# Getting set up to send

> The four setup steps — connect a domain, confirm it's yours, add an inbox and create a sending address — and what to do when one won't complete.

Source: https://knowledge.estage.com/email/setup/
Part of the ESTAGE knowledge base (https://knowledge.estage.com). Full corpus: https://knowledge.estage.com/llms-full.txt

---
Everything happens on one screen: **Settings → Email sending** in your CRM. A **Get started**
card sits at the top listing the steps and how many are done; it disappears on its own once
you're ready to send.

## The four steps

### 1. Connect your domain

Your emails need a domain to be sent from. Domains are managed in Genesis — add yours under
[Domains](/domains/), and it appears here automatically.

Until a domain is connected, this page can't show you anything else, so it's replaced by a small
wizard that names this one step and links straight to Genesis.

### 2. Confirm the domain is yours

Mailbox providers won't trust mail from a domain that hasn't proven it sent it. Without this
step, most of what you send lands in spam.

Click **Authenticate domain** in the **Domain authentication** card. If Estage manages your
domain's DNS, the records are written for you; if not, you get a table to copy across. Details:
[Authenticating your domain](/email/domain-authentication/).

### 3. Let people reply

This one is **recommended, not required** — you can send without it, but nobody can write back.

Sending *from* `hello@yourdomain.com` and *receiving* at it are two different things. Estage
sends; the inbox has to come from an email provider. The step is marked done once your domain
has one.

To set it up:

1. Add your domain to your email provider.
2. Copy the DNS records it gives you.
3. Add them in Genesis under **Domains → DNS records**, on that domain.

The card links to the instructions for **Google Workspace**, **Microsoft 365**, **Zoho Mail**,
**Fastmail** and **Proton Mail**.

:::caution
If your domain already had email on it before you moved it to Estage, its **MX records** need to
exist in Genesis's DNS too — see the warning in [Adding a custom domain](/domains/). A domain
whose MX records were left behind will show this step as unfinished, because the inbox really is
gone.
:::

### 4. Create a sending address

The address your email goes out from, and the one people reply to. You enter the mailbox part —
`hello`, `hi`, `news` — and Estage appends your domain.

This card only appears once step 2 is done: an address on an unauthenticated domain can't send.
See [Sending addresses](/email/senders/).

## One more thing you'll need

A **sending allowance** — how many emails you're allowed to send — isn't a setup step, because
there's nothing to configure: you buy it. But nothing goes out without one, however well the four
steps above went.

Check it under **Sending volume** in the Deliverability card on the same page; the link there
takes you to Genesis → **Account → Allocation & credits**. See
[Your sending allowance](/email/allowance/).

## Checking your progress

The **Get started** card counts finished steps and explains each outstanding one. Two buttons
matter while you wait:

- **Re-check** (in the wizard) — re-reads your setup after you've changed something elsewhere.
- The refresh icon in **Domain authentication** — re-reads the domain's status.

DNS changes usually take a few minutes, occasionally longer. Nothing is lost while you wait; the
page catches up when the records resolve.

## Sending a test

Once every required step is done, each verified From address gets a **Test** button. It opens a
dialog prefilled with that address — change the recipient if you like, and send.

:::note
A test is a real email and **uses your allowance** like any other send. It also needs setup to be
complete: the Test button stays disabled until then, with the reason in its tooltip.
:::

## When a step won't finish

| What you see | What it means |
| --- | --- |
| **"We couldn't check your email setup just now"** | A temporary read failure — press **Retry**. |
| **"We couldn't check *yourdomain.com* just now"** on the reply step | The inbox lookup failed. That's a glitch, not proof you have no inbox. |
| **DKIM PENDING** for a long time | The DNS records aren't resolving yet — see [Authenticating your domain](/email/domain-authentication/). |
| **"No domain connected to this project yet"** | Step 1 isn't done. Add the domain in Genesis. |