How to set up business email: Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace

How to set up business email

To set up business email, you need your own domain name (like yourbusiness.com.au) and a provider to host your mailboxes, such as Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace. Then you create an email address for each person, connect the domain to your provider by adding a few records, and move your old mail across.

If you’ve got a website, you already have a domain. If not, you register one first. The provider is what people mean by business email hosting: the company whose servers store your mail and deliver it. Some web hosts include basic email, but then moving your website means moving your email too.

Why a Gmail or internet provider address costs you

Say you’re a sparky in Chermside sending a quote to a builder. An address on your own domain matches your website and your ute. A Gmail address like yourname1978@gmail.com looks like a side job, even if you’re flat out.

The bigger cost comes when you change provider. An address from your internet provider belongs to that provider, so it can stop working when you leave. In 2023 one big provider stopped providing email for its brands. CHOICE reported that customers had to move to a separate service with a fee to keep their address, or take a new one and lose their old mail. An address on your own domain stays the same whoever hosts it.

Google Workspace vs Microsoft 365: which suits you?

For most small businesses, the best email comes down to Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace, and both are solid. It depends on how you work:

• Microsoft 365 suits people who live in Word, Excel and Outlook.
• Google Workspace suits people who’d rather use Gmail and Google Docs.

Both charge per user, per month, and prices change, so check current pricing. Check what each plan includes too. Microsoft’s plans differ on whether Word, Excel and Outlook are installed on your computer, and its Apps for business plan has no email at all.

We set up and look after both, and can supply the licences. Our business email setup page has more.

Setting it up, step by step

The screens differ, but the order doesn’t. A “record” is a small entry in your domain’s settings (the DNS) that tells the internet what to do with your domain. Your provider’s setup page shows the exact ones to copy.

1. Add your domain and verify it. Do this before you add any people. The provider gives you a record to add at your registrar (where your domain is registered) to prove it’s yours, so whoever has that login has to add it. If it isn’t found straight away, wait and try again.
2. Create a mailbox for each person, each with their own login.
3. Point the MX record at your provider. The MX record tells the internet where to deliver your mail, so once it changes, new email goes to the new provider. Remove the old provider’s MX records, or some mail can keep going there.
4. Add SPF, DKIM and DMARC. These are the three records other mail systems check to see your email really came from you. Without them, your mail is more likely to land in spam.
5. Test it. Send test emails to a Gmail address and an Outlook address, and check they land in the inbox.

SPF, DKIM and DMARC in plain English

• SPF is a list of who’s allowed to send email as your domain.
• DKIM puts a digital signature on every email, so the receiver can tell it came from you and wasn’t changed on the way. Your provider gives you the record to add, then you switch it on.
• DMARC tells the receiver what to do when an email fails those checks, and sends you reports. Start on “p=none”, which only watches, and tighten it later.

Since February 2024, Google has required SPF or DKIM from everyone emailing Gmail addresses, and all three from anyone sending more than 5,000 a day to them. Yahoo has similar rules. You probably won’t send that many, but Microsoft also says to set up all three, so we do.

Moving your old mail, contacts and calendar

Changing the MX record only changes where new mail goes. Your old mail stays with the old provider until you copy it across.

Both providers have tools that copy old mail across, using the old mailbox login. For a typical internet provider or web host mailbox, that means email only: Microsoft says its IMAP tool doesn’t move contacts, calendar items or tasks, and Google’s is the same. So export your contacts and calendars from the old system and import them separately.

Then connect your devices. Use the Gmail app (Google Workspace) or the Outlook app (Microsoft 365) on each phone, and Outlook or Gmail in your browser on a computer. Sign in with the new address, and remove the old account once your old mail is across.

Shared inboxes and extra addresses

You’ll probably want info@ and accounts@ as well as personal addresses. You don’t need a paid user for each one.

• Aliases are extra addresses that land in one person’s inbox. Both providers include them at no extra cost, but an alias can’t be shared between people.
• Microsoft 365 shared mailboxes let several people read and reply from one address, like info@. A shared mailbox doesn’t need its own licence while it’s under 50 GB, but each person using it needs their own.
• Google Workspace groups do the same job. Google says several people can send and receive from one address by using a Google Group.

Turn on multi-factor authentication

Multi-factor authentication (MFA) means a password alone can’t get someone into a mailbox; they also need a code or an approval from their phone. The Australian Cyber Security Centre says to turn it on wherever you can, starting with high-risk accounts like email, banking and cloud storage.

Use an authenticator app or a passkey where you can, because the ACSC rates texted codes as the weakest type. Both Google Workspace (where it’s called 2-Step Verification) and Microsoft 365 let the admin require it for everyone.

Mistakes to avoid

• Mail landing in spam. Usually a missing or wrong SPF, DKIM or DMARC record. A second SPF record is a common slip: a domain can only have one, so add to the one you’ve got. Cover anything else that sends as you too, like your website’s contact form or a newsletter tool.
• One shared password. Give each person their own login, so you can lock out one person without changing everyone’s password.
• A domain registered in someone else’s name. If a former web designer or a mate registered it, ask them to move it into your business’s name. If they disappear, you may not be able to renew it or change its settings, and your email and website can stop.

Questions people ask

Can I keep my old email address during the move?

Yes. Keep the old mailbox open until the new one is working and your old mail is across, and forward the old address to the new one. If the old address is already on your own domain it stays the same, but a free Gmail or internet provider address can’t move across, so tell people your new one.

Can I switch providers later?

Yes. Your address is on your own domain, so it doesn’t change when you move from Google to Microsoft, or the other way around. Both providers publish steps for moving mail from the other, and you change the MX record when you’re ready.

How long does it take?

Creating the mailboxes is quick. The waiting is in the records, which Google says can take up to 72 hours to be recognised, and in copying old mail, which depends on how much you have. A few mailboxes with little mail is a small job; years of mail across a team takes longer.

We’re in Brisbane and look after business email for small businesses around South East Queensland. If you’d rather leave the records to someone else, or your mail is already landing in spam, give us a call on 0432 631 964 and we’ll have a look.