Firm Management 🏢

Firm Admin Overview

As a firm admin, you manage your advisory firm's portfolio in Fortis Pulse — the clients you sponsor, the partners on your team, your firm's framework library, and your firm's billing. Your workspace is separate from the platform admin console and scoped entirely to your firm. This guide orients you to what you can do. 💡 Tip — Who can use this For firm admins. Sign in and you'll land on your firm portal. Quick reference | Area | What you manage | |------|-----------------| | Portfolio | Your firm's clients | | Partners & Team | Your firm's members | | Framework Library | Your firm's scoring frameworks | | Audit Log | A record of firm actions | Your firm portal When you sign in as a firm admin, you land on your firm portal rather than the client or partner dashboard. Your navigation includes: - Portfolio — the clients your firm sponsors, with their status and tier. - Clients — create and manage firm-sponsored client accounts. - Partners — the advisory partners in your firm. - Team — your firm's internal members. - Framework Library — your firm's custom scoring frameworks. - Audit Log — a record of actions taken under your firm. 📝 Note — You're scoped to your firm Everything you see and can do is limited to your firm. You can't access other firms' data or the platform-wide admin console — that's a separate role. Your actions are logged to your firm's audit trail. 💡 Tip — Clients you create are firm-sponsored When you create a client from your firm portal, that client is automatically sponsored by your firm — their billing is managed by you, not by the client directly. See the firm-sponsored billing guide for what that means.

Framework Template Management: The Basics

A framework is the scoring model your firm uses to evaluate clients — it defines the pillars (the areas of the business you score), how much each one weighs, and what "healthy" looks like. Every client your firm advises is scored against a framework, and the framework you choose shapes every score, flag, and piece of advisory commentary they receive. This guide covers the framework editor's structure and how to manage pillars and weights. 💡 Tip — Who can use this For firm admins. Find your frameworks under Framework Library in your firm portal. Quick reference | Step | Action | |------|--------| | 1 | Open a framework in the template editor | | 2 | Add, remove, reorder, and weight pillars | | 3 | Write pillar descriptions and "what healthy looks like" | Step 1 — Open the template editor From your firm portal, go to Framework Library. You'll see your firm's frameworks plus the system FORTIS framework (which you can view to learn from). The framework library list Click Edit on one of your firm's frameworks to open the Template Editor. (The system FORTIS framework is view-only for firms — you can open it to see how it's structured, but only platform admins can edit it.) 💡 Tip — Study FORTIS first Before building your own framework, open the FORTIS framework and read through its pillars, metrics, and flag rules. It's a proven, well-tuned model, and understanding it will make designing your own much easier. You can't break it — it's view-only for firms. Step 2 — Manage pillars and their weights The template editor shows your framework's pillars as stacked blocks. At the top, a Total Weight badge shows the sum of all pillar weights — it must total exactly 100% before you can save. The template editor showing pillars with weights For each pillar you can: - Edit the pillar name (the text field at the top of each block). - Set the Default Weight — the percentage this pillar contributes to the composite score. This is entered as a decimal (0.3 = 30%). - Reorder with the ↑ and ↓ buttons (pillars display in this order on client dashboards). - Remove a pillar you no longer want. - Add a new pillar with the + Add Pillar button at the bottom. All pillars with the Add Pillar button 📝 Note — What "Default Weight" means The default weight is how much the pillar counts toward the composite score for most clients. You can override it per tier (see the Metrics & Scoring guide), but the default is the baseline. Pillars with higher weights have a bigger impact on the overall score — so weight them according to how strategically important each area is to your advisory methodology. ⚠️ Warning — Weights must total 100% The Total Weight badge turns red if your pillar weights don't sum to exactly 100%. You can't save until they do. If you add a pillar, redistribute weight from the others; if you remove one, redistribute its weight to the remaining pillars. Step 3 — Write pillar descriptions Each pillar has two text fields that shape what clients (and Pulse AI) see: The description and healthy-looks-like fields - Description — explains what this pillar measures. This text is shown to clients on their dashboard when they open the pillar, and it's sent to Pulse AI along with their scores so the AI understands the pillar's intent when writing deep-dives and advisory commentary. - What Healthy Looks Like — describes what a strong score on this pillar looks like in practice. Shown to clients in the pillar detail modal, helping them understand the target state. 💡 Tip — Write clearly for both audiences These fields are read by clients (business owners, not analysts) and by the AI. Write in plain, concrete language: "Measures whether revenue is growing steadily month over month" is better than "Quantifies top-line velocity." Clear descriptions produce better AI analysis and help clients engage with their scores. Version history At the bottom of the editor, a Version History section records material edits — changes to weights, metrics, or flag rules that affect scoring. Cosmetic edits (renaming, reordering, fixing descriptions) are not versioned. The version history section The first material edit creates version 1. This gives you an audit trail of how the framework's scoring logic has evolved over time. 📝 Note — Save regularly Use Save Template (top-right) to persist your changes. Unsaved edits are lost if you navigate away. The material-change confirmation (covered in the Metrics & Scoring guide) appears on save when your edits affect scoring. Related guides: - Framework Metrics & Scoring — how metrics drive pillar scores, per-tier overrides, and the connection to client-submitted data. - Framework Flag Rules — how to configure the amber/red thresholds that alert clients and advisors to metrics needing attention.

