Using email (9)
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6. The Inbox
All email messages will be displayed in your inbox. Incoming messages that are recognized will automatically be linked to a corresponding contact. If the recipient is unknown you can add the contact to your database as new or link it to an existing contact. In the following paragraphs, we will explain more about the tools that the inbox contains. 6.1 Screen layout 6.2 Linking emails to contacts 6.3 Linking emails to a folder 6.4 Linking emails to colleagues 6.5 Converting emails to a task 6.6 Archiving/finishing emails 6.7 The difference between Finish & Delete 6.8 Menu items under right-click 6.1 Screen layout The inbox screen is divided into five parts. Below, we explain what information can be found where. Part 1: Messages overview All messages from the selected IMAP folder on the left side are displayed. By default, your Inbox folder is selected, of course. Messages are arranged by date, but you can change that at top of the list under 'Filter on'. Arrange items by date or email address. Other options to filter the messages are unread items, highlighted, private items, or unlinked items. Important points of attention: Double-click on the sender, and you will be taken to the corresponding contact card. Double-click on the message subject, and the message will open. Right-click provides a menu with several smart tools. This is the same menu that can be called up in your archive. (Chapter 4. Archive section) There is an important difference between the 'Finish' and 'Delete' functions. We explain this in paragraph 6.7. 2. Preview the selected message In addition to the message overview, you will see the preview as you are used to in your email application. The entire message is shown here. 3. Contact widget Just like in the contacts screen, you will find the contact widget in the inbox, but here on the left. This column shows the name and address, and contact details, outstanding tasks, files, etc. This way, you can see at a glance what is going on in this contact. The contact widget is therefore different for every relationship. Just like from the contacts screen, you can adjust the information or add something. To do this, use the 'hamburger' icon at the top of the contact widget. Is the email address unknown? The option is then given to add the relationship as a new one to the database or to link the email address to an existing contact. 4. Email account folders Here you will find the folders as you are used to with any other email client. Synchronize the following folders with your webmail: incoming mail, sent items, trash, and SPAM folder. Only the 'Finished' folder may be new to you. We discuss this function in section 6.7. 5. My folders Here you can create folders that are not linked to contacts, i.e. your folders. Once you have 'My folders', you can drag messages in your Inbox here to make it easier to find them later. In addition, the header of this screen contains several important components. On the left, you will find the quick actions you expect. On the right side, there is the option to navigate to other mailboxes by clicking on your name, as well as the search function (search by name, subject, or content) and the 'gear' icon for the Inbox preferences. See all options below: 6.2 Linking emails to contacts Any message, from a familiar or unknown email address, can be linked to any contact. Why would you link a email to a contact? To make sure that emails end up in the proper archive. Unknown senders are marked with the question mark icon. Add them as new contacts to the database by clicking on the question mark icon or link to an existing contact via the right-click menu option ‘Link to contact’. You can link emails to several types of contacts in your inbox: Link an unknown sender to an existing contact: use the right-click, choose ‘Link to Contact’, and search for the right contact in your SpinOffice to link to, in the search box that will appear. After linking the correct contact, the current message and subsequent messages will be stored in the corresponding archive, and the contact and email address will be paired. Add an unknown sender as a new contact to the database: use the right-click, choose ‘Add contact’, and fill in all relevant information. After saving, the contact will be added, and the current message and subsequent messages will be stored in the corresponding archive. Link a familiar sender to an existing contact: use the right-click, choose ‘Link to Contact’ in the menu, and search for the right contact to link to, in the search box that will appear. After linking the correct contact, only this particular message will be stored in the corresponding archive. An individual email message can be linked to more than one contact. 