Branded Email — Your Booking

Why bother

By default, every email Your Booking sends to your patients comes from obs@yourbooking.au. That works, but:

Branding — patients see your domain in the From line, which builds trust and makes the message feel like it's from your practice rather than a third party.
Deliverability — emails sent from your own domain (with proper SPF/DKIM/DMARC) are less likely to land in spam, especially for patients who already correspond with you.
Replies — patients hitting "Reply" go straight to your inbox without the extra Reply-To indirection.

If your practice already runs Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, or any other business email, you can plug those credentials in and Your Booking will route patient mail through them.

What you'll need

Whoever sets this up (typically your IT provider, or whoever manages your practice email) needs:

SMTP server hostname (e.g. smtp.gmail.com, smtp.office365.com, your hosting provider's SMTP host)
SMTP port (almost always 587 for STARTTLS; some legacy setups use 465)
A username — usually a full email address at your domain
A password — for accounts with 2-factor auth (Gmail, Workspace, Microsoft 365), this must be an App Password, not the regular login password. See provider notes below.
The "From" address you want patients to see — usually info@yourpractice.com.au or similar
A "From" name — usually your practice name (e.g. "Holland Park Eyecare")

Where to set it

Log in to your admin dashboard at https://<yourpractice>.yourbooking.au/admin.
Go to Settings.
Find the Patient Email card.
Fill in the fields above and click Save.

Your Booking will use these credentials immediately for all subsequent patient emails. Existing scheduled reminders and recalls pick up the new sender on their next send.

If you ever need to revert, clear the SMTP host field and save — Your Booking will fall back to sending from obs@yourbooking.au with your reception email as the reply-to.

Provider-specific notes

Gmail / Google Workspace

Use smtp.gmail.com on port 587.
Generate an App Password. With 2-factor authentication enabled (which it should be), the regular Gmail password won't work for SMTP. Go to your Google Account → Security → App passwords → create one for "Mail" / "Other (Your Booking)" and use that 16-character string as the SMTP password.
"Send As" alias gotcha. If your SMTP username is staff@yourpractice.com.au but you want patient emails to come From info@yourpractice.com.au, you must add info@… as a verified "Send As" alias in the Gmail account whose credentials you're using (Gmail Settings → Accounts and Import → Send mail as). Without this step, Gmail will silently rewrite the From line back to the authenticated user's address — patient emails appear to come from staff@… instead of info@….
Better long-term option: if you have Google Workspace admin access, set up an SMTP relay (Workspace admin console → Apps → Google Workspace → Gmail → Routing → SMTP relay service) instead. That gives you a single set of credentials that can send from any address in your domain without per-account "Send As" config — and it survives staff turnover without needing credentials updated.

Microsoft 365 / Outlook

Use smtp.office365.com on port 587.
App Passwords required if your account has MFA (which is recommended).
Microsoft has been progressively disabling SMTP AUTH for new tenants. Two separate switches both need to be in the right state — flipping only one is the most common reason setup fails:
1. Per-mailbox Authenticated SMTP — Microsoft 365 admin centre → Users → select the mailbox → Mail tab → Manage email apps → tick Authenticated SMTP. (Or PowerShell: Set-CASMailbox -Identity user@... -SmtpClientAuthenticationDisabled $false.)
2. Tenant-wide Security Defaults — Entra admin centre → Properties → Manage security defaults. With Security Defaults on, SMTP AUTH is blocked even if step 1 is enabled, and you'll see the error 535 5.7.139 ... user is locked by your organization's security defaults policy. The right fix is usually a Conditional Access policy that exempts this one mailbox for SMTP, rather than disabling Security Defaults tenant-wide.
If you don't have an admin willing to do the above, the cleanest alternative is to send via a different provider (Gmail / Workspace SMTP relay, or a transactional service) — Microsoft is moving away from password-based SMTP and this will keep getting harder.

Other providers

Generic SMTP works — fill in the host, port (almost always 587), username, password, From address, From name. If your provider supports STARTTLS on port 587 and basic auth, you're set.

If your SMTP host restricts connections by source IP, allowlist Your Booking's outbound address: 103.236.162.18.

Testing

After saving the SMTP settings, the easiest test is to make a test booking yourself:

From the admin dashboard, click your practice's booking link to open the public booking page.
Book a test appointment using your own email.
Check your inbox — the confirmation email should arrive with From showing your configured address and name.

If it doesn't arrive within a minute or two, check the troubleshooting section below.

Troubleshooting

Symptom	Likely cause
Email arrives but From shows the SMTP username, not the configured From address	"Send As" alias not verified (Gmail / Workspace). Add it in the authenticating account's Gmail settings.
535 Authentication failed errors	Wrong password — for Gmail / Workspace / 365 with MFA, you need an App Password, not the login password.
535 5.7.139 ... locked by your organization's security defaults policy	Microsoft 365 tenant has Security Defaults enabled, which blocks SMTP AUTH. See the Microsoft 365 / Outlook section above — both per-mailbox Authenticated SMTP and a Conditional Access exception (or disabling Security Defaults) are needed.
Email goes to spam	SPF/DKIM/DMARC records on your domain don't authorise the SMTP host. Ask your IT provider to add SPF entries for the SMTP host, or use a Workspace SMTP relay (handled automatically).
530 Authentication required or 535 5.7.3 Authentication unsuccessful	Microsoft 365 has SMTP AUTH disabled for the mailbox. Re-enable Authenticated SMTP in the M365 admin centre (and check Security Defaults — see Microsoft 365 / Outlook section).
Emails stop working after staff change	If the SMTP credentials belong to a specific staff member (e.g. `leigh@yourpractice.com.au`) and they leave or rotate their password, sending breaks. Use a dedicated mailbox (`noreply@…` or `info@…`) or move to Workspace SMTP relay.

If patients have started receiving emails but you suspect something has broken, contact Your Booking support — we can see delivery status and any SMTP errors on our side.