Custom email domains
:::info Pro feature Custom email domains are part of Pro and included in the 30-day trial. Compare plans on Free vs Pro. :::
By default, invoice and report emails go out from Gigtime's sending address. With a verified custom domain they come from you, for example billing@yourstudio.com. Clients see your name from the inbox to the PDF, and your emails carry your domain's reputation.
The Email Domain section sits at the bottom of Settings → Invoice.
Adding your domain
- In the Email Domain section, type your domain, such as
yourstudio.com, and click Add Domain. - Gigtime shows the DNS records your domain needs. Each has a Type (CNAME, TXT, or MX), a Name, and a Value, with a copy button on each. The name copies as the host part only, because most DNS providers add your domain to it for you.
- Add those records at your DNS provider. See Adding records at your DNS provider if you have not done this before.
- In Send invoices from, enter the address your invoices should come from, such as
invoices@yourstudio.com, and save. You can set it while the domain is still pending. It takes effect the moment the domain verifies. Send reports from is optional and falls back to the invoice address.
You do not have to press Verify. While the card is open, Gigtime checks the records itself every half minute and marks each one Found, Not found yet, or Different value. When all of them resolve it asks the email provider to confirm, and the domain turns Verified on its own. You get a notification when that happens. The Verify button is still there if you want to check right now.
DNS changes usually show up within minutes. Some providers take a few hours.
What each status means
The provider behind the sending, Amazon SES, looks for your DKIM records for 72 hours after the domain is added. The card shows the date that window ends. What happens next depends on where the domain is.
| Status | What it means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Pending | The records have not all been found yet. Still inside the 72-hour window. | Add the records. The card shows which are missing. |
| Verified | Sending from your address. | Nothing. |
| Failed | The 72 hours passed without all the records being found. The domain is kept, nothing is deleted. | Fix the records, then press Retry. A new 72-hour window starts. If the provider issued new values, the card shows them and asks you to update the three CNAMEs. |
| Sending paused by you | You paused it from the card. Emails go out from the Gigtime address. | Press Resume. |
| Sending paused by the provider | The provider paused the domain, usually for bounces or complaints. Emails go out from the Gigtime address. The card shows the reason. | Email support@gigtime.app. Resume is not available until the provider lifts it. |
A pending domain is never removed because setup is taking a while. Only the provider's 72-hour clock applies, and a failed domain waits for Retry.
When a domain is removed automatically
There is exactly one case. A domain that never verified, was marked Failed by the provider, and has not been retried for 30 days gets one notice, in the app and by email, saying it will be removed in 7 days. If nobody presses Retry in that week, Gigtime removes it on day 37 after the failure, which is about 40 days after it was added. Nothing else is deleted: the Send from addresses and your other settings are untouched, and you can add the domain again any time.
A domain that was verified at any point is never removed automatically, however long its records stay broken. The only other removals are the ones you start yourself, described under Pausing or removing a domain.
If a verified domain stops verifying
The provider keeps checking a verified domain about once a day. Two things can happen.
A record drifts. One record no longer resolves, but the domain still signs. Your emails keep going out from your address. You get one notification naming the record, and the card shows it in amber. Fix it at your DNS provider and the card clears on its own.
The DKIM records are gone. The domain drops back to unverified. From that moment your emails go out from the Gigtime address, so nothing fails to send, and you get a notification. Put the records back and the domain verifies again on its own, or press Retry if the card shows Failed.
A domain that was verified is never removed automatically, however long its records stay broken. Gigtime reminds you after a week and again after a month, and keeps the domain until you remove it yourself.
Warm-up limits
A new domain can send a limited number of emails per day for its first four weeks. The limit grows each week. If you reach it, the rest of that day's emails go out from the Gigtime address, the card says so, and your own address is used again the next day. Nothing is held back or lost.
Bounced invoice emails
When an invoice email bounces or the recipient marks it as spam, the invoice's activity trail records it with the address and the reason, and you get a notification. That is your cue to check the client's billing contact and resend to a working address.
