This article is for admins and editors who want to understand what a custom sending domain is and why it matters. Section 3 is technical — share it directly with your IT team.
Looking to request this feature or start the setup process? See How to set up a custom sending domain.
Overview
A custom sending domain lets Appical send system emails — like onboarding invites and notifications — from your own domain instead of ours. For example: onboarding@[yourdomain.com] instead of [email protected].
Example: Instead of new hires receiving invites from [email protected], they receive them from [email protected] — and if they reply, the reply reaches your team, not Appical support.
📌 Why set this up? Better email deliverability (less likely to land in spam), brand consistency (recipients see your company name, not Appical's), and replies come to you instead of Appical support.
How the setup works
The process is straightforward and Appical guides you through every step:
→ Share your details: You share your sender domain and return path with your Appical contact (see "What we need from you" below).
→ Appical prepares the records: Appical adds your domain to its email platform (Flowmailer) and generates the DNS records you need to add.
→ Your IT team updates DNS: Your IT team adds the SPF, DKIM, MX, CNAME, and DMARC records to your DNS settings — Appical provides the exact values.
→ Appical verifies: Appical checks that the DNS records are correctly configured.
→ Go live: Appical adds the custom sending address to your organization settings and sends test emails to confirm everything works.
📌 Important: This setup requires a small change to your DNS settings. Your IT team can usually complete this in a few minutes once Appical provides the records.
What we need from you
To get started, share the following with your Appical Customer Success Manager:
Sender domain — e.g. company.com
Return path — e.g. onboarding.company.com (not sure what to use? A common choice is a subdomain like onboarding.[yourdomain.com] or welcome.[yourdomain.com]. Your IT team or Appical contact can advise.)
Sending email address — e.g. [email protected]
Section 3 — For IT Administrators: DNS Records
Once Appical has your domain details, we'll share a table of DNS records to add. At first, records will show as pending or not found; once correctly added, they'll show as verified. The record types involved are:
TXT (SPF) — authorizes Appical's email platform (Flowmailer) to send on your domain's behalf
MX — routes return-path mail to Flowmailer
CNAME — used for both the return-path domain and DKIM signing keys
TXT (DMARC) — defines how receiving mail servers should handle authentication failures
📌 Appical provides the exact record names and values for your domain once setup begins — this article shows the record types involved, not organization-specific values. Appical verifies the DNS settings and notifies you once the custom sending domain is active and test emails have been sent successfully.
Frequently asked questions
What are SPF and DKIM records? These are standard email authentication records that tell the internet your domain is authorized to send emails via Appical's email platform. Without them, emails may be flagged as spam.
Who makes the DNS changes? Your own IT team, in your domain registrar or DNS provider. Appical cannot make these changes on your behalf — we only provide the values.
👉 Let us know if this article answered your question by using the buttons below. If not, get in touch with our Support Channel for more information.