Set Up the Client Portal

Brand the portal, add a custom domain, configure session security, and walk through what your clients see

The client portal is the public face of your billing — clients click an email link and land on your branded portal to view invoices, pay them, see contracts, and manage payment methods. This guide walks through the setup that makes that experience feel like an extension of your brand instead of a generic billing page.

The portal is enabled by default for every Commerce account. This guide focuses on customization (branding, domain) and per-account security settings. If you just sent your first invoice and the link works, the portal is already running.

What you’ll do

1. Brand the portal

   Logo, colors, footer text.

2. Set up a custom domain (optional)

   Map billing.yourdomain.com to the portal.

3. Configure session security

   Session length, IP logging, multiple billing contacts.

4. Test the client experience

   Log in as a client and walk through paying an invoice.

Step 1: Brand the portal

1. Open Commerce settings

   Navigate to /dashboard/commerce/settings/.

2. Upload your logo

   Recommended: PNG with transparent background, at least 400px wide. Shows on the portal header and on PDF invoices/estimates.

3. Set primary and accent colors

   Pick from the color picker or paste hex codes. The portal’s buttons, links, and headers use these colors.

4. Add footer text

   Your business address, support email, and any disclaimers (“Charges appear as ‘Acme LLC’ on your statement”). Shows on every portal page and on invoice PDFs.

5. Preview

   Click Preview to see the rendered portal with your branding applied.

Test the portal in light mode and dark mode (most clients have one preference). The portal auto-detects the client’s system theme. Use colors that read well on both backgrounds.

Step 2: Set up a custom domain (optional)

By default, portal URLs look like https://your-account.hiveku.com/portal/.... To use your own domain:

1. Pick a subdomain

   Most businesses use billing.yourdomain.com or portal.yourdomain.com. Pick one and stick with it.

2. Add the domain in Commerce settings

   Click Add Custom Domain and enter the subdomain.

3. Add the DNS record

   Hiveku shows you a CNAME record. Add it to your DNS provider:

   Type:  CNAME
   Name:  billing
   Value: portals.hiveku.com
   TTL:   3600
   

   Adjust the Name based on your subdomain choice.

4. Wait for DNS propagation

   Typically under 15 minutes; up to 24 hours worst case. Hiveku polls and updates the status to “Verified” once the CNAME resolves.

5. SSL certificate auto-issues

   Hiveku provisions a Let’s Encrypt cert automatically. Until it’s issued (usually within an hour of DNS verification), the domain shows a security warning — wait it out.

6. Test the URL

   Visit https://billing.yourdomain.com/portal/test. You should see your branded portal’s “session not found” page (which is expected — there’s no live session, but the domain works).

Don’t switch domains mid-flight. Existing magic-link emails point at the old URL. After changing domains, send fresh links to any clients with active sessions. Old links break.

Step 3: Configure session security

1. Session duration

   Default is 7 days. For higher-security accounts, drop to 24 hours. Clients then need a fresh magic link if their session expires before they finish what they were doing.

2. IP logging

   On by default. Each session logs the IP and user-agent used to authenticate. Useful for audit and abuse detection.

3. Multiple billing contacts

   Enable if your enterprise clients have multiple people who need portal access (AP team, project lead, exec sponsor). Each contact gets their own magic link and own session, scoped to the same company’s data.

4. Self-serve subscription changes

   Off by default. Toggle on if you want clients to upgrade/downgrade or cancel from the portal without involving your team. Most B2B service businesses keep this off.

Step 4: Test as a client

1. Create a test contact

   Add a CRM contact with your own email (or a personal one). Mark them as a Commerce client.

2. Send them a test invoice

   Use the Send Your First Invoice flow with the test contact and a small test amount.

3. Open the invoice email

   Click through to the portal.

4. Walk through paying

   Use Stripe’s test card 4242 4242 4242 4242. Confirm the success page renders correctly with your branding.

5. Save the payment method

   Check “Save this card for future payments.” Confirm it shows up under the contact’s saved methods in CRM.

6. Visit the portal again

   Use the portal URL the email links to. You should land in a logged-in session showing the paid invoice and saved card.

What clients see

The portal’s main pages:

Outstanding invoices

All unpaid invoices, with totals and Pay Now buttons. Hidden if there are no outstanding invoices.

Payment history

Past paid invoices with downloadable PDFs.

Documents

Contracts they’re a signer on (pending, executed, voided).

Subscriptions

Active recurring services, next billing date, plan-change options if you’ve enabled self-serve.

Statements

Downloadable account statements for any date range, in PDF or CSV.

Payment methods

Saved cards/ACH on file, with edit/remove controls.

Magic-link authentication

The portal uses magic links rather than passwords:

• Every invoice/estimate/contract email contains a unique link
• Clicking the link creates a session tied to the client’s email
• Sessions last 7 days (configurable)
• Single-use: once consumed, that link can’t create a new session
• For longer-lived access, the client requests a fresh login email from the portal footer

This is the same pattern as Stripe’s customer portal, QuickBooks, and FreshBooks. Clients prefer it because they don’t have to remember another password.

Multiple billing contacts

For enterprise clients with multiple people involved in billing:

1. Open the company record

   Navigate to the company in CRM.

2. Add additional contacts

   Each as a separate CRM contact with their own email.

3. Mark them as billing contacts

   On each contact, set the “Billing Contact” flag. Set one as primary.

4. Send portal links to each

   From the company record, click Send Portal Links to email a magic link to every billing contact.

Each contact gets their own session, scoped to the same company. The audit log tracks which contact viewed what.

Disabling the portal for a client

For strict-security industries that won’t allow portal access:

1. Open the contact or company

   In CRM.

2. Set 'Disable Portal'

   On the billing settings tab.

3. Sends switch to PDF-only

   Future invoices/estimates send as PDF attachments without portal links. Manual payment instructions ship in the email body.

Verify it worked

After setup:

• Portal URL loads with your logo and colors
• A test invoice email links to the portal correctly
• A test payment processes successfully and saves the method
• The session expires per your configured duration
• Multiple billing contacts (if enabled) get separate sessions

Troubleshooting

Custom domain shows a security warning

DNS isn’t fully propagated, or the SSL certificate hasn’t issued yet. Wait up to 24 hours. Verify the CNAME is correct using dig billing.yourdomain.com or an online DNS checker.

Logo looks tiny on the portal

The portal renders at a fixed pixel height. Re-upload at higher resolution (400px+ wide) and let the portal scale down. Tiny source images don’t scale up well.

Colors look wrong on dark mode

The portal auto-detects system theme. Test both modes — colors that read fine on light backgrounds can vanish on dark. Pick high-contrast accents that work on both.

Client says the link doesn't work

Magic links are single-use. If they clicked once and re-click from a different device, the second click fails. Send a fresh link from the contact’s actions menu.

Multiple billing contacts but only one gets emails

Check that all billing contacts have the “Billing Contact” flag set. Email routing only sends to flagged contacts. The primary billing contact gets all emails by default; additional contacts need the flag explicitly.

Self-serve cancellation is enabled but clients can't cancel

Self-serve cancellation requires the subscription’s “Allow self-serve cancel” flag. The account-level toggle is the default, but you can override per-subscription. Check the subscription’s settings.

What’s next?

Client Portal Reference

Full reference for sessions, security, and features.

Send Your First Invoice

See the portal in action end-to-end.

Payment Processing

Connect Stripe or Authorize.Net to enable payments.

Custom Domain

More on Hiveku’s custom-domain setup.