Framework Metrics & Scoring: How Scores Are Computed

Metrics are the bridge between the data your clients submit and the scores they receive. Each pillar in your framework is scored from one or more metrics, and those pillar scores combine into the composite score the client sees. This guide explains how metrics work, how to configure them, how per-tier overrides change the weighting, and how it all connects to what clients submit. 💡 Tip — Who can use this For firm admins. Read the Framework Basics guide first — this builds on it. Quick reference | Step | Action | |------|--------| | 1 | Understand how metrics drive pillar scores | | 2 | Add and configure metrics per pillar | | 3 | Set per-tier weight overrides | Step 1 — Understand how metrics drive scores Here's the scoring chain, from client input to the number on their dashboard: 1. The client submits data on the Submit Data page — financial metrics, people metrics, operational metrics, strategic priorities (rocks), and transformation initiatives. 2. Each metric is scored against a benchmark. For "higher is better" metrics (like margin or on-time delivery), the score rises as the actual value approaches or beats the benchmark. For "lower is better" metrics (like churn or attrition), the score rises as the value drops below the threshold. Each metric gets a 0–100 score. 3. The pillar score is computed from its metrics, weighted by the weights you set in the Metrics section. If a pillar has multiple metrics, each contributes its weighted share. 4. The composite score blends the pillar scores using the pillar default weights (or per-tier overrides), producing the single 0–100 number the client sees as their Strategic Health Score. 📝 Note — The framework defines the formula; the client's data provides the inputs Your framework's metrics, weights, and benchmarks define how scoring works. The client's submitted data provides what gets scored. A well-designed framework produces meaningful scores from the data your clients actually submit — so choose metrics your clients can and will report on. 💡 Tip — Metrics map to submission fields Every metric in the dropdown corresponds to a specific field (or set of fields) the client enters. For example, "Gross Profit Margin" reads the margin field from their financial submission; "Rocks On-Track Ratio" reads the status of their strategic priorities. If a client doesn't submit the field a metric depends on, that metric (and potentially its pillar) shows "No data." Step 2 — Add and configure metrics Open a pillar's Metrics section (collapsed by default — click to expand). Click + Add Metric to add a metric row. A metric row with the metric selector, weight, required checkbox, and gate Each metric row has: - Metric — a dropdown of the 19 scoreable metrics (Revenue Targets Met, Gross Profit Margin, Delivery On-Time Rate, Initiative Completion Rate, Voluntary Attrition Rate, Average Tenure, Time-to-Fill, Training Hours, Rocks On-Track Ratio, Customer Retention, Cash-to-Revenue, Issue Resolution, Initiative Stage Progression, Investment Intensity, Decision Velocity, Employee Engagement, Avg Issue Resolution, Customer Churn, Rocks Off-Track Count). Pick the metric(s) that best represent this pillar. - Weight — how much this metric contributes to the pillar's score (entered as a decimal: 0.5 = 50%). Metric weights within a pillar should ideally sum to 100%. - Required — if checked, the pillar can't score without this metric's data. If a required metric is missing, the pillar shows "No data" rather than a partial score. - Gated by — an optional condition that must be met before this metric counts (advanced; usually left as "no gate"). - Remove — deletes the metric row. A live warning shows the current sum of metric weights: "Metric weights sum to X% — the engine re-normalizes at score time, but 100% is recommended." 📝 Note — What "re-normalizes" means If your metric weights don't sum to exactly 100%, the scoring engine automatically rescales them so they do at score time. For example, if two metrics each have 50% weight (totaling 100%), each contributes half the pillar score. If they each have 30% (totaling 60%), the engine scales them up proportionally — each still contributes half. This prevents errors, but setting weights to sum to 100% explicitly keeps your intent clear and avoids surprises. 💡 Tip — Choose metrics that fit the pillar Pick metrics that genuinely reflect what the pillar measures. For a "Financial Health" pillar, Gross Profit Margin and Cash-to-Revenue make sense; for an "Operational Excellence" pillar, Delivery On-Time Rate and Issue Resolution Speed fit. Avoid stuffing unrelated metrics into a pillar just because they're available — it muddies the score's meaning. Step 3 — Set per-tier weight overrides Each pillar has a default weight (set in the pillar header — see the Basics guide). But you can override how much a pillar counts for clients on specific tiers. Expand the Per-Tier Weight Overrides section to see five tier slots: trial, pulse_ai, access, partner, and executive. The per-tier weight overrides section with five tier slots Enter a weight (decimal) for any tier where you want the pillar to count differently from the default. A tier with no override uses the pillar's default weight. 📝 Note — Why per-tier overrides exist Different engagement levels deserve different strategic emphasis. On an Executive engagement, you might weight Transformation and Intelligence more heavily (forward-looking, strategic pillars) and Results less (the executive already knows their financials). On an Access engagement, the opposite might be true. Per-tier overrides let one framework serve multiple engagement depths without creating separate frameworks for each tier. ⚠️ Warning — Tier overrides must also total 100% If you set overrides for a tier, the overridden pillar weights for that tier must still sum to 100%. Only override pillars where you want a different weight — leave the rest blank to use their defaults, and make sure the total (including defaults for non-overridden pillars) reaches 100%. The connection to client-submitted data This is the most important thing to understand: your framework only scores what clients submit. Every metric in your framework reads from specific submission fields. When a client submits their monthly data: - Metrics with submitted data are scored against their benchmarks. - Metrics without submitted data are skipped (the pillar shows "Partial data" if some metrics are present, "No data" if none are). - Flag rules (see the Flag Rules guide) check submitted values against thresholds and raise amber/red flags. So if your framework uses metrics your clients don't submit, those pillars will consistently show partial or no data. Design your framework around the data your clients can realistically report. 💡 Tip — Audit your framework against the submission form Open the Submit Data page (as a partner reviewing a client) and compare its fields to your framework's metrics. Every metric should map to a field the client is asked to fill in. If a metric has no corresponding submission field, either remove it from the framework or work with your admin to add the field to the submission form. Related guides: - Framework Basics — pillars, weights, descriptions, and the editor overview. - Framework Flag Rules — configuring the thresholds that raise flags.