6.3 Linking emails to a folder An email can be linked to a folder. With folders, you can organize and classify messages from a contact. Examples of commonly used folders are; service, support, sales, tenders, projects, visits, and invoices. A link can be made in two ways: Right-click when on the message and select ‘Link to Folder’. All existing folders are listed and can be linked by double-clicking on the folder name so that it is moved to the right part of the screen. Drag and drop the message by its subject directly into a folder into a folder in the list on the left. Linking to a folder is only possible once folders have been created. Note that if a new folder is created, it is always linked to the contact that is visible/active on your screen! To see the complete content of the folder, double-click on the folder in the list on the left. 6.4 Linking emails to colleagues A smart feature in SpinOffice is the option to link any email to a colleague. You don't have to forward messages anymore, just link the colleague of your choice to the message. Use the right-click on an email message in the inbox and choose ‘Link to Colleague’ or use the quick way as shown below, here in the Preview part. Click on your name and tick the user(s) to where the email should be linked. If needed tick or untick yourself. (there might be cases where it is useful to keep yourself linked too. In both cases, the message is automatically visible in the colleague’s Inbox. 6.5 Converting emails to a task Is there a follow-up action required for a message? Convert the email to a task also via right-clicking on the message and choosing ‘Convert to Task’. You can schedule and prioritize it for yourself. A reminder can be set and also this action can be linked to a folder. 6.6 Archiving/finishing emails This is an important feature. To prevent the inbox from becoming overfull, messages should be archived when read and finished with. In SpinOffice, we call this 'Finish’. Click on the 'Finish’ icon to remove the message from your inbox; the message itself remains stored in the archive. So the ‘Finish’ function is a way of cleaning up your inbox. All finished items are to be found in the ‘Finished’ folder in the inbox on the left (see inbox screen layout image in paragraph 6.1). 6.7 The difference between Finish & Delete As mentioned in the paragraph above, finishing an email message in the inbox will make the item disappear. For the ‘Delete’ option, the same counts, but there is a different behavior. And there is a difference if the email is linked to one user or multiple users. An email that is only linked to you ‘Finish’: the message will be moved from the inbox folder to the ‘Finished’ folder, and the item will be archived behind the contact card of the contact. ‘Delete’: the message will be moved from the inbox folder to the ‘Trash’ folder and is not saved behind the contact card of the contact. An email that is linked to multiple users When an email is linked to you and other colleagues, and you click on finish or delete, the behavior is as follows: ‘Finish’: the message is only finished for yourself, the message remains in the Inbox of your linked colleagues. The message is to be found in your ‘Finished’ folder, the item is archived behind the contact card of the contact. ‘Delete’: the message is deleted for all users, the item is moved from the Inbox folder to the ‘Trash’ folder and is not saved behind the contact card of the contact. 6.8 Menu items under right-click As mentioned before in this manual, many smart options are available under the right-click. Use the right-click menu to quickly take action on the selected item in your Inbox.
Modified on Wed, 21 May, 2025 at 11:32 AM -
5. The Email integration
In order to import your previous communication and to build up your database you must configure your email. Go to the inbox and provide SpinOffice with the correct IMAP settings of your email account. Multiple accounts can be added in the Pro version. In the free Limited edition, we only synchronize the last 30 days of your inbox, sent items, and your trash folder. In the Pro edition, all email history is being fetched. 5.1 Configuring your email 5.2 Sending emails from out of the contact card 5.3 Compose new email message; screen layout 5.4 Managing email templates 5.5 Personal information for your email signature 5.6 Action types 5.1 Configuring your email SpinOffice will help you via a wizard in the inbox, where you can enter the proper account credentials and incoming mail server settings (IMAP) from the mail account(s). Until your email has been configured correctly, SpinOffice will show you the following pop-up every time you open your inbox: (When this popup is not shown, go to the Inbox tab/window, then the gear icon at the top right of your screen, choose 'Email accounts,' and then the '+' icon) 1. Select the email account of your choice. 2. Enter the email address and click on 'Start'. 3. Enter the account password. Office 365: follow the steps and SpinOffice will connect with your Office 365 account. Outlook: follow the steps and SpinOffice will connect with your Outlook account. Gmail: it will automatically connect. It might block SpinOffice from connecting. Here's a checklist to solve that. IMAP: SpinOffice will try to find the right IMAP settings. Click on 'Show server settings' to manually enter the right account credentials. 4. Click on 'Connect' to make the connection. 5. After a few minutes, SpinOffice shows you the result: If the connection is made successfully, the setup wizard is closed and your emails will come in. If not, please adjust the server settings; your account name, password, and incoming email server. Tip: check how the account is configured on your phone, the same IMAP settings are used there. 