How signatures are added to emails sent as / sent on behalf of other users

Problem:

You send emails as (on behalf of) other users in your organization. You would like to manage whose signature (yours, or the person's you are sending as) is added by CodeTwo software.

Solution:

You can manage whose signatures are added by assigning appropriate delegate rights (Send As / Send on Behalf) to user mailboxes in your Microsoft 365 (Office 365) or Exchange on-premises organization. Use the links below to learn more.

What are delegate rights in Microsoft 365 and Exchange on-prem?
How to send emails as another user, with the signature of this user
How to send emails as another user, with the signature of the person who sends them
How signatures are added to emails sent as shared mailboxes
Configuration of delegate rights in Microsoft 365 and Exchange Server

What are delegate rights in Microsoft 365 and Exchange on-prem?

Delegate rights are permissions to:

have full access to another person's mailbox,
send messages as another user (mailbox),
send messages on behalf of another user (mailbox).

In Microsoft 365 or Exchange on-premises, these rights can be assigned to individual users (mailboxes) or groups. Such users/groups become delegates. See this Microsoft article to learn more.

If you use CodeTwo software, by assigning appropriate delegate rights, you can:

send an email as another user, with the signature of this user;
send an email as another user, with your signature.

How to send emails as another user, with the signature of this user

Example: User Alex wants to send a message as another user in his organization (Christie), and this message should have Christie's signature added by CodeTwo software.

For this scenario to work:

Alex needs to have the Send As right on Christie's mailbox. Learn how to set delegate rights
When composing an email, Alex needs to type/select Christie's address in the From field (Fig. 1., email on the left). When the email is delivered, it looks like it was sent by Christie, and has Christie's signature added by CodeTwo software (Fig. 1., email on the right).

Fig. 1. Emails sent by Alex as Christie appear as sent by Christie (have her signature).

Are signatures added to emails in the Sent Items folder? Who gets them?

If the Sent Items Update (SIU) service is on, CodeTwo software can add signatures to messages in the Sent Items folder of the person who appears to be the sender. In the above example, the email is treated as sent by Christie and has Christie's signature, but Christie does not have this message in her Sent Items, so there is nothing for our software to update.

Depending on your environment, you might be able to turn on automatic copying of sent emails from the original sender (Alex) to the Sent Items folder of the person who appears to be the sender (Christie). This will allow CodeTwo SIU service to add signatures to emails in Christie's Sent Items.

If your organization uses Microsoft 365 (Exchange Online), you can enable message copying by following this article;
If your organization is based on on-premises Exchange Server, message copying is not yet available for user mailboxes, but you can turn it on for shared mailboxes.

For signatures to appear in Christie's Sent Items folder, you need to make sure that the SIU service is completely configured.

How to send emails as another user, with the signature of the person who sends them

Example: User Alex wants to send an email on behalf of another user in his organization (Debra). This email should have Alex's signature, because Alex wants the recipients to know that he was the original sender.

For this scenario to work:

Alex needs to have the Send on Behalf right on Debra's mailbox. Learn how to set this up
When composing an email, Alex needs to type/select Debra's address in the From field (Fig. 2., email on the left). When the email is delivered, in the inbox, it looks like it was sent by Debra. But when you open the message, it shows that Alex was the original sender, and it has Alex's signature added by CodeTwo software (Fig. 2., email on the right).

Fig. 2. Emails sent by Alex on behalf of Debra indicate that Alex is the original sender.

Are signatures added to emails in the Sent Items folder? Who gets them?

In the above scenario, the email was sent by Alex on behalf of Debra, and was delivered with Alex's signature. Alex has a copy of this email in his Sent Items folder. If you want this email copy to show Alex's signature, you need to make sure that the CodeTwo Sent Items Update (SIU) service is configured in Alex's organization.

Important

If you use the Open another mailbox option (Fig. 3.) in Outlook on the web (OWA) to access another mailbox and send an email on behalf of it, Exchange Online won’t copy that email to your mailbox, preventing the SIU service from updating the email with an email signature in your Sent Items folder.

Fig. 3. Accessing another mailbox in OWA.

How signatures are added to emails sent as shared mailboxes

When emails are sent as shared mailboxes, signatures are added in exactly the same way as for emails that are sent as other users: the added signature depends on the original sender's delegate rights on the shared mailbox. If you need more details and want to learn how to configure delegate rights to shared mailboxes in Microsoft 365, see our Knowledge Base article.

Configuration of delegate rights

How to assign delegate rights in Microsoft 365

To assign Send As or Send on Behalf permissions on a user mailbox in Microsoft 365 (Office 365), you need to:

Open the Microsoft 365 admin center and go to Users > Active users (Fig. 4., item 1).
If you want user Alex to send emails as / on behalf of another user (Christie), you need to select user Christie on the list (Fig. 4., item 2).
In the user's settings pane, go to the Mail tab and click a permission you would like to give to Alex (e.g. Send as) in the Mailbox permissions section (Fig. 4., items 3 and 4).

Fig. 4. Managing delegate permissions to a user's mailbox.

In the pane that opens, click Add permissions and select the user (Alex) who will get the permission to send emails as this mailbox. You can also add other users. Click Add to save your changes (Fig. 5.).

Fig. 5. Assigning mailbox permissions to a user (Alex).

The user (Alex) will be added to the list of the users who have the Send as permissions to the mailbox (Fig. 6.). Now, Alex can send messages as Christie. See this section for more info.

Fig. 6. The updated information in the Send as permissions pane.

You can manage other delegate permissions (e.g. Send on Behalf) in a similar way.

If you need more information, see this Microsoft article.

Tip

On-premises Exchange Server

You can use the classic Exchange admin center (EAC) to manage mailbox delegation. In your EAC, go to recipients > mailboxes (Fig. 7., item 1) and edit a mailbox to which you want to add delegate users by double-clicking the display name (Fig. 7., item 2) or selecting it and clicking Edit (Fig. 7., item 3). Then, go to mailbox delegation in the Edit User Mailbox window that opened (Fig. 7., item 4).

Fig. 7. Managing delegate permissions to a user mailbox in EAC in an on-premises environment.

Exchange Online

It is possible to use the modern Exchange admin center to manage mailbox delegation. To do so, go to Recipients > Mailboxes (Fig. 8., item 1) and select a mailbox to which you want to add delegate users by clicking its display name (Fig. 8., item 2). Then, in the pane that opens, go to the Delegation tab (Fig. 8., item 3).

Fig. 8. Managing delegate permissions to a user mailbox in EAC in Exchange Online.

How to assign delegate rights in Exchange Server

To learn how to assign delegate rights in Exchange organizations, refer to this Microsoft article.

Related products:	CodeTwo Email Signatures for Office 365 1.x, CodeTwo Exchange Rules 2010 3.x, CodeTwo Exchange Rules 2013 2.x, CodeTwo Exchange Rules 2016 1.x, CodeTwo Exchange Rules 2019 1.x, CodeTwo Exchange Rules Pro 2.x
Categories:	FAQ
Last modified:	May 24, 2024
Created:	March 19, 2018
ID:	710