The client portal in outsourcing: transparency that retains contracts

In outsourced services, a contract is rarely lost over a single mistake. It wears down gradually: an uncovered post the client notices before the supervisor does, a report that arrives over WhatsApp days later, an invoice disputed with no data to back it up. A client portal flips that logic: instead of asking for information, the client follows the operation on its own, and transparency starts working in favor of renewal. This article is based on the Brazilian outsourcing market and its legislation.

Why outsourcing clients switch providers

Price matters, but strain in the relationship usually comes from operational issues that pile up until renewal time:

• Lack of visibility: the client doesn't know whether the post is covered right now — it only finds out when someone complains.
• Informal reporting: scattered photos and messages on WhatsApp, spreadsheets that change format every month and no reliable history.
• Surprises: staff changes without notice, incidents reported late, slow replacement of an absent worker.
• Invoice disputes: without a shared data source, every payment deduction becomes a negotiation.
• Legal uncertainty: the client knows it may be held liable for the provider's failures and wants evidence that everything is in order.

The client is liable too: the legal background

The client's concern with the provider's operation is not excessive zeal. It has a legal basis.

Private contracts

Lei nº 6.019/1974, as amended by Lei nº 13.429/2017, establishes that the contracting company has subsidiary liability for labor obligations relating to the period in which the services were provided (art. 5-A, § 5). Súmula 331 do TST, a consolidated precedent of Brazil's Superior Labor Court, follows the same line: the employer's failure to meet labor obligations makes the client subsidiarily liable (item IV), covering all amounts in the judgment for the period of service (item VI). In addition, the client must ensure safety, hygiene and health conditions when the work is performed on its premises or at a location agreed in the contract (art. 5-A, § 3).

Public contracts

In the public sector, Brazil's Public Procurement Law (Lei nº 14.133/2021) requires contract performance to be monitored and inspected by designated contract inspectors, who must record all incidents related to performance in a dedicated log (art. 117, § 1). In continuous services with dedicated labor:

• the contractor must allow the public body to inspect the distribution, control and supervision of the staff assigned to the contract (art. 6, XVI, "c");
• when requested, the contractor must prove compliance with labor obligations and with the FGTS (the government-managed severance fund), including time records, payslips, FGTS deposits, vacation pay and transportation and meal vouchers (art. 50);
• the public body is jointly liable for social security charges and subsidiarily liable for labor charges if a failure in inspection is proven (art. 121, § 2), and may adopt measures such as making payment conditional on proof that overdue labor obligations were paid (art. 121, § 3).

In February 2025, ruling on Theme 1118 under the "general repercussion" system, which sets a thesis for similar cases nationwide, Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF) held that holding the public administration liable requires proof of negligent conduct — and that negligence exists when it remains inactive after being formally notified that the contractor is breaching labor obligations. The same thesis reinforces the duty to adopt the measures in art. 121, § 3, such as making payment conditional on proof that the previous month's labor obligations were paid.

In practice, a provider that delivers this evidence in an organized way makes the inspector's job easier, reduces payment deductions and stops being a risk for the contract manager. That is retention.

What to show in the client portal

The portal doesn't need to show everything; it needs to show what the client uses to evaluate the service. A structure that works well:

Module	What the client sees	Why it matters
Attendance per post and shift	Validated clock-ins and clock-outs, with location	Confirms coverage without a phone call
Coverage	Percentage of post-shifts covered in the period	Sums up contract compliance in one number
Incidents	Digital incident log, with photos and status	Replaces the notebook at the post and builds history
Checklists	Inspections carried out and nonconformities	Shows service quality
Service orders	Requests, deadlines and completion	Makes the client's own requests transparent
Patrol rounds	Checkpoints visited and times	Proves execution in security contracts
Documents	Labor compliance records, PPE deliveries and reports	Meets inspection needs without endless emails

In public contracts, two modules carry extra weight. The digital incident log aligns with the inspector's duty to record incidents during performance (art. 117, § 1): when the record is created at the post, with date, time and photo, both sides discuss the same fact. And the documents area can anticipate, organized by month, what art. 50 allows the public body to request.

For attendance data to be reliable, its source matters. Clock-ins with geofencing and geolocation and validation through facial recognition with liveness detection give the client confidence that the person who clocked in was actually at the post. Equipment records, in turn, can come straight from PPE control.

What not to show

Transparency doesn't mean exposing more personal data than necessary. The LGPD, Brazil's data protection law, requires processing to be limited to the minimum necessary for its purpose (art. 6, III), and health and biometric data are sensitive (art. 5, II). The client needs to know that an absence is justified, not see the medical certificate; it needs to know the clock-in was validated, not access the employee's biometrics.

