---
title: "Features and functionality"
slug: "courier-for-quick-base-features-and-functionality"
description: "Manage your Quickbase app configurations for Courier to automate email notifications based on triggers, schedules, or on-demand requests efficiently."
tags: ["Quickbase Extension"]
updated: 2026-10-09T17:49:31Z
published: 2026-10-09T17:49:31Z
canonical: "help.quickbase.com/courier-for-quick-base-features-and-functionality"
---

> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://help.quickbase.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Features and functionality

## Your Quickbase app

Your Quickbase app defines what fields and reports your Courier configurations will have access to. Before creating a configuration, make sure to choose the app that has all the information you will need in your email. You cannot cross over apps.

Each configuration uses one Quickbase app that you have authorized for Courier, and one table in that app. You create and manage configurations in the **Extensions Portal**: on the **QB Courier** tile, select **Configurations**. For each record it processes, Courier builds one email from that record's values and sends it.

## Email run options

Every configuration has one **Processing Mode**, which decides when emails are sent and which records are used.

- **Trigger** – A Quickbase email notification on your table causes the email to run. You choose when the notification fires—when a record is added, modified, or deleted, or when specific fields change. The notification is sent to Courier, not to your users. Only a single record—the one that fired the notification—is processed each time.
  - Triggered Sample Use Case: Checking a checkbox field on a record that is OK for the invoice to be sent.

> [!NOTE]
> Note
> 
> Ensure your conditions don't cause an infinite loop of emails being sent out—for example, a notification that fires again when Courier updates the record after sending.
- **On Demand** – Emails are sent when you select **Execute Now** next to the configuration in the Courier configurations list in the Extensions Portal. The records that are processed are determined based upon the report you selected in the individual configuration that you customized. The reports are created and filtered using the options available to you in Quickbase.
  - On-Demand Sample Use Case: An email blast to a report of your clients who are active subscribers to a newsletter.
- **Scheduled** – Emails are sent automatically on a schedule of your choosing: **Daily**, **Weekly** (on the days of the week you select), or **Monthly** (on the day of the month you select), at the schedule time you pick. The records that are processed come from the report you selected in the configuration. This sends updates to your clients automatically.
  - Scheduled Sample Use Case: An email blast automatically at 8am to all clients with an invoice past due.

## Configuration status

Each configuration also has a **Status**:

- **Enabled** – live. Emails are sent to your recipients.
- **Test Mode** – no emails are sent to your recipients. Courier sends one sample message, built from the first record, to the **Copy email** address on the configuration (or to the address you enter on the **Test Configuration** tab). The sample starts with the banner *QB COURIER : RUNNING IN TEST MODE: NO EMAILS WERE SENT TO CLIENTS*.
- **Disabled** – the configuration doesn't run.

## Courier sending options

Each configuration's **From email** setting decides how its emails are sent:

- **Use qbcourier@quickbasetools.com** – emails are sent from this shared address. Set a reply-to address so replies come back to you.
- **Use your own mailserver** – the email messages are sent out from an email address in your email domain dedicated to this process. Add your mail server once under **Mail Servers** in the Extensions Portal (server name, user name, password, and port), and reuse it in any configuration. See [Mail servers](/quickbase-extensions/docs/courier-configurator-mail-servers).
  - Gmail requires an app password. See [Add a mail server](/quickbase-extensions/docs/courier-configurator-mail-servers#add-a-mail-server).
  - Office 365 uses modern authentication with a refresh token, which you generate from the mail server form. See [Office 365: modern authentication](/quickbase-extensions/docs/courier-configurator-mail-servers#office-365).
  - Make sure the SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records are set up for your mail domain. See [DNS considerations for your mail domain](/quickbase-extensions/docs/dns-considerations-for-your-mail-domain).
  - Courier can connect to your mail server over an encrypted connection (the **Use encryption method** setting) to help secure your data transmissions.
- If you don't want to connect your own mail server, you can send from a custom semi-branded server owned by Quickbase Extensions. [Submit a technical support case](https://help.quickbase.com/docs/get-help-from-quickbase-technical-support) for more details.