Custom Domain

A Custom Domain is a personalized domain name registered in the Domain Name System (DNS) for your organization. It can be mapped to your customer portal web address. This Custom Domain setting enables users to map a custom domain name to access the customer portal, allowing them to use a web address that reflects their brand or organization instead of the default customer portal link. This makes it easier for customers to remember the address, as it aligns with your brand’s website, thereby enhancing brand visibility.

Business owners or administrators should register a domain name for their organization to enhance their brand reliability with domain registrars, such as GoDaddy. Users with the appropriate roles and permissions can link the custom domain to the customer portal’s web address. As an end user, customers can easily access the customer portal using a web address that resembles the brand’s website.

Mapping a custom domain to the customer portal is mainly aimed at enhancing the brand identity and credibility of the business. It also boosts the trust and security associated with the brand, as having a custom domain requires an SSL (Secure Socket Layer) certificate. Therefore, a custom domain plays a significant role in the long-term growth of the brand.

Prerequisites

Before getting started with the custom domain, let’s go through certain terms that are involved in mapping a custom domain.

Domain Name - It is a unique name provided to websites, which may represent your organisation or business. Thereby, having a custom domain name for your website improves the branding of your organization among the customers. For instance, zylker.com is a domain name.

CNAME - CNAME is abbreviated as Canonical Name, which acts as an alias name to the primary domain name. It can also be said in simple terms as a subdomain. Here, let us take an example, www.zylker.com, where www is the CNAME of the domain name zylker.com.

DNS - Domain Name System is called the telephone book of the internet. It converts the human-readable domain name(zylker.com) into a machine-readable IP(Internet Protocol) address(124.50.30.21) for each website. These IP addresses will be used to identify the website when the corresponding domain name is provided by the users.

SSL Certificate - Secure Socket Layer certification is mandated to register a custom domain to protect sensitive information. It secures the data by establishing an encrypted connection between the customer’s browser and the web server. Enables the website to use HTTPS for a secure connection, preventing access errors for your customers.

Map a custom domain

To map a custom domain name, first, you must be registered with a domain name provider. Create a domain name and CNAME for your brand website, which can be mapped as a custom domain for the customer portal website.

• Navigate to the Settings page.
• Select Custom Domain under Organization settings.
• In the Custom Domain page, click Map Custom Domain.
• In the pop-up window, go through the sample custom domain mapping and click Ok, got it.
• Type the registered domain name of your organisation in the Enter your custom domain name field.
• Click Next.
• Copy the CNAME by clicking Copy next to CNAME.
• Go to the DNS Settings page of your domain name provider’s website to create a CNAME record.
• Paste the CNAME provided by Zoho ERP and enter your host name to create a CNAME record.

• Once you’ve created a CNAME record on your domain name provider’s website, click Submit & Verify in Zoho ERP. Zoho ERP will verify your domain.

You won’t be able to proceed until we verify that your CNAME record reflects on the DNS server. A newly created CNAME record could take a while to reflect on the DNS server. This depends on your domain name provider’s TTL (Time to Live) settings. You can contact your domain name provider’s support if you need further assistance with adding a CNAME record.

Certificate Installation

SSL certificates help create a secure connection between a web server and a user’s web browser. Having an SSL certificate installed for your custom domain will prevent access errors for your users and employees.

As soon as your domain name is verified, we’ll start installing a multi-domain SSL certificate for your custom domain. This usually takes around 3-5 business days. Once this is done, you can access Zoho ERP with your custom domain name. Zoho ERP will notify you via email when the SSL certificate has been installed.

Disable Custom Domain

Users can disable the custom domain temporarily instead of deleting it permanently, according to their needs. To disable a custom domain,

• Navigate to the Settings page.
• Select Custom Domain under Organization settings.
• Click Disable Domain to disable the mapped custom domain temporarily.
• In the popup, check Yes, I want to disable my custom domain.
• Click Disable.

Once the custom domain is disabled, the customers will be able to access the customer portal from the default domain, https://erp.zoho.com/portal.

Delete Custom Domain

Users can delete the custom domain permanently based on requirements. It can be deleted in the following cases:

• If you want to use the default domain name or,
• If the custom domain name has expired or,
• If you no longer prefer to use the mapped custom domain or,
• If you want to map a new custom domain.

To delete a custom domain, first disable the mapped custom domain and follow these steps:

• Click Delete against the disabled custom domain.
• In the pop-up, check Yes, I want to delete my custom domain permanently.
• Click Delete.