Adding records at your DNS provider
Your DNS provider is wherever your domain's nameservers point. That is usually the company you bought the domain from, unless you moved DNS to a service like Cloudflare. Each provider has its own guide.
| Provider | Guide |
|---|---|
| Cloudflare | Create DNS records |
| GoDaddy | Manage DNS records |
| Namecheap | Set up host records for a domain |
| Squarespace Domains (formerly Google Domains) | Edit your domain's DNS records |
| Amazon Route 53 | Creating records in the Route 53 console |
| Wix | Managing DNS records in your Wix account |
| WordPress.com | Manage DNS records |
| Hostinger | Manage DNS records at Hostinger |
| Porkbun | Add DNS records on Porkbun |
| Hover | Managing DNS records at Hover |
| DigitalOcean | Create, edit, and delete DNS records |
Provider not listed? Search its help center for "add DNS record". The steps are the same everywhere: pick the record Type, paste the Name (sometimes called Host), paste the Value (sometimes Points to, Target, or Content), and save. For the MX record, enter the Priority shown on the card as well.
:::tip Using Cloudflare? Set the CNAME records to DNS only (grey cloud), not Proxied. Proxied records cannot be verified. :::
If you would rather not do this yourself, send the records to whoever manages your website or domain, or email support@gigtime.app and we will walk you through it.
The send-from addresses
Send invoices from decides the address your invoice emails are sent from. Send reports from optionally gives reports and scheduled reports their own sender and falls back to the invoice address when empty. Both must be addresses on the verified domain, but they do not have to be real mailboxes. Many people send from invoices@yourstudio.com and read mail somewhere else. Replies are unaffected: Gigtime sets the email's Reply-To to the business email from your invoice settings business profile, so answers land in your actual inbox.
A status line under the card tells you where things stand: green when sending from your domain is active, or a hint when the domain is verified but no send-from address is set. In that case emails keep going out from the Gigtime address.
With Pro's white-label branding the whole email is yours: your logo in the header, your brand color, your business name as the sender, and no Gigtime logo, footer, or "Powered by" line.
Pausing or removing a domain
The trash icon on the domain card offers three options.
- Pause sending. The domain and its verification stay put. Emails go out from the Gigtime address until you resume.
- Delete with 7-day grace. Sending stops immediately, and the domain is removed after 7 days. Press Restore on the card during those days and everything comes back as it was.
- Delete now. Removes the domain immediately and permanently. You will be asked to type the domain name to confirm. Use this when you want to switch to a different domain right away, since accounts have one custom domain at a time.
One custom domain per account, and one Gigtime account per domain. A domain in its deletion grace period still counts as yours, so use Delete now if you need to replace it immediately. If a domain is already connected to another Gigtime account, that account has to remove it first.
Sending limits
Invoice email sending is capped per account over rolling windows.
| Plan | Per hour | Per rolling 7 days |
|---|---|---|
| Free | 5 | 25 |
| Pro | 30 | 1,000 |
The limits cover all invoice emails you send, from the Gigtime address or your own domain. The Email Domain section shows your current 7-day usage, and Gigtime warns you in-app and by email when you cross about 80% of your weekly allowance. If you hit the cap, sending resumes as older sends age out of the window. Pro users who need more can contact support@gigtime.app.
Troubleshooting DNS
- Copy the Name and Value exactly. A stray trailing dot or a pasted space is the most common failure.
- Some DNS providers add your domain to record names on their own. Gigtime's copy button already gives you the host part only. If you typed the full name and your provider doubled the domain, shorten it.
- The card marks each record Found, Not found yet, or Different value. A Different value usually means an old record with the same name is still there. Replace it.
- Pending for more than an hour with everything marked Found? Press Verify. Providers can take a while to notice.
- Still stuck? Email support@gigtime.app with your domain and we will take a look.