Set up your email — and what is already done for you

Start here: there is nothing you have to set up. CaterCloud gives every account a working email address the moment you finish onboarding, and quotes and invoices already go out from it. Everything below is optional polish.

What you already have

Settings → Email shows your sending address. It looks like this:

hello@yourbusiness.catercloud.io

That address is real and it works in both directions. Quotes, invoices and messages go out from it, and anything a customer sends back to it lands in your CaterCloud Inbox as a conversation, threaded against the right booking.

Your normal email does not change. CaterCloud never reads your Gmail or Outlook and does not change where your existing mail is delivered. If you connect your account (below), CaterCloud only gets permission to send from it. You keep using your own inbox exactly as you do today.

The two things worth changing

Both are on Settings → Email → Sending address, and they save together.

1. The mailbox name — the bit before the @. Pick hello, catering, info, admin, or type your own (bookings, events, …).
2. The domain — the bit after the @. This is generated from your business name, so it is worth a look: a name typed quickly at signup can turn into something you would not want on a business card. Change it to whatever is short and obviously you, save, and the address switches over by itself in a few minutes.

While that switch happens your email still sends — from the shared CaterCloud address — so nothing stops.

Before you print it anywhere

The card tells you which of two states you are in, and they are different:

• "Branded sending is live" with the two-way line — replies and direct emails both land in your inbox. Safe to put on your website and business cards.
• "Two-way replies are still being switched on" — quotes go out from your address, but hold off publishing it. Someone emailing it before that finishes can bounce.

It usually settles within a few minutes of setup. If it has not, say so and we will look.

Best option: connect your Gmail or Outlook

If you already use Gmail, Google Workspace, Outlook or Microsoft 365 for your business email, connect it on Settings → Email. Your quotes, invoices and inbox replies then go out from your real address (you@yourbusiness.com.au if that is your Workspace address), land in your Sent folder, and customer replies reach both CaterCloud and your own inbox. There are no DNS records to add. Step by step: "Connect your Gmail (and send from your own domain)".

Advanced: not on Gmail or Outlook? Send from your own domain with DNS records

If your email is with another provider and you own a domain (emberandoak.com.au), you can send from hello@emberandoak.com.au rather than the CaterCloud address.

Settings → Email → Advanced → Your own domain → type the domain → Connect. You then get three DNS records to add wherever your domain's DNS is managed. Pick your provider from the list and the steps change to match it.

Worth knowing before you start:

• Add all three. Two of the three is the usual reason a setup sits unfinished for weeks. Each record shows its own In place / Not visible yet badge — you are not done until all three read In place.
• The third one is an MX record on send.yourdomain.com. It looks alarming and is not: that is a different hostname from yourdomain.com, so it cannot change where your normal mail is delivered. Your existing email keeps working.
• Some providers cannot add it at all. Wix in particular locks its MX section once a mailbox is connected to the domain. CaterCloud checks for this when you type the domain in and warns you before you start rather than after.
• DNS is usually minutes, occasionally an hour. We keep checking on our own and switch you over the moment it verifies — you do not have to sit on the page.

Optional: RECEIVE on your own domain

Once sending from your own domain is verified, you can also have mail sent to a subdomain of it land in CaterCloud — enquiries@mail.emberandoak.com.au.

Settings → Email → Receiving → pick a subdomain you are not already using (mail is the usual one) → add the single MX record it gives you. Your main address and existing mailbox are untouched; only mail to the new subdomain comes here.

Optional: catch enquiries sent to your old inbox

Replies to CaterCloud emails already arrive on their own. This is only for someone brand new emailing the Gmail address that has been on your website for years.

In Gmail or Outlook, add a forwarding rule pointing at the address shown under Catch emails from new people in the Inbox setup panel. Forward selectively — a rule that matches enquiries, not your whole inbox. Anything sent there becomes a new enquiry thread, so do not blanket-forward invoices, staff mail or newsletters.

Gmail sends a one-time confirmation code to the address when you switch forwarding on. It arrives in your CaterCloud inbox as a new conversation — open it and copy the code out.

Common questions

Do I need to set up DNS? No. The default yourbusiness.catercloud.io address is configured for you end to end, and connecting Gmail or Outlook needs no DNS either. DNS records only come into it if your email is with another provider and you want to send from your own domain.

Will my customers see "via catercloud.io"? Not once your address shows Live — the mail is properly signed as yours.

Where do replies go? Your CaterCloud Inbox, on the same thread as whatever you sent. If you have connected Gmail or Outlook, the reply also reaches your own inbox. You also get a notification email, and you can simply reply to that from your own Gmail — it loops back through CaterCloud, gets logged, and reaches the customer.

Can I use my existing info@mybusiness.com mailbox? Yes. If it is Gmail, Google Workspace, Outlook or Microsoft 365, connect it (see above) and replies reach both CaterCloud and that mailbox. With another provider, use the DNS option under Advanced. Either way CaterCloud only sends. It never reads the mailbox.

Something is not verifying. Open Settings → Email, press Check status, and read the badge on each record. A record showing "Not visible yet" has not been added or saved; "Different value found" means the value does not match — copy it again with the Copy button rather than retyping it.