View Your Firm Portfolio

Your firm portfolio is the list of clients your firm sponsors — each with their tier, status, and engagement details. It's your at-a-glance view of who you're advising and where each stands. 💡 Tip — Who can use this For firm admins, on your firm portal. Quick reference | Step | Action | |------|--------| | 1 | Review your sponsored clients | Step 1 — View your portfolio Open your firm portal's Portfolio (or Clients) section. You'll see a list of the clients your firm sponsors, each showing the client name, their tier, their subscription status, and key engagement details. From here you can see which clients are active, which are pending, and spot any that need attention. Click a client to view or manage their details. 📝 Note — Only firm-sponsored clients appear here This list shows clients created under your firm (firm-sponsored). Clients on direct plans — even if advised by your partners — aren't part of your firm's portfolio and won't appear here. 💡 Tip — Watch capacity Your firm has capacity limits on how many clients, partners, and frameworks it can hold. The portfolio is where you'll first notice if you're approaching a limit. See the capacity limits guide for managing them.

Create a Client Under Your Firm

When your firm takes on a new advisory engagement, you create the client account from your firm portal. The client is automatically firm-sponsored — billing flows through your firm, not the client. This guide covers creating a client. 💡 Tip — Who can use this For firm admins, on your firm portal. Quick reference | Step | Action | |------|--------| | 1 | Create a firm-sponsored client | Step 1 — Create a client From your firm portal, go to the Clients section and choose to create a new client. You'll provide the client's details (name, contact, profile information), and Fortis Pulse provisions the organization and its first workspace. What happens automatically: - The client's billing owner is set to your firm — their plan is firm-sponsored, so they won't see upgrade or top-up options (they'll see a "Plan Managed by Your Firm" notice instead). - A workspace is created for the engagement. - The client's framework is resolved (typically your firm's framework or the system FORTIS framework). - The action is capacity-checked — if your firm is at its client capacity limit, the creation is blocked until capacity is increased. 📝 Note — You manage the plan Because the client is firm-sponsored, you (the firm) handle their tier, top-ups, and billing. The client experiences the product normally but can't self-serve billing changes. ⚠️ Warning — Respect capacity limits Creating a client counts toward your firm's client capacity. If you're at the limit, either increase the limit (see the capacity guide) or review whether an existing client should be archived before adding a new one.

