Overview

When setting up email output in SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition, several different errors can prevent emails from being sent. Unlike the scenario where emails appear as “Sent” but never arrive in the receiver’s inbox (an SPF/DKIM delivery issue, see the other blog Troubleshooting Email Output in SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition (1) – Email not Reaching Recipient), the errors covered in this guide occur earlier in the process – the system refuses to even attempt sending the email because of missing or misconfigured settings.

This guide covers four common errors:

• “No email recipient has been maintained”
• “Recipient address x.y@abc.com not allowed”
• “Sender domain in xxxx@xxxx.com is not allowed”https://community.sap.com/”Domain in sender email address is not allowed”
• “Sender email address can't be initial”

Error 1: “No Email Recipient Has Been Maintained”

This error means the system could not find a recipient email address to send the output to. It affects the corresponding document types that use the EMAIL channel. The “To” field of the output item is empty.

The system looks for the recipient email address in two places, in order of priority:

• First: A specific email address defined directly in the determination step “Email Recipient” of the Output Parameter Determination (OPD) app.
• Second: If no DEFAULT email is maintained in OPD, the system reads the email address from the relevant business partner master data.

1.1 Fix in Output Parameter Determination (OPD)

1. Open the Output Parameter Determination app and check the determination step “Email Recipient” for the relevant document type.
2. Enter a specific recipient email address directly in the rule.

This takes the highest priority and overrides any address in the business partner master data.

1.2 Fix in Business Partner Master Data

If no default email is maintained in OPD, the email address must be maintained in the appropriate business partner master record. Where the email is stored depends on who the recipient is:

1.2.1 Recipient is a Customer (Taking Billing Document as an example):

1. Open the Maintain Business Partner app.
2. Search for the relevant customer business partner.
3. Go to the “Address” tab.
4. Ensure an email address is entered in the E-Mail field.

1.2.2 Recipient is a Contact Person (Taking Billing Document as an example):

1. Open the Maintain Business Partner app and search with the customer number.
2. Click the Relationships button.
3. Find the relevant contact person and verify the Valid To date is set to 12/31/9999.
4. Click the Change button.
5. Under Address Data, click Assign Company Address.
6. Enter the email address in the E-Mail field.

Note: If the contact person's Valid To date has expired, the system will not read the email address from that contact person record, even if an email is maintained there.

1.2.3 Recipient is a Supplier (Taking Payment Advice Document as an example):

For payment advice output processed through the Manage Automatic Payments app, the recipient email address is stored differently from customer outputs:

1. Open the Maintain Business Partner app.
2. Select the relevant business partner and the role “Supplier (Financial Accounting)”.
3. Choose Company Code on the ribbon.
4. Open the Vendor: Correspondence tab.
5. Enter the recipient email address in the field Clrk's Internet add (Internet address of partner company clerk).

Error 2: “Recipient Address x.y@abc.com Not Allowed”

This error occurs in test systems only. SAP S/4HANA Cloud test systems have a built-in safeguard that restricts which recipient email domains the system is allowed to send emails to. This prevents test systems from accidentally sending emails to real external recipients.

If a recipient email address is correctly configured but the domain is not on the allowed list for that test system, the output will fail with this error.

2.1 How to Configure Allowed Receiver Domains (Test Systems)

1. Open the configure activity “Define Email Receiver Addresses for Test Systems (ID: 101312)
2. Add the allowed receiver domain(s). Entries must start with an asterisk (*). For example:

*@company.com          (allows all addresses in the company.com domain)
*@partner.com          (allows all addresses in the partner.com domain)

Note: This setting applies to test systems only and is not required in production systems. In production, the system can send to any valid email address without this restriction.

Error 3: “Sender Domain in xxxx@xxxx.com Is Not Allowed”https://community.sap.com/”Domain in Sender Email Address Is Not Allowed”

This error occurs when the sender email address used in Output Parameter Determination contains a domain that has not been registered as an allowed sender domain in the system configuration. This is a security control to prevent SAP from sending emails from domains the customer does not own or has not authorised.

This error can appear in two scenarios:

• At output runtime: when an output item is processed and the sender domain has not been configured.
• At OPD configuration time: when a user tries to define a Sender Email in Output Parameter Determination and the domain of that address is not registered.

3.1 How to Configure Allowed Sender Domains

1. Open the configuration activity “Define Email Sender Domain (ID: 101313)”.
2. Enter the domain(s) that are allowed as sender domains. The following formats are supported:

Sophia.Tester@company.com (allows emails sent to this email address)
*@company.com (allows all addresses with the domain company.com)
*.company.com (allows all email addresses in the subdomain company.com, e.g. Sophia@sales.company.com)

Warning: Do NOT include the @ character when entering a domain. For example, enter company.com, not @company.com. Including @ will cause the configuration to fail silently.

Warning: The SAP domain @sap.com must NOT be used in customer systems. Since SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition 2108, checks were introduced specifically to block the usage of SAP domains (sap.com or @sap.com) in the sender domain configuration.

Note: You can add multiple domains if your organisation sends from more than one domain (e.g., different domains per company code or region).

3.2 Also Define a Default Sender Email Address

As a best practice, also configure a default sender email address. This is used whenever no specific sender address is determined by the output logic. To configure it:

1. Open the configuration activity “Define a Default Email Sender Address (ID: 101311)”.
2. Enter a valid sender address from your registered domain, for example:

do.not.reply@company.com

Error 4: “Sender Email Address Can't Be Initial”

This error appears when the system cannot find any sender email address for the output. The error means that the Sender Email field in Output Parameter Determination for the relevant output type is either blank or has not been configured at all.

4.1 Fix: Maintain Sender Email in OPD for Payment Advice

1. Open the Output Parameter Determination app.
2. Set Show Rules for to, e.g.: Payment Advice.
3. Set Determination Step to, e.g.: Email Settings.
4. Choose the Edit button.
5. Under Table Contents, choose + (Insert New Row) and fill in the following, e.g.:

Output type:      PAYM_ADV
Sender Email:    
Email Template:   FFO_PAYM_ADVICE_EMAIL_TEMPLATE

1. Save the configuration.

Note: The email template FFO_PAYM_ADVICE_EMAIL_TEMPLATE is delivered by SAP as a standard template. You can copy and customize it to adapt the subject line and email body to your business requirements.

Tip: Make sure the sender email domain is also registered in the allowed sender domains. Using an email address whose domain is not registered will result in the ‘sender domain not allowed' error even after you fill in the sender email.

Quick Reference: Error Summary and Where to Fix