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Google Workspace Setup Guide

This guide is for the person who administers your practice's Google Workspace (admin.google.com) and your domain's DNS. It connects your existing Workspace email to the Unified Inbox using the "keep Google Workspace as your mailbox" arrangement described in Practice Email.

Throughout, example.com stands for your practice's domain. Nothing here changes where your mail is delivered: your MX records, mailboxes, spam filtering, and mail apps stay exactly as they are. Workspace simply sends a copy of your mail to PatientConnection.

note

IntelliPract support performs the PatientConnection side (registering your domain, generating the DNS record values, and configuring the inbox). The steps below are the parts done in your DNS and Google Admin console, with the exact record values provided by support or shown on your practice's email settings page.

1. DNS records​

Support will provide three kinds of records to add at your DNS host:

  1. SPF — one addition to your domain's existing SPF TXT record (a single include: term). Do not create a second SPF record; a domain must have exactly one, listing all of its legitimate senders — Google and PatientConnection together.
  2. DKIM — a CNAME record on a selector name (support provides the exact name and target). This lets messages sent through PatientConnection be cryptographically signed as example.com.
  3. Ingest subdomain — MX (and verification TXT) records for a dedicated subdomain such as mail.example.com. This subdomain exists only to receive the copies Workspace forwards; it is not used in any address people see. Your main domain's MX records are not touched.

DNS changes can take up to an hour to be visible. Support confirms verification before the next step.

2. The Workspace routing rule​

In the Google Admin console (admin.google.com), as a super administrator:

  1. Go to Apps > Google Workspace > Gmail > Routing (the section may be labeled "Routing" under Gmail's Advanced settings).
  2. Under Routing, click Add Rule (or Configure if none exists yet).
  3. Name it something like PatientConnection copy.
  4. For Messages to affect, tick Inbound and Outbound — inbound copies bring patients' messages into the inbox; outbound copies let replies your staff send from Gmail itself appear in the conversation thread too.
  5. Under Also deliver to, tick Add more recipients, click Add, and enter the forwarding address support gave you (an address on the ingest subdomain, for example ingest@mail.example.com). Leave the recipient type as Basic.
  6. Leave everything else at its defaults — in particular, do not change the envelope recipient or suppress the original delivery.
  7. Save the rule.

One rule covering both directions is sufficient; you do not need per-user forwarding, and individual staff members do not need to change anything in their own Gmail settings.

3. What to expect​

  • New mail continues to arrive in your Gmail mailboxes exactly as before; a copy appears in the Unified Inbox typically within a minute.
  • Google's spam filtering runs first — mail Google quarantines is not copied, so the inbox inherits your existing spam protection.
  • Copies of the same message reaching several staff mailboxes (through a group address, for example) appear only once in the inbox.
  • Replies sent from the inbox come from your real addresses (for example office@example.com), are DKIM-signed as your domain, and the patient's answer flows into both your Gmail and the inbox thread.
  • Only mail involving your handled mailboxes is stored; everything else is ignored by PatientConnection and lives only in Gmail.

Troubleshooting​

  • Copies not appearing: confirm the routing rule is on (not just saved as inactive), affects both inbound and outbound, and that the forwarding address matches what support provided. Google can take up to an hour to apply routing changes.
  • Only some messages appear: check the handled-mailboxes list — mail addressed only to unlisted addresses is intentionally ignored.
  • A staff reply from Gmail didn't thread: outbound copies require the Outbound box in step 4; also confirm the reply was sent from an address in the handled list.
  • Anything else: contact support — the practice's email settings page includes a configuration check that pinpoints most issues.