How to Enable White Labeling in Horilla HRMS

White labeling in Horilla allows you to customize the platform’s appearance to match your organization’s branding, creating a more cohesive and familiar experience for employees.

This guide covers how to enable white labeling specifically for internal organizational use, where Horilla is used as an internal HR platform by your team.

Whether you’re deploying Horilla HRMS for 50 or 500 employees, aligning the platform with your company’s look and feel can improve user adoption and provide a seamless digital experience.

What is Internal White Labeling?

Internal white labeling refers to modifying Horilla’s branding so that it visually reflects your company. Instead of seeing the default Horilla logo and name, employees will see your company name, logo, and design elements across the platform.

Just like your office, website, or internal tools reflect your brand identity, your HR software should too. A consistent user experience helps build trust and streamlines interaction with your digital tools.

Focus on Internal Deployment

While Horilla’s open-source architecture supports multiple use cases, this tutorial is focused solely on internal deployment, making Horilla appear as your in-house system for employees. The goal is to make Horilla feel like an extension of your digital workspace, not a third-party tool.

Steps to Enable White Labeling in Horilla

1. Open the Horilla Project

Before you can enable white labeling, you need to access the Horilla source code on your local machine. Follow these steps:

First, open a terminal window (Command Prompt, Terminal, or PowerShell, depending on your operating system).

Navigate to the folder where you’ve set up Horilla’s development environment. For example:

cd ~/development/horilla

Replace the path above with the actual path to your Horilla project directory if it’s located elsewhere.

You’ll need a code editor or an integrated development environment (IDE) to make changes to Horilla’s source files. We recommend using Visual Studio Code (VS Code) for its simplicity and powerful features.

If you don’t have VS Code installed, you can download it from the official website: https://code.visualstudio.com/download

Once VS Code is installed, you can open the project directory using the following terminal command:

code .

This command tells VS Code to open the current folder (your Horilla project) as a new workspace.

Now that your project is open in VS Code, you’re ready to navigate the files and begin configuring white labeling.

2. Activate the Virtual Environment

Activate your virtual environment using:

source env/bin/activate

Then start the server:

python manage.py runserver

Access Horilla via your browser to see the default interface.

http://127.0.0.1:8000

3. Set Company Details

To avoid branding ambiguity after white labeling is enabled, assign a clear company identity:

• Log in to the admin interface.
•  
• Navigate to the company settings
  • http://localhost:8000/settings/company-view/
• Edit the default company name
• Mark this company as the headquarters.

⚠️ At least one company must be set as the headquarters for white labeling to work.

4. Enable White Labeling

In your IDE, navigate to:

horilla/horilla_apps.py

Find the line:

WHITE_LABEL = False

Change it to:

WHITE_LABEL = True

Save the file. If you encounter permission issues, update them accordingly before saving.

5. Restart the Server

Restart the server to apply the changes:

python manage.py runserver

Once restarted:

The Horilla branding will be removed from the login page and breadcrumb.

The platform will now reflect the name/logo of your headquarters company.

Summary

White labeling in Horilla helps deliver a branded, integrated experience to employees by replacing default UI elements with your company’s identity. To enable it:

Set a headquarters company.

Modify horilla/horilla_apps.py to set WHITE_LABEL = True.

Restart the server to reflect changes.

This approach ensures your HR platform is not only functional but also feels like part of your company’s digital ecosystem.