Access Boston portal help

Access Boston is the City’s system for people to access applications and services with a single, convenient login name and password. In addition to enabling access to the applications and services you use every day, Access Boston also offers an easy-to-use self-service portal. Through this portal, you can manage your account, including changing your password, requesting new access, and updating your devices for use with multi-factor authentication.

Authentication is the process used to verify someone's identity. A person arrives to the Access Boston Portal seeking to be authenticated. You have to provide your details, including your ID, password, and sometimes a one-time passcode for multi-factor authentication. What you enter has to match what the City has on file.  If they do, you get in — you have been authenticated.

Every employee at the City of Boston is issued a six-digit Employee ID on their first day of work, which they keep forever.  People who are not on the payroll and instead have a "Sponsored Account" are given an eight-digit User ID. Your ID is used for the Username on the Access Boston Portal.

Multi-factor authentication (MFA]), also sometimes called "two-step verification", strengthens your login by including something you know (your password) with something you have (a one-time code sent to your phone or generated by an app). That way, if someone gets a hold of your password, they still cannot get into your account.  The Access Boston Portal requires use of MFA.

Part of the Multi-Factor Authentication process (verifying you are who you say you are when logging in, updating a password, etc.) is receiving a six digit code via text message, a phone call, an email, or from the PingID app.  This code is abbreviated as an OTP (one-time passcode).  It can also be referred to as a security code or an authentication code.

PingID is a software tool that the City uses for the multi-factor authentication on the Access Boston Portal.  When you get a security code, it will come from PingID (via text, phone call or email). There is also a PingID app (available in the Play Store for Android or App Store for iPhones) that you can download to generate codes for you.  The company who created PingID is called Ping Identity.

The Access Boston Portal provides Single Sign-On (SSO) for people. SSO means that once you authenticate, you get access to all the ABP resources (applications, tools, forms) without having to enter your password again.