You can set the Announcement Set, FAQ, Glossary, Link Set, and Portal Dashboard by User Type (Payroll, Vendor). That is to say, each User Type for a given company may have a different set of information displayed to them, according to configuration done here.
By default the Portal Dashboard field list includes the System Default Client User Template, System Default Employee User Template, System Client User Assignment Template, and Old - System Client User Assignment Template.
When a new user type is added, if the User Type is set to External Employee, the Portal Dashboard will be set to System Default Employee User Template; if the User Type is set to External Client, the Portal Dashboard will be set to System Default Client User Template. These of course can be changed manually. If no User Types are added via the Portal Configuration page, the default dashboards will be used.