Incoming Documents
In this article:
Introduction to Incoming Documents
Forwarding Emails to Incoming Documents
Introduction to Incoming Documents
The Incoming Documents module assists with the management of email messages and related document attachments, that have been sent by a contact, to the user's email application (e.g. Outlook).
Relevant emailed messages and attachments (e.g. documents and images) can be associated with the relevant record within the following modules:
- Customers
- Leads
- Tickets
- Workflows
- Projects
Examples of intended uses include: attaching...
- a purchase order document (e.g. PDF) to a Lead
- a screenshot (e.g. PNG) to a Ticket
- a photograph (e.g. JPG) of equipment to a Job
- an important email conversation (i.e. the complete email) to a Customer record
Forwarding Emails to Incoming Documents
Each CommTrak installation has a unique document-management email address to which email messages can be forwarded, and subsequently managed within CommTrak.
The unique email address for your organisation can be found by hovering the mouse pointer over the information icon (i) icon displayed in the header of the Incoming Documents summary panel, which is located in the Summary Panel section, below the CommTrak Search Dashboard.
The Incoming Documents email address is always in the form:
documents@yourcommtraksite.com.au
When sending an email to the Incoming Document module, the email must be forwarded, and the module must be the only recipient of the email, otherwise CommTrak will ignore the incoming email. This is to prevent CommTrak from being included in, for example, mail groups, mailing lists, and reply to all emails, as CommTrak would process all subsequent email responses as Incoming Documents.
Incoming Documents Settings
Incoming Documents are stored in the customer's document folder as specified in Settings > General Settings > Miscellaneous > Incoming Documents > Folder to store customer incoming email documents. The default folder is Unclassified.
An incoming email is an email message (typically from a contact) that a CommTrak user has forwarded from their own inbox (e.g. Outlook), to the CommTrak Incoming Documents email address.
Emails are allocated depending upon the configuration of the Incoming Documents module in CommTrak General Miscellaneous Settings:
Settings > General Settings > Miscellaneous > Incoming Documents > Automatically store and allocate incoming email documents: Yes / No
Manual (No)
Forwarded emails will be displayed in the user's Incoming Documents panel on the CommTrak Search Dashboard and in the Incoming Documents module (accessed by selecting Incoming Documents in the CommTrak Main Menu).
Forwarded emails must be allocated manually, as described in the Manual Allocation section.
Automatic (Yes)
Emails that include a valid record identifier in the email subject, will be allocated automatically.
The whole email will be allocated to the relevant record, as determined by the record identifier.
Examples of record identifiers are:
- Ticket - TK12345
- Job - JB27853
- Lead - LD3712
- Customer - CR4832
- Project - PR34
- Workflow - WF423
The record identifier must be capitalised (e.g. CR4832, not cr4382)
Example of Automatic Email Allocation
Automatic Allocation must be enabled in Incoming Document Settings.
In the image below, the following steps have been taken in Outlook:
- forward button has been clicked
- documents@yourcommtrakurl.com.au has been entered as the recipient
- user has added the customer's CR number to the subject line
In the image below, the original email subject (as sent by the contact) was Purchase Order. The user has added CR4832 to the subject (highlighted in the image), to enable CommTrak to automatically allocate the email to the specified customer.
When the Send button is pressed, in Outlook, the following will occur automatically:
- The email is forwarded to the CommTrak Incoming Documents module
- The whole email (stored as a .eml file) is placed in the customer's documents tab.
The record identifier must be capitalised (e.g. CR4832, not cr4382)
Manual Allocation
Incoming Documents (i.e. forwarded emails) must be allocated manually in the following circumstances:
- Automatic allocation is not specified in the CommTrak Settings (as described above)
- Automatic allocation is specified, but CommTrak did not identify a valid record identifier in the forwarded email subject line
Emails that require manual allocation appear in the Incoming Documents summary panel located below the Search Dashboard, and in the main Incoming Documents module, accessed by selecting Incoming Documents on the CommTrak Main Menu.
A user will only see documents for manual allocation as per their role. i.e. Some users (e.g. Supervisor, Office) will see all incoming documents, regardless of who sent them, and other users (e.g. Salesperson, Contractor) will see only documents that they have forwarded.
Refer to the Documents permissions within a Role (Settings > User Settings > Staff Roles) to determine which permissions have been assigned to a role).
Incoming Documents Panel
Unallocated documents, that have been forwarded by the user, are listed in the Incoming Documents summary panel, and require manual allocation to the relevant CommTrak record.
Staff with appropriate permissions can see documents allocated to other CommTrak users, by clicking the All Staff option in the header of the Incoming Documents summary panel.
