# Email Preferences

The addresses Inventory sends from, what rewrite mode does to the From header, and how authenticating a domain gets your real address back.

Every document Inventory emails leaves from an address, and this screen decides which one, and whether it is genuinely yours. Until a domain is authenticated, mail is sent in rewrite mode, which is worth understanding before you wonder why a customer sees an address you did not enter.

Go to **Settings > Email Preferences**. Two tabs: **Sender Emails** and **Authenticated Domains**. **How email routing works**, at the top of both tabs, explains the relationship between them and collapses once you have read it.

![The Sender Emails tab of Email Preferences in Inventory Settings. An expanded panel headed How email routing works explains Rewrite mode (default), Real mode, and How to upgrade. Below it a Sender Emails section with a blue Sender button lists two rows, each with a pencil and a bin icon: Ironvale Accounts carrying a Default badge at accounts@ironvale.co.uk, and Ironvale Trade Sales at sales@ironvale.co.uk.](https://www.sorviai.com/help/inventory/settings/email-preferences.png)

*How email routing works is collapsible and repeated on both tabs, because the two tabs are read against each other.*

## The two modes

- **Rewrite mode** (the default): Where the domain is not authenticated, mail goes out from the platform address carrying your sender's display name, and the sender's own address becomes the Reply-To. Customers see your name and replies still reach you.
- **Real mode**: Once a domain is authenticated and verified, senders on that domain ship with their real From address and no Reply-To rewrite, exactly as they would from any mail client.

> **Note:**
>
> **Rewrite mode is a deliverability decision, not a limitation**
>
> Sending as a domain nobody has authorised is what gets mail filed as spam. Rewrite mode keeps the signing domain one that is trusted, which is why it is the default rather than an error state.

## Sender Emails

The identities outbound email can be sent from. One is the default and is used wherever a document does not name its own sender.

*The sender email form*

## Authenticated Domains

A domain you control, proved by publishing the DNS records the mail provider returns.

> **Before you start:**
>
> You need access to the DNS records for the domain, and a domain you actually control. An address at a webmail provider cannot be authenticated here.

- **Go to Settings, Email Preferences, Authenticated Domains.**
- **Add the domain.**

  Enter the **Domain** on its own, such as `acme.com`, with no username and no trailing slash. Choose a **Region**: **Global**, or **EU (data residency)** where that matters to you.
- **Publish the DNS records the screen returns.**

  Each row gives a **Host** and a **Value** to add at your DNS provider.
- **Select Verify Now.**

  Verification reads the records back. Where it fails, the records have usually not propagated yet rather than been entered wrongly.

> **Tip:**
>
> **Authenticate the domain once, and every sender on it upgrades**
>
> Verification is per domain, not per address. A verified `acme.com` moves every `@acme.com` sender into real mode at the same moment.