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Registered Receipt

Updated

All messages sent using the RMail® service are transmitted as Registered Email™ messages. For each message sent, the sender receives a Registered Receipt™ email record, which is a self-contained record of proof of delivery with delivery timestamps, open tracking, proof of content delivered, and proof of encrypted delivery, without requiring any compliant action from the recipient.

The Registered Receipt™ email has the capability to authenticate and accurately reproduce the original email and attachments, including any attached disclosures, which satisfies the E-Sign Act’s retention and accurate reproduction requirements. The Registered Receipt™ email can be provided to third parties and used to authenticate its content and attachments.

This article covers the following topics:

Fast Facts about Registered Receipt™ Email

- It is only sent to the sender. Special receipt routing is available.
- It is stored in the RMail Receipts subfolder of the inbox. This folder was created during the installation process. For more in-depth information on the topic, you will find additional details further down in this very article.
- The RMail service does not archive the sender’s email or attachments.
- RMail does not store a copy of the Registered Receipt email.
- It is issued within two-hours or less for 100% of RMail messages sent. The exact time varies depending on the number of recipients and if the email was detected as being opened.
- The recipient cannot prevent RMail from issuing the receipt to the sender by actions or server settings.
- The Registered Receipt™ email is roughly 1.5x the size of the message sent due to the cryptography used to maintain its integrity.
- It may be authenticated if required for additional verification to prove its integrity and reconstruct the original email content , for as long as the sender keeps a copy of the receipt, even if the sender discontinues service. This is possible only when it is stored in email format (not PDF) and all attachments in place
- The Registered Receipt™ email is transmitted by standard email when the size is under 10MB. The Registered Receipt email is transmitted using RMail’s File Share service when the receipt size exceeds 10MB. Some plans allow users to configure this setting.

 

Understanding each section of the Registered Receipt email

The Registered Receipt consists of the following sections:

Message Header

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It includes:
- Subject: Receipt: <Original email subject>
- From (friendly name): Receipt
- From email address: receipt@r1.rpost.net
- To: Sender's email address

 

Receipt Attachments

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It includes:
- The DeliveryReceipt.xml file: This attachment contains the information inside the Registered Receipt email in XML format.
- The HtmlReceipt.htm file: This attachment allows the sender to view the Registered Receipt email in a web browser. This file also contains a copy of the receipt, all the transmission data and the message content in an authentication-ready cryptographically sealed data format. This attachment is required to verify the receipt.

Note: If the corresponding feature is enabled, users can also receive the Registered Encryption Certificate when a message is sent encrypted, providing an additional layer of verification for secure communication.

Receipt Authentication Address

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To authenticate a Registered Receipt email, the receipt must be forwarded by email, along with the HtmlReceipt.htm attachment, to verify@r1.rpost.net.

 

Delivery Status Section

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- Address Column: This column lists all the addresses the RMail message was sent to, including the Bcc recipients.
- Status Column: RMail uses algorithms to translate the SMTP and additional transmission data for a clear indication of the status of the message. The delivery status is unique for each recipient with one of four statuses available:
1. Delivered and Opened: This status means the email was opened between the time the email was delivered to the recipient and the time the Registered Receipt email was issued. If an email is opened after the receipt is issued and within 30-days the email was sent, the sender may receive an Open Receipt. This is the highest level of delivery.
2. Delivered to Mailbox: This status means the email was received by the recipient’s mail system and placed in the partition of the mail server where the recipient collects email. This is the second highest level of delivery.
3. Delivered/Relayed to Mail Server: This status means the message was delivered, and accepted, by the recipient’s authorized agent for collecting Internet email. This is the baseline for delivery of an email.
4. Delivery Failure: This is the only non-delivery status. The email was unable to be delivered to the recipient. Possible reasons for this status include but not limited to the following:
The recipient mailbox is full
The email was sent to a bad address
The email was too large for the recipient’s set maximum size
The recipient’s email system is down at the time of receiving
- Details Column: This column lists the highlights from the recorded server information to give the sender additional information as to what status is shown in the Status column.
When the status is Delivered and Opened, the open detection methods will be one or both of the following:
MUA: The recipient’s Mail User Agent (Outlook or other) was used to detect the email was opened.
HTTP: The RMail web call-out (US Patents 9,432,313; 8,161,104, among others) was used to detect the email was opened
- Delivered (UTC) Column: This is the time the email was accepted as delivered by the recipient’s mail system in the UTC time zone. The UTC time is short for the Coordinated Universal Time described here http://www.rmail.com/resources/coordinated-universal-time/
- Delivered (local) Column: This is the time the email was accepted as delivered by the recipient’s mail system in the time zone of the sender’s mail system.
- Opened (local) Column: This is the time the email was detected as being opened in the sender’s local time zone. Note: Not all emails will be detected as opened, even if the recipient opens the email.

Click here to learn more about the difference between UTC and Local times

 

Message Envelope

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It includes:
- From: This is the sender’s email address
- Subject: This is the sender’s email subject
- To: Recipients in the sender’s To field
- Cc: Recipients in the sender’s Cc field
- Bcc: Recipients in the sender’s Bcc field
- Network ID: This is the sender’s network server identification address
- Received by the RMail System: This is the time the email was received by the RPost Cloud and the same time as the Received by RMail time located in the Acknowledgement email.
Note: This time is typically seconds earlier than the Delivered (UTC) time located in the Delivery Status section of the receipt.
- Client Code: If a sender assigns a Client/Reference code to the email at the time of sending, the code will be located in this row.

