Mailbox Options

If your email is hosted through Microsoft 365 and you require an additional email address, there are several ways that this can be attained.  Review the options below.

1. Exchange mailbox

An Exchange mailbox has all the features you would expect and allows the user to send & receive email, store contacts and calendars and access all of this through the mail app of their choice, on the web, or using a tablet or phone.  Full mailboxes have a subscription fee tied to them.

2. Email alias

An email alias (sometimes called a forwarder) has some limitations, but it's an easy way to have a new email address without any associated subscription fees.  To enable an alias, you must have at least 1 fully licensed M365 mailbox.  If your main email is name@company.ca, we can configure an alias of account@company.ca and any email sent to account@ will land in the same inbox as emails sent to name@.  Please be aware that you are only able to receive emails to the alias email address - any messages sent will be from the main mailbox address.

3. Shared mailbox

A shared mailbox has less limitations and behaves more like a fully licensed M365 mailbox, but still has no subscription fees.  Again, you must have at least 1 fully licensed mailbox.  We can configure a shared mailbox of payments@company.ca and enable access to this mailbox to any number of other full mailboxes.  Users with permissions to the shared mailbox will see a new set of email folders within Outlook, (or it can be accessed through webmail) and any mail sent to the new shared address will land in this new Inbox.  Users are also able to send out mail from the shared mailbox, so it that way it behaves the same as a full mailbox.  The restriction is the fact that only users with an existing full mailbox can access this new shared mailbox.

4. Distribution list

Distribution lists are a useful way to email multiple people using a single email address.  These are typically used when there are multiple email addresses or employees in the company who take care of specific departments.  For instance, an email sent to the distribution list marketing@company.ca will ensure a copy of your email lands in the inbox of all 4 employees on your marketing team without having to individually type out the 4 email addresses.  You can choose if you want to only allow inter-office emails to be sent to the distribution list or if external senders are allowed to email the list.  There is no subscription cost for a distribution list.