Email settings and the email outbox

myWork24 sends email for you all the time: a delivery note to a customer, a goods received note, a service order or purchase order to a supplier, a work-order step that writes to someone, and the test email on the settings page. All of it goes out from one mailbox, set up once on System › Settings › System Settings › Email, and every email is written down on System › Monitoring › Email Outbox, whether it went or not.

Both pages are for administrators only. If you cannot see them in the menu, you do not hold the ADMIN permission.

What happens when someone presses Send

The important part is the answer you get back. myWork waits for the mail server, so the screen says what really happened:

• Sent: the mail server accepted it.
• Queued, not sent yet: the server could not be reached, or was busy. myWork tries again by itself (after 10, then 20, then 30 minutes and so on, up to the maximum number of attempts). You do not need to send it again.
• Not sent: something a person has to fix, such as a wrong password or a wrong email address. The message names the reason, in the mail server's own words. Retrying will not help until the cause is fixed.

The same word appears in the record's chat channel, so whoever looks at the delivery note or purchase order later can see whether the email went.

When a document is emailed (delivery note, goods received note, service order, purchase order), its PDF is attached, the text of the document is in the body, and anyone you type in CC really receives a copy, not a second "To".

Setting up the sending mailbox

Open System › Settings › System Settings › Email.

Sending account

• Username (sending mailbox): the full address emails come from, for example admin@mypower24.co.za. Recipients see this address.
• Password: that mailbox's password. The field never shows the saved password. It says whether one is set; type a new one only to replace it, and leave it blank to keep the current one.
• From name: the name shown next to the address, for example myWork24.
• Reply-to (optional): where replies should go if not to the sending mailbox. Use an address somebody reads.
• BCC copy of every email (optional): an archive mailbox that silently receives a copy of everything sent.

Mail server

• SMTP server: the server the mailbox lives on. Our own mail is mail1.mypower24.co.za.
• Security and Port: SSL/TLS on port 465 (the usual choice) or STARTTLS on port 587. Changing Security fills in its standard port.
• Connect timeout / Read timeout: how long to wait for the server. The defaults (20 seconds) are fine.

Delivery and retry

• Sending enabled: switched off, emails are kept in the outbox, unsent, until it is switched back on. Use it to stop all email for a while without losing anything.
• Max attempts and Minutes between retries: how hard myWork tries before giving up on an email it could not deliver.
• Use the new mail service for all emails: the switch between the new way of sending (real results, outbox, PDFs attached) and the old one, which reported every email as sent whether it went or not. It should stay on. Turning it off goes back to the old way at once, with nothing to redeploy, if the new one ever needs to be ruled out.

Test before you save

At the bottom of the page, Send a test email sends one email using the settings as they are on the form, even before you save them. Use it every time you change the mailbox or the password:

1. Type the new values (and the password, if it changed).
2. Enter your own address under Send to and press Send test email.
3. The result appears under the button. If it says the email was sent, check your inbox (and the spam folder), then press Save.

A failed test does not change anything that is saved, so the working settings keep working while you sort it out.

The Email Outbox

System › Monitoring › Email Outbox lists every email, newest first:

• When, Status (Sent, Queued, Sending, Failed, Cancelled) and the reason for anything that did not go.
• To and CC, the Subject, and in red underneath, the mail server's own words for a failure.
• Record: a link to the delivery note, purchase order or work order the email was about.
• Tries: how many attempts so far.

Use the search box for a recipient, subject or document number, or Filters for status, reason and dates. Three buttons per row:

• View (eye): the full email, including attachments and the error.
• Resend (paper plane): send a failed, cancelled or queued email again right now. Fix the cause first.
• Cancel (cross): stop a queued email from being retried. It will not be sent.

When an email will not go

• "The mail server rejected the sign-in" (535 … authentication failed): the username or password is wrong. Check the username is the full address, set the password again, and use Send test email.
• On our own mail server (ISPConfig): a mailbox's password field there is always empty and says Click to set. That does not mean it has no password, only that passwords are never shown. If nobody knows it, set a new one there and enter the same one in Email Settings. Also check the mailbox does not have Disable SMTP (sending) ticked, or it cannot send at all.
• Google Workspace / Gmail mailboxes refuse their normal password for this. Use an App Password (Google Account › Security › 2-Step Verification › App passwords) with server smtp.gmail.com.
• "The mail server refused the recipient address": correct the email address on the customer, supplier or record, then send again.
• "Could not reach the mail server": the email is queued and will be retried. If it keeps happening, check the SMTP server name and port.
• The email arrives but lands in spam: the domain's mail records need attention (SPF and DKIM for the sending server). That is set up on the domain, not in myWork.
• The outbox page says it is not available yet: its database table has not been created on that server. Emails still send; they just are not listed. Ask a developer to apply the outbox migration.

Keeping the password safe

The password is never displayed: not on Email Settings, not on the general App Config screen (any setting whose name ends in password or secret is shown as dots there, and editing it means typing a new value), and not through the API. If you think it has been seen by someone who should not have it, change it on the mail server and enter the new one here.