By default your customers reach their portal on a ClippingCash address. With a custom domain they reach it at something like portal.yourbusiness.com, which looks like you rather than like a supplier of yours.
A custom domain comes with the Business plan ($149 a month). The customer portal itself starts on Growing, so set up the portal first if you have not. The owner or an admin does this.
It involves DNS, so it is the most technical thing in these guides. It is still only two records.
1 Decide the address
Use a subdomain of a domain you already own. portal.yourbusiness.com or my.yourbusiness.com are the usual choices, and they leave your main website alone.
You need access to wherever your domain’s DNS is managed. That is often your website host or wherever you bought the domain, and if someone built your website they may hold it.
2 Add the domain in ClippingCash
In the web app, open the Custom domain page (app.clippingcash.com/custom-domain) and click Add Custom Domain. Type the domain and pick Subdomain (pay.example.com) or Full Domain (example.com).
The next screen, DNS Setup - 2 Records Required, shows both records with a copy button on each value.
3 Create the two DNS records
In your DNS provider, create both records exactly as shown. Copy and paste rather than typing.
| Record | Name | Value | What it does |
|---|---|---|---|
| CNAME | the host part, for example portal | customer.clippingcash.com | Sends visitors to your portal, with your branding |
| TXT | _clippingcash-verification plus the host part, for example _clippingcash-verification.portal | the code on your screen | Proves you own the domain |
Use the values your screen shows; the table is what they look like today. The TXT record is the only proof of ownership. The CNAME only points visitors at the portal, so it cannot prove you own the domain on its own.
If your DNS is on Cloudflare, set the CNAME to DNS only (grey cloud), not proxied. The page reminds you.
Two things that trip people up:
- Some DNS providers want just the host part (
portal) where others want the full name (portal.yourbusiness.com). If it is rejected, try the other form. - DNS changes are not instant. Usually minutes, sometimes hours. Nothing is broken if it does not verify straight away.
4 Verify
You do not have to sit and wait. ClippingCash checks for your records every 15 minutes for 72 hours after you add the domain. Click Manual Verify to check right now.
If your DNS is on Cloudflare, Connect Cloudflare for Auto-Verify lets ClippingCash add the records for you; then click Auto-Verify with Cloudflare.
The domain carries a status badge:
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| PENDING | Waiting for your records |
| VERIFYING | Checking now |
| VERIFIED | Ownership proved, the domain is working |
| FAILED | The check did not pass. Read the Verification Error under it |
The verification error usually names the actual problem, which is nearly always a record that does not match what was asked for.
5 The secure certificate
Once the domain is verified, ClippingCash gets a free secure certificate for it from Let’s Encrypt, so your customers see the padlock. You do not buy, upload or renew anything. The page shows SSL Certificate: Let’s Encrypt (Auto) and a line that reads Certificate renews automatically. Expires with the date. That line turns to a warning if the expiry date gets within 14 days without a renewal.
If no certificate has come through after 24 hours, the page shows an SSL Certificate Problem box explaining why. The usual cause is the CNAME pointing somewhere else, or a Cloudflare proxy in the way. Fix the record, then click Check again.
6 If verification will not pass
Work through these in order:
- Compare both records character by character with the screen.
- Check you created them on the right domain, which matters if you own several.
- Check there is no other record with the same name, such as an old A record for
portal. - Wait longer. An hour is not unusual.
If you have a web person, this is a two-minute job for them and worth handing over rather than fighting.
A domain can only belong to one ClippingCash account. If someone else already claimed it, the page says so.
Is it worth doing
Honestly: it is polish, not function. The portal works perfectly well on the default address, and a solo operator has better things to do in March.
It is worth it when you are quoting commercial work or competing on looking established. A portal on your own domain removes the moment where a customer wonders who this other company in the URL is.