Email Setup & Queue: Email Address Validations

Email Address Validations

Validations are done on the following email fields using the RFC822 standards (see http://www.w3.org/Protocols/rfc822 and the notes below):

1. Drivers / Contact "Email" - refer to Set-up section below.
2. Suppliers / Detail "Email"
3. Suppliers / Account "Email"
4. Clients / Contacts "Contact 1"
5. Clients / Contacts "Contact 2"
6. Clients / Contacts "A/C Payable"
7. Clients / Contacts "CC"
8. Clients / Contacts "Payroll"
9. Mail Queue "To:", "Cc:" and "Bcc:"

RFC822 Standard

The validation done is as follows for local-part'@'domain'

1. 'local-part' has to start with a character from 0-9 or a-z or A-Z or '_', followed by any number of these characters ', -, ., _, a-z, A-Z, 0-9, finishing with a character from 0-9 or a-z or A-Z

2. 'local-part' allows apostrophes

3. '@' must be present

4. 'domain' has to start with a character from 0-9 or a-z or A-Z or '-', followed by any number of these characters -, a-z, A-Z, 0-9, then a character from 0-9 or a-z or A-Z before a . (full stop), this pattern can be repeated multiple times. After the final . (full stop), a string of at least 2 but no more than 9 characters from a-z, A-Z is required.

5. 'domain' cannot contain apostrophes.

6. Please avoid using underscores (_) in 'domain'.

Multiple Email Addresses

This feature enables you to email more than one person.

To enter multiple email addresses - separate each email addresses with a semicolon (;). E.g.,

mike.smith@work.com.au;mikes74@gmail.com

This feature works in the following locations

1. Drivers / Contact "Email"
2. Clients / Contact A/C Payable "Email" and CC "Email"
3. Suppliers / Detail "Email"
4. Suppliers / Account "Email"
5. Users / Details "Email"

Set-up

Set ) to 'yes', to validate the Drivers / Contact "Email" field.

If it is set to 'no', the email address validation is not done and any value can be saved.

Emailing Setup

Review the Mail Failed Scheduler Jobs process and update the stored scheduler jobs to send the reports to the right people in your business.

Go to the Email Setup page to see all the system emails that are available for you to use.

Mail Method

Choose which emailing protocol you want to use

1. Amazon Simple Email Service (SES) (our recommended service)
2. Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) (can also be used, and is the original service we provided)

| gb | mailtransmissionprovider | Choose which emailing protocol you want to use to send emails. You can either use 1. 'ses' - Amazon Simple Email Service (SES). This is the recommended method. You will need to set-up a DKIM key to verify the email's domain. 2. 'smtp' - For Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP). You will need to set-up an SPF record to verify the email's domain.

The Catch-e System was developed to use only SMTP at first. SES was introduced later and is now our recommended protocol for clients. | ses |
| gb | mailsenderdomainsenforcingflag | The Amazon SES function does not use the gbmailsender domain functionality, so this should be switched off by setting this control to 'no'. | no |

Email Addresses

Email Attachments as URLs

You can configure system settings to convert email attachments into URL links if a combined file size is exceeded. This helps reduce the size of emails being sent. This feature (if active) applies to all emails sent from the system.

All emails with attachments will be sent to the Mail Queue and the attachments will be displayed as an icon showing the document's format. For example, a PDF document will have the PDF icon and clicking on it will open the document. This includes all emails with attachments to be sent as url links. The url links will only appear once the email has been sent and received by the recipient.

When the URL has timed out, it cannot be accessed. If the user clicks on an expired link, an alert will appear in the browser window saying 'Token Expired'. Once timed out, re-sending the email from the Mail Queue will not work, you will have to create a new email and attachment.

We recommend activating this feature to guard against very large emails being sent as these often do not make it to the recipient.

Set a reasonably high value for the conversion to occur because

1. Some mail clients don't present the URLs as a hyperlink (the user will need to cut-and-paste).
2. Emails with URLs are sometimes pushed to a Junk folder. Ask your users to check this if they have not received an expected email.

HTML Email Templates

To configure system settings to convert email attachments into URL links for HTML Templates (for example Invoice Email Templates)), please include the placeholder #downloadlinksforlargeattachments# in your HTML Template body .

