Send email from your own domain

Overview#

TradesWork emails invoices, estimates, receipts and reminders for you. It works from day one: until your own domain is verified, email goes out from a shared TradesWork address with your company name on it ("Your Company via TradesWork"), and replies come to you. Verifying your own domain makes email come from an address like office@mail.yourcompany.com, which Gmail and Outlook trust more, so fewer messages land in spam.

Before you start#

• You need the Owner or Admin role.

• About 20 minutes, plus waiting for DNS (usually under an hour).

• A domain you own (your website or the part after @ in your work email). Gmail, Outlook and Yahoo addresses can't be used.

• A login to wherever your domain's DNS is managed (GoDaddy, Cloudflare, Squarespace, Namecheap, Wix…), or a web person who can add records for you.

• Not sure who manages your DNS? Look up your domain at lookup.icann.org. The "Name servers" line tells you (domaincontrol.com = GoDaddy, cloudflare.com = Cloudflare, squarespacedns.com or googledomains.com = Squarespace).

Steps#

1. Who your email is from#

1. Open Settings › Communications › Email Domains. Three cards at the top show Sending email, Lead emails and Bill emails with their status.

2. In Who your email is from, fill in:

   • Sender name (defaults to your company name).

   • Reply-to address: where customer replies go (defaults to the owner's email).

   • Signature.

   • Business mailing address. US law (CAN-SPAM) requires a postal address in marketing email; it's added to the bottom of every email.

3. Press Save sender. The Customers see box shows exactly how your From, Reply-to and footer look.

2. Send from your own domain#

1. In Send from your own domain, enter Domain to send from. We recommend a subdomain such as mail.yourcompany.com: it keeps the email TradesWork sends separate from your team's Google or Microsoft email, so a problem with one never hurts the other, and nothing on your main domain changes.

2. Enter Address before the @ (for example office).

3. Press Add domain. The badge shows Pending.

3. Add the DNS records#

1. Add the DNS records shows a table with Type, Host / Name, Value, Priority, TTL and Status for each record. Typically these are an MX and a TXT (SPF) record on a "send" host, a TXT (DKIM) record, and a recommended DMARC record on _dmarc.

2. Copy each record with its Copy button into your DNS host. Paste only the Host / Name shown; most hosts add your domain automatically. If yours asks for the full name, use the Full name shown under it.

3. Open Step by step for your DNS host for exact clicks:

   • GoDaddy: My Products › DNS next to your domain › Add New Record. Use just the host part for Name. Put the MX priority in Priority.

   • Cloudflare: your domain › DNS › Records › Add record. Paste just the host part. TXT and MX records can't be proxied.

   • Google Domains / Squarespace Domains: account.squarespace.com/domains › your domain › DNS › DNS Settings › Custom records › Add record.

   • Namecheap: Domain List › Manage › Advanced DNS › Add New Record. For MX, choose Custom MX under Mail Settings first.

   • Wix: Domains › the three dots next to your domain › Manage DNS Records.

   • Microsoft 365: your existing SPF stays as it is; our SPF lives on its own send host. Never create a second SPF record on the same host.

4. Press Check now. Each record shows Found, Waiting or Not found. TradesWork also keeps checking on its own.

5. When all required records are found, the domain badge shows Verified and the Customers see box switches to your address.

6. Not technical? Use Email the records to my web person: enter their email, an optional Note, and press Send instructions (up to 5 times a day).

4. Send a test email#

1. In Send a test email, press Send test email. It goes to your sign-in email from exactly the sender customers will see.

2. If it lands in spam, mark it "Not spam" and see Troubleshooting.

Settings that change this#

• Settings › Communications › Email Domains: sender, domain, DNS check and test.

• Every email TradesWork sends for your company (invoices, estimates, receipts, reminders, follow-ups) uses this sender.

• Bounced addresses and spam complaints are stopped automatically to protect your reputation.

Tips#

• DMARC: start with p=none (monitor only). If _dmarc already has a record, keep yours and skip ours.

• Already have SPF? Our SPF record is on its own send host, so it doesn't touch your existing SPF. If a host ever has two v=spf1 records, merge the include: parts into one.

• Set a real reply-to and a real postal address; both help delivery.

• Avoid all-caps subjects and link-only emails.

Troubleshooting#

• Records stay "Waiting" for hours → DNS hasn't updated yet, or the records went to the wrong place. → Most hosts update within an hour, some take up to 48 hours. Make sure you added them where your nameservers point (for example Cloudflare or your web host, not always the registrar).

• Records "Not found" → the domain was pasted twice (for example send.mail.yourcompany.com.yourcompany.com), or a character is missing from the DKIM value. → Paste only the Host / Name, and use the Copy button for values. Some hosts need TXT values without quotes.

• Badge says "Records not found" after a few days → verification stops looking after 72 hours. → Fix the records, then press Check now to start again.

• "SPF: too many DNS lookups" → SPF allows 10 lookups. → Ours is on its own host and doesn't add to your main domain's count. Remove services you no longer use from your main SPF.

• "That domain is already registered…" → it's set up on another account. → Contact support to release it.

• A customer says they never got email → their address bounced or they marked you as spam, so email to them is stopped. → Contact support to check and clear it once the address is fixed.

• "Email isn't switched on yet" → email sending isn't on for your account. → Texts and shared links still work. Contact support.

FAQ#

Will this change my team's normal email? No, especially with a subdomain like mail.yourcompany.com. Your mailboxes and website don't change.

Can I go back to the shared address? Yes. Press Remove domain. Email goes back to the shared TradesWork address; you can add the domain again later.

Do customers' replies come to TradesWork? No. Replies go to your Reply-to address.

Coming from ServiceTitan#

ServiceTitan sends email from its own servers with your name. TradesWork does the same until you verify your domain, then sends as you. If you verified a domain for ServiceTitan's marketing email, you can keep those records; add TradesWork's records alongside them (never a second SPF on the same host).