---
title: "Invite a patient to the portal"
summary: "Send a patient their own login from their record, and read the status beside it that says where the connection stands."
source: https://practor.app/en-za/help/patients-and-records/invite-a-patient-to-the-portal
published: 2026-09-16T07:37:19.551Z
updated: 2026-09-29T07:17:43.768Z
category: "Patients and records"
---

A patient with a portal account sees their own appointments, invoices and records. They can move a booking without phoning you. Open their record and the portal control is in the header, beside **Schedule appointment**.

## Send the invitation

**Invite to portal** emails them a link to their own account. There's nothing to fill in: the address comes off their record.

![The portal control on a patient's header](https://res.cloudinary.com/drmnydbcs/image/upload/c_limit,w_1600/f_auto,q_auto:good/v1/help/patients/portal-invite.png?_a=BAMAOGDh0#1176x124 "It sits beside Schedule appointment, above the tabs.")

The toast that comes back says what happened. There are five answers.

| What you see | What it means |
| --- | --- |
| Portal invitation sent. | The email is on its way |
| Linked to this patient's existing portal account. | They already had an account on that address, so they're connected now and no email was sent |
| This patient is already connected to the portal. | Nothing to do |
| That email belongs to a staff account. Ask the patient to use a different email. | One address can't be both a patient's and a colleague's |
| Add an email address to this patient before inviting them. | The record has no email on it |

The new patient form won't save without an email address, so the last one turns up on records that arrived another way. [Add a patient](/help/patients-and-records/add-a-patient) covers where the address goes.

## What each status means

A pill appears beside the button once you've invited somebody. Between them they show the whole state of the connection.

| Pill | Where things stand |
| --- | --- |
| **Invited** | The email was sent and they haven't used it yet. The button becomes **Resend invite** |
| **Bookings only** | Connected for appointments, with their health record left out of it |
| **Request pending** | They've asked for something and it's waiting for somebody at the practice |
| **Portal linked** | Connected, with access to their record |

Three of them come with a button:

- **Invited** has **Resend invite**.
- **Bookings only** has **Confirm identity**. Press it once you've checked their ID yourself, at the desk or in the room. Their account then opens everything you hold for them: notes, results, documents and invoices. They get a notification saying so.
- **Request pending** has **Review request**, which takes you to the queue where you compare their details with your record.

The last two appear only for the Owner or Admin role. **Portal linked** has nothing left to do.

## What the patient does with the email

The subject line names your practice, and the link inside is good for seven days. **Resend invite** sends another while that one is still live. After it expires the pill clears and the button reads **Invite to portal** again.

Opening it takes them to the sign-in page, which emails a one-time link rather than asking for a password. Somebody who already has a Practor account is connected there and then. Somebody new gives their name first, and comes out with an account.

A patient who asks what your practice can see will find it in [Who can see your records](/help/patients-and-records/who-can-see-my-records).

## When a patient asks you instead

A patient who books online without an invitation arrives connected for bookings alone. They can ask for their records to be part of it. Those requests queue under **Portal link requests**, in the **⋯** menu beside **Add patient** at the top of the patients list.

![The patient list tools menu, open](https://res.cloudinary.com/drmnydbcs/image/upload/c_limit,w_1600/f_auto,q_auto:good/v1/help/patients/list-actions.png?_a=BAMAOGDh0#224x106 "Portal link requests sits between possible duplicates and imports.")

## Related

- [Add a patient](/help/patients-and-records/add-a-patient)
- [Import patients from a spreadsheet](/help/patients-and-records/import-patients-from-a-spreadsheet)
- [Who can see your records](/help/patients-and-records/who-can-see-my-records)