Auto Send Emails

The "Auto Send Emails" checkbox is checked by default when a new job is created.

When "Auto Send Emails" is checked

If "Auto Send Emails" is checked, the email batch created by the mailQuery job will be sent and set to 'Posted' status.

When "Auto Send Emails" is un-checked

1. If "Auto Send Emails" is un-checked, the email batch created by the mailQuery job will be set to 'Pending' status.

2. You can then review the batch and send it from the Mail Queue.

3. If you need to, you can delete a single email or the entire batch from the Mail Queue. If you do this, the linked event is also deleted.

4. These emails can also be seen in the related event tab.

5. The pending email cannot be sent from the event tab and the email icon looks like this [Email Pending]. Once sent the email icon looks like this: **

Parameters example set with no event

Validations and Alert messages

If "Auto Send Emails" is un-checked AND you are setting up a 'Contract' event, the selected event must be checked as a "System Event".

[Warning:]

Queue

Note: If you need to find a specific email, visit the Mail Filters page for a summary of suggested filtering combinations.

This screen displays a row for each email, recipient and attachment combination generated in the system.
If the email has two attachments, two rows will be shown.
If the email is sent to two people and has two attachments, four rows will be shown.
Records are not shown for "Bcc" recipients, but they can be seen in the email pop-up.

If you have a SMTP email configuration, a domain enrolment check is performed before emails are sent. Visit the SMTP page for more details.

Warning: If your email recipient did not receive an email. Ask them to add catch-e.net.au to their spam filter's safe senders list or trusted source to allow emails through the spam filter.

Filters

When selecting the Mail Queue menu option, the screen will default to displaying all pending email messages. A number of filters are available for users to selectively view messages within the queue.
Visit the Mail Filters page for more details.

• Batch No (Number) — Enter the Batch No to show only the emails in this batch.
• Item No (Number) — Enter an Item No to show only this email item.
• ID Type (Drop List) — Select an ID Type from the list to see all emails for this kind of record. Enter an "ID" in the field below to filter by a specific record. E.g. 'Contract ID', 'Quote ID'. Visit the Mail Filters page for a summary of available "ID Type" filters and emails.
• ID (Number) — To limit the emails returned for a selected "ID Type", enter an ID here to show only emails for the entered record.
• Group Code (Text) — Enter a Group Code to find emails that can be filtered using this field. Visit the Mail Filters page for a summary of email types that can be filtered by Group Code.
• Client Code (Text) — Enter a Client Code to find emails that can be filtered using this field. Visit the Mail Filters page for a summary of email types that can be filtered by Client Code.
• Attached (Text) — Enter the name, or part of the name of an attached file to find emails that contain this report.
• Email (Text) — Enter an email address, or part of an email address to find emails sent to this address. This filter will only return recipients that email is being sent to or being cc'd to. Bcc emails are not shown on screen and will not show up in this search selection.
• Type (List) — Choose one of the email types to find emails of this type. Visit the Mail Filters page for a summary of email types.
• From (Date) — Enter or pick a date to find emails sent on or after this date.
• To (Date) — Enter or pick a date to find emails sent on or before this date.
• Status (List) — Displays the latest status of the email's progress. --All-- - shows all messages Deleted - the message has been deleted from the pending queue Failed - the email failed to send. This can be because of a missing or invalid email address. In this case, you can edit the email to correct the address and then send it. Visit the Mail Failed page for all the reasons why an email can fail and how this can be managed. Pending - the message has been created and is ready to send. Sent - the message has been successfully sent.
• User (Drop List) — This field is read-only if your access restricts you to your own emails. It can be configured to allow you to see other users emails and works in the same way as the fields on the Home screen. If you belong to a Channel, then you will only be able to see emails that are available to users in your Channel. To give access to other users' emails, go to Users / Details and check on the KPI Access "Other Users" check box.

