My emails are not getting delivered. What can I do?

Email Delivery: Why Your Emails May Not Be Reaching Recipients (and How to Fix It)

The Short Version

If your portal emails (invoices, payment reminders, OTP codes, invitations) aren't reaching your customers, the most likely cause is that your sending domain hasn't been validated. Without domain validation, major email providers like Gmail, Yahoo, and Microsoft Outlook will reject or send your messages to spam — even though there's nothing wrong with the content of your emails.

The good news: this is fixable, and we'll walk you through your options below.

Why Does This Happen?

When GoToMyAccounts sends an email on your behalf, the recipient's email server checks whether we're actually authorized to send for your email address. Think of it like mailing a letter — if the return address on the envelope doesn't match who actually dropped it in the mailbox, the post office gets suspicious.

Specifically, email servers check three things:

  • Is the sending server allowed to send for this domain? (a setting called SPF)
  • Is the email digitally signed by the domain owner? (a setting called DKIM)
  • What should we do if those checks fail? (a policy called DMARC)

If your domain isn't set up with these records, the recipient's email server has no way to verify the email is legitimate — so it either blocks it or sends it to the spam folder.

This is especially true as of 2024-2025. Google (Gmail), Yahoo, and Microsoft (Outlook/Hotmail) now require these checks for all bulk senders. This isn't optional — emails that fail these checks are actively rejected. This is a major change from just a few years ago, when many emails could still get through without full validation.

Common Scenarios and What to Do

"I set my From address to mycompany@gmail.com (or @outlook.com, @yahoo.com)"

This will not work. Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo, and other free email providers have strict policies that prevent any third-party service (including GoToMyAccounts) from sending emails using their addresses. These providers will reject the emails outright.

What to do instead:

  • Use GoToMyAccounts' built-in email sending (your emails are sent through our servers, and replies still come back to your email address)
  • If you have a company website, you likely already have a custom domain (e.g., yourcompany.com ). You can validate that domain to send from an address like billing@yourcompany.com . See the Domain Validation section below.

"I have my own domain, but I haven't set up domain validation"

Your emails may work sometimes, but delivery will be inconsistent. Many recipients — particularly those using Gmail, Outlook, or corporate email — will never see your messages, or will find them in their spam folder.

What to do: Follow the domain validation steps below. It typically takes 10-30 minutes, and the improvement in delivery is significant.

"I set up domain validation and my emails are working fine"

Great — you're all set. Your emails are authenticated and should deliver reliably. If you do notice issues, check the Email Settings page in your portal to confirm all validation checks are still passing (DNS records can occasionally be changed or removed accidentally).

"I'm using my own SMTP server or a third-party email service"

If you've configured your portal to send through your own SMTP server (e.g., through SendGrid, Mailgun, Amazon SES, or your company mail server), delivery and authentication are handled by that provider. GoToMyAccounts passes the email to your server, and it's sent from there.

A few things to be aware of:

  • We cannot trace or troubleshoot emails sent through your provider. Delivery logs and bounce information will be available in your email provider's dashboard, not in GoToMyAccounts.
  • Rate limits may apply. Personal and corporate email services often have sending caps that can cause problems when your portal needs to send a batch of invoices or notifications all at once. For example:
    • Office 365: 10,000 recipients per day; 30 messages per minute
    • Gmail / Google Workspace: 2,000 messages per day; 3,000 external recipients per day
    • If you send a large volume of transactional email, a dedicated email service like SendGrid, Mailgun, Amazon SES, or Brevo (formerly Sendinblue) is a better choice. These services are designed for high-volume transactional sending and offer much higher limits.

How to Fix Delivery Issues: Your Options

Reference :  Email Setup

If you have your own domain (e.g., yourcompany.com ), domain validation is the best path to reliable email delivery. This process adds a few records to your domain's DNS settings that tell email servers "Yes, GoToMyAccounts is authorized to send email on our behalf."

To get started:

  1. Go to Email Settings in your portal admin
  2. Look for the Domain Validation section
  3. Follow the step-by-step instructions to add the required DNS records

If you're not sure how to add DNS records, or you don't manage your domain's settings yourself:

  • Check if someone on your team (an IT person, web developer, or whoever manages your website) can help
  • Most domain providers (GoDaddy, Cloudflare, Namecheap, etc.) have support articles on how to add DNS records — the specific values you need are shown on the Email Settings page
  • Our video tutorial walks through the process step by step

DNS changes can take a few minutes to a few hours to take effect. After adding your records, use the "Check" button on the Email Settings page to see if they've been picked up. If they haven't, wait a bit and try again — this is normal.

Option 2: Use a Third-Party Email Service

You can configure your portal to send emails through a dedicated email service provider. This is a good option if you already use one of these services or if you have specific requirements around email infrastructure.

Popular services that work well with GoToMyAccounts:

  • SendGrid (by Twilio)
  • Mailgun
  • Amazon SES
  • Brevo (formerly Sendinblue)
  • Postmark

To set this up, go to Email Settings and enter your SMTP credentials. We recommend sending a test email after saving to confirm everything is connected.

Note: When using your own SMTP provider, delivery tracking and open rate analytics are available through that provider's dashboard rather than within GoToMyAccounts.

Option 3: Use GoToMyAccounts' Default Sending

If you don't have a custom domain or aren't ready to set up domain validation, our default sending will deliver your emails through our servers. Your company name appears as the sender, and replies go to your configured email address.

This works for getting started, but for the best possible delivery — especially to recipients using Gmail, Outlook, or corporate email systems — domain validation (Option 1) is strongly recommended.

What About Microsoft / Outlook Delivery Specifically?

In previous years, some users experienced delivery issues specifically with Microsoft email addresses (Outlook.com, Hotmail.com, Live.com). Microsoft has historically been aggressive about filtering emails from shared hosting networks.

As of 2025, Microsoft now uses the same SPF, DKIM, and DMARC authentication standards as Google and Yahoo. This means the solution is the same across all major providers: validate your domain. When your domain is properly authenticated, Microsoft recipients should receive your emails reliably.

If you are experiencing delivery issues specifically with Microsoft addresses after completing domain validation, please contact our support team so we can investigate.

What We're Doing to Make This Better

We know that email setup has been a pain point, and that too many users have experienced delivery problems that shouldn't have happened in the first place. We're actively working on significant improvements to how email sending works in GoToMyAccounts:

  • Better defaults out of the box. We're redesigning the initial email setup so that your portal can send emails reliably from day one — before any domain configuration is needed. No more bounced emails while you're still figuring out settings.
  • A simpler domain setup experience. We're rebuilding the domain validation process with clearer step-by-step guidance, automatic detection of your DNS provider, and the ability to share setup instructions directly with your IT team if you're not the one who manages DNS.
  • Proactive delivery monitoring. Instead of finding out about email issues from your customers, we'll surface delivery health information in your dashboard so you can see how your emails are performing and catch problems early.

We'll share more details as these improvements roll out. In the meantime, if you're experiencing delivery issues, the steps above — particularly domain validation — are the most effective thing you can do right now.

Need Help?

If you've tried the steps above and are still having trouble with email delivery, contact our support team. It's helpful if you can include:

  • The email address you're sending from
  • The recipient email address that isn't receiving messages
  • Whether you're using GoToMyAccounts' email servers or your own SMTP provider
  • Any error messages you've seen

We're here to help you get your email working reliably.

Did this answer your question? Thanks for the feedback There was a problem submitting your feedback. Please try again later.