Email sending options (email account and mail server)

Disclaimer

All screenshots in the article were taken in the Dutch version of Yuki.

In Yuki it is possible to send your quotations, sales invoices and reminders to your customers via e-mail.

However, you will need to set the following email settings:

• the sender's email address from which your invoices and reminders must be sent (email account)
• via which sending method (mail server) your quotations, invoices and reminders should be sent (email configuration):
  • Yuki's 'virtual' mail server
  • your own SMTP server (outgoing mail server).

The status of your email account is:

• Inactive: a sender email address has not yet been entered that has been confirmed by yourself from the relevant email account.
• Active: a sender email address has been entered and has been confirmed by yourself from the relevant email account.

The status of your e-mail configuration is indicated by the colour of the bullet: 

• Red: the sender email address has not yet been confirmed by the user or no DNS records have been set for the Yuki server (DNS records) or no mail server settings have been entered for your own SMTP server.
• Orange: correct DNS records have not yet been set for the Yuki server, the DNS validation still gives errors or warnings.
• Green: the correct DNS records have been set for the Yuki server or mail server settings have been entered for your own SMTP server.

All configured settings such as the setting of the invoice delivery, among others, are grouped and categorised in one place in your domain.   

Open the settings of your domain by clicking on the Settings icon in the navigation bar. Subsequently, in the now-opened screen, click on Sales settings and then scroll to Invoice delivery.

In the above screen, under 'Email sending options', you can see that your email account status is inactive because no confirmed sender email address has been entered yet. In addition, the red bullet indicates that no DNS records ('virtual' mail server of Yuki) have been set up or mail server settings (SMTP server) have been entered yet.

Record sender email address

Click on Email sending options. The following screen is opened:

To make sure your customers receive an e-mail with a quotation, invoice or reminder from this email address, you need to specify the email address from which the quotations, invoices and reminders should be sent in the Email from address field.

f the customer replies to the e-mail, it will also be received at this email address.

Then click on the Yes button in the warning message. The following screen is opened:

In Yuki, your emails will be sent via the virtual Yuki server by default. In this screen, you can also choose to have your emails sent via your own SMTP server. Entering the SMTP settings for your own outgoing mail server will be covered later in this article.

Now click on the Save button. 

Your sales settings will now show the email address you just entered, however, the status of your email account is still set to 'Inactive'.

After entering the sender email address, you received an email from Yuki in the mailbox of that address to confirm your email account.

After confirming this email, the status of your email account will change to 'Active'.

The orange bullet indicates that the DNS records ('virtual' mail server of Yuki) are not yet set correctly. DNS validation still shows error messages or warnings.

Record sending method 

Then click on Email sending options again. The following screen is opened:

Your emails will be sent via the Yuki virtual server by default. However, if you want to send your emails via your own SMTP server (outgoing mail server), select the Send your emails via your own SMTP server option.

ATTENTION!

In your sales settings, the bullet turns green (email configuration status) after you have had the correct DNS records (Yuki's mail server) set up by your domain's hosting provider or entered the mail server settings (SMTP server).

Both sending methods are described below.

Send emails via Yuki's 'virtual' mail server

A major advantage of using Yuki's 'virtual' mail server is that Yuki can track whether your email arrived correctly at a recipient's end.

TIP!

The status of a sent e-mail can be viewed from the opened quotation, sales invoice or reminder.

For a detailed description, see article Document details for entrepreneur. 

Yuki will almost always correctly send all emails to your customers on behalf of your email provider via the Yuki mail server!

To prevent sent e-mails from still ending up in a 'spam' box at the recipient or not being accepted by the recipient, Yuki advises you to contact the hosting provider of your domain (website) or your ICT administrator with a request to have the correct DNS records set up on your own mail server.

You can find the correct DNS records for your e-mail address by clicking on the black arrow.

If your email provider does not allow Yuki to send email on their behalf for security reasons, Yuki will use the following email address: mail@yukiworks.nl. However, if the customer replies to the email, it will be received at the email provider's own email address.

Send e-mails via your own outgoing mail server (SMTP server)

Of course, you can also send your quotations, invoices and reminders via your own e-mail server. This reduces the chance that your emails will end up in the 'spam' box or cannot be delivered to the recipient.

A major drawback, however, is that Yuki cannot track whether your email arrived correctly at the recipient's end.

Each e-mail provider uses its own SMTP settings for the outgoing mail server. You can always request these from your e-mail provider.

Almost all email servers (SMTP servers) work with one of the two following combinations:

• Port 465 + SSL
• Port 587 + STARTTLS.

Select the sending method Send your emails via your own SMTP server. In the now-opened screen, you must then enter the SMTP settings of, in this example, a Gmail account:

Then click on the Save button.

After entering the SMTP settings, you can check if they are correct by clicking on the Test SMTP connection button.

ATTENTION!

When two-factor authentication (two-step verification) is enabled, an 'invalid password' error message may appear on your screen when sending an invoice because you cannot use the 'regular' password.

In that case, you need to create an app password to grant access to your own Microsoft account, Google account or Office 365 account on the mail server.

For more information on creating and using an app password:

• with a Microsoft-account, see Using app passwords with apps that don't support two-step verification
• with your Google-account, see Sign in with app passwords
• with your Office 365-account, see Create app password for Office 365.

Use the app password instead of your 'regular' password in the SMTP settings.

ATTENTION!

Google no longer supports using third-party apps or devices that ask you to log into your Google account using only your username and password.

Below are the SMTP settings you need to enter when using Gmail (Google) or a Microsoft Office 365 Outlook account to send your emails.

Gmail

If you are using a Gmail account, you need to enter the following SMTP settings: 

• SMTP server: the name of Gmail's SMTP server is smtp.gmail.com
• Username: the Gmail email address you wish to set
• Password: the password linked to your email account.
  
  

Encryption en port number

With a Gmail account, you can use two different ports and need to enter one of the two following combinations of settings:

• Encryption SSL with port number 465
• Encryption STARTTLS with port number 587.

ATTENTION!

IN case you need to use SSL for sending your sales invoices correctly via your Gmail account, 'Access to less secure apps' must be enabled in your Google account.

To enable access, follow the steps below:

• Log in to your Google account.
• Go to 'Manage your Google account'
• Click on 'Security' on the left of the now-opened screen
• Go to the 'Less secure apps' section of your Google account. 
• Enable 'Allow less secure apps'.
  
  ATTENTION!
  f you do not see this setting, you are using two-factor authentication or your Google account administrator may have disabled account access for less secure apps.

For more information on this setting, see Less secure apps & your Google account.

Microsoft Office 365 Outlook account

If you are using a Microsoft 365 account, you need to enter the following SMTP settings: 

• SMTP server: the name of the SMTP server is smtp.office365.com
• Username: the email address you wish to set
• Password: the password linked to your email account
• Encryption: STARTTLS
• Port number: 587.