How to configure emails to be sent from your own domain name's email address
You can get Breww to send emails from your own email address. This works by you authorising Breww to send emails on your behalf (which ensures good deliverability), rather than Breww being given access to your email server to use to send emails.
Setting this up is a fairly simple process, but you will need access to your domain name's DNS server records. If you don't have this access, or you don't know what this is, you should speak to someone who does, such as your domain registrar or the person/company who built your website.
To get started, head to Settings -> Email settings -> Manage sending domains. From here, you can add your domain and you'll be given the details of two DNS records that need adding:
- A TXT record that's used for DKIM (this signs your emails so receiving mail servers can confirm they really came from you).
- A CNAME record that's used for monitoring bounces (return-path).
Enter the domain name on its own when adding it, with no @ symbol and no prefix, for example example.com. A subdomain such as mail.example.com is fine too, and a leading www. is removed for you.
At this point, you'll need to login to your DNS system and add these two records. If you don't know what this is, or how to do this, send a link to this guide, plus the DNS record values shown in Breww, to the right person/company who can help you with this.
Each record is shown with a Hostname and a value to add, each with a copy button next to it, so you can paste them straight into your DNS provider. Note that the hostname is shown without your domain on the end (your domain is shown beside it), because most DNS providers add it for you.
Once these DNS records have been added, you'll need to wait for them to be verified. This usually takes about 30 minutes, but it can be faster and even take up to 48 hours. Unfortunately, the timing here is outside of our control - there is nothing that we can do to speed this up. There is a button to get Breww to double-check the verification status. You may need to check back again the next day to see if verification is complete.
Both records must show as Verified before the domain can be used. Whenever you open the Manage sending domains page, Breww re-checks the current status of each record for you, and the Re-check verification statuses button runs a full validation on demand.
Once verification is complete, if you go back to Email settings, you will be able to enter a from address that uses your domain name. Having verified your domain name, you can send from any email address at that domain, even if this email address cannot receive emails (such as [email protected]).
Tip: Once a domain is authorised, it can be used in two places:
- In the brewery-wide Email settings (as the default send-from address for all outgoing emails).
- On individual invoicing details (under the Email send-from overrides fieldset) - this is useful for multi-business setups where different legal entities send from different email addresses on the same verified domain.
Troubleshooting a record that won't verify
When a record hasn't verified, Breww looks up your DNS for you and shows a message under that record with what it found. The most common causes are:
- No record found at the hostname. Check for a typo, and remember DNS changes can take up to 48 hours to propagate.
- The record is at the wrong hostname. A very common mistake is your DNS provider adding your domain to the hostname when you had already typed it in yourself, giving something like
hostname.hostname.example.com. Breww checks for this specifically and will tell you if it finds it. - The value is wrong. Breww will show the value it actually found so you can compare it with the one to add.
- More than one record at the hostname. There should be exactly one. Remove the extras.
FAQs
Can I remove the DNS records after validation is complete?
The two DNS records added must remain permanently in your DNS records. You cannot remove them after passing the verification, or emails will fail to be delivered. These records can only be removed if you completely stop using Breww to send emails on your behalf.
How do I remove a domain from Breww?
Use the red bin button next to the domain on the Manage sending domains page. The button is disabled while the domain is still in use as your send-from address in Email settings, so change that first, then remove the domain.
Why don't the emails sent by Breww show in my outbox?
Emails sent by Breww will not show in your outbox, however, you can check what has been sent in Email settings -> Email sending logs. From here, there is also a suppression list where you can see hard-bounced emails. If an email hard-bounces, Breww will never retry sending to that same address, unless you manually re-activate it (this is to protect your own email sending reputation and improve the deliverability of your other messages).
How can I check if an email was delivered? My customer says it hasn't arrived!
We have a dedicated help guide on this topic, please see Email sending/delivery issues.
Where do I set the wording of the emails themselves?
In General email settings, where you can set the subject, body, CC, BCC and reply-to defaults for each type of document Breww sends.