Framework Flag Rules: Configuring Thresholds That Alert

Flag rules are your framework's early-warning system. They define when a submitted metric should raise a flag — drawing the client's (and your advisors') attention to a value that's crossed into concerning territory. This guide explains how flag rules work, how to configure them, and how they appear to clients. 💡 Tip — Who can use this For firm admins. Read the Framework Basics and Metrics & Scoring guides first — this builds on them. Quick reference | Step | Action | |------|--------| | 1 | Add flag rules per pillar with amber/red thresholds | | 2 | Understand direction (below vs. above) | | 3 | Write the commentary clients see | Step 1 — Add a flag rule Open a pillar's Flag Rules section (collapsed by default — click to expand). Click + Add Flag Rule to add a rule row. A flag rule row with metric, thresholds, benchmark, direction, and commentary Each flag rule has: - Metric — the submitted metric this rule watches (same 19 metrics as the Metrics section). Pick the metric whose value you want to monitor. - Amber threshold — the value at which a "watch this" amber flag is raised. The metric is heading toward a problem but isn't critical yet. - Red threshold — the value at which an "act now" red flag is raised. The metric has crossed into seriously concerning territory. - Benchmark — the reference target value for this metric. Used for context in the flag display (shows actual vs. benchmark). - Direction — whether the flag triggers when the metric is below the threshold (for "higher is better" metrics like margin) or above the threshold (for "lower is better" metrics like churn). - Commentary — the text shown on the client's dashboard when this flag fires. Explains what the flag means and, ideally, what to do about it. - Remove — deletes the rule. Step 2 — Understand direction (below vs. above) This is the most commonly misunderstood field, so it deserves its own section. "Below" direction — the flag fires when the metric's value drops below the threshold. Use this for metrics where higher is better (revenue, margin, on-time delivery, retention). If you set an amber threshold of 0.30 and a red threshold of 0.20 with "below" direction, then: - Margin above 30% → no flag (healthy). - Margin between 20% and 30% → amber flag (watch). - Margin below 20% → red flag (act now). "Above" direction — the flag fires when the metric's value rises above the threshold. Use this for metrics where lower is better (churn, attrition, time-to-fill, issue resolution days). If you set an amber threshold of 0.10 and a red threshold of 0.15 with "above" direction, then: - Attrition below 10% → no flag (healthy). - Attrition between 10% and 15% → amber flag (watch). - Attrition above 15% → red flag (act now). ⚠️ Warning — Getting direction wrong suppresses real flags If you set a "below" direction on a metric where lower is bad (like churn), the flag will fire when churn is low (healthy) and stay silent when churn is high (the actual problem). Always double-check the direction matches the metric's nature. When in doubt, look at how the FORTIS framework configures the same metric. Step 3 — Write the commentary clients see The commentary field is the text displayed on the client's dashboard when this flag fires. It appears next to the metric name, actual value, and target, so the client understands not just that something is off, but why it matters and what to consider. Write commentary that's: - Specific to the metric — explain what this particular value means for the business, not a generic "this needs attention." - Action-oriented — suggest what the client might do, or at least what to investigate. - Plain-language — the client is a business owner, not a financial analyst. For example, for a low gross profit margin red flag: "Your gross profit margin has dropped below 20%. This means less than 20 cents of every revenue dollar is surviving to cover overhead. Review your pricing, cost of goods, or product mix — one of these is likely eroding profitability." 📝 Note — Commentary is shown verbatim Whatever you write in the commentary field is displayed to the client exactly as written when the flag fires. Your advisors can add their own commentary on top during review, but your framework-level commentary is the baseline the client sees. Write it carefully. How flags connect to scores and the client experience Flag rules and metrics work together but are separate: - Metrics determine the score (0–100) for a pillar. They answer "how well is this area doing?" - Flag rules determine the alerts (amber/red). They answer "what needs attention right now?" A pillar can have a decent score but still have a red flag on one of its metrics (if, say, most metrics are healthy but one has dropped sharply). And a pillar with a low score might not have any flags if no metric has crossed a threshold (yet). They're complementary signals. On the client's dashboard: - Active flags appear on the Executive Overview (a count of amber and red flags) and on the Flags & Actions page (each flag with its metric, actual vs. target, and your commentary). - On the Executive tier, any red flag raises a Critical Alert banner at the top of the dashboard. - Your advisors can add their own commentary to flags during review and set their status (Active, Acknowledged, Dismissed) before publishing. 💡 Tip — Start from FORTIS and adapt The system FORTIS framework has 9 well-tuned flag rules covering all six pillars. Open it (view-only) and study the thresholds and directions it uses for each metric. Use those as your starting point, then adjust the thresholds to match your firm's methodology and your clients' typical ranges. Don't start from scratch — start from proven values and refine.

