Almost everything the system sends on your behalf, invoices, portal invitations, and reminders, depends on your email setup. Get this right and messages arrive sounding like your firm.
Connect your sending email
Open Setup, then the Email settings, and configure the outgoing mail (SMTP) details for the address you want messages to come from. This is what sends invoices, portal invitations, and automated updates. Until it is set, those messages cannot be sent, so configure it before anything else.
- Enter your mail server details. Use the SMTP host, port, username, and password from your email provider. If you are unsure, your IT contact or provider help pages have these.
- Set the from name and address. Clients see this in their inbox, so use your firm name and a monitored address rather than a no reply nobody watches.
- Send a test. Use the test option to send yourself a message and confirm it arrives and looks right before you rely on it.
If email is not configured, features that send mail will appear to do nothing. A test invoice, for instance, only actually sends once outgoing mail is working. When something does not arrive, check this setting first.
Make the templates sound like you
Open the email templates area to review the automated messages the system sends: invoice notifications, portal invitations, reminders, and more. Each is editable, so you can adjust the wording to match your firm's voice and cut down on the follow up questions a generic message tends to invite.
You do not need to rewrite everything. Start with the few your clients see most, usually the invoice and the portal invitation, and give them a warm, clear opening line. Templates use merge fields for details like the client name and amount, so leave those in place and edit the words around them.
Read each key template out loud once. If it sounds like a robot, soften the first sentence. That single change does more for client trust than any other template edit.
Reminders that respect the clock
Reminders draw on the timezone and business hours you set in your firm profile, which is why those come first. With them in place, a reminder scheduled for the morning actually reaches the client in their morning, not at an odd hour. Review the reminder related settings and templates so the timing and the wording both feel considerate.
A quick pre flight check
- Outgoing mail is configured and a test message arrived.
- The from name reads as your firm, and the from address is monitored.
- The invoice and portal invitation templates have been read and tidied.
- Timezone and business hours are set, so reminders land at sensible times.
Clear all four and client communication runs automatically without further setup.