How to build a partner portal that centralizes submissions and status

Centralize partner requests, approvals, and live status in one portal

In this guide, you’ll build a partner portal where external partners can:

• Log in
• Submit new partnership requests
• Track the status of their submissions in real time

Meanwhile, your internal team gets a centralized review dashboard with tables, Kanban boards, and optional automations (emails/Slack) when status changes.

📘 Learn more: Create your first form, app, or portal in a flash

Why this helps

• Fewer emails, clearer expectations – partners can always see if their request is New, Under review, Approved, or Declined directly in the portal.
• Single source of truth – your team works from one shared table/Kanban board instead of scattered spreadsheets or inboxes.
• Role-based visibility – partners see only their requests, while internal users see everything, filtered and grouped for review.
• Scales with your program – easily add more partner types, territories, or product lines without rebuilding your process.
• Ready for automation later – once the basics work, you can add automatic status notifications and AI-powered personalization without changing the structure.

📘 Learn more: Build personalized and time-saving flows with logic, automations, and AI

Step 1 – Create your partner submission form

You can start from scratch or use a template from our Template Gallery (for example, a Partnership application or Client portal template), or you can use Magic Create with a prompt.

1. From your workspace, click + New → Form.
2. Or open the Template Gallery and search for terms like “partnership”, “partner application”, or “client portal”.
3. You can also try Magic Create, with a prompt like:

“Partner application form with company info, partner type, region, and goals for collaboration.”

Add core partner-facing fields such as:

• Company name
• Contact person name
• Work email
• Website
• Region / market (Dropdown)
• Partnership type (Dropdown – e.g. Reseller, Affiliate, Integration, Strategic)
• Main goal of partnership (Long text)
• Notes / additional context

Then add admin-only review fields that your team will use later:

• Status (Single-choice: New, Under review, Approved, Declined, Needs more info)
• Owner / account manager
• Internal notes

💡 Tip: Use dropdowns for partnership type, region, and status so you can later group and filter records easily in tables and Kanban boards.

📘 Learn more: Customize your form/app layout and design

Step 2 – Turn your project into a secure partner portal

Next, you’ll wrap this form inside a portal so partners can log in and track their own submissions.

In your project settings, turn on portal mode . This lets users log in and gives you role-based access and user-specific views.

Set up user roles:

• Partner – for external companies who will submit and track requests.
• Internal team – for your partner managers, sales, or ops team reviewing and updating statuses.

Use the portal access settings to decide:

• Which pages are visible to all logged-in users (e.g. “Submit a new request”).
• Which pages are visible only to internal roles (e.g. “Internal review dashboard”).

💡 Tip: If you have different partner tiers (e.g. “Affiliate partner”, “Strategic partner”), create separate roles to show them tailored dashboards and resources.

📘 Learn more: How to create a portal and manage users’ access

Step 3 – Add pages for “New request” and “My submissions”

Now you’ll create two key partner-facing pages:

• Submit a new request – partners fill in the application form.
• My submissions – partners see the status of their own requests.

A. “Submit a new request” page

1. In your portal, click New page and name it Submit a new request.
2. Add a Form block and select your partner submission form from Step 1.
3. Add a short intro so partners know what happens after submission (e.g., “We’ll review your request within 3–5 business days and update the status here.”).

B. “My submissions” page (partner view)

1. Add another page called My submissions.
2. Insert a Table block and connect it to the responses of the same partner form.
3. In the table Options, enable:
   • Allow users to view user data – so partners only see their own records when logged in.
4. Choose which columns to show:
   • Request date
   • Company name
   • Partnership type
   • Status
   • Maybe “Latest internal note summary” if you want to share it

💡 Tip: Rename table columns to partner-friendly labels like “Latest update” or “Decision” so the status page feels natural to external users.

📘 Learn more: How to let users view and edit their own data in your portal

Step 4 – Build an internal review dashboard (tables + Kanban by status)

Your team needs a centralized view of all partner submissions, grouped by status and ready for action.

Create an Internal review page that’s only visible to your Internal team role.

You can start from scratch or use a Template Gallery portal/dashboard page, then connect it to your partner form.

On this page:

1. Add a Table block connected to the partner submission form.
2. Use sorting and filtering to create useful views, such as:
   • Status = New → “New submissions”
   • Status = Under review assigned to current user
   • Region = “EMEA”

You can also add:

• A Kanban board grouped by Status, so your team can visually drag records between New, Under review, Approved, Declined.
• Charts summarizing:
  • How many requests are in each status
  • Requests by partner type or region

💡 Tip: Keep one single “Status” field and reuse it everywhere (tables, Kanban, charts). It becomes the backbone of your partner pipeline.

📘 Learn more: How to showcase charts based on form responses

Step 5 – Let partners view (and optionally edit) their submissions

Depending on your process, partners might only need to view their status, or they may need to edit their requests when you ask for more info.

On your My submissions table block:

1. Open Options.
2. To view only:
   • Turn on Allow users to view user data.
3. To allow updates (e.g. when status = Needs more info):
   • Also enable Allow users to edit user data.
   • Partners will be able to open their record and edit the submission form.

Because this is a portal table view, partners will only see their own records, not other partners’ data.

💡 Tip: When you enable editing, clarify in your table description what is safe to change (e.g., “Feel free to update contact info or attach missing documents; status is managed by our team.”).

📘 Learn more: How to view your form responses

Step 6 – Automate notifications when submissions and statuses change

To keep both sides in sync, you can automate emails (and optionally Slack/webhooks) when:

• A new partner submission is created
• The status field is updated by your team

A. On submit – notify your team and confirm to the partner

In your partner form:

1. Open Settings → Logic → On Submit.
2. Add an action: Send email to team / shared inbox with key details (company, partner type, region).
3. Add a confirmation email to the partner email field, thanking them and explaining next steps.
4. Optionally, initialise the Status field to New on submit (using logic or a default value).

B. On update – notify partners when status changes

In the same app:

1. Use On Update logic (triggered when a record is updated).
2. Add a condition such as:
   • If Status changes to Approved → send an email with next steps.
   • If Status changes to Needs more info → send an email asking the partner to log in and update the request.
3. Use field IDs (e.g. @field_123) in your email content to personalize messages with company name or partner contact.

💡 Tip: Start with simple emails first (e.g. “Your request is under review,” “Your partnership is approved”) and only add more branches once your team is comfortable with the flow.

📘 Learn more: What is “On Submit” logic and how it works

Pro tips for an even smarter partner portal

💡 Pro Tip 1 – Pre-fill returning partners with Memory Forms
Turn your partner submission form into a Memory Form so returning partners see their company info pre-filled when logged in. That way, updates become a quick tweak instead of a full re-entry.
📘 Learn more: What are Memory Forms?

💡 Pro Tip 2 – Use AI to polish portal copy and emails
Use AI tools in the editor to refine your portal page copy and automate more human-like email responses (e.g., summarizing next steps when a request is approved).
📘 Learn more: How to enhance and polish your forms’ content with AI

💡 Pro Tip 3 – Add partner resources via embedded pages
Create an “Resources” page in your portal and embed external docs (Notion, Miro, public PDFs, etc.) so partners can access guidelines and assets without leaving the portal.
📘 Learn more: How to create an embedded page in my app

Real-world example (case study)

A B2B SaaS company runs a global partner program with resellers and referral partners.

Before Formaloo:

• Partner applications arrived via email + scattered forms.
• Nobody had a clean list of who applied, who was approved, and where each partner was in the process.

After building a partner portal in Formaloo:

• Partners log in, submit their application, and see real-time status on the My submissions page.
• The partner team uses an internal portal page with:
  • A Kanban board grouped by Status, so they can drag records through New → Under review → Approved.
  • Charts showing how many new partner requests came in per month and per region.
• When the status changes, an On Update rule automatically emails the partner with the decision and next steps.

Result: partners know where they stand without chasing via email, and the team tracks everything in one live, filterable dashboard.

📈 See more examples: Formaloo use cases (e.g. client portals, partner dashboards, internal review workflows).

FAQ

1. Can I restrict internal pages so only my team sees them?

Yes. In your portal, you can set page visibility by user role. Make your Internal review page visible only to your internal team role, and keep public/partner pages available to the Partner role.

❓ Learn more: How to add user roles on your portal

2. How do I make sure partners never see other partners’ data?

Use a portal table connected to your form, then enable Allow users to view user data (and optionally edit). This ensures each logged-in user only sees their own submissions, even though you are using the same form and database behind the scenes.

❓ Learn more: How to let users view and edit their own data in your portal

3. Can partners update their request after submission?

Yes. On the table block for My submissions, turn on Allow users to edit user data. You can then combine this with On Update logic to send notifications when they change their record, or when you change the status field.

🔧 Learn more: What is “On Update” logic and how it works

4. How can I export partner submissions for reporting?

From the Responses page of your form (or from the table in your app), you can export data to Excel or other formats for external analysis or backup.

🛠️ Learn more: How to download form responses into Excel

5. How do I brand the portal with our logo and custom domain?

You can add your logo, adjust fonts and layout, and connect a custom domain so your partner portal feels like part of your own website and brand.

🔒 Learn more: How to set up an app or portal custom domain

Turn your partner program into a live, trackable portal

By now you’ve:

• Built a partner submission form with internal status fields
• Wrapped it in a secure partner portal with roles and login
• Created pages for New request, My submissions, and Internal review
• Centralized status tracking through tables, Kanban, and optional automations

From here, your next step is to expand the workflow: add more partner resources, integrate payments or contracts, or layer in additional automations as your program grows.

🎉 Learn more: Build personalized and time-saving flows with logic, automations, and AI

Last updated November 2025.