The two main reasons why a client isn’t receiving mail is that the mail has bounced before it reaches their server (usually bad addresses), or the mail is sorted (classified, filed or blocked) from within the recipients mail server.
Bounced mail is fairly clear cut, but mail that has been received by the recipient server can often remain unseen and usually needs some human interaction to solve (either a phone call or a ‘manual’ email).
You can view these email activity details from Home > Email notifications, and you can view the status of all invoices sent from the Load invoice screen.
Read more about email send notifications here
A word on email deliverability
Like many application providers we work with a third party to provide you the best in email deliverability. Abtrac emails are back by the experience of the team at Twillo SEND GRID, you can learn more about SendGrid here.
Reasons why emails sometimes aren’t received
Bounced Mail
If your email sent from Abtrac bounced you’ll receive a notification message with details in the header and home screen of Abtrac.
Delivered but not opened mail (sorted by the recipients mail server)
If an email is showing as delivered but has not been opened after a reasonable period, it’s possible that it has been filed by the recipients mail server (possibly before it reaches their inbox)
Some email hosting providers use high-level email filters, which can delay or prevent genuine emails from being received.
Emails sent from Abtrac often include important financial information, which can occasionally lead to them being mistakenly flagged as spam and routed to junk folders or even rejected altogether.
The From email address for Abtrac should always be set to :
[email protected], if you choose to change this we are unable to assist with any mail delivery issues.
Read more about configuring your Abtrac emails settings here
If the Abtrac+SendGrid mail server can’t deliver an email, or an email hasn’t been opened you’ll see a notification with the specific reason.
More about email notification types, error reasons and send results are available here.
Troubleshooting Email Messages Marked “Delivered”, But Not Appearing in Inbox
Sometime you may see sent email marked as Delivered in Abtrac+SendGrid that never arrive in the recipient’s primary inbox.
This is often the result of the recipient server accepting mail for delivery, but then sorting the mail into another folder (or tabs if using Gmail).
Why is mail marked “Delivered” when it isn’t in the inbox?
Abtrac+SendGrid posts the Delivered event after the recipient server accepts the message with a 250 OK response.
At this point, the receiving server could send your mail to the inbox, queue it for later delivery, put it into the spam folder, quarantine the message, or even drop the email.
These negative outcomes usually occur when the receiving server initially accepts a message for delivery, and then applies additional filtering afterwards. While most legitimate email should be delivered to the intended inbox, the receiving server can send your message directly to a spam/junk folder, or in rare cases, they might choose to simply drop the message (delete it).
In these situations, SendGrid is only notified of the email acceptance, and thus posts the Delivered event, with no insight into any filtering that is applied. Any additional SendGrid events for your email message would be triggered by recipient engagement (i.e. open/click events, unsubscribes, etc.).
What to do when mail isn’t reaching my clients inbox
Check your content
Everything is important, from the subject line of your emails, to the font and color of the characters you are using.
Talk to your clients
Because you are sending mail via Abtrac, customer engagement is important too.
Having your contacts automatically allow your messages by adding the Abtrac send address to their address book or contact list is the best way to maintain engagement. Not only does this allow you to reach your clients more reliably, their engagement will improve your standing with the recipient server as well. This also makes it easier to reach out to new contacts.
Your contacts should add @abtraconline.com to their email safe senders list. Sometimes this is as simple as adding the email display name and address to their contacts list. Other times your client might need their IT administrator to do this on their behalf.
The easiest way to request this is to include a single line message in your proposal or project acceptance emails. Here’s an example:
Sometime we send information regarding your project direct from our project management system, Abtrac. Take a quick moment to add the [email protected] to your address book or contact list. That way, you’ll always be sure that you aren’t missing important information from us.
Preventing emails from bouncing
Check the sender email address set up
The From email address should always be set to [email protected], if you choose to change this we are unable to assist with any mail delivery issues.
Check the client/contacts email address
Take a moment to double check the recipient address, including for any blank spaces before or after the address.
If you’ve double-checked that the domain is accurate and you are still experiencing difficulties in sending an email, it is possible that there is an underlying problem with the recipient’s mail server.
Check emails you send to the recipient outside of @abtraconline.com are getting through ok, if not there might be an issue with the recipients mail server.
Ask your client to update their email settings
Sometimes emails from Abtrac can be caught in high-level email filters set by the email hosting provider. Ask your contact to check that the email hasn’t been marked as spam, and redirected to their junk or spam folders.
To stop future emails from being marked as spam, your contacts should add @abtraconline.com to their email safe senders list. Sometimes this is as simple as adding the email display name and address to their contacts list. Other times your client might need their IT administrator to do this on their behalf.
If your contact receives an error message after they add @abtraconline.com to their safe senders list, they’ll need to check with their email provider to see why Abtrac emails are bouncing. They may be able to diagnose and resolve any issues that could be preventing the successful delivery of your Abtrac emails.
If your recipient still isn’t receiving the email
If you still can’t get mail to a specific recipient via Abtrac after working through the steps above then the Abtrac support team can help work with your clients IT administrator or email hosting provider to troubleshoot.
Abtrac KB # 2008