Emails not arriving, bouncing or going to spam

NextMinute sends your quotes, invoices and orders by email on your behalf. This article explains how that works and how to fix emails that land in spam, bounce or never arrive. It also covers sending yourself a copy, missing attachments, reply-to addresses, send errors, subject lines and editing invoices that have synced to Xero.

How does NextMinute send emails on my behalf?

NextMinute uses a third-party mail service (Amazon SES) to send emails on your behalf, using your business email address. The emails aren't sent from your own mailbox.

This means:

• A sent invoice shows as sent on the invoice itself in NextMinute, but it won't appear in your own mailbox.
• The receiving email provider can see the email is coming from NextMinute but using your business email address. Without the right records on your domain, it may treat the email as suspicious.

Before you can send emails from NextMinute, your email address must be verified. See Verifying your email address.

Why are my emails going to spam or junk, or not arriving at all?

The most common fix is to add an SPF record to your email domain. Without it, providers like Gmail and Outlook can think the email looks suspicious and either send it to junk or block it altogether.

An SPF record is your domain giving NextMinute the thumbs up to send emails on your behalf. To set it up:

1. Find out who manages your website or domain (usually where you purchased your domain name).
2. Ask them to add NextMinute to your domain's SPF record: include:amazonses.com.
3. Send them the full steps in Prevent emails going to spam.
4. Allow up to 24 hours for the change to take effect, although it usually works within minutes.
5. Test by sending to a customer or another external email address.

If you don't have anyone who looks after your website or domain, contact our support team and we can give you a hand.

Even with the correct records in place, we can't guarantee delivery. SPF authorises NextMinute to send emails for your domain, but it doesn't force every receiving mail server to accept them. Whether the email is accepted is up to the receiving mail server.

I use an Xtra, Yahoo or Gmail address. Why are my emails having problems?

With an email address like @xtra.co.nz, you don't control the domain name settings for that domain. That means you can't set up the extra verification (such as an SPF record) that helps stop emails sent from NextMinute ending up in spam.

• The email service we use doesn't support sending from @yahoo.com.au addresses.
• A @gmail.com address may be a little better, but it could still have issues.

The best fix is to use an email address on your own domain name, such as one matching your website. This gives you control over the domain name settings. If you don't have your own domain yet, you'll need to register one.

Why did my email bounce back?

Email bounces, especially for a second email sent quickly to the same person, are usually down to the receiving mail server thinking something suspicious is going on, or marking the email as spam.

To fix it:

1. Set up an SPF record as described above. This tells mail servers that NextMinute (via Amazon SES) is allowed to send on your behalf.
2. If emails still bounce, contact our support team and forward a copy of an email that bounced back.

Can I see if an email bounces or isn't received?

No. There isn't a way to see in NextMinute if an email bounces or isn't received. Setting up an SPF record helps make sure as many emails as possible get through.

If a customer says they haven't received something, contact our support team with a couple of examples. Include the job, quote or invoice number, who it was sent to and roughly when it was sent.

How do I send myself a copy of the quotes and invoices I send?

Include your own email address as a recipient when you send. The notification settings won't do this; they're for sending notifications and job sheets to users, not copies of your quotes.

Sending emails to yourself from NextMinute often has problems. Your mailbox knows you didn't send the email from it, so it may send it to spam or reject it. For better results:

• send the copy to another email address on your domain (for example an info@ address), and
• set up an SPF record as described above.

For the same reason, testing by sending emails to yourself won't always work. Send to a customer or another external email address instead.

My customer says the invoice PDF wasn't attached. What should I check?

The invoice attaches automatically when you send it. It doesn't appear under the Attach button, which is only for adding extra files like photos or documents.

To send extra files with a quote or invoice:

1. Open the quote or invoice and click Send.
2. Select a recipient and click Next.
3. Click Attach and select the files you want to send.
4. Check it shows Attachments (1) (or the right number) to confirm the files are attached.

Uploading a file to the invoice itself doesn't attach it to the outgoing email. See Sending files as attachments on Quotes, Invoices, Supplier Invoices or Orders.

If the invoice is still missing, click Send on the invoice again and it will be included automatically. If you still have issues, contact our support team with the affected invoice number.

Why do replies to my invoices go to an old email address?

The reply-to address for invoices comes from your email settings. To update it:

1. Go to Admin > Settings > Email.
2. Update the contact email (send invoices address) to the correct address.
3. Save.

New invoices you send will use the updated reply-to address. To fix an invoice you've already sent, open it, click Send and resend it.

Why do I get "Error sending email" or an error when previewing a quote?

The main reason is text pasted into NextMinute from another program, such as Microsoft Word or a PDF. Pasting brings across formatting that NextMinute can't read. Images on the cover page also cause errors, because cover pages don't support images.

To fix it:

1. Work out where you've pasted text, such as the cover page, header or terms and conditions.
2. Copy that text into Notepad or another plain-text editor to strip the formatting.
3. Copy it again and paste it back into NextMinute.
4. Remove any images from the cover page.

If an existing quote still shows an error, select More > View Cover Page and reselect the template.

Why can't I send an email with a blank subject any more?

The default subject no longer fills in automatically. Type a subject before sending, or set up a default template so the subject and message fill in for you:

1. Go to Admin > Messaging.
2. Scroll down to Message Template Setup.
3. Select Add under the sending message section.
4. Enter the subject and message you want the template to use, then save.
5. Click the yellow circle to set it as the default.

See Message Templates for more detail.

I need to change an invoice that has already synced to Xero. What's the right process?

1. Mark the invoice as not synced in NextMinute.
2. Delete the invoice in Xero, so you don't end up with duplicate invoices.
3. Make your edits in NextMinute.
4. Resync it to Xero.