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Assembly is a two-audience platform. Your team works in the Dashboard. Your clients work in the client experience. Seeing the client side first shows you what you’re building for, and it’s the first step of the Getting started checklist.

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Your test client

When you sign up, Assembly adds you as a test client using your own email. You’ll find them in your CRM, under your own name and email. Anything you make visible to clients, your test client sees too, so you can check it the way a client would. Messages, Files, and Payments are already on, so the client experience has something in it from your first visit.

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Activate your test client

There are two ways in. Either one checks off Preview the client experience.
When you first land in Assembly, the welcome modal shows the apps that are already on. Click Preview client experience. A short tour points out your test client in the CRM and the Sign in as client option in their row menu. Follow it to open the client experience as your test client.

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Preview anytime

You can sign in as any client, not only your test client. In the CRM, open the menu on a client’s row and click Sign in as client. The client experience opens in a new tab. When you’re done, click Back to internal view on the Getting started card, or switch back to your Dashboard tab.
Keep both tabs open while you build. The app builder’s biggest failure mode is an app that’s polished on the team side and broken on the client side. Checking the client tab after each change catches that early.

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How the two sides relate

For a client-facing app, your team sees:
  • A global view in the sidebar (all clients)
  • A per-client view inside each contact’s record
Your clients see:
  • One view in their client experience sidebar (just their own data)

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What to look for

When you switch into the client experience, run through this list:
The app appears in the client sidebar (if it’s a client-facing app)
The client only sees their own data, not other clients’ data
Empty states look intentional, not broken
Actions a client should be able to take are obvious — and ones they shouldn’t are absent
Notifications coming from the app land in the right place
If any of these are off, head back to the Dashboard and tell the app builder in the build chat. One change at a time, then re-check the client experience.

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Next step

Add your first app

Add a ready-made template, or describe an app and have it built.