Email Setup has been around for quite some time. Although things have recently changed, at least starting from Business Central 2022 Wave 1, Microsoft moved the SMTP Setup to Set Up Email. You can also access the setup from Email Accounts.

Start by searching for Set Up Email or if you are coming from Email Accounts, click New and Add an Email Account and click Next.

The setup will present you three options for what type of email account you will be setting up. Let’s break down those three options. You may need to consult with your IT department on which option is allowed based on your company policy.

• Microsoft 365 - Everyone sends email from a shared mailbox in Exchange Online. This is best used if you prefer to have emails coming from a single shared mailbox account, for example, Accounting@company.com.

• Current User - Everyone sends an email from the same account the user uses to sign into Business Central. This is best used if the organization prefers for everyone to be able to send from their individual mailbox account.

• SMTP - This uses an SMTP protocol. This is best used for organizations who uses an SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) mail server.

With my current environment and policy, I am going to use the Current User account type option. Allowing everyone to utilize their own mailbox account to send emails out of Business Central.

Click Next until it gives you an option to set the email address as the Default email, you can Send a Test Email to ensure it sends out, then click Finish. That’s it! You are now set up to be able to send documents directly from Business Central.

You can also test and compose an email directly from the Email Accounts. The best way to test this is by navigating to Posted Sales Invoices, click Print/Send and Send by Email.

You should see a pop-up page with a layout similar to a new message in Outlook. Notice that the “From” field shows your current user email account and the “To” email should be pulled from the customer record. You will also have an opportunity to edit the body of the email. In a future post, we can discuss how you can create a template for the body message as this is driven by a Word Layout. If you scroll down further, you will also see the attached document associated to the record.

When you are ready, you can send the email.

One of the benefits of utilizing Current User account type, you can see your Sent Email directly in Business Central (only emails that came from Business Central). This is also synced with your Outlook, meaning you can see your Sent Emails from Business Central within your sent folder in Outlook.

This setup should help you and your organization minimize your carbon footprint, minimize having to print invoices, and most importantly, saving everyone time from having to print it into PDF and manually attaching it to an Outlook message.