Replies to emails you send from PortaPro come back into the Inbox on their
own (see Text and Email Conversations).
Email Inbox Capture covers the rest: email you send from your own mailbox,
and email customers send straight to your address.
Where: Settings → Company Sending → Email Inbox Capture.
Start here: most conversations need none of this
Nearly every customer email starts as something PortaPro sent: an invoice, a
quote, a reminder, a message from the Inbox. Replies to those are captured
with no setup. Your inbox address is for the occasional conversation that
starts outside PortaPro.
What's on the card
Inbox conversation and a copy arrives in your mailbox under the customer's
name; emails you send from the Inbox through a connected mailbox also BCC
your capture address. Off: replies go only to your sending mailbox, and
email conversations in the Inbox are outbound only.
not something anyone can guess.
arrives, then Active, last captured with the date.
Three ways to use your inbox address
PortaPro files a copy in that customer's conversation.
such as a referral or a quote request. PortaPro reads the forwarded message
and files it under that customer, on their conversation, marked
(forwarded), not as a message from you.
Auto-forwarding: for a shared company address only
Auto-forwarding works well for a shared address such as `contact@` or
`dispatch@`, where nearly everything that arrives is from customers. Don't
point your personal mailbox at it: your newsletters, receipts and app
notifications would arrive as conversations too. PortaPro skips obvious bulk
mail from senders who aren't customers, but BCC and forwarding give cleaner
results with no setup. Mail a person actually wrote is never skipped, even
from a stranger.
Gmail: both steps are required
forwarding address and paste your PortaPro inbox address.
PortaPro Inbox as a conversation: open it and click the confirmation link.
to… your address, and keep Gmail's copy in the inbox.
Verifying the address alone forwards nothing. Step 3 (or a Gmail filter
whose action is Forward to your address) is what turns forwarding on.
A filter is also the way to forward only some mail.
Other providers
| Provider | Where | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Outlook.com / Hotmail | Settings → Mail → Forwarding | A single toggle. Keep a copy. |
| Microsoft 365 / business email | An inbox rule (Forward the message to) | Your IT admin may control this. |
| iCloud Mail | iCloud.com → Mail → Settings → Forwarding | |
| Yahoo Mail, AOL Mail | Settings → Forwarding | Needs the provider's paid plan. |
On a free Yahoo or AOL account you still have everything except automatic
forwarding: reply capture needs no setup, BCC works from any mailbox, and
forwarding a customer's email by hand files it under that customer.
How captured mail is matched
Captured mail is matched to a customer by email address. Mail from an
address that isn't on file becomes an Unknown • email conversation you
can link to a customer later.
If PortaPro captures an email it can't file at all (for example something
you sent from your own address with no customer on the To line), an amber
bar appears above Inbox → Messages: N captured emails couldn't be
matched to a customer. Review opens Unmatched emails, where you can
Assign to customer or Dismiss each one.
Safety nets
forwarding rule bouncing them back can't create a loop or a duplicate.
the copies come from your own domain rather than PortaPro's address.
Troubleshooting
A customer emailed us directly and it isn't in the Inbox. Either forward
it to your inbox address, or check that auto-forwarding is really on: in
Gmail the setting must say Forward a copy of incoming mail to…, not only
show a verified address.
Mail I sent from my own Gmail isn't in the Inbox. Only mail you BCC'd to
your inbox address (or sent from the Inbox) is captured.
The status still says Waiting for first captured email. Nothing has
reached the address yet. Send a test: BCC the address on an email to a
customer.