Customize how your business appears to customers across emails, invoices, and the customer portal. Your brand colors and logo create a consistent professional identity that customers see when they receive service notifications, view invoices, or log into their portal.
Understanding branding in Chisel Tide
Your brand settings control the visual appearance of all customer-facing surfaces:
Customer emails — Service notifications, appointment reminders, and other automated messages currently use hardcoded colors; your configured colors are not applied to them
Invoices — Invoice emails and the customer portal invoice view use fixed colors rather than your configured brand colors
Customer portal — Your customers see your logo and company name when they log in to view their service history, pay invoices, or manage their account
Changes to your branding affect new customer communications immediately. Existing content like sent invoices retains the branding from when it was created.
Accessing branding settings
To configure your brand colors:
Click Settings in the left navigation menu.
Open Company Settings, then the Company section.
Select Branding.
The branding page shows two color pickers for primary and secondary colors, plus a live preview of how your branding appears in customer emails.
Setting your primary color
Your primary color is used for the most prominent elements in customer-facing communications:
Button backgrounds and call-to-action buttons like "View & Pay Invoice" or "View Details"
Headings and important text labels
Email header backgrounds
Default color: #2563eb (a blue tone)
How to set your primary color
Use the color picker to select a color visually by clicking and dragging within the color spectrum.
Or enter a hex color value directly in the text field (e.g., #2563eb).
The color picker shows a live swatch preview next to the input field.
Choosing a primary color
Select a color that:
Matches your existing business branding (website, vehicle wraps, uniforms)
Has sufficient contrast against white backgrounds — customer emails use white cards, so choose a color that remains legible
Works across both light and dark text — your primary color appears as both background (on buttons) and foreground (on headings)
Colors that work well for pool service businesses include blues (evoking water clarity), greens (suggesting clean pools), and earth tones (for natural/eco-friendly positioning).
Setting your secondary color
Your secondary color provides visual variety and is used for accent elements:
Secondary action buttons in the preview
Accent elements and visual highlights throughout customer-facing surfaces
Default color: #10b981 (a green tone)
How to set your secondary color
The secondary color uses the same color picker interface as the primary color:
Use the color picker to select a color visually.
Or enter a hex color value directly in the text field.
Choosing a secondary color
Your secondary color should complement your primary color rather than compete with it. Consider:
Selecting a color from the same family but lighter or darker than your primary (e.g., a lighter blue paired with a darker primary blue)
Choosing a contrasting accent color for visual interest (e.g., a green secondary with a blue primary)
Using your secondary color sparingly — it provides accents, not the main visual identity
Using the branding preview
The Preview section shows a mock customer email with your current brand settings applied. This helps you visualize how customers will see your communications before you save changes.
The preview displays:
Email header — Uses your primary color as the background
Logo area — Shows your uploaded company logo if you've added one in Company Settings, or displays the first letter of your company name as a fallback
Company name — Your organization name as it appears to customers
Sample notification — A representative message showing how text appears in customer emails
View Details button — Uses your secondary color to show how action buttons appear
Footer — Shows your company tagline if set, otherwise your company name
The preview updates in real-time as you adjust your color pickers, so you can experiment with different combinations before saving.
Saving your brand changes
After configuring your brand colors:
Use the section's Save Changes control. Save before switching to another section — switching sections directly changes the active section and shows an inline "You have unsaved changes." message if you have unsaved edits. Logo changes save immediately.
Wait for the button to show Saved — the system stores your new brand colors.
Your updated branding takes effect immediately for new customer communications.
Where your branding appears
Customer-facing emails
Customer email templates currently use hardcoded colors, so your configured primary and secondary colors are not applied to emails. The branding preview shows how your colors would appear if applied to customer emails.
Invoices
Your logo and company information may appear on invoice emails and in the portal's invoice view, but your configured brand colors are not currently applied to them.
Customer portal
Customers who log into their portal see your branding throughout their experience:
Your logo or company initial in the header
Your company name
For more about what customers see in the portal, see Portal Overview.
Uploading your logo
Your company logo appears alongside your brand colors in customer communications. To add or change your logo, use the General section in Company Settings.
Logo requirements:
Format: PNG or JPG recommended for customer emails. SVG can be uploaded, but most email clients don't render SVG, so use a PNG or JPG for logos that appear in emails.
Dimensions: Minimum 256×256 pixels (square format works best)
Background: Transparent backgrounds display cleanly across email clients and the portal
Troubleshooting
My brand colors look different in customer emails than in the preview
Email clients render colors differently depending on the recipient's device and settings. Dark mode on iOS and Android, for example, may shift how your colors appear. Test your branding by:
Saving your brand colors
Creating a test customer in Customers with your own email address
Triggering a notification or invoice to that customer to see how it renders in your inbox
Avoid extremely saturated colors or colors with low contrast against white backgrounds, as these are more likely to cause rendering issues.
My logo doesn't appear in the branding preview
If you haven't uploaded a logo in Company Settings, the preview shows the first letter of your company name as a placeholder. To add your logo:
Go to Settings and select General.
Scroll to the Company Logo section.
Click Upload and select your logo file.
Return to Branding to see your logo in the preview.
Can I use the same color for primary and secondary?
Yes, but this reduces visual variety in customer communications. The preview shows both colors used together — if you use the same color for both primary and secondary, the email header and action button will have the same color, which may make the design feel flat.
For best results, choose two complementary colors or use different shades of the same hue (e.g., a darker blue for primary and a lighter blue for secondary).
What hex color format should I use?
Enter hex colors using the standard six-character format with a hash prefix:
Correct: #2563eb
Correct: #10b981
Incorrect: 2563eb (missing hash)
Incorrect: #2563EB (uppercase works but lowercase is preferred)
The color picker automatically converts your selection to the correct hex format.