Column Descriptions

• Batch-Item (Num) — Displays the email Batch Number and Item Number. Click on this to open an email window where you can see this email.
• ID (Text) — Displays a Key ID for the email. Depending on the email, this may be the Client Code, Contract ID, Driver ID, Payment No or Quote ID. Queue ID and User ID will not be displayed unless the screen filters have been used to specifically return emails related to these IDs.
• (Icon) — If the email contains an attached file, the format the file will be shown here. This will typically be PDF, Office(xls) or CSV. If the email has more than one attachment, extra rows will be shown on screen and each file format will be visible on these rows. Some emails will contain URL links if the attachments would have been very large. Visit Email Attachments as URLs for details.
• Attached (Text) — The name of the attached file.
• To (Text) — Email recipients who emails are sent to or cc'd to. Emails can be configured to send a Bcc. Bcc email records are not shown on this screen.
• Type (Text) — Displays the type of email being sent.
• Created (Timestamp) — Displays the time the email was created. If an email is re-sent, the "Created" date is not changed.
• Status (Text) — Displays the status of the email.
• User (Text) — Displays the user who generated the email

View

• — Enabled when the "Status" filter is set to 'Pending'. Click to send the selected pending emails.
• — Enabled when the "Status" filter is set to 'Pending' or 'Failed'. Click to delete the selected emails. You can find deleted emails and view them on screen, but the email pop-up is not available and the emails cannot be re-sent.

Sending

• Stop — Enabled when the emails are currently sending. Click to stop the send email process. Emails that have not sent at this point will remain at pending status.

Save

• Cannot save due to the following invalid address: {invalid address} — OK to return to screen. Check the reported email address and fix the issue, then you should be able to save the email. Visit the Email Address Validations page for more details about the rules that are applied to validate email addresses.

Send

• All emails in the current selection will be sent! — OK to proceed with deletion.

Delete

• All emails in the current selection will be deleted! — OK to proceed with deletion.
• Cannot delete mail due to locking by {user_login}. — OK to return to screen. Retry the deletion later. You can also check the progress of the lock with the user who is locking the records. Visit the System Locks page for more details about managing lock issues.

Failed

Sometimes mail in the Mail Queue does not send.

Fail to send

Catch-e cannot not send emails if email details are missing or required data is corrupted.

1. Email address is missing
2. Email address is incomplete
3. Email data does not validate

Fail to be received

After being sent by the system, some emails fail to land in the recipient's inbox.

Some reasons we can identify and manage. These include blacklisted IP addresses, bounced emails or deferred emails.

Some reasons beyond our control. These are listed below;

1. A recipient sets an email as 'spam'. This means all subsequent emails may go to Spam/Junk folders. Note: this affects the IP address, so all the emails coming from your system IP for that recipient could be affected.
2. The recipients server has some sort of spamming control. It might be looking for a list of keywords which it find in the email/s.
3. If a span rule has been removed, the email/s may being to be received again without explanation.
4. The recipients mailbox is full.
5. The recipient has a folder rule that has been overlooked.

Blacklisting

IP blacklisting can happen if an SPF record is missing (see also the SPF records page). We can run checks if you think this may be happening.

Bounced, Deferred or Complaint

Emails that have failed to send can be classified as 'Bounced', 'Deferred' or 'Complaint' in Catch-e.

1. Bounced:
2. the server doesn't exist
3. the email address doesn't exist
4. the email address is suppressed. See also the getSuppressedDestination and deleteSuppressedDestination API pages.
5. Deferred: the server exists but can't connect to it.
6. Complaint: The recipient marked the invitation as spam.

Scheduler Jobs

Some bounced or deferred emails can be identified and reported back to you using scheduled jobs.

Some emails can't be reported on because some companies have anti spamming procedures in place that do not report bounced emails back to the sender. Examples include Gmail and Yahoo.
In these instances, where the domain is correct, emails with incorrect email addresses will not appear on the report.
Emails that are caught in the anti-spam filters for other reasons will also not appear on the report.

A scheduler report can be sent to you that provides information including the intended email batch-item number, email address, delivery date and delivery details of emails that have failed to send.

You can then locate the email\s in question in the mail queue, by entering the "Batch No" and "Item No". The email address can then be corrected and the email resent.

If your system is configured to use Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP), set-up jobs 1-3.

If your system is configured to use Amazon Simple Email Service (SES), set-up jobs 2 and 3 only.

Warning: Emails sent from a @catch-e.com.au address will not get picked up in the bounce back notification process. If you find any emails are being sent that use a catch-e email address, update them immediately to use an email address that belongs to your business.

Report Example

Troubleshooting

Tip: Visit the main Troubleshooting page for a list of all the available problem-solving tips.