There are several steps you can take to troubleshoot when emails may not be sending to clients, which can help identify if the issue is with the system or the client's email provider. Some examples include:
Ensuring your domain has the required DNS settings to allow emails to be sent which includes DMARC and SPF records.
The client account has an invalid email address listed, emails will be rejected and bounce
Access denied by client's email server
Spam reporting address as the user or email server has marked email as spam and will bounce
Emails are being sent from an unauthenticated email address (e.g. Yahoo, Bigpond etc), and they are not accepted by client's email domain policy
Bounced email
Once an email address bounces, we don't send an email to that email address for approximately 1 week. This is because repeated bounces reduce your email delivery rating, and can possibly result in getting marked as spammers.
The following sections take you through the various things to check to help identify what is causing the issue, and outline any next steps to take to help resolve the issue.
Confirm DNS settings on your domain - DMARC and SPF
If your domain is not managed by us (e.g. with GoDaddy, CrazyDomains etc.), then there are some DNS settings you need to add you to your domain which allow your BookingTimes website to send emails on your behalf, including settings for DMARC, SPF and some CNAME records.
These records should’ve been copied across as part of the go live process, but if you are having issues sending emails then it’s important to double check that they exist.
These can be found on the domain status page of your BookingTimes website via Setup > Domain > Domain Management. For example: https://MyDomain.com/Admin/Domain/Status.
They are reloaded each time you visit this page (see Status column), but the domain settings themselves can take a while to be accessible and take effect once they are updated on your actual domain.
For email deliverability - the following CNAME and TXT records are extremely important.
SPF Record
Note - you may have other values in your TXT SPF record already. In that case only copy the bookingtimes part. i.e. “include:_spf.bookingtimes.com” as the start/end should already exist.
e.g. “v=spf1 include:_spf.bookingtimes.com include:_spf.google.com ~all”
Initial troubleshooting
Steps
Navigate to the client record who's email is not being sent
Click on the View Log link to view the client's email log
Note: you can view all email logs and search by clients via Reports > Logs > Sent Emails
The email log shows you if the email was delivered, opened, bounced or junked (put into client's junk folder).
If it was delivered or junked then you can contact the client and ask them to check their junk folder
Navigate to Reports > Logs > Rejected Email Addresses report
This report shows all rejected the emails to see if it’s a single occurrence or affecting other clients. It will show you all the error types and dates for when those emails were sent so you can identify if emails all stopped sending on a certain date.
If there is no obvious error so far (e.g. incorrect email address) and you want to try and re-send an email, open the client record and click on the Remove email block button next to the error (some screenshots will show a bin icon)
Once you've removed the error you can send a client a new email following this guide Client correspondence.
Next sections outline other possible troubleshooting.
Invalid client email
Determine the correct the email address and Save
Click on the Remove email block button
Resend the email
Access denied by client's email server
Contact the client and ask them to contact their email service provider for assistance and verify their email settings with them.
Spam reporting address
Spam reporting address as the user or email server has marked email as spam and will bounce. Contact the client and ask them to add your email to their Safe Sender/White list.
Sending from an unauthenticated email address
Emails are being sent from your unauthenticated email address, and they are not accepted by client's email domain policy (DMARC policy). If you’re using email that is hosted by us, please ensure you’ve added the required DNS records as per section Confirm DNS settings on your domain. If you are using an email such as Yahoo and Bigpond you can try the following:
Try authenticating your email with your email provider. e.g. Yahoo, Bigpond etc. Or
Try sending from another email address by changing your business email under Setup > System Settings > Business Detail > General tab > Email field. Once you’ve updated that, click on the bin icon to remove the block and try to resend the email.
If no adequate solution is found during this process then please email our support team at support@bookingtimes.com, and ensure you include the client's that are affected (client's name or ID) and any other information that could help the team further diagnose the issue.