Email invoices and other documents with the PDF attached

Choose how to send

Open Company → Company Settings and find Email. There are three choices. They belong to this computer and your Windows sign-in, not to the company file, so a copy sent to your accountant never carries your email password.

• Outlook on this PC. AcboBooks opens a new Outlook message with the PDF already attached. You check it and click Send, and it is saved in your Sent Items.
• Send through my email account. AcboBooks sends it straight from your address, through your provider's mail server.
• My default mail app. AcboBooks saves the PDF and opens your mail app with the message written; you attach the file yourself.

Outlook on this PC

This works with the classic Outlook desktop program (part of Microsoft 365 and Office). The new Outlook app cannot be controlled by other programs; if you use it, choose your email account instead. Pick Outlook on this PC, click Save and test, and you are done.

Your email account (Gmail, Microsoft 365…)

1. Pick Send through my email account. Enter your name or business name and the address to send from.
2. Choose your provider in Email provider to fill in the mail server, port and security. For your own domain, your host gives you these (often "SMTP settings").
3. User name is usually your full email address. For the password, Gmail, Microsoft 365 with two-step sign-in, Yahoo and iCloud need an app password, a separate password you create in your account's security settings, not your normal one.
4. Tick Send me a copy if you want every email to arrive in your own inbox too.
5. Click Save and test. AcboBooks signs in to the server (nothing is sent) and tells you if it worked.

The password is stored encrypted for your Windows user on this computer only.

Send a document

Click ✉ Email… on an invoice, estimate, sales order, purchase order, sales receipt, credit memo, payment or deposit receipt, customer statement or pay stub. The Email window shows who it goes to (from the customer's, vendor's or employee's record), the subject and a ready-written message, which you can change. The PDF is laid out with your logo and colours. On a new invoice, Save & Email saves it and opens the Email window in one step.

Send to many at once

• Customers → Invoices → Email invoices… lists the open invoices (or the ones your filter shows). Tick the ones to send and click Send: each customer gets their own email with their invoice.
• Reports → Customer Statement → Email all… sends every customer with a balance their own statement.
• Payroll → Run Payroll → Email stubs… sends each employee their pay stub, to the work email on their record (Employees → Edit → HR).

With Outlook, each one opens as its own message for you to send.

If it does not send

• "Refused the user name or password": use an app password (see above). With Microsoft 365, your administrator may also need to allow "Authenticated SMTP" for your mailbox.
• "Could not reach the mail server": check the server name, the port and the security setting (port 587 with STARTTLS, or 465 with SSL/TLS), and that your firewall or antivirus allows AcboBooks to connect.
• "The connection to the mail server could not be checked as secure": antivirus email protection is in the way. In Norton 360: Settings → Antivirus → Email Protection, untick Scan outbound emails (SMTP). In Avast or AVG: Protection → Core Shields → Mail Shield, untick scanning of outbound emails. Incoming mail and websites stay protected.
• "Classic Outlook was not found": you have the new Outlook app or no Outlook. Use your email account instead.
• Still stuck? Contact us with the message you see.