Adding External Mail Accounts
- Gnatta
- David Oliver (Deactivated)
- Abbey Brown
Quick links in this article:
Adding an external mail account such as help@mycompany.com into Gnatta will mean updating your DNS records, and setting up forwarding rules from your external mail client. We’ll work through the steps in this article.
If you are unable to update your DNS records for any reason, you can create and use a Gnatta mail account such as help@mycompany.gnatta.com in just a few clicks: Adding Gnatta Mail Accounts
Identify your external account
First, you’ll need to decide which external email address you’d like to bring into Gnatta, such as:
help@mycompany.comsupport@mycompany.co.ukcsteam@thesockco.com
Identify, or create, a mail account and ensure you have admin access in the mail client. You may need to work with your IT Support teams to gain access.
If your external account uses a generic domain like @gmail.com or @outlook.com, you will not be able to send mail from Gnatta as those addresses, as you cannot update the DNS record. You can still forward mail from those addresses into Gnatta, however, and reply from a Gnatta mail account. Simply create a Gnatta mail account and setup your gmail.com or outlook.com address to forward into it.
Set up forwarding to Gnatta
To begin receiving mail into Gnatta, you’ll need to navigate to the mail client for your external email address and set up forwarding. It’s critical this is set up at the server level, so that the original sender is retained (otherwise you’ll not be able to reply to customers - you’ll be replying to your own address!).
In Microsoft Exchange, for example, that means using a mail flow rule rather than inbox forwarding. This is because mail flow rules take action on messages while they're in transit, and not after the message is delivered to the mailbox.
The email you’ll need to forward into will be auto-generated by Gnatta when you add your account (later in this article). It’ll match your external account prefix, and swap your external domain for your Gnatta domain, as follows:
help@mycompany.comwill need to forward intohelp@mycompany.gnatta.comsupport@mycompany.co.ukwill need to forward intosupport@mycompany.gnatta.comcsteam@thesockco.comwill need to forward intocsteam@thesockco.gnatta.com
Please refer to the documentation for your email client for further instruction on setting up your mail forwarding.
Microsoft Exchange - we’d recommend setting up a Mail Flow Rule.
Gnatta cannot support multi-forwarding, or distribution lists. Your external mail account must be an inbox in it’s own right to be compatible.
Update Your DNS Record
There are two methods you can use to give Gnatta permission to send mail on your behalf - the first uses an auto-generated code in your Gnatta account, which will self-verify and speed up your setup process. Alternatively, you can manually update an SPF record and raise a ticket with Gnatta Support to complete the configuration. Both methods work, and we’ll cover the steps below.
You only need to do this once per email domain (i.e. @mycompany.com or @thesockco.co.uk) you’d like to use in Gnatta. If you add any future email addresses using a domain that’s already been added and verified, you can skip this step.
Method 1: Add a DNS TXT record
Log in to your Gnatta domain, navigate to Configuration > Settings > Email > Domains > Add a domain. The dialogue box will reveal an auto-generated code for your account, which you can use to create a new DNS TXT record. The code will look something like this, and is unique: GN-Zm1vLTI1ZjZlY2E4
Next, you’ll need to refer to your domain host settings to access the DNS records, and create a new TXT containing the code. The process for doing this will vary depending on your domain host - popular domain hosts include providers such as 123-Reg and GoDaddy.
Once the code has been added to the DNS record (it may need a little time to cache), return to your Gnatta settings and add your domain name (i.e. mycompany.com) as per the above steps. If the record has been added successfully, the domain will be added to your list of allowed domains.
Method 2: Update your SPF record
Sender Policy Framework (SPF) is an email authentication method designed to detect forging sender addresses during the delivery of email. If you are setting your email account to forward mail into a Gnatta account and then replying using the account created in Gnatta you will need to update your SPF record.
SPF records need to include all the IP Addresses and third-party email providers that you send messages from. This ensures that your emails and your customers receive the best protection from malicious activity.
How you make updates to your SPF record differs depending on your DNS/Mail provider and we would recommend that you find the relevant instructions for your provider, or get in touch with your internal IT Support teams. Here is an example guide from Microsoft.
The update you will need to make regarding Gnatta is adding the following into your record:
include:[Your Domain].gnatta.com For example, if your domain was http://gnatta.gnatta.com the TXT record would look like the below:
v=spf1 include:gnatta.gnatta.com It is worth also checking if your SPF record is valid once it has been updated (your record needs to be updated but also still be valid). You may find the following tools helpful in doing this: MX Toolbox and Kitterman.
Add your external account in Gnatta
Now that you’ve:
Identified your external email address
Set up blind forwarding (so you can receive emails in Gnatta)
Updated DNS records (so you can send emails from Gnatta)
You’re ready to add your external email address into Gnatta! Navigate to Configuration > Settings > Email > Add an account. There are several options here, but for this scenario we’re going to use the External email option.
Use the prefix you identified at the start of this process (i.e. support or help or csteam) and select your domain from the list. Your external mail account will be added to the list of accounts on the left.
Now that you’ve added your account, it’s critical you select the correct team to map it to. The team is how Gnatta determines:
Who is allowed to respond - for security purposes, only users who are in a team mapped to the account can respond to those interactions, regardless of whether they’re assigned on their radar.
What availability there is - based on the opening hours schedule of the team(s) associated to the account. If an interaction is received after hours, you can create workflows to handle it differently
Your email account has now been added into Gnatta - but you’re not finished yet! You still need to decide how you want to route conversations from this account into queues, and complete your routing workflows: