The Brands feature in BoldDesk helps organizations manage multiple products, services, or teams within a single help desk. Each brand has its own Customer Portal (Help Center) with separate branding, while agents work from a shared Agent Portal across all brands.

Customers can view tickets related only to their brand, while agents—based on permissions—can collaborate on tickets from multiple brands without switching portals. This setup ensures brand separation for customers and a unified, efficient workspace for agents.

Check out this video tutorial for more details. 

Why Use Multiple Brands in BoldDesk

Multiple brands are ideal when your organization:

• Supports multiple products, services, or departments
• Requires separate customer portals for different audiences
• Needs department‑specific branding and knowledge base content
• Wants centralized ticket handling across departments
• Requires access control to restrict agents to specific brand tickets

Understanding Brand Architecture in BoldDesk

Customer Portal (Help Center)

• Each brand has a separate customer portal
• Customers see only tickets created under that brand
• Customer portals can be white‑labeled and customized per department

Agent Portal

• Single shared Agent Portal across all brands
• Agents can work on tickets from multiple brands (based on permissions)
• No need to switch agent portals between departments

Accessing the Brands Module

Navigation Path

Admin Panel → Brands

The Brand List page displays:

• Brand ID

• Brand Name

• Customer Portal URL

• Status (Active or Deactivated)

• Default Brand indicator
  

  
  
  

Creating a New Brand in BoldDesk

To create a new brand, follow the following steps:

1. Go to Admin Panel → Brands

2. Click Add Brand

3. Enter:

   • Brand Name
   • Subdomain Name

4. Click Add
   

   
   
   
   

After adding the brand, it will be directed to the customer portal settings page where it can be configured. Your new brand will be added to your brand list.

Managing Brand Actions in BoldDesk

From the More Options (⋮) menu, administrators can:

• Configure the brand

• Edit Brand Name

• Edit Brand Signature

• Set as Default

• Activate Brand

• Deactivate Brand

• Activate Customer Portal

• Deactivate Customer Portal

• Delete Brand
  

  
  
  

Setting a Default Brand

The Default Brand:

• Is labelled as Default
• Cannot be deactivated
• Acts as the primary brand for the account

Steps to Change the Default Brand

1. Go to Admin Panel → Brands

2. Select More Options (⋮)

3. Click Set as Default

4. Confirm by clicking Yes
   

   
   
   

Configuring a Brand Customer Portal

Select Configure to open Customer Portal Settings, where you can:

• Apply department‑specific branding
• Control portal availability
• Configure help center behavior

For more details on configuring and rebranding the customer portal, explore further instructions about Customizing the BoldDesk Customer Portal.

Editing Brand Details

Edit Brand Name

• Changes how the brand appears across BoldDesk

• Brand names must be unique across active and inactive brands
  

  
  
  

Edit Brand Signature

• Updates the brand‑level email signature

• Applied to outgoing communications for that brand
  

  
  
  

Activating and Deactivating a Brand

Activate Brand

• Enables both Agent Portal and Customer Portal

• Customer portal is activated automatically
  

  
  
  

Deactivate Brand

When a brand is deactivated:

• Agent and customer portals are disabled

• New tickets cannot be created

• Ticket replies and notes are blocked

• Incoming emails are dropped

• Notifications are not sent

  
  
  

Managing the Customer Portal Status

Activate Customer Portal

• Allowed only when the brand is active
  

  
  
  

Deactivate Customer Portal

The Deactivate Customer Portal can be used to deactivate a customer portal of an active brand. The Agent Portal will still be active, and private tickets can be created.

The following are the consequences of deactivating a customer portal:

• The brand’s customer portal will be inactive.

• Deactivation of the Customer Portal may take 15 minutes.

• Only private tickets can be created through the agent portal.

• Emails sent to the brand’s support address will only generate private tickets.

• Agents will still be able to access existing public or private tickets via the agent portal.

• Customers cannot access any existing or new tickets.

• Customers cannot be notified of ticket updates via email.
  

  
  
  

Merge Brands

BoldDesk does not currently support a direct “merge brands” action. However, you can still consolidate brands using one of the following approaches:

Option A: Retain One Brand and Delete the Other

• Choose the brand to keep.
• Reassign or move any required tickets from the brand to be removed.
• Delete the unused brand from Admin Center → Brands → More actions (⋮) → Delete Brand.

Option B: Rename or Deactivate a Brand

• Rename both brands to align with a single identity, or
• Deactivate one brand and continue operations under the remaining brand.

This ensures brand consolidation without losing existing data or workflows.

Delete Brand

The Delete Brand function can be used to delete the existing brand of the portal.

Permissions Required to Manage Brands

To access the Brands module:

• The Manage Brands permission must be enabled

Navigation Path

• Admin Panel → Roles & Permissions
  

  
  
  

Troubleshooting (Brands)

A brand cannot be set as the default brand

Confirm the brand status is Active. A deactivated brand cannot be set as default.

Customer portal is still accessible after deactivation

Wait up to 15 minutes after selecting Deactivate Customer Portal and test again.

Incoming email does not create a ticket for a brand

• If the brand is deactivated, incoming emails are dropped.
• If the brand is active but the customer portal is deactivated, incoming emails create private tickets only.

Agents can see only some brand tickets

• Confirm the agent role includes Manage Brands (for access to the module).
• Confirm the agent has the required permissions/access rules that restrict brand ticket visibility in the Agent Portal (brand access control is permission-driven).

Frequently Asked Questions

1. Can each department have its own customer portal?
Yes. Each brand provides a separate customer portal, which supports department-based separation.

2. Can agents work across multiple departmental brands?
Yes. Agents use one Agent Portal and can access multiple brands based on permissions.

3. Are automation rules configured per brand?
No. Automation rules are global and not brand-specific.

4. Can a customer access multiple brand portals with one account?
No. Customers can access only the brand portal they register with or submit tickets through.

5. Can a deleted brand be recovered?
No. Deleted brands cannot be restored. Use deactivation if recovery might be needed.

6. What happens to ticket creation if a brand is deactivated?
New tickets cannot be created from the customer portal, and incoming emails for that brand are dropped.

7. What happens if the brand is active but the customer portal is deactivated?
Agents can work in the Agent Portal and create private tickets. Customers cannot access tickets in the customer portal and do not receive customer-facing email notifications.

Related Articles

1. How to Configure Brand-Based Ticket Statuses in BoldDesk
2. Ticket Visibility Across Brands in the Customer Portal
3. How to Manage Agents Access to Specific Brands