Manage Firm Partners & Team

Your firm's partners are the advisors who do the client work; your team members are the internal staff who manage the firm portal. As a firm admin, you add and remove both from your firm portal. This guide covers managing your people. 💡 Tip — Who can use this For firm admins, on your firm portal. Quick reference | Step | Action | |------|--------| | 1 | Add or remove partners and team members | Step 1 — Manage your people From your firm portal, the Partners and Team sections let you manage your firm's people. Adding partners — you can either: - Assign an existing unassigned partner to your firm (a partner already in the system but not yet belonging to a firm). - Invite a new partner by name and email — they receive a magic-link invitation to join your firm. Adding team members — invite internal staff (firm admins) to help manage the firm portal. Removing members — remove a partner or team member from your firm when they leave or move on. This revokes their firm-scoped access. 📝 Note — Partners appear on client engagements Partners you add to your firm can then be assigned to your firm's client workspaces by a platform admin during onboarding approval. Adding them to the firm is the prerequisite; assignment to specific clients is a separate step. 💡 Tip — Keep your roster current Remove partners who've left so they can't access client data, and add new ones promptly so they can be assigned to engagements. A current roster keeps your capacity counts accurate and your audit trail clean.

Set Firm Capacity Limits

Your firm has capacity limits — the maximum number of clients, partners, team members, and frameworks it can hold. These limits prevent accidental over-allocation and keep your firm's footprint manageable. As a firm admin, you can view and adjust them. This guide explains how. 💡 Tip — Who can use this For firm admins, in your firm's settings. Quick reference | Limit | Controls | |-------|----------| | Clients | Max sponsored clients | | Partners | Max advisory partners | | Team | Max internal members | | Frameworks | Max custom frameworks | The four limits Your firm has four capacity limits, each with a current usage and an editable maximum: - Clients — how many firm-sponsored clients you can hold. - Partners — how many advisory partners belong to your firm. - Team — how many internal firm members (admins) you can have. - Frameworks — how many custom scoring frameworks your firm can own. Each shows a usage bar (current / max) that turns amber or red as you approach the limit. Creating a new item of that type is blocked once you're at the max. 📝 Note — Defaults and adjustments Firms start with sensible defaults (for example, up to 50 clients, 5 partners, 3 team members, 3 frameworks). You can raise or lower a limit at any time in your firm settings — changes are audited. 💡 Tip — Review limits before growth spurts If you're about to onboard several clients or partners, check and raise the relevant limits first so you're not blocked mid-onboarding. Lowering a limit below your current usage doesn't remove existing items — it just prevents adding more until you're back under.

Manage Your Firm's Framework Library

A framework defines how a client is scored — the pillars, their weights, the metrics, and the flag rules. Your firm can own custom frameworks tailored to your advisory methodology, alongside the system FORTIS framework. This guide covers managing your firm's framework library. 💡 Tip — Who can use this For firm admins, on your firm portal. Quick reference | Step | Action | |------|--------| | 1 | View and manage your firm's frameworks | Step 1 — Manage your frameworks From your firm portal, open the Framework Library. You'll see the frameworks your firm owns, each showing its name, pillar count, and visibility (public or private within the firm). System vs firm-owned frameworks: - System frameworks (like FORTIS) are owned by the platform. You can view them but a platform admin edits them. - Firm-owned frameworks are yours — you can create, edit, and use them for your firm's clients. Editing a firm-owned framework lets you adjust pillars (add, remove, reorder, weight), their descriptions and "what healthy looks like" text, the metrics per pillar, and the flag rules (thresholds). Per-tier weight overrides let you tune how pillars count for clients on different plans. 📝 Note — Framework changes can affect existing clients Editing a framework that's in use can change how existing client periods are scored. Material changes (adding/removing pillars or metrics, changing weights) are flagged with a confirmation showing how many clients are affected. Cosmetic edits (like fixing a description) apply without that prompt. 💡 Tip — Start from FORTIS and customize Most firms start with the system FORTIS framework and create a customized copy for their methodology. This gives you a proven structure to adapt rather than building pillars and metrics from scratch.