To allocate an emailed document, click the relevant item; the process for allocating emailed documents is described below, in the Allocation Process section.
Incoming Document Screen
Incoming emails awaiting allocation are displayed on this screen. If a user has appropriate permissions, they will be able to see forwarded emails for all staff, otherwise the user will see only emails that they have forwarded. For example, staff with Salesperson role will only see their own forwarded emails.
A single email, or multiple emails, may be selected for allocation by ticking the box next to the required email(s).
When multiple emails are selected, all selected items will be allocated to the same record (e.g. all items will be allocated to the same customer, ticket, etc). All items can be selected or deselected by clicking the tick-box located at the top of the document list.
When the required items have been selected for allocation, press the Process button at the bottom of the screen to start the Allocation Process.
Options
In addition to allocating incoming documents, the following actions are available for each incoming document listed on the Incoming Documents Screen:
- Forward - clicking the envelope icon forwards the whole email to the current CommTrak user's inbox (e.g. Outlook), so the user can review the email in its original format
- Rename - clicking the pencil icon presents the Rename Document dialog box, providing the option to rename the document prior to allocation
- Delete - clicking the trashcan icon deletes the item from the list.
Deleting an email item is not reversible, and no warning is given prior to the deletion of the email within CommTrak. If an incoming email is deleted, it will need to be resent to CommTrak.
Allocation Process
When the required incoming documents have been selected for allocation in either the Incoming Documents summary panel on the Search Dashboard, or in the main Incoming Documents screen (as described in the above sections), the Save Documents dialog box will be presented:
Allocating to a Company
The Allocate to Company Name field is a standard CommTrak company record search field; enter a minimum of three consecutive characters from the company name, to present a drop-down list of matching records, then click on the name of the required company:
When a company name has been selected, the Save Documents dialog box expands to present the following:
Related To (drop-down list)
This drop-down list contains the following options:
- Company (default) - The document(s) will be attached to the selected company record.
- Ticket - the Ticket to which the document(s) should be attached
- Lead - the Lead to which the document(s) should be attached
- Job - the Job to which the document(s) should be attached
The Ticket, Lead and Job options will only appear in the drop-down list, if there is an active ticket, lead or job for the selected company record.
When either Ticket, Lead or Job is selected from the Related To drop-down list, the dialog box will update to show a list of the available items to which the document(s) may be attached. Click the radio button to the left of the item to which the document(s) should be attached.
When the required item (i.e. Customer, Ticket, Lead or Job) has been selected, the user should specify whether the whole email, or just specific attachments should be attached to the record:
Attach Complete Email
The top item in the selection list is, Save entire email(s). Placing a tick next to this option, selects the whole email, including attachments, to be attached as a single document (stored as a .eml file).
Attach Specific Documents
Review the list of attachments (image thumbnails are shown, to enable easier identification of required attachments), and tick the box next to each attachment that is required.
It is common for emails to have multiple image attachments that may not be apparent in the original email (e.g. the sender's signature may consist of numerous, smaller images).
Action Buttons
Pressing the Verify button checks existing customer documents to determine if any items with an identical name already exist. If such documents does exist, a warning is presented. The user can rename the existing document(s) by cancelling the current process, and renaming the document(s) in the customer's Documents screen, or the warning can be ignored, in which case the original document will be overwritten when the allocation process is completed:
Pressing the Allocate button completes the allocation process; the document(s) are uploaded to the customer's document folders, and (where relevant) the items are Related To the selected Ticket, Lead or Job (see Related Records for further details).
Reviewing Emailed Documents
To review a complete email (represented as an .eml file) that has been allocated to a customer, locate the email in the Document screen of the customer record, and click the item; the original email will be forwarded to the current user's inbox (e.g. Outlook).
Accessing Allocated Documents
When an incoming document is allocated to a Ticket, Lead or Job, the document is uploaded to the customer's document folders, and the document is identified as being a Related Document in the relevant module (e.g. in the specific Ticket, Job or Lead). See Related Records for further details.
Outlook Quick Steps Feature
Outlook's Quick Steps feature may be useful for reducing the steps required to forward incoming documents.
Microsoft Outlook includes a Quick Steps feature, that enables actions to be carried out on an email (or multiple emails), with a single click. For example, a single click can automatically forward the currently-selected email to a predefined email address.
This feature can be used to forward emails to CommTrak's Incoming Documents email address with a single click, thus further improving the efficacy of associating emails and attachments to records within CommTrak.
The configuration of Outlook Quick Steps is beyond the scope of this document; for further help please see Outlook Help (press the F1 key when using Outlook), or view the Microsoft article Automate common or repetitive tasks with Quick Steps.