# Where your review requests come from Step 3 of setting up Kudos. It has the most moving parts of the six, because one of the two paths through it involves changing your DNS. Nothing is sent to any of your clients until you finish step 6. ## What this step decides Every review request Kudos sends on your behalf has to come from somewhere. You choose one of two options, and the choice changes what your client sees in their inbox. Neither option is better. They trade convenience against how the email looks. | | Use our domain | Use your own domain | |---|---|---| | Time to set up | A minute | Ten to thirty minutes, plus waiting for DNS | | Technical work | None | Four records pasted into your DNS control panel | | Your client sees | A Kudos address, with your practice name | Your own practice address | | Replies go to | An address you nominate | Straight to you | | Before you can go live | We verify your practice ourselves | Your domain records verify automatically | If you are not sure, pick **use our domain**. You can change to your own domain later. --- ## Option A: use our domain 1. On step 3, press **Choose this** under "Use our domain". 2. Enter a **reply-to address**. This is where a reply from a client lands. Use the address you actually read, not a no-reply address. Clients do reply to these emails, usually to say thank you, and occasionally to ask a question about the invoice. 3. Press **Save**. 4. Press **Check my sending setup**. Do not enter a send-from address on this path. There is no box for it, because Kudos assigns its own. If you somehow submit one, you will see: > The shared option assigns its own sending address, so leave that box empty. ### The one wait on this path After saving, step 3 may show: > We check your practice ourselves before your first send. Nothing to do here; we will be in touch. This is not an error and there is nothing you can do to speed it up. Kudos checks that a real practice is behind a new account before letting it send on a shared domain, because one bad sender would affect every other practice using it. **We do this within one business day, Monday to Friday, Australian Eastern time.** If you have not heard from us by then, email support and quote your practice name. You can complete steps 4 and 5 while this is outstanding. Only step 6 waits on it. --- ## Option B: use your own domain Your clients see an email from your own practice address. To let Kudos send as you, your domain has to say so publicly, which means four records in your DNS. ### Before you start You need to be able to log in to whoever manages your domain's DNS. That is usually one of: - the company you bought the domain from (GoDaddy, Crazy Domains, VentraIP, Netregistry) - Cloudflare, if someone set that up for you - your web developer **If you cannot log in to that, stop here and use option A instead.** You will not be able to finish this path, and there is no way around it. ### Check one thing first If your DNS is managed by **Squarespace**, this path will not work. Squarespace's DNS editor accepts only two parts in a record name, and the records Kudos needs have three. This is a limitation of Squarespace, not of Kudos, and waiting will not fix it. Your options are to move DNS management elsewhere or to use option A. ### The steps 1. On step 3, press **Choose this** under "Use your own domain". 2. Enter the address you want to send from, on your own domain. For example `reviews@smithandco.com.au` or `hello@smithandco.com.au`. It does not need to be a mailbox that exists. 3. Press **Save**. 4. Press **Get my DNS record**. Kudos gives you one TXT record. This is how Kudos proves you actually control the domain you just claimed. 5. Publish that record (see your registrar below), then come back and press **Check my sending setup**. 6. Once ownership is confirmed, the same button shows **three more records**, all of type CNAME. Publish those too. 7. Press **Check my sending setup** again. When all four are live and confirmed, step 3 is done. You will press **Check my sending setup** several times. That is expected: it only reads, and it never re-issues anything. ### What the four records look like The exact values are shown on your own step 3 screen and are unique to your practice. **Always copy them from the screen, never from this page.** The shapes are: | Type | Name | Value | |---|---|---| | TXT | `_kudos-verify.yourdomain.com.au` | a long random string | | CNAME | `._domainkey.yourdomain.com.au` | `.dkim.amazonses.com` | | CNAME | `._domainkey.yourdomain.com.au` | `.dkim.amazonses.com` | | CNAME | `._domainkey.yourdomain.com.au` | `.dkim.amazonses.com` | The three CNAMEs each have a different random value. They are not interchangeable and all three are required. --- ## How DNS panels change the Name field **Most DNS control panels add your domain to the end of whatever you type in the Name field.** So if Kudos shows you a record named: ``` abc123._domainkey.smithandco.com.au ``` and you paste that whole thing into GoDaddy's Name box, GoDaddy stores: ``` abc123._domainkey.smithandco.com.au.smithandco.com.au ``` which points at nothing. Kudos then reports, correctly and forever, that it cannot find your record. **The fix: paste only the part before your domain.** For the example above, that is: ``` abc123._domainkey ``` and for the TXT record: ``` _kudos-verify ``` Every registrar in the list below behaves this way except Cloudflare, which accepts either form and works it out. --- ## Registrar instructions ### GoDaddy 1. Log in, then open **My Products**. 2. Find your domain and press **DNS**. 3. Press **Add New Record**. 4. Type: choose **TXT** (or **CNAME** for the last three). 5. Name: the part before your domain only. See the section above. 6. Value: paste exactly what Kudos showed. For a CNAME, GoDaddy calls this field **Points to**. 7. TTL: leave the default (1 hour). 8. **Save**, and repeat for each record. ### Crazy Domains 1. Log in and open **My Account**, then **Domain Names**. 2. Press **Manage** next to your domain, then **DNS**. 3. Press **Add Record**. 4. Choose the type, enter the name without your domain, paste the value. 5. **Save**, and repeat. Crazy Domains sometimes shows a warning about changing DNS affecting your email. Adding these four records does not affect your existing email. You are adding records, not replacing any. ### VentraIP 1. Log in to **VIPControl**. 2. Open **Domain Names**, press **Manage** on your domain. 3. Open **DNS**, then **Edit DNS Zone**. 