Read the Firm Audit Log

The firm audit log records significant actions taken under your firm — client creations, capacity changes, billing-owner overrides, tier changes, and more. It's your accountability trail for who did what, when. This guide explains how to read it. 💡 Tip — Who can use this For firm admins, on your firm portal. Quick reference | Step | Action | |------|--------| | 1 | Review the audit log | Step 1 — Read the audit log Open the Audit Log section of your firm portal. You'll see a chronological list of firm-level actions, each showing: - The actor — who performed the action (a firm member or "System Admin" if a platform admin acted on a firm client). - The action type — what happened (e.g. client created, capacity limits updated, billing owner changed, tier changed). - The details — specifics like old and new values. - The timestamp. 📝 Note — Platform admin actions appear here too When a platform admin takes an action that affects one of your firm's clients (for example, changing a client's tier or assigning a partner), that action is cross-logged into your firm's audit trail with the admin as the actor. This keeps your trail complete even for actions you didn't perform. 💡 Tip — Use the log for accountability The audit log is valuable for governance — if a client's tier or capacity changed unexpectedly, the log shows who did it and when. Review it periodically to keep track of administrative changes across your firm.

Firm-Sponsored Billing Explained (For Firms)

When your firm sponsors a client, you take on their billing — the client doesn't pay Fortis Pulse directly, and they don't see upgrade or top-up options. This guide explains what firm-sponsored billing means from the firm's side. 💡 Tip — Who can use this For firm admins managing firm-sponsored clients. Quick reference | Aspect | Firm's responsibility | |--------|------------------------| | Plan/tier | You set and change it | | Top-ups | You handle them | | Client's view | "Plan Managed by Your Firm" | How firm-sponsored billing works When you create a client under your firm, their billing owner is set to your firm automatically (this is hardcoded, not taken from a form). From the client's perspective, they see a "Plan Managed by Your Firm" notice on their Usage & Billing tab instead of the usual upgrade and top-up controls — they know to come to you for any plan changes. What this means for your firm: - Tier changes — you (or a platform admin) set and adjust the client's tier. The client can't self-upgrade. - Token top-ups and auto-recharge — handled at the firm/platform level, not by the client. - Revenue accounting — firm-sponsored clients are excluded from the platform's direct revenue figures, because they're billed through you. This is an internal distinction; it doesn't affect the client's product experience. 📝 Note — The client still sees their usage Even though billing is firm-managed, the client can still see their usage (tokens used, per-feature counts) on their billing tab — they just can't act on it. This keeps them informed about their AI consumption without giving them billing control. 💡 Tip — Communicate plan changes to clients Because the client can't see billing details, let them know when you change their tier (especially upgrades that unlock new features) so they're aware of what they now have access to. A quick message goes a long way.

Branding Your Firm's Custom Domain

Give your firm's portal its own identity. When clients and partners sign in through your firm's custom web address (for example, advisory.yourfirm.com), they see your logo and your brand color instead of the default Fortis Pulse branding — on the sign-in page, throughout the app, and in notification emails. This article walks through setting up your branding and connecting your own domain, in the Firm Portal's Settings page. 💡 Tip — Who can use this Firm administrators. The branding appears on your firm's custom domain and in emails sent to your firm's clients, partners, and team members. Quick reference | Step | Action | |------|--------| | 1 | Open Settings in the Firm Portal | | 2 | Upload your logo and pick your brand color | | 3 | Add your custom domain and verify it | | 4 | Confirm your branded sign-in page | Step 1: Open Settings Sign in to the Firm Portal and click Settings in the left-hand menu. The Settings page has two sections: Whitelabel Branding (your logo and color) and Custom Domain (your own web address). The Firm Portal Settings page showing the Whitelabel Branding and Custom Domain sections Step 2: Upload your logo and pick your brand color In the Whitelabel Branding section: 1. Click the file picker under Upload logo and choose your logo image. PNG, JPG, or WebP up to 2 MB. 2. Pick your Accent color by typing a hex code (like #1155DD) or using the color picker. A small preview shows how buttons and highlights will look. 3. Click Save Branding. Your logo and color take effect on your custom domain and in the emails Pulse sends on your behalf — the standard Fortis Pulse branding stays everywhere else. The Whitelabel Branding card with the logo upload, color picker, preview, and Save button 📝 Note — Choosing a readable color If your accent color is too dark, you'll see a warning that black text on accent surfaces may be hard to read. Lighter colors keep buttons and highlights legible. Step 3: Add your custom domain and verify it In the Custom Domain section: 1. Type the address you want to use — for example advisory.yourfirm.com — and click Add. 2. The page shows the exact DNS record to create at your domain provider: a CNAME pointing your address at app.fortispulse.com. 3. Create that record at your provider, then come back and click Verify DNS. Verification usually completes within a few minutes of your DNS change. 4. Once verified, our team activates secure sign-in (HTTPS) for your domain. This last step is handled for you — you'll see the status change to Active when it's ready. The Custom Domain card showing the domain field, the CNAME instruction, and the Verify DNS button ⚠️ Warning — Cloudflare and similar proxies can hide your DNS record If your domain uses a proxy service (the orange-cloud setting in Cloudflare), your CNAME record is hidden from public checks. Verification will succeed once your domain actually reaches the sign-in page — set the record to "DNS only" or simply retry after the domain routes to Pulse. ❗ Important — Your firm controls sign-ups on its domain When your domain is active, new clients who sign up through it are automatically connected to your firm. Depending on how your firm's billing is set up, self-service sign-up may be turned off on your domain — clients then sign in with accounts your team creates for them. Step 4: Confirm your branded sign-in page Once your domain is active, visit it — advisory.yourfirm.com — and you'll see the sign-in page wearing your logo and your accent color. Your clients and partners see this same branding after they sign in, and the emails Pulse sends them carry your logo and name too. The sign-in page on the firm's custom domain, showing the firm's logo and brand color 📝 Note — Where clients land when they sign in If a client starts signing in from a different address, Pulse automatically directs them to your firm's domain to finish — so they always see your branding when they use the app.

