Configure your citizen portal and branding

The citizen portal is the front door the public files through. Everything on it is your copy, so a portal left on the defaults reads as a generic system rather than as your agency.

How to configure the portal

1. Go to Settings, then Channels, then Citizen Portal.
2. Work down the Landing page section: title, subtitle, the call-to-action button, counter hours, an important notice, the body text and a help strip.
3. Work down Landing sections: the official banner, header eyebrow, portal label, hero eyebrow, the records custodian card, request steps, your commitments, copy charges, the in-person callout and footer links.
4. Click Preview landing page to open the live portal in a new tab and check the result.

The screen saves as you go and shows Saved when it has.

Leave a field blank to hide it

Most sections disappear when empty rather than showing a placeholder. Clearing every request step hides the steps section. Clearing both in-person fields hides that box. The counter-hours strip hides when neither field is set.

That makes the portal safe to build incrementally. Fill in what you have, and what you have not filled in is simply absent rather than half-finished.

The sections worth spending time on

Request steps. The numbered how-it-works list. This is the single most effective thing on the page, because a requester who understands the process files a better request and chases you less.

Your commitments. Quote-style promises to the requester. Say what you will do rather than what the law obliges you to do. It reads as an office rather than a statute.

Copy charges. Hidden until you add rows, because charges are set by your statute and there is no sensible default. If you charge, publish the schedule here. Fees disputed after the fact are worse than fees stated up front.

Records custodian card. This pulls your IPRA officer from Settings, then Account, then Agency Information. Set the officer there, and the heading and title here.

Branding is a separate screen

Agency name, logo, colors and footer live under Settings, then Account, then Branding. Set those first, because the portal reads from them: leave the portal title blank and it falls back to your agency name.

Check it as a member of the public

Preview landing page opens the real portal, not a mockup. Look at it signed out, on a phone, and read it as someone who has never filed a request. Default placeholder text on a public page is the kind of thing everyone stops seeing after a week.