Practice Branded Email — Your Booking

Three ways to send

Everything is set in one place: Setup → Email & Domains → Practice Branded Email → Edit.

Option	What patients see	What's involved
I have my own domain (recommended)	Your own address, e.g. `bookings@yourpractice.com.au`	Five DNS records added once by whoever manages your domain. No password shared with us.
I just use a Gmail or Outlook address	The address you send from	A one-off setup inside Gmail or Outlook, and we store the password
Happy for them to be sent from Your Booking	`bookings@yourbooking.au` under your practice name	Nothing

You can change your mind at any time, and nothing stops working while a change is in progress.

Option 1 — Your own domain (recommended)

Patients see your address, replies come to you, and there's no password to share or renew. This is the option to pick if your practice has its own domain name.

How to start

Log in to your admin dashboard and go to Setup.
Open Practice Branded Email and click Edit.
Choose I have my own domain.
Confirm the address patients should see. Your reception address is filled in for you — change it if you'd rather patients saw a different one, as long as it's on your own domain.
Enter the name patients should see, usually your practice name.
Save.

Five DNS records need to be added to your domain by whoever looks after it — your IT provider, web developer, or whoever registered the domain. Click Show DNS records on the card to see them, along with a Copy records button that pastes neatly into a DNS control panel.

Sending the records on

If someone else looks after your domain, Email your IT provider is the easier route. It opens a draft in your own email app containing a link to a page that shows them the records and whether they've been picked up yet — no login needed, and the link works for 30 days. Revoke the link cancels it if you need to.

We deliberately don't email your IT provider directly. A message from a system they've never heard of, asking them to change DNS, looks exactly like a scam — it lands much better coming from you.

What your IT provider needs to know

Three of the records are CNAME entries that authorise us to send as your domain. Two more — an MX and a TXT — sit on a dedicated subdomain and are shown with a priority value where one is needed.
Nothing existing is replaced. Your current mail, website and SPF records are untouched. The two subdomain records don't interact with your existing mail setup.
If your DNS provider adds the domain name automatically, only the first part of each record name is needed.
If asked, leave the records unproxied (DNS-only).

While you wait

DNS changes usually appear within an hour, though they can take up to 72 hours. There's nothing to check or click:

We look for the records regularly and switch you over automatically once they appear.
We'll email you when it's done.
In the meantime your appointment emails keep going out from bookings@yourbooking.au, with replies coming to you. Nothing stops working.

The card shows Waiting on the DNS records until they're live, then changes to Verified. Show DNS records keeps working either way, so you can always get the records back — when changing DNS provider, for instance.

Leave the records in place afterwards. Removing them sends your patient email back to our address.

Option 2 — Your own Gmail or Outlook account

Choose this if your practice email is a Gmail or Outlook address rather than your own domain, or if you want these emails to appear in your own sent items.

It's the less durable option: it requires a password stored on our side, and Microsoft is phasing out the sign-in method Outlook accounts rely on for this, so it may need redoing.

What you'll need

The mail server address (for example smtp.gmail.com or smtp.office365.com)
The port — almost always 587
A username, usually the full email address
A password — for accounts with two-factor authentication this must be an App Password, not the normal login password
The address and name patients should see

Enter these under Setup → Email & Domains → Practice Branded Email → Edit → I just use a Gmail or Outlook address.

Gmail and Google Workspace

Use smtp.gmail.com on port 587.
Generate an App Password. With two-factor authentication on, the normal password won't work. Google Account → Security → App passwords → create one for "Mail".
"Send As" catch. If the username is staff@yourpractice.com.au but you want patients to see info@yourpractice.com.au, that second address must be added as a verified "Send As" alias in the account you're authenticating with (Gmail Settings → Accounts and Import → Send mail as). Without it, Gmail quietly rewrites the From line back to the account's own address.
Better if you have Workspace admin access: set up an SMTP relay instead (Admin console → Apps → Google Workspace → Gmail → Routing → SMTP relay service). It can send from any address on your domain and survives staff changes.
Relay settings that work: allowed senders Only addresses in my domains; authentication Only accept mail from the specified IP addresses, with both of our server addresses added — 103.236.162.18 and 2404:9400:3:0:216:3eff:fee9:e17; Require TLS encryption ticked. Both addresses matter: Google usually sees the second one, and the relay refuses the send if only the first is listed. Then use host smtp-relay.gmail.com, port 587, and leave username and password blank.

Microsoft 365 and Outlook

Use smtp.office365.com on port 587.
An App Password is required if the account has multi-factor authentication.
Two separate switches both have to be right, and flipping only one is the most common reason setup fails:
1. Per-mailbox Authenticated SMTP — Microsoft 365 admin centre → Users → the mailbox → Mail → Manage email apps → tick Authenticated SMTP.
2. Tenant-wide Security Defaults — Entra admin centre → Properties → Manage security defaults. With these on, sending is blocked even when the first switch is enabled. The usual fix is a Conditional Access policy exempting that one mailbox, rather than turning Security Defaults off entirely.
Microsoft is retiring password-based sending for Outlook accounts. If you have the choice, Option 1 avoids the problem entirely.

Other providers

Any provider offering a standard mail server works — host, port 587, username, password, plus the address and name patients see.

If your provider restricts connections by address, allow both of ours: 103.236.162.18 and 2404:9400:3:0:216:3eff:fee9:e17.

Option 3 — Send from Your Booking

The default, and nothing to set up. Emails come from bookings@yourbooking.au under your practice name, and replies go to your reception email address.

Perfectly workable — the only difference patients notice is the address in the From line.

Changing or undoing

Open Practice Branded Email → Edit and pick a different option.

Switching to your own domain clears any stored mail account password. That's deliberate — leaving it would keep sending through the old account and ignore the domain setup.
Switching to Your Booking's address clears your sending address, and patient email reverts immediately.
Your DNS records can stay where they are. They do nothing on their own, and leaving them means switching back later takes one click instead of another DNS change.

Testing

Use Send Test Email on the Practice Branded Email card and send one to yourself. Check the From line shows what you expect.

For a fuller check, book a test appointment through your own booking page using your own email address, and confirm the booking confirmation arrives correctly.

When an email can't be delivered

If a patient's email address doesn't work — usually a typo taken at booking time — we email your reception address to tell you, including the address that failed, so you can correct it in your practice management system.

The patient does not receive the email in that case, so it's worth acting on.

Troubleshooting

Symptom	Likely cause
Card still says Still checking DNS settings after a day	The records aren't live yet. Ask whoever added them to confirm they're on the right domain — this is the single most common cause, especially where a practice has more than one domain name.
Records were added but nothing changed	Check they were added to the exact domain shown on the card, and that the names weren't doubled up (some panels add the domain for you).
Patients see the wrong address	If you're using a Gmail or Outlook account, the "Send As" alias probably isn't verified — Gmail rewrites the From line back to the authenticated account.
Authentication failed when saving mail account details	Wrong password. Gmail, Workspace and Microsoft 365 accounts with two-factor authentication need an App Password, not the login password.
Microsoft 365 error mentioning security defaults	Sending is blocked tenant-wide. See the Microsoft 365 section above — both switches need attention.
Emails stopped after a staff change	The stored account password belonged to someone who left or changed it. Use a shared mailbox, or move to your own domain and remove the password dependency entirely.
Emails going to spam	Your own domain (Option 1) is the strongest fix — it authenticates your mail properly. If you're already on it, contact us and we'll check delivery from our side.

If something looks wrong, contact Your Booking support — we can see delivery status and any errors from our side.