What it solves
Without a client portal, tracking an opening depends on the recruiter building a manual report, usually in a spreadsheet, every so often. That eats hours and the client only sees a snapshot.
What it should show
At a minimum: how many candidates are in each stage, who is in process, and when the last movement was. Some clients also want to see profiles and leave feedback.
Impact on the client relationship
A client who can see their pipeline whenever they want makes fewer status calls and trusts the process more, because transparency no longer depends on someone remembering to send an update.
Frequently Asked Questions
It is more common at agencies, but corporate teams also use it so hiring managers can see their opening without asking for reports.
It depends on the tool. Most commonly they can view and leave feedback, not change the process directly.
Agencies that roll one out usually report several hours a week that used to go into building manual reports.