Answer
Lightning Payroll offers a couple of different ways to be able to email payslips, reports and payment summaries from the program, which are setup under Company >> Email in the program.
If you would like Lightning Payroll to send emails from the program for you, you can tick the box at the top of the Company >> Email page to Have Lightning Payroll send emails for you, instead of using your own provider? and the program will then do exactly that.
If you prefer to use your own email server to handle this, leave the aforementioned box unticked, and fill out the SMTP Server Settings section on the page instead. Lightning Payroll acts as a basic email client which can log in to your email account to use its server to send emails. Each email provider (such as Bigpond, Optus, Google, Yahoo, etc.) has their own SMTP server settings which may change from time to time. The Lightning Payroll support team cannot provide these email server settings. In the same vein, Lightning Payroll cannot troubleshoot any error responses you may receive from your email provider when trying to set this up, as the error is coming from your email account and provider, rather than from Lightning Payroll. Usually the settings for your particular email provider are easy to find if you search the internet using terms like "(provider name) outgoing email settings", or "(provider name) smtp settings".
E.g. "Telstra Bigpond smtp settings", or "iiNet outgoing email settings".
You can also search for commonly used email settings under Company >> Email >> Search for Settings. This will use a third-party email settings provider to gather the server settings for you.
Once you have entered your SMTP settings under Company >> Email please click Send a test email to determine that you have entered the settings correctly.
If you cannot find working SMTP settings for your particular email account, it may be worth considering using an alternative email provider, or ticking Have Lightning Payroll send emails for you, instead of using your own provider? in Company >> Email to use our email server to send emails instead.
Gmail Complexities
If you are opting for Gmail as your email provider within Lightning Payroll, please be aware that it can be quite tricky to setup. This is due to Google Mail offering a high level of security configurability and as a result, there are many hoops to jump through.
The best way to use Gmail for SMTP in Lightning Payroll is by going to https://myaccount.google.com/security and activating 2-Step Verification. Once you have activated 2-Step, you can then create a Google App Password specifically for Lightning Payroll (Other - Custom Name). For more information on managing App Passwords in your Google account, see - https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/185833?hl=en .
Microsoft Complexities
As of September 2024, Microsoft fully deprecated Basic Authentication across most of its services, which includes the removal of "App Passwords" for email accounts. Since Basic Authentication, which Lightning Payroll relies on, is no longer supported, users are unable to use App Passwords to authenticate their accounts for sending emails via SMTP in Lightning Payroll.
For more information, refer to the Microsoft Community forum post on the matter: Microsoft Community: App passwords following basic authentication being retired
To continue sending emails, you now have two options:
- Allow Lightning Payroll to send emails on your behalf: Select the option "Have Lightning Payroll send emails for you, instead of using your own provider?" under Company > Email.
- Use an alternative email provider: If you prefer to use your own provider, choose one that still supports Basic Authentication, as Microsoft no longer does.
As Lightning Payroll does not support Microsoft's newer authentication methods, continuing to use their services directly for email sending is no longer possible. This change is part of Microsoft's effort to improve security. We are passing this information on as a courtesy, and our support team is unable to assist with email troubleshooting as explained here.
