How to white-label your portal

ClientNest365 has two layers of branding: workspace-wide branding (included with any paid workspace) and per-client branding (the €10 add-on). Plus an optional custom domain (€20 one-off). This article covers all three.

Workspace branding (included)

Settings → Branding. Fields:

• Workspace name: shows in the portal header, the magic-link emails, and the audit log.
• Accent colour: a hex value (or pick from a swatch). Used for buttons, links, and highlight states throughout the portal.
• Logo: PNG or SVG. SVG preferred for crisp rendering at any size. The logo shows in the portal sidebar, the email header, and the portal favicon.
• Email sender name: defaults to the workspace name; override if you want the From address to read "Marchetti Avvocati" but the sender name to read "Sofia from Marchetti Avvocati."

What this gets you:

• All clients see your firm's branding when they open their portal
• Magic-link invite emails carry your firm name in the subject and body
• Invoice PDFs include your logo
• Activity feeds (in the agency view) carry your branding

What this doesn't get you:

• Different branding per client (every portal looks the same)
• A custom domain (the URL is still clientnest365.com/portal/...)
• White-label sender domain on emails (still noreply@clientnest365.com unless custom domain is configured)

For most owners, workspace branding is enough. The per-client branding upgrade is for agencies, white-label resellers, and firms with strong brand-identity requirements.

Per-client branding (€10 one-off)

Settings → Add-ons → Add custom branding pack.

After enabling, each client gets their own branding inside their portal:

• Their own logo in the header
• Their own accent colour
• Their own welcome message
• An optional client display name (so the portal title reads "Acme Industries Portal" rather than "Your Firm")

Per-client branding is useful for:

• Agencies serving sub-contracted clients. The freelance designer's portal can be branded as the sub-agency the agency hired them through.
• White-label SaaS resellers. A firm building portals on behalf of their clients (e.g., a marketing consultancy that runs the website + portal for their clients) can present each as their client's own.
• Firms with strong-brand clients. A wine importer wants their portal to feel like Vintura's, not the firm's. The branding pack supports it.

The agency walkthrough at Forge Studio describes how the wine importer portal opens in his brand's warm-red, while the fintech client portal opens in their navy. Each client experiences "their" portal, not "the firm's portal."

To set per-client branding:

1. /app/clients/<client> → Branding.
2. Upload the client's logo (SVG preferred).
3. Pick the accent colour (matches their brand).
4. Set the display name (the title that shows in the portal header).
5. Edit the welcome message specifically for this client.

Save. The change is live immediately.

Custom domain (€20 one-off)

By default, your portals live at clientnest365.com/portal/c/<client-slug>. With a custom domain, they live at portal.yourfirm.com/c/<client-slug> (or any subdomain you pick).

To set up:

1. Settings → Custom domain → Configure.
2. Pick the subdomain. Recommended: portal.yourfirm.com. Some firms prefer clients.yourfirm.com or app.yourfirm.com.
3. The portal generates two DNS records (an A record and a CNAME) for you to add to your domain registrar.
4. After adding the DNS records (propagation takes 5-30 minutes), click Verify.
5. The portal generates a Let's Encrypt SSL cert and starts serving traffic on the custom domain.

What you get with a custom domain:

• The portal URL clients click is yours
• The sender domain on emails becomes noreply@portal.yourfirm.com (matches the portal URL)
• SPF + DKIM + DMARC records are auto-configured (you add them to your registrar)
• Magic-link emails come from your domain, not from a SaaS sender, much better deliverability and trust

For practices with regulatory branding requirements (legal, healthcare, accounting in some jurisdictions), the custom domain is often a soft-mandatory: "our clients shouldn't see third-party SaaS in the URL bar."

The combined effect

With workspace branding + per-client branding + custom domain, the experience is:

• Client receives an email from noreply@portal.yourfirm.com with your firm's name in the subject
• Click the link, land at portal.yourfirm.com/portal/c/<client-slug>
• Inside, the portal carries the client's logo (per-client branding) with subtle "powered by your firm" attribution
• The invoice PDFs carry your firm's logo
• The audit log carries your firm's name

From the client's perspective, they're not using ClientNest365. They're using your firm's portal that happens to work well. That's the entire point of white-labelling.

What doesn't get white-labelled

There are still small markers that this is built on ClientNest365:

• The footer of the portal includes "Powered by ClientNest365" (small text, in muted colour). This is removable on the Agency Plan subscription (€39/mo, includes 5 slots).
• The session expired page mentions "ClientNest365" (this is removed with the Agency Plan).
• The privacy policy page links to clientnest365.com/legal/privacy. You can override with your own policy URL in Settings → Legal → Privacy policy.

For most owners, the small footer mention is acceptable. For firms whose regulations require full white-labelling (some healthcare and legal sub-specialties), the Agency Plan upgrade removes it.

Common mistakes

• Setting the accent colour to pure black or pure white. This breaks the contrast on hover states. Pick an actual brand colour with enough saturation to be visibly distinct.
• Uploading a logo with too much padding. The portal renders the logo at 32px height. A logo with 20px of built-in padding shows as a tiny mark. Crop the logo tight before uploading.
• Forgetting to set the email sender name. The default is the workspace name; if you set "Workspace name" to "Hayes & Co." you probably want the email sender to read "Hayes & Co." too. Check Settings → Branding → Email sender name.
• Setting up the custom domain on a registrar with slow DNS propagation. If you use a less-common registrar, propagation can take 24-48 hours. Be patient before clicking Verify multiple times.

What this looks like in practice

The agency walkthrough shows per-client branding in action across multiple client portals. The law-firm walkthrough shows the custom domain (portal.marchetti.legal) used as part of the firm's professional identity.