Incoming email processing

SECