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Administrator Guide
Last Updated: 2026-04-17
Set Up Mail Servers for Email Notifications

Set Up Mail Servers for Email Notifications

The Workday SMTP now uses Amazon Simple Email Service (SES) to deliver Workday emails. To ensure emails are delivered to their intended recipients, add the
myworkday.com
and
otp.workday.com
domains to your firewall and permit list. See Concept: Amazon SES Email Delivery for more information.
Security:
Set Up: Tenant Setup - BP and Notifications
domain in the System functional area.
Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) server configurations handle the delivery of various Workday notification emails. You can configure a
Default SMTP Configuration
for your tenant to use the Workday default configuration or customize your own.
  1. Access the
    Edit Tenant Setup - Notifications
    task.
  2. From the
    Default SMTP Configuration
    prompt, select
    Create Email Configuration
    .
  3. As you complete the task, consider:
    Option Description
    Delivery Type
    Select:
    • Workday SMTP
      to use the Workday SMTP server (default). Workday sends emails for this delivery type using the Inbound Email IP addresses listed on the Workday Data Center Articles.
    • Customer SMTP
      to use an external server. Workday sends emails for this delivery type using Inbound Integrations IP addresses appropriate for your data center and tenant type. You can configure different Customer SMTP configurations to use on custom business process notifications. When you select the Customer SMTP configuration on the notification, Workday displays the
      From Address
      you specify in the Customer SMTP configuration as the sent From email address.
    Workday automatically applies DKIM, DMARC, and SPF protocols to email notifications that use the
    Workday SMTP
    delivery configuration. If you select
    Customer SMTP
    , you must set up the protocols manually.
    When a Customer SMTP fails to send an email notification, it's resent using the Workday SMTP.
    Delivery Name
    The customer-defined name for the email configuration.
    From Mailbox
    Enter the name of your base tenant.
    From Display Name
    Enter a name that contains no more than 40 alphanumeric characters.
    If the
    From Display Name
    is invalid or if you leave it blank, the receiving mail server will most likely display the
    From Address
    instead.
    Reply To
    Enter only 1 valid email address in the standard format in this field. Example: user@domain.net.
    Sending Domain
    For
    Workday SMTP
    delivery types, you must use the myworkday.com domain URL.
    For
    Customer SMTP
    delivery types, select a
    Sending Domain Override
    to use the domain URL of your choice.
  4. As you complete the
    Custom SMTP Settings
    for
    Customer SMTP
    delivery types, consider:
    Option Description
    Port
    Enter the port to use based on your custom SMTP configuration. When you don't enter a port, Workday uses the standard SMTP port (25).
    Workday does not support port 25 if your company uses a custom SMTP in a Workday public cloud environment. Cloud service providers restrict, or in some cases block, connections to destination TCP port 25 due to the high risk of spam emails generated through that port. Workday recommends that you use port 587, since it supports secure email transmission through encryption protocols.
    Use SSL
    Activates an immediate SSL negotiation with the remote custom SMTP server.
    Workday recommends that you verify with your email server administrator whether SSL is the correct option for your configuration. Port 465 typically uses SSL.
    Use STARTTLS
    Encrypts an insecure connection using SSL negotiations.
    Workday recommends that you verify with your email server administrator whether STARTTLS is the correct option for your configuration. Port 587 typically uses STARTTLS.
    If you encounter issues while configuring your Custom SMTP settings, check with your email provider to determine which settings are correct for your Customer SMTP.
Create additional SMTP configurations for your tenant to use for specific notification types. If you don't set a server configuration for a
Parent Notification Type
, Workday uses the
Default SMTP Configuration
or
Daily Digest SMTP Configuration
.