6. When SpinOffice keeps saying that we cannot connect, please contact us for free support to solve the issue. When the connection is successful, go to Inbox to see all incoming messages. In the free Limited version, you can connect 1 email account. All messages over the last 30 days will be brought into your inbox. With a Pro license, for 5 email accounts all incoming messages, sent items, and trash items will be in sync. Do you see a red gear at the top right of your inbox? Then there is something wrong with the email settings. Double-click the account name, manually enter/adjust the IMAP setting, and test the connection. Important: If you don’t know your IMAP settings or you don’t succeed, please save any (incorrect) settings so we have some information to use in order to try to help you! 5.2 Sending emails from the contact card Within SpinOffice, sending an email is of course possible via the 'Compose' option in the inbox. But besides that, it is very easy to send emails from the contact card: 1. Find the person you would like to send a message to, via the search box in the top left corner. This ensures that the email will be created including the correct contact information (email address and salutation) and that the email will end up in the archive of this contact. 2. Double-click on the email address stated in the CONTACT DETAILS section on the right or click on ‘Email' in the toolbar. 3. An existing email template can also be selected by clicking on the small arrow next to the email icon in the toolbar. In the drop-down menu that will appear you can select your template. 4. A new message window will appear. In the next paragraph, we will explain the screen layout. 5. After composing an email, click on ‘Send’ and the message will be stored in the contact’s archive. 5.3 Compose a new email message; screen layout When creating a new email, the screen shows as follows. Most of the options in the email message screen will be clear, but let's discuss them. First, the menu items: Send the email will be sent. Internal to when using SpinOffice with multiple users, the option to send internal messages to colleagues. Links link the email to multiple contacts in the database, to any folder, and add internal attachments to it. Draft Save the email to your Draft folder. Print the email. Now, the options in the salutation part: To Select any contact in the database you want to send the message to. Cc/Bcc Once you add any Cc address, the Bcc row will instantly appear too. Upload: upload any file and add this to the email. Now, the options at the bottom: Template picker: select any email template that you have created in Template Builder. Priority: give priority. Private: Mark the email as private for all other database users. Drag local files into the screen to have them attached or embedded. When you have finished composing the message, click on ‘Send’ in the top left corner. The email will be displayed in your sent items and the contact‘s archive. 5.4 Managing email templates In SpinOffice, it is possible to create your templates. 1. Go to the menu item Administration -> Email -> Email templates. 2. Choose one of the two options: New: create new templates based on the default template. What's the default template? See below: Add merge fields e.g. «My Email», «My first name», «My last name», or «My Job title» from -My list- to customize the template. When finished, click on 'Save'. Open: open an existing template in order to adjust its content of it. When finished, click on 'Save'. 3. Choose 'Edit’ to set the subject and some preferences, add attachments, and determine the template tab that the template should be saved. Click on ‘Save’ when finished and close this template builder section. 5.5 Personal information for your email signature Go to the menu item Administration -> User settings -> User profile to complete your contact information. Most of the information can be used as a mail merge field in the email template builder (Administration -> Email -> Email templates). So make sure you fill in your profile. If you upload your company logo, it will be automatically added to the default email template. 5.6 Action types The last menu item in the Email templates screen is ‘Action types’. In this section, you define the template to use for each action. What should be the template for sending an email, for forwarding an email, and for replying? And which template to use for incoming and outgoing call reports?
Modified on Wed, 21 May, 2025 at 10:55 AM -
Why use SpinOffice for sending emails?
Access all your CRM-associated email exchanges in one place All messages are, on entry, automatically linked to the proper contact. If the recipient is unknown, you can add the contact to your database as new or link it to an existing contact, and SpinOffice will pick up all former communication and add it to the contact’s archive. Building up your database has never been easier Your team will become more efficient Each user will get their inbox with many options as internal forwarding, folder linking, converting to task, and more. IMAP protocol to retrieve email messages from your mailbox The inbox folder, sent items, and trash folder are in sync. All your emails remain in your current mailbox, but every day, we make a backup of your data on our highly secured servers.
Modified on Wed, 3 Jun at 9:43 AM -
How to send a mass mailing?
