PAT BERRY — TRADE COMPANION
CHAPTER 20: Authenticate your email
Starter worksheet for review — October 19, 2026

Email authentication helps receiving services evaluate whether mail is authorized. Use the exact records supplied by each sending provider and confirm the result before changing your DMARC policy.

1. List every legitimate sender for your domain. Copy current DNS records into a rollback note and open the sender's official domain-authentication instructions.
2. SPF: review authorized sending services; do not create a second SPF record at the same hostname. DKIM: publish the provider's exact selector and value, then verify in its dashboard.
3. DMARC: review alignment and reports with your mail administrator. Begin with monitoring appropriate to your setup, fix legitimate senders, then plan enforcement. Send a test and inspect authentication results.

Trade application
Include invoicing, support, CRM, and marketing senders in the inventory.

Email authentication worksheet
Domain:
_______________________________________________________

Sending service:
_______________________________________________________

Provider instructions:
_______________________________________________________

Record hostname:
_______________________________________________________

Record type:
_______________________________________________________

Value supplied by provider:
_______________________________________________________

DNS owner:
_______________________________________________________

Verification result:
_______________________________________________________

Rollback note:
_______________________________________________________

Review date:
_______________________________________________________

Use verified facts. Personalize examples. Keep private customer records in your own secure system.