SLA indicators that make sense

A good portal turns the operation into indicators agreed with the client. Some examples:

Indicator	How to calculate it
Coverage rate	Post-shifts covered ÷ post-shifts contracted × 100
Punctuality	Clock-ins within tolerance ÷ expected clock-ins × 100
Replacement time	Time between the absence being identified and the substitute arriving
Incidents handled on time	Incidents handled within the deadline ÷ total incidents × 100
Checklist compliance	Compliant items ÷ items checked × 100
Service orders within SLA	Orders completed on time ÷ total orders × 100

Targets belong in the contract; the portal simply measures, using the same criteria for both sides.

In Brazilian federal public contracts, this logic has a name: the IMR (Instrumento de Medição de Resultado, a results measurement instrument). Normative Instruction IN SEGES/MP nº 5/2017 defines it as the mechanism that sets, on objectively observable and verifiable bases, the expected service quality levels and the corresponding payment adjustments. According to the Federal Government Procurement Portal, the IMR replaced the former Service Level Agreement, and IN SEGES/ME nº 98/2022 authorizes applying IN 5/2017, where applicable, to contracts governed by Lei nº 14.133/2021 — a law that also allows variable compensation linked to performance (art. 144). When indicators come from data recorded at the source, measurement stops being a battle of versions.

How to roll out the portal with your clients

1. Start with a pilot: choose one or two clients, ideally one satisfied and one more demanding.
2. Agree on the indicators: review the contract and define with the client's manager what will be measured and how.
3. Ensure data at the source: clock-ins, incidents, checklists and patrol rounds must be recorded in the app, at the post, not reconstructed later.
4. Set up access: profiles for the contract manager, the inspector and other departments, each seeing only what they need.
5. Run a short onboarding: half an hour showing where each piece of information lives beats any manual.
6. Use the portal in the monthly meeting: replace the hand-built slide deck with data from the portal itself.
7. Embrace transparency: what went wrong will show up — and so should the action plan.

In TIRVU+, the client has its own environment, separate from those for managers and employees, where it follows attendance, incidents and reports in real time.

WhatsApp and spreadsheets vs. client portal

Aspect	WhatsApp and spreadsheets	Client portal
Updates	Whenever someone remembers	Real time
History	Scattered across chats	Centralized and searchable
Standardization	Changes every month	Same indicators every time
Evidence for inspections	Hard to gather	Available for consultation
Data protection	Photos and documents circulating	Role-based access
Client perception	"I have to chase them to find out"	"I can check whenever I want"

Checklist before opening the portal

• Indicators and targets aligned with the contract
• Posts, shifts and schedules correctly registered
• Teams using the app for clock-ins, incidents and checklists
• Access profiles defined for each person on the client side
• Privacy rules reviewed, with no exposure of health data or biometrics
• Incident response routine with clear deadlines
• Compliance documents organized by month
• Onboarding meeting scheduled with the client

Frequently asked questions

Is the client liable for the outsourcing provider's labor debts?

Yes, on a subsidiary basis. Brazil's Lei nº 6.019/1974 makes the contracting company subsidiarily liable for labor obligations relating to the period in which the services were provided (art. 5-A, § 5). Súmula 331 do TST follows the same line: if the employer fails to meet those obligations, the client is subsidiarily liable for all amounts in the judgment for the period of service.

When is a public body liable for an outsourcing provider's labor debts?

In continuous services with dedicated labor, Brazil's Public Procurement Law (Lei nº 14.133/2021) makes the public body jointly liable for social security charges and subsidiarily liable for labor charges if a failure in inspection is proven (art. 121, § 2). Ruling on Theme 1118 in February 2025, the STF held that this liability requires proof of negligent conduct, which exists when the public administration remains inactive after being formally notified that the contractor is breaching labor obligations.

Should the client portal show employees' medical certificates or biometric data?

No. The LGPD, Brazil's data protection law, requires processing to be limited to the minimum necessary for its purpose (art. 6, III), and health and biometric data are sensitive (art. 5, II). The client needs to know that an absence is justified and that the clock-in was validated, not see the medical certificate or access the employee's biometrics.

Conclusion

Clients don't renew contracts on price alone: they renew when they trust the operation. A client portal turns trust into something verifiable, with attendance, coverage, incidents and documents available at any time. For the client, it reduces legal risk and inspection workload; for the provider, it becomes a retention argument and a differentiator in future bids.

Want to offer your clients a portal with attendance, incidents and reports in real time? Talk to the Tirvu team and discover TIRVU+, or check out our plans.

Sources

• Planalto: Lei nº 6.019/1974 (temporary work and outsourcing)
• Planalto: Lei nº 14.133/2021 (Public Procurement Law)
• STF: Theme 1118 (general repercussion)
• Procurement Portal: IN SEGES/MP nº 5/2017
• Procurement Portal: IN SEGES/ME nº 98/2022

This content is for informational purposes only and does not replace specialized legal advice.