Within SpinOffice, you can filter/make selections on all fields, tags, info fields, and keywords. For example, do you want an overview of all your prospects located in the same country or zip code? Or do you want to send a mailing to all your customers? We will explain how you do this below. Sending group mailings is only available in the Pro and Enterprise versions. Here are the steps: First, decide based on which criteria you want to create your group mailing. This can be based on a contact type, tag, keyword, or any contact field. Then create your filter. These are a few ways to do that. Click Filter Contacts at the top of the screen or choose one of the filter options within the Contact widget on the right. Whichever option you choose, in all cases, SpinOffice will indicate what you want to filter on: If you choose the Filter contacts option, you can create the desired conditions for your selection yourself; for example, "company name is...", or "contact type is...", or "zip code contains...". If you choose a filter option within the Contact widget, all contacts will be filtered with the same value. Apply the desired filter. As an example, we choose the label 'hot prospects' to send a mailing to. All contacts are shown in the place where your contacts normally are. See below. All 12 'hot prospects' are shown: Then click on Mass Actions at the top of the screen: The following options are displayed: Choose the "Send group mailing". A new screen will open where you can type a message in the default template. Fill the template with content or choose an existing email template at the bottom. Make sure to enter a subject. That is mandatory. This is also the subject as the recipients see it. At the top, you can change your sender identity, and at the bottom, the option to send the mailing as a private message. Is your template ready to send? Then click Send at the top left. Choose Create Concepts or Send. If you choose Create Concepts, these can be found in the Concepts folder in your Inbox.
Modified on Fri, 25 Apr, 2025 at 1:47 PM -
How do I personalize my email signature?
Go to the menu item Administration -> Email -> Email templates. Choose one of the two options: New: create new templates based on the default template. What's the default template? See below. Add merge fields, e.g., «My Email», «My first name», «My last name», or «My Job title» from My list, to customize the template. When finished, click on 'Save'. Open: open an existing template to adjust its content. When finished, click on 'Save'. Choose 'Edit’ to set the subject, some preferences to add attachments, and determine the template tab where the template should be saved. Click on ‘Save’ when finished and close this template builder section. Personal information for your email signature Go to the menu item Administration -> User Settings to complete your contact information. Most of the information can be used as a mail merge field in the email template builder (Administration -> Email -> Email templates). So make sure you fill in your profile. If you upload your company logo, it will be automatically added to the default email template.
Modified on Wed, 14 May, 2025 at 11:29 AM -
How to create my own email template?
Go to the menu item Administration -> Email -> Email templates. The following screen appears⬇️ Choose 'New' to build your template from scratch with the editor or HTML. Or go to the option 'Open' to select an existing email template. To create a duplicate of the default email template, open the default one and click on 'Save as' to save it as a new version and to continue from there. This is the default template available in your database⬇️ The <
> salutation works as follows. It is dependent on the gender/salutation field on the contact card: formal or informal saturation that defines if it will become, for instance, "Dear Hugo," or "Dear Mr. Van der Horst". Add merge fields All the merge fields that are mentioned will automatically be filled with the contact information that you have filled in under Administration -> User settings -> User profile. e.g., «My Email», «My first name», «My last name», or «My Job title» from My list, to customize the template. The company logo It is picked from Administration -> CRM preferences -> Company, where the default logo can be added. New email template as the default for sending emails. Click on 'Action type' and select your template. When finished Close the template builder section and click on the 'Refresh' button to update the database. Your newly added template is now available as an email template. Modified on Wed, 14 May, 2025 at 11:08 AM -
How to enable notifications for new emails?
The ability to get notifications with every new email message without opening the inbox is a very smart feature that is greatly appreciated by many of our customers. It works both on Mac (appearing in the Notification Center) and Windows PC (appearing as a slider inside the application window). How do you enable the slider notifications? Go to the menu option Administration -> User settings -> Notifications And change the notification style into a Slider message. Mac users should still allow notifications on their local Mac. Go to -> System Preferences; Notifications, Scroll to SpinOffice, and enable notifications there.
Modified on Wed, 14 May, 2025 at 10:59 AM -
How do I send a scheduled email?
Send your emails when it suits you. Scheduled emails are great for sending out certain emails that are still being worked on during weekends or evenings at an ideal time, such as Monday at 9:00 AM. How does it work? Create a new email message. Click on the arrow next to Send. Choose a suggested option or choose Send later to determine your preferred date and time. All scheduled e-mail messages are ready in the Outbox folder and are automatically sent at the time you schedule. It's that simple! Use this smart feature and work even more efficiently with SpinOffice.
Modified on Wed, 14 May, 2025 at 11:50 AM -
Does my email sync with my mobile devices?
Yes, with IMAP it does! IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol) is the best way to make sure you can see all your mail at any time on all of your devices. SpinOffice will sync the incoming mail, sent items and the trash folder of your mail account.
Modified on Wed, 28 Dec, 2016 at 2:32 PM