Adding Your First Client & Brand

Where Clients live

Open BUSINESS > Clients & Brands. The page carries five tabs: SEARCH, CLIENT BRANDS, CONTRACTS, EDM EMAIL GROUPS and ADMIN. SEARCH is the default; from here, the Add New Client action starts a new Brand record.

Adding the first Client

1. Open Clients & Brands and click Add New Client on the SEARCH tab.
2. Fill the key fields:
   • Brand / Company Name -- the legal or trading name.
   • Company Registration Number -- where available.
   • Client Type -- NFP, Edu, Gov, Religious, Asn, Brand or Agency.
   • Payment Terms (days) -- standard payment window.
   • Website -- plain text URL.
3. Add the Billing Contact: invoice contact name, invoice email, telephone, position.
4. Add the Billing Address: address lines, city, country, state or region, postcode.
5. Optionally set Company Size, Budget Band and Sectors / Speciality tags.
6. Save. The Client appears in the list.

Sub-Brands

A parent Brand can carry one or more Sub-Brands -- useful when a holding company has multiple consumer or product brands. To add a Sub-Brand:

1. Open the parent Brand on the CLIENT BRANDS tab.
2. Click Add Sub-Brand.
3. Enter the Sub-Brand's name and details, then save.

Sub-Brands inherit contacts from the parent but have their own logo, campaigns and agreements. Logos cascade Brand-then-parent, so a Brand with no logo of its own displays the parent's.

Uploading the Brand logo

1. Open the Client (or Sub-Brand) record on the CLIENT BRANDS tab.
2. Under Brand Details, click the logo upload area.
3. Select a PNG or JPG. The logo uploads immediately.

Brand logos appear on the client's proposals, agreements, reports and Client portal. The tenant-level branding (the agency's own logo, set in the Branding article) applies to surfaces that are not client-specific.

Inviting the client to the Client portal

Each Brand contact has an Invite to Client Portal action (an add-user icon on the contact card). Sending the invite emails the contact a link to set a password; once accepted, they see the Brand's campaigns, coverage, budget, invoices and Journalist Intel snippets in their portal. Useful from Day 1 to give the client visibility into the work.

Bulk-adding clients

For a tenant migrating multiple clients across from a previous tool, the ADMIN > Quick Add sub-tab takes a paste-from-spreadsheet of Brand records (columns include name, company number, client type, payment terms, sectors). The same paste-not-upload pattern as the Media Outlets Bulk Import covered in the previous article.

Frequently asked

Where do retainer fees and dates get set?

On Account Management as an Engagement (the commercial agreement), not on the Client record. The Client record holds who the client is; the Engagement holds the deal.

What is the hierarchy?

Brand (parent) with Sub-Brands beneath. Stories and Engagements both attach to a Brand as parallel things.

What happens to logos if a Sub-Brand has no logo of its own?

Logos cascade: the Sub-Brand's logo displays where set; if not set, the parent Brand's logo displays.

How do I fix duplicate brands?

Use Merge Brand on the brand card (or ADMIN > Brand Merge). Pick the one to keep; campaigns, contacts, contracts and documents move across to it and the duplicate archives.

Do all users see all Clients?

CRM management on Clients & Brands is open to all three roles (Admin, Power, User). Anyone can add and edit Brands.

What to read next

• Building Your First Campaign -- the end-to-end flow from a new Client to a live Story.