 

Message Statistics

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It includes:
- Tracking Number: This is a unique number assigned and used to identify this specific transaction. There are no two Message IDs that are the same.
- Message Size: This is the cumulative size of the email body and all attachments in bytes.
- Features Used: The RMail features used for a specific message and are displayed with icons. A full list of features used may be viewed here: https://www.rmail.com/support/featuresused/
Note: Icons will also be displayed in the Details column of the Delivery Status section of the receipt for all RMail messages sent except when sent as Track & Prove - Marked as a Registered Email message.
- File Size: This displays the size of each attachment.
- File Name: This displays a list of all attachments with file type extensions

 

Delivery Audit Trail

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The Delivery Audit Trail is a statement of fact of the pathway of the message from the RMail system to the recipients’ servers. It records the SMTP and Extended SMTP dialog between the RMail registration servers and the recipient’s network. It is then translated so that the sender knows what happened in the Delivery Status section, with the details and the time stamps.

 

Archiving Registered Receipt Emails

The RMail service does NOT store the Registered Receipt emails, so it is important that the sender or sender’s company retains a copy for the length of time the records retention policy dictates.

RPost automatically creates an RMail Receipts subfolder in the inbox, which, by default, routes the receipts for local storage. The Registered Receipt email should be filed in this location when the receipt is returned to the sender within two hours or less from the time of sending. This folder can be archived and backed up periodically using Microsoft Outlook’s email archive settings.

 

Registered Receipts: Routing and Management

The Registered Receipts Emails generated from RMail can be managed and routed in several ways to fit your organizations needs and software configurations. This article shows three options for how to route and manage Registered Receipts if you are using Outlook and one option using RPortal to manage settings. The following sections are covered:

Install RPostOne for Outlook

A good option for automated Registered Receipt routing is to install RPostOne for Outlook for all or some users, even if you are additionally using RMail Gateway. This automatically installs the Receipt Routing rules.

Note: Depending on your service plan, you may need to upgrade your plan levels for use of RPostOne for Outlook and the RMail Gateway service. Please check with your Customer Success or Sales representative.

 

RPostOne for Outlook: End-user receipt option using rules

As an RPostOne for Outlook user, all RMail Registered Receipt records are by default delivered into the sender's inbox. To automatically move these receipt records from the inbox into a separate folder, the end user can use Outlook native rules and folder creation options.

Here is how to use these native Outlook rules:

1. In Outlook, right click on your Inbox and select New Folder.

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2. Type the new folder name in the appearing box. Suggested name: RMail Receipts. Hit Enter to create the folder.
3. When your first RMail Registered Receipt email arrives, right click on the Receipt email, click on Rules in the menu options, and click on Always Move Messages from: Receipt

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4. In the pop up, select the folder you would like your Registered Receipt emails to be automatically moved into. Using the previous example, select the created folder named RMail Receipts.

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If you already have a large number of RMail Registered Receipt emails in your inbox, a pop up box will automatically appear and run the rule in your Inbox (start moving all receipts to the selected folder). The pop up window will be automatically closed after all receipts were moved.

 

RPostOne for Outlook PowerShell Script for Registered Receipt Folder

This Outlook PowerShell script is recommended for users that send RMail messages using the RMail Gateway, RMail APIs, or RMail SMTP routing services and would like the RMail Registered Receipt email records and e-sign final signed PDF records to be automatically sorted and routed to designated subfolders of the Outlook inbox.

This script creates designated folders and then creates the routing rules to route these specialized RMail return messages to these receipt and contract folders.

You will need to run PowerShell with Administrator privileges for it to work correctly.

1. Start PowerShell using search (all Windows versions).
2. Then, click on the Windows PowerShell result.
3. To run PowerShell as administrator, right-click on the Windows PowerShell search result, and then select Run as administrator.

An Outlook administrator or IT administrator will need to use standard practices to deploy this script to users who prefer the convenience of automatic sorting of RMail receipt and contract records.

- If you want to deploy the script using a Group Policy, the machines will need to be part of the domain.
- If you have users working from home and are not part of your domain you would need to run the script on each machine or create the folders and rules manually.

Note: If you have RPostOne Outlook installed, you do not need to use this script as this script is automatically installed when installing RPostOne for Outlook.

Access the RMail Receipt Outlook PowerShell Script.


RPortal: Customer Admin Routing Settings

The RMail Gateway customer administrator may also have or request permissions to automatically route all originals or route a copy of all Registered Receipt email records to a specific email address.

Before copying or re-routing the RMail Registered Receipt records to a designated mailbox, the customer administrator must confirm that the address designated to receive these Registered Receipt email records has sufficient storage and does not have rate limiting/throttling enabled.

If re-routed settings are enabled, the end user (RMail Sender) will receive copies of the Registered Receipt records in their normal inbox.

Note: Receipts copying or re-routing are paid professional services. Please contact your Sales or Customer Success representatives if you wish to have your Registered Receipts copied or re-routed to a designated email address.

 

Video: Registered Receipt Email

This short video examines the RMail Registered Receipt email that is returned to the sender upon sending a Registered Email message.