Firm API Keys — Portfolio Data Access

Pulse Connect isn't just for clients: your firm can create its own API keys that read across every client workspace you manage. Firm keys power firm-side tooling — portfolio dashboards, reporting pipelines, or an AI assistant that answers questions like "which engagements dropped a pillar this quarter?" — without needing a separate key per client. 💡 Tip — Who can use this Firm administrators, from Settings in the firm portal. Firm keys keep working as long as your firm is active — if the platform team suspends the firm, its keys stop immediately. Quick reference | Step | Action | | ---- | ---------------------------------------- | | 1 | Open Settings and find the API Keys card | | 2 | Create a key with a name and scopes | | 3 | Copy the key — shown only once | | 4 | Revoke keys you no longer use | Step 1: Open Settings and find the API Keys card In the firm portal, click Settings and scroll to the API Keys card. It lists your firm's keys with their masked prefixes, scopes, status, and last-used time. Step 2: Create a key with a name and scopes Click Create API Key, name it for where it will be used (e.g. "Portfolio dashboard"), and choose its scopes. The Read-only preset (Scores, KPIs, Flags, Decisions read, Profile) suits almost all firm reporting. Decisions (write) and Ask Pulse are only needed if your tooling writes decisions or asks Pulse AI questions — note that Ask Pulse usage is metered against each client organization's plan. Create API key dialog 📝 Note — What a firm key can see A firm key reads the same data you see in the firm portal across all your client workspaces. Client-facing API keys are narrower — they only see each client's own data, and only periods their advisory analysis has been published for. When in doubt, prefer a read-only firm key. Step 3: Copy the key — shown only once The full key is displayed exactly once at creation. Copy it into your password manager or secrets store right away. If it's lost, revoke and re-create — it cannot be retrieved later. One-time key reveal ❗ Important — Treat firm keys like master credentials A firm key opens every engagement your firm manages. Store it in a secrets manager (never in code repositories or shared docs), give each integration its own key so you can revoke one without breaking others, and rotate keys when staff with access leave. Step 4: Revoke keys you no longer use Each key row has a Revoke button — it takes effect on the next request, and the row stays listed as REVOKED for your records. Do this when a tool is decommissioned or a key may have been exposed.

Subscribe Your Firm to Pulse Events (Webhooks)

Pulse Webhooks push platform events straight to your firm's own systems — your CRM, a Slack channel, a reporting pipeline — the moment they happen. As a firm admin you create an endpoint (a URL plus a signing secret), pick the events you care about, and Pulse delivers each one as a signed JSON POST. Your endpoint only ever receives events for your firm's own clients — never another firm's data. 💡 Tip — Who can use this Firm administrators, from Settings → Webhooks in the firm portal. Any HTTPS URL your system controls works. Delivery retries automatically if your endpoint is briefly down. Quick reference | Step | Action | | ---- | ------------------------------------------ | | 1 | Open Settings and find the Webhooks card | | 2 | Create an endpoint with its URL and events | | 3 | Copy the signing secret | | 4 | Confirm delivery with a test event | Step 1: Open Settings and find the Webhooks card In the firm portal, click Settings and scroll to the Webhook Endpoints card. The card lists your firm's endpoints, what each is subscribed to, its status, and recent deliveries. Step 2: Create an endpoint with its URL and events Click Create Endpoint. Give it the HTTPS URL of the system that will receive events and a short description. Then choose its event subscriptions — grouped by area so you can scan quickly: - Lifecycle — signups, leads, onboarding milestones - Billing — subscriptions started/renewed, tier changes, account state, grace, deactivation, firm suspension - Engagement — data submissions, scores, advisory published, decisions, sessions, documents - Messaging — messages sent or promoted (high volume — subscribe only if you truly need it) - Platform — partners and team changes, clients created, pricing updates Remember the scoping rule: even if you subscribe to an event type, your endpoint only receives the instances where the client organization has an active engagement with your firm. Create endpoint dialog with event catalog 📝 Note — You can change subscriptions anytime Open the endpoint's Edit dialog and re-check the list — subscriptions update immediately, no downtime. Step 3: Copy the signing secret When the endpoint is created, Pulse shows its signing secret (whsec_…). Your receiving system uses this secret to verify that deliveries genuinely come from Pulse. You can view the secret again at any time with Reveal Secret, and replace it with Rotate Secret if it ever leaks — after rotating, update your receiving system promptly. Signing secret modal ❗ Important — Verify every delivery Each POST carries an X-Pulse-Signature header (an HMAC of the timestamp + raw body, made with your secret). Verify it on your side before trusting the payload — the exact recipe is in the platform's webhook documentation, and the help center's admin article includes a working code snippet. Step 4: Confirm delivery with a test event Click Send Test on your endpoint's row. Pulse queues a synthetic test event immediately — no need to wait for a real signup or renewal. The card's Recent Deliveries table then shows the outcome per delivery: succeeded, pending a retry, or dead-lettered after repeated failures. In the screenshot below the demo endpoint's URL doesn't actually exist, so its delivery keeps retrying with a growing delay — a real endpoint that answers shows Succeeded. Endpoint listed with delivery log 📝 Note — How retries work If your endpoint is unreachable or returns an error, Pulse retries with growing delays (from about a minute up to a day). Deliveries are at-least-once — if your system processes an event twice, use the delivery id from the X-Pulse-Delivery header to deduplicate. An endpoint that keeps failing for many deliveries is automatically disabled and your firm admins are notified; you can re-enable it from the same card for a fresh start.

Deactivating and Reactivating a Client

From your firm's Clients page you can deactivate a client account — for example when an engagement ends or payment is past due. Deactivating immediately locks that client out of the platform (they see an "Inactive Account" screen telling them to contact their firm administrator), while you keep full access to their records from the same page. Reactivating restores their access instantly. 💡 Tip — Who can use this Firm administrators, from the Firm Portal → Clients page. This applies to any client in your firm's portfolio, whether the platform bills them directly or your firm sponsors them. Quick reference | Step | Action | |------|--------| | 1 | Open Clients and find the row | | 2 | Click Deactivate | | 3 | Confirm the archived status | | 4 | Reactivate with one click when ready | Step 1: Open the Clients page In the Firm Portal, go to Clients. Every client shows their tier, framework, status, and the actions available to you. The firm Clients list with status pills and actions 📝 Note — The INACTIVE badge Clients whose own plan has expired show an INACTIVE badge next to their name — that's the platform's billing status for them and is separate from deactivation. Deactivation is the action you control. Step 2: Click Deactivate On the client's row, click DEACTIVATE. The change is immediate — no data is deleted, and their row stays on your list. Step 3: Confirm the archived status The client's status pill switches to ARCHIVED and the row's action becomes ACTIVATE. The client themselves now see the Inactive Account screen with a "deactivated by your firm admin" message and a Log out option — they cannot use any part of the platform until you reactivate them. A client row showing the ARCHIVED status and ACTIVATE action Step 4: Reactivate when ready Click ACTIVATE on the row. The client's access is restored on their next sign-in. If the client was also behind on their own plan payments, they'll next see the standard renewal screen — reactivation and their plan status are handled separately. ⚠️ Warning — Deactivating doesn't cancel the client's own subscription If the platform bills the client directly (a card plan), deactivation pauses their access but doesn't refund or cancel their plan. Reactivating returns them to whatever plan state they had.