What is a white label file portal, and what should you check?

Most portals say they are white label. What they often mean is that you can upload a logo. Your customers notice the difference, usually at the worst moment, when they find a stranger's name on an email and start wondering who they are really buying from.

What should white label really cover?

Everything a customer can see. Go through this list on any portal you are considering, as a customer rather than as an owner:

• The address. Your own name in the address bar, and your own domain if you want it.
• Every screen. Your logo and colours, including sign-in and forgotten password.
• Every email. The sender's name, the wording and the footer.
• Invoices. Your company's details, your numbering and your VAT.
• Files. The names of downloaded files, and the certificate and dyno sheet.
• Error pages. The ones nobody remembers until a customer sees one.

Where do other names usually hide?

In the places nobody checks when buying. A "powered by" line in an email footer. A file name with the supplier's name in it. A support address on an error page. The name in the browser tab during a redirect. The sender of the password reset. Sign up as a test customer, and do everything a customer does, including getting it wrong.

Sign up as a test customer and try to find any name that is not yours.

Is a "powered by" link a dealbreaker?

Not always, and be honest about what you are paying for. A lower-priced plan may carry a small link, and a white label add-on may remove it. What matters is that you know which you are buying, and that the link appears only where it is stated. On TunerEngine, the add-on removes the powered-by link so your portal, its emails, invoices and downloads carry your brand and no other name.

What about your own domain?

Starting on an address such as `yourname.tunerengine.com` is fine, and it works from day one. Your own domain looks better on a business card and sits beside your website, so plan for it as you grow.

Do your customers really care?

Your workshop customers do. They are selling your work under their own name, and they do not want their customers finding someone else's. A dealer wants the same from you: a portal in their own name, with your files behind it and nobody the wiser.

What should stay visible?

Your legal details. Whatever your brand looks like, your customer needs to know which company they are paying and how to reach it. White label is about whose name is on the work. It is never a reason to hide who is legally selling it.