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+# Phase 5: Visibility and Client Portal - Context
+
+**Gathered:** 2026-03-05
+**Status:** Ready for planning
+
+<domain>
+## Phase Boundary
+
+ISP owner dashboard with financial and operational metrics, subscriber self-service portal (view bills, payments, plan details, submit/track tickets), online payment scaffold (gateway deferred to v2), and integration + end-to-end test coverage for critical workflows.
+
+</domain>
+
+<decisions>
+## Implementation Decisions
+
+### Dashboard metrics & layout
+- Balanced overview: top row shows key financial numbers, below shows operational status cards — equal weight to both
+- KPIs include all roadmap metrics PLUS collector summary: revenue today + month, overdue count, outstanding total, subscriber status breakdown (active/suspended/cancelled), cash flow summary, today's collection totals, unverified remittances
+- Multiple charts: KPI cards plus charts for revenue trend, subscriber growth, and collection breakdown
+- Auto-refresh: poll every 30-60 seconds for updated numbers
+
+### Subscriber portal authentication
+- Separate portal login page at /portal/login with its own branding
+- Subscribers log in using their subscription account number as username (not email) — many ISP subscribers in the region don't use email
+- Password-based authentication backed by NextAuth
+
+### Subscriber portal landing page
+- Account overview layout: account status card (plan, balance, next billing date) at top, then bill and payment history sections below
+- Full payment history: all payments ever made, paginated
+- Full invoice detail: line items (plan charge, fees, etc.), dates, amounts, and payment status — not just totals
+
+### Portal ticket submission
+- Subscriber picks from existing ticket categories (No Connection, Slow Speed, etc.) and writes a description — no urgency field
+- Subscriber sees ticket list with current status (Open, Assigned, Resolved, Closed) and latest update
+- Follow-up messages: subscriber can add comments/updates to open tickets
+- Full conversation thread: both subscriber and staff messages visible on the ticket — simple chat-style thread
+
+### Online payment scaffold
+- "Coming soon" page — no form UI, just messaging
+- Shows subscriber's current outstanding balance on the page
+- Includes alternative payment instructions (collector contact, office details)
+- Payment instructions are tenant-configurable — ISP owner sets their own office address, collector info in tenant settings
+
+### Claude's Discretion
+- Dashboard chart library and chart styling
+- Dashboard layout grid/spacing
+- Auto-refresh interval (within 30-60s range)
+- Portal UI component design and styling
+- Ticket conversation thread implementation (comments model)
+- Test framework choice and test structure
+- Integration and e2e test scope decisions
+
+</decisions>
+
+<specifics>
+## Specific Ideas
+
+- Account number login reflects real ISP context where subscribers may not have email addresses
+- Ticket conversation should feel like a simple chat — not a complex ticketing system
+- Payment instructions page should be useful (show balance, show how to pay) not just a dead end
+
+</specifics>
+
+<deferred>
+## Deferred Ideas
+
+None — discussion stayed within phase scope
+
+</deferred>
+
+---
+
+*Phase: 05-visibility-and-client-portal*
+*Context gathered: 2026-03-05*