4. Press **Add Record**, choose the type, enter the name without your domain, paste the value. 5. **Save**, and repeat. ### Cloudflare 1. Log in and select your domain. 2. Open **DNS**, then **Records**, then **Add record**. 3. Choose the type, enter the name, paste the value. 4. **Turn the proxy off.** For each of the three CNAME records, the **Proxy status** toggle must show a **grey cloud** reading "DNS only", not an orange cloud. If it is orange, Cloudflare answers with its own record instead of the one you entered, and verification will never succeed. 5. **Save**, and repeat. The orange cloud is the single most common reason a Cloudflare-hosted domain fails this step. ### Someone else manages my DNS Send them this, replacing the values with the ones on your step 3 screen: > Please add the following DNS records to `yourdomain.com.au`. These authorise our review request > emails and do not affect existing mail. > > 1. TXT record, name `_kudos-verify`, value `` > 2. CNAME record, name `._domainkey`, value `.dkim.amazonses.com` > 3. CNAME record, name `._domainkey`, value `.dkim.amazonses.com` > 4. CNAME record, name `._domainkey`, value `.dkim.amazonses.com` > > If your control panel appends the domain automatically, enter the names exactly as above without > the domain. If the domain is on Cloudflare, these must be set to "DNS only", not proxied. --- ## How long DNS takes Usually two to fifteen minutes. Occasionally up to an hour. Very rarely, if your registrar sets a long TTL, up to 24 hours. Press **Check my sending setup** after ten minutes. If nothing has changed after an hour, the record is almost certainly wrong rather than slow, and the host-field mistake above is the first thing to check. --- ## What each message means Kudos tells you exactly what is wrong. Find the sentence you saw. ### Messages about what is still missing | What you saw | What to do | |---|---| | Choose how your review requests are sent. | Press **Choose this** under one of the two options. | | Set the address they are sent from. | On the own-domain path, enter your send-from address and press Save. | | Your sending is not set up with our email provider yet. | Press **Save** on your chosen option. If you already have, press **Check my sending setup**. | | We check your practice ourselves before your first send. Nothing to do here; we will be in touch. | Nothing. See "The one wait on this path" above. | | Your domain ownership record has not been found yet. | Your TXT record is missing or wrong. Check the host-field mistake above. | | Your sending address has not been verified yet. | Publish the three CNAME records, then check again. | | We could not read your account. | A temporary fault. Reload the page. If it keeps happening, email support. | | We could not save that. Try again. | A temporary fault. Press Save again. If it keeps happening, email support. | | That sending address could not be used. Check it and try again. | Check the address for a typing mistake, and that it is an address at your practice's own domain. | ### Messages when saving your choice | What you saw | What to do | |---|---| | Choose one of the two options above. | Press **Choose this** on one of the two cards first. | | The shared option assigns its own sending address, so leave that box empty. | You are on the shared path. Clear the send-from box. | | The shared option needs a reply-to address, so your clients' replies reach you. | Enter the address where you want client replies to land. | | Enter the address to send from. | You are on the own-domain path. Enter an address on your own domain. | | That reply-to does not look like an email address. Check it and try again. | Check for a typo, a missing `@`, or a trailing space. | | That reply-to is too long. Keep it under 320 characters. | Use a shorter address. | | That is our shared domain. Pick the shared option, or use your practice's own domain. | You entered a Kudos address on the own-domain path. Either switch to the shared option, or use an address on your own domain. | | Too many changes in a short time. Try again in an hour. | You have changed this several times quickly. Wait an hour. | | Only the account owner can set the sending address. | Ask whoever created the Kudos account to do this step. | | You were signed out. Sign in and try again. | Sign back in. Nothing you had saved is lost. | ### Messages when checking | What you saw | What to do | |---|---| | Get your DNS record first, then publish it and check again. | Press **Get my DNS record**, publish the TXT record it gives you, then check. | | The shared option needs no DNS records, so there is nothing to check here. | You are on the shared path. There is nothing for you to publish. | | We cannot find your ownership record yet. DNS can take a few minutes. | Wait ten minutes and check again. After an hour, the record is wrong rather than slow. | | Sending is paused for your practice. Contact support to resume it. | Email support. This is not something you can change yourself. | | Choose how your review requests are sent first. | Go back and pick one of the two options. | | That step is not ready yet. Finish the earlier ones and try again. | Steps 1 and 2 are not complete. Finish those first. | | Too many checks just now. Wait a minute and try again. | Wait a minute. Checking is limited so the system is not overloaded. | | We could not reach our email provider. Try again. | A temporary fault on our side. Try again in a few minutes; if it persists, email support. | | Only the account owner can set this up. | Ask whoever created the Kudos account to do this step. | --- ## If you are using an AI assistant You can paste this whole page into Claude, ChatGPT or similar and ask it to walk you through. It will be able to help with most of it. **What it can do for you** - Work out who manages your DNS, from your domain name - Read the four records off a screenshot of your step 3 screen and tell you exactly what to type into each field of your registrar's form - Tell you whether a record has gone live yet - Explain any message you have seen **What it cannot do** - Log in to Kudos, your registrar, or Xero. Those need your password, and you should not give it one. - See your step 3 screen unless you show it a screenshot. **A useful thing to ask it:** > Here is a screenshot of the DNS records Kudos wants me to publish, and my DNS is managed by > [registrar]. Tell me exactly what to type into each field, remembering that [registrar] adds my > domain to the end of the Name field automatically.