Verifying your sending domain

When you reply to a lead, send an invoice, or 1pm emails your client on your behalf, that email goes out from a 1pm address by default. It carries your business name, but the address itself does not say your business. Verify your own sending domain and those emails leave from an address at your domain instead, for example [email protected]. Your brand is on the envelope, and replies still come back to you exactly as before.

That covers lead replies and acknowledgements, quotes, invoices, card requests, agreements, event portal invites, appointment emails and the emails your automations send to clients. They all use the one address you set here.

Emails to your crew are not included. Share-link invitations, request emails, reminders, status updates and the confirmation a crew member gets when they finish their requests always send from the 1pm address. A crew member who replies to one still reaches your account's email address.

This is a one-time setup: add a few DNS records and 1pm does the rest.

Before you start

Confirm your own email address first. Until you do, the page will not set up a sending domain; use the link in the banner at the top of the page to confirm it.

A sending domain can be added once your paid plan has started. Until then your emails are sent from our address, and replies still reach you.

You need to be able to add DNS records for your domain. That means access to your domain registrar or DNS provider (wherever you bought or manage the domain), not just your website. If someone else manages your DNS, such as your web agency or IT support, click Email these records on the page and enter their address. They get the records with instructions, and their replies come to you.

The address has to be on a domain your business owns. A Gmail, Outlook, iCloud, Yahoo or internet provider address (such as BigPond) cannot be verified, because only the owner of a domain can add its DNS records. Replies can still go to that inbox; it just cannot be the address lead mail is sent from.

The records are new entries that sit alongside the ones you already have. They do not change the email you already send and receive, such as Google Workspace or Microsoft 365.

Set it up

Open the top right menu, choose Account, then Profile, and open Sending domain.
Under From address, enter the address you want lead mail to come from, for example [email protected]. 1pm uses its domain to set up verification. Click Set up verification.
1pm shows you a set of DNS records to add. Each one has a name (or host) and a value, both with a Copy button so you do not have to retype them. An MX record also has a priority, shown as its own copyable field because most DNS hosts ask for it separately.
Add those records at your DNS host, using the exact name and value shown.

That is all you need to do. 1pm starts checking for the records straight away and keeps checking for 72 hours. When your domain is verified, you get a notification in 1pm and lead mail starts sending from your address. You do not need to come back to the page, although you can click Verify domain at any time to ask for another check.

Most DNS hosts apply new records within a few minutes, though some take a few hours. Until your domain is verified, lead mail keeps sending from the default 1pm address, so nothing ever fails to deliver while you wait.

If a domain is still not verified 30 days after you set it up, 1pm removes it and lets you know. You can set it up again at any time. A domain that has been verified is never removed this way, even if its records later go missing.

Entering the record names

The name shown in the box is the short form most DNS hosts expect, such as send or resend._domainkey. Hosts like GoDaddy, Namecheap, Squarespace and Cloudflare add your domain to the end of the name for you.

If your host asks for the full name instead, it is shown underneath the box, for example send.yourvenue.com. Use one or the other, not both: entering the full name at a host that adds the domain produces a doubled name like send.yourvenue.com.yourvenue.com, which never verifies.

A name of @ means your domain itself. If your host does not accept @, leave the name blank.

What we can see in your DNS

Below the records, 1pm looks up your domain's DNS the moment you open the page and shows what it finds for each record. Click Check again after you add a record to see it straight away.

It names the company that manages your DNS, such as GoDaddy or Cloudflare, and links to step-by-step instructions for that company where there are some.
Found means the record is published exactly as it should be.
Not found means nothing is there yet.
Different value means something is published at that name, but not the value shown. Check the value was pasted in full.
Name doubled means the record was added with the full name at a host that adds your domain itself. The page shows the name to use instead.

When every record is found, 1pm asks for your domain to be confirmed, which usually takes a few minutes.

Checking progress

Each record shows its own status so you can see how far along you are:

Found. The record is published and matches what we asked for. Nothing more to do.
Not found yet. We are checking and have not found it. Usually your DNS host has not published it yet, so give it time.
Not checked yet. No check has run on this record yet. Click Verify domain to start one.
Not found. We checked for 72 hours and never found it, so checking has stopped. Fix the record, then click Verify domain to check again.
Missing. The record was found before but has since disappeared from your DNS. Put it back.

After you click Verify, the check runs in the background, so the labels can take a moment to catch up with it. A record you have only just added can take longer still.

Once everything checks out, the page confirms your domain is verified and shows the address your lead mail now sends from.

Changing or removing it

Change the address. You can change the part before the @ any time (say from enquiries@ to hello@) without re-verifying, as long as it is the same domain. Just update the From address and save.
Move to a different domain. Entering an address on a new domain starts verification for that domain, with a fresh set of DNS records to add. If your current domain is verified, lead mail keeps sending from it until the new one is verified, then switches over and 1pm lets go of the old one. If the old domain's records go missing in the meantime, lead mail sends from the default 1pm address until they are found again or the new domain is verified. If the new domain cannot be registered, nothing changes and you can simply try again.
Change your mind. While the new domain is still being verified, entering an address on your previous domain switches straight back to it. Its records are still in place, so there is nothing to add again.
Remove it. Removing your sending domain reverts lead mail to the default 1pm address straight away, so nothing breaks. It also unregisters the domain, so if you want it back later you will need to add the DNS records a second time. If our email provider can't be reached at that moment, the page says so and keeps your domain exactly as it was. Try again shortly.

If verification will not complete

Verification depends entirely on your DNS records being present and correct, so if the page still shows Pending verification:

Give it time. Freshly added records can take minutes to hours to become visible. A record sitting on Not found yet is usually just this.
Check for typos. DNS values, especially the longer signing keys, must match exactly. Copying with the Copy button avoids the usual mistakes.
Check the name. A doubled name is the most common reason a record is never found. See entering the record names above.
If the page says we've stopped checking. We looked for 72 hours without finding every record. Fix the records marked Not found, then click Verify domain to start checking again.
If the page says it could not ask for a re-check. That means the request to re-check never got through, not that your records failed. Nothing has changed and none of your records were tested. Wait a moment and click Verify again.

If your domain stops verifying

If a record is later removed from your DNS (for example when you move your website or change DNS host), 1pm notices, sends you a notification and switches lead mail back to the default 1pm address so nothing bounces. The record shows as Missing. Put it back and lead mail returns to your address once it is found again. Your domain stays set up while you fix it, so there is nothing to register again.

What these records do not cover

The records on this page cover mail going out through 1pm, and that is all they do. They do not include a DMARC record, and adding them does not publish one for you. If your domain has no DMARC record, the page suggests an optional one (v=DMARC1; p=none; at the name _dmarc). It doesn't change how any of your email is delivered, and Gmail and Yahoo expect one from domains that send email regularly.

That matters in one place. If you answer a lead by replying to the notification from your own mail app, 1pm holds that reply in an outbox and checks whether your email provider proved the message really came from your domain. A domain that publishes no DMARC record, and does not sign its own mail with DKIM, gives that check nothing to work with, so the reply waits for you to release it by hand rather than sending itself. Verifying your sending domain here will not change that, because the check is on the mail your provider sends in to us. If you would like those replies to release themselves, why a reply you emailed in is waiting has the record to publish and where to put it.

A note on replies

This setting controls the address lead mail is sent from, which is about your branding. It is separate from how a lead's reply finds its way back into the right thread in 1pm, which works regardless of whether you have set up a sending domain. If you are curious how that routing works, see how lead reply emails work. For the day-to-day of the thread itself, see replying to leads.