What is the Premium Guest Portal?
The Premium Guest Portal is a Manatal add-on that allows you to customize the look and feel of your Guest Portal to match your company branding.
With this feature, you can:
- Add your logo and brand colors
- Use a custom domain
- Customize welcome emails and email footers
Your guest users will continue to access all existing functionalities, but within a branded environment tailored to your organization.
How to Customize Your Guest Portal
1. Add your logo and brand color
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Head to the following page. Alternatively, click on "Administration" from your side menu, open the "Features" category and then the "Premium Guest Portal" category.
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Upload your company logo and choose your brand color in the Premium Guest Portal Setup section.
These will appear:
- On primary buttons and key navigation elements of your Guest Portal
- On system-generated emails and notifications (invitation emails, confirmation emails, notification when inviting a new user)
- In the Guest Portal navigation bar (only if a custom domain is configured)
- In the Guest Portal Login page (only if a custom domain is configured)
2. Set up a custom domain
To ensure a seamless branded experience, you can use your own domain (eg. portal.yourcompany.com
).
Steps to set up your domain:
Manatal stores your DNS records for 48 hours. After that:
- If custom domain verification wasn’t completed, you will need to regenerate new records and restart the setup process.
- This ensures your setup remains secure and up-to-date.
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In the Custom Domain section, click to open the Custom Domain page.
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Enter your custom domain in the Premium Guest portal custom domain page.
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Generate DNS records provided by Manatal. Go to your DNS providers and add the DNS records.
Here are the guides to set up DNS with the following providers:
1. GoDaddy
2. Cloudflare
3. AWS3
4. Squarespace
- Return to Manatal and click “Verify” to check if the domain is correctly linked.
- When your domain is marked as "Verified", you will be ready to start sending emails to guests using your custom domain.
You can refresh the status on the custom domain setup page at any time, it will update the status of the last custom domain pending state.
3. Customize guest email communication
You can personalize the emails sent to guest users from your account.
a. Use a custom email address
You can choose a custom "From" email address for all system-generated emails sent to your guest users. By default, emails are sent from contact@manatal.com.
How to set a custom email address:
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Click on 'Guest Portal email' in the Welcome Email Content & Personalization section.
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Select a domain from the list of domains already verified in your account.
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If you haven't verified a domain yet, you will need to complete the verification through the mass emailing setup. Learn how to verify your domain
Mass email feature must be enabled in your account before use. Please contact your admin or support team if it's not available.
- Fill in the sender's email address and click "Save".
b. Customize the Welcome Email
You can modify the first email your guest users receive when they are invited. This allows you to tailor the message to reflect your company’s tone and branding.
For example, if you are inviting external recruiters or clients to collaborate on your Guest Portal, you can include a welcome message, a brief overview of how you will be working together, and any relevant links (eg. support or documentation). This ensures a smooth onboarding experience.
You can edit:
- Email subject
- Header
- Body content
Email tags like {{user_name}} are not supported in the current version.
- Click on 'Welcome email content' in the Welcome Email Content & Personalization section.
- Once the email content is filled in, click "Save".
c. Edit the email footer
You can customize the footer in all system-generated emails and notifications.
Here are some good use cases for this:
- Add your company’s legal or registration details (eg. company name or address)
- Include contact information such as an email or support phone number
- Mention disclaimers, or copyright information
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Click on 'Email footer content' in the Welcome Email Content & Personalization section.
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Once the email footer content is filled in, click "Save".
What will your guests see?
Once the setup is complete, your guests/clients will see your brand throughout their experience:
- Login page and account creation screens will feature your logo and colors.
- Email invitations will come from your chosen address and reflect your custom message.
- All email communication will show your custom footer.
If a guest user has multiple accounts in Manatal, they will be redirected to a Manatal-branded account switch page (this part cannot currently be customized).
FAQ
-
Can I use a subdomain (eg.
partners.company.com
)?
Manatal will enforce the subdomain portal.yourdomain.com but there is no restriction to add subdomain. portal.partners.company.com is a valid domain. Note that yourdomain/guest are not supported. -
What happens if I delete or change my DNS record after verification?
If the domain has been deleted within the DNS provider, the client will view an error message informing that the verification failed. The client will then fixed the error within his DNS provider or restart the verification flow. The client will also have the option to delete a domain. -
Will my guests/clients be able to access the custom URL after domain verification?
Yes! Once your custom domain is successfully verified, your guests and clients will be able to access your custom URL. However if they try to visit the old ext.manatal.com link, the old URL will remain accessible. This ensures that anyone with the old link can still access the platform without interruption. -
Can I preview the email before sending it to guests?
Preview option is not available at the moment. -
Will changes to branding or domain affect existing guest users or only new ones?
As soon as you save your changes, all guest users will start receiving emails and notifications with your updated branding (including your logo, colors, and customized footer (if set)). There is no delay or need for extra steps. -
Can I revert to the default (Manatal-branding) view?
You will have option to remove your logo or color. If you encounter any problem please reach out to support for assistance. -
Are there audit logs of who changed branding settings?
Audit logs for branding changes aren’t available yet, but we understand this can be helpful and may consider it for future updates. -
Does custom branding apply to guest mobile experience as well?
Yes, your custom branding will also be applied to the mobile experience for guest users, ensuring consistency across all devices. -
Can I translate or localize the welcome email for different guest users?
You can manually edit the content of the Welcome Email in any language you prefer. -
When can I see my branding settings in the Guest Portal?
When you make a change to your branding settings (like updating a color), the new design usually appears almost instantly (typically within a second) depending on your internet speed.
However, in a few cases, you might notice a short delay before the changes appear:
- If you are using incognito/private browsing mode
- If it has been more than 1 hour since your last update
- If it is the first time you are loading the page
In those situations, the system will automatically fetch the latest version to make sure everything stays up to date, all while keeping the platform fast and responsive.