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MJTaylor
Level 1

What is the correct include: statement for the Quickbooks / Intuit.com SPF record to allow it to work without reporting too many lookups?

Has this been resolved yet?

Adrian_A
Moderator

What is the correct include: statement for the Quickbooks / Intuit.com SPF record to allow it to work without reporting too many lookups?

Hi MJ,

 

I'll take that you're referring to the email not being delivered to the receiver. I'm here to help fix the issue.

 

To start with, let's reset the email address. Here's how:

 

  1. From the Gear icon, select Account and settings.
  2. Go to the Company tab, then click the edit (pencil) icon on the Contact info section.
  3. Review the email address and make changes as needed.
  4. Click Save, then Done.

 

Another troubleshooting step is letting the receiver check their junk and spam folders. You can also reach out to an IT expert to configure the device's Server Hostname and IP address. You can check this article for detailed information on debugging the issue: Troubleshoot if customers aren't receiving emails from QuickBooks Online.

 

If you performed the steps in the article, yet, the same thing happens, I'd suggest contacting our phone support agents. They can open an investigation if need be. You can do so by clicking the ? Help icon.

 

If you mean something else, don't hesitate to reply in the thread.

 

You can also browse our Help Articles page for tips on managing your QuickBooks account.

 

I'm always around whenever you have concerns. I'm here to help you out.

Dunedude
Level 1

What is the correct include: statement for the Quickbooks / Intuit.com SPF record to allow it to work without reporting too many lookups?

MJ,

 

I was notified of your question because I had asked the same question a number of years ago. To answer your question, no this issue has not yet been resolved by Intuit--and this includes the recent response you got from Adrian.

 

While the Intuit recommended include statement "include:intuit.com" is syntactically valid, it results in a recursive parsing error that exceeds most mail servers ability to validate an SPF record (including Google's). I just tried to add this reference back into my DNS record and it failed again.

 

The SPF string can not be parsed, do you have any typos in it?

Decisionpermanent error in processing
ExplanationSPF Permanent Error: Too many DNS lookups
Recordv=spf1 +a +mx +ip4:##.##.##.## +include:_spf.google.com +include:intuit.com +include:servers.#### +include:email.#### ~all

(Other records have been obfuscated for my domain)

 

To see how this SPF record parses, you can visit: www.spf-record.com/spf-lookup/intuit.com and see the huge number of IP numbers and external references that this include statement parses to.

 

So until Intuit hires someone who knows about modern email validation and authentication rules, the only option is to not use SPF validation for your outgoing invoices. (And let's not even start to talk about DKIM authentication for outgoing invoices).

 

 

 

Jazee
Level 2

What is the correct include: statement for the Quickbooks / Intuit.com SPF record to allow it to work without reporting too many lookups?

I agree the Intuit Support responses are laughable.

 

The number of IP addresses depending on the specific product (aka QB online) and the country should not be that huge (talking to you Intuit).

 

Google and Yahoo are getting more stringent.  It's baffling considering the huge user base of Quickbooks Online there isn't clearly published (and compliant) SPF and DKIM record settings accessible from within your account settings.

Email deliverability is only going to get worse if they don't do this.

 

Your 2024 guide to Google and Yahoo’s new requirements for email senders | Postmark (postmarkapp.com...

Jazee
Level 2

What is the correct include: statement for the Quickbooks / Intuit.com SPF record to allow it to work without reporting too many lookups?

I've since confirmed that the reply-to address is based on the email entered into the account settings and is not subject to SPF / DKIM validation. 

 

The emails clearly identify the business by using the business name in the From and Reply To fields (the from field just uses the intuit email so it passes SPF and DKIM checks.) And if the customer replies to the invoice email it will go to the email address configured on the account.

 

So basically you don't need to add Intuit's SPF include file or IP addresses to your SPF record or the key to the DKIM record. They do that for their intuit DNS entries. On some email clients you only see the From name and not even the email address (it's cutoff on my Gmail client because the business name is long.)

So what people are really frustrated with is although the name in the From field is the business name, the email address shown isn't their business email.

 

Intuit could solve this by giving everyone an spf include specific to the product and country affecting where the emails are sent from and a DKIM record. (Other QB threads have pointed out it has too many IP addresses to be compliant though.) But they realize this is going to be beyond the technical understanding of most customers so they chose a simpler solution. If people understand replying to the invoice email won't go to the Intuit email address then I think much of the complaining will subside.

 

I agree though it would be preferable that the from email address is a company address.

Dunedude
Level 1

What is the correct include: statement for the Quickbooks / Intuit.com SPF record to allow it to work without reporting too many lookups?

Thanks for summing up what so many of us have been asking for for years Jazee.

 

I only look into this thread from time to time, but it seems to me that Intuit did allow clients to use their own from address when this thread was new (3 and a half years ago). I just checked, and that option no longer exists. So yes:

1. For small businesses with no tech support, the current system works fine. Intuit sends out an invoice with their domain name and credentials to your clients with a reply-to: value so that the customer can click reply and have it sent back to the email you select. 

 

but

 

2. All my other SaaS vendors (ticketing systems, etc.) allow me to send messages directly to my clients as if they came from my business by sharing their SPF and DKIM records so I can add them to my own domain records. Why does Intuit think that it's solutions is better than the rest of the world's? Who does it think it is? Betamax?

Chris_DL
Level 1

What is the correct include: statement for the Quickbooks / Intuit.com SPF record to allow it to work without reporting too many lookups?

There is an SPF record but it has too many lookups in this day and age where we have email servers, cloud email filters, ticketing systems, marketing systems etc all requiring to be part of the SPF. 

 

Quickbooks should use a DNS flattening service themselves and give us the SPF. 

 

For Payslips, why not let us use the standard Quickbooks email that quotes and invoices gets sent out from instead of having to use our own domain, this would at least be a work around?

 

I'm changing my DMARC policy to quarantine just to get my employees their payslips and tell them to look in their Junk.

 

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