Use it to look, and be deliberate about anything that writes. If you only need to check what they can see, navigate and read rather than submitting.
If the Portal Does Not Load
No customer selected — the most common cause. Search and pick one.
A section is missing — that part of the portal is not enabled for your property, or the customer has nothing in it. A customer with no gift cards will not see a populated Gift Cards section.
Nothing loads at all — the portal relies on your property's online site being configured. If it has never been switched on, there is no portal to preview yet; the portal setup articles cover turning it on.
Bear in mind the portal is per outlet, so switching outlets changes which property's portal you are previewing.