How to Set Up an Automatic Reply (Out of Office) for Business Email

Step 1: Open Autoresponders

In cPanel, go to Email → Autoresponders. Choose the domain if you have several, then click Add Autoresponder.

Step 2: Fill in the form

Field	What to enter
Character Set	utf-8 (default)
Interval	Hours before the same sender gets another auto-reply. 24 is sensible — it prevents flooding someone who emails you several times.
Email	The address that should auto-reply, e.g. info @ yourbusiness.co.ke
From	Your name or business name, e.g. Your Business Customer Care
Subject	e.g. Out of office: Re: %subject% — %subject% inserts their subject line
HTML message	Tick only if you paste HTML; otherwise leave unticked
Body	Your message (templates below). %from% inserts the sender’s name.
Start	Immediately or a custom date/time
Stop	Never or a custom date/time — set this for holidays!

Click Create. The autoresponder appears in the Current Autoresponders list.

Step 3: Test it

From a different email account (e.g. your Gmail), send a message to the address. You should receive the auto-reply within a minute. (If you set a future start date, test after it begins.)

Templates you can copy

Holiday closure

Hello %from%,
Thank you for contacting Your Business. Our offices are closed from 24 December to 2 January for the holidays. We will reply to your email when we reopen on 2 January.
For urgent matters, WhatsApp us on +254 7XX XXX XXX.
Happy holidays!

After hours / weekend

Hello %from%,
Thanks for your message — it has reached us. Our team works Monday to Friday, 8:00am–5:00pm EAT, and we reply within one business day.
Urgent? Call or WhatsApp +254 7XX XXX XXX.

Enquiry acknowledgement (sales@)

Hello %from%,
Thank you for your enquiry about “%subject%”. A member of our sales team will respond within 2 working hours.
Meanwhile, see our price list at yourbusiness.co.ke/prices.

Staff on leave

Hello %from%,
I am on leave until Monday 13 January with limited access to email. For anything urgent please contact my colleague Peter Otieno at peter@yourbusiness.co.ke or 0712 345 678.

Turning it off

In Email → Autoresponders, find it under Current Autoresponders and click Delete. Or edit it and set Stop to now. If you set a stop date, it switches off by itself.

Alternative: set it from webmail

Mailbox users without cPanel access can do it themselves: log in to webmail → Settings → Out of Office / Vacation / Autoresponder (wording depends on the webmail app) — see Access webmail.

Troubleshooting

Problem	Cause	Fix
No auto-reply received	Tested from the same address, or interval already used	Test from another account; wait for the interval or delete and recreate
Auto-replies to mailing lists/newsletters	Normal behaviour	Autoresponders skip most bulk mail automatically; set a 24-hour interval
Auto-reply went to spam	No SPF/DKIM, or very short message	Install SPF/DKIM via Email Deliverability; write a full sentence message
Still replying after holiday	No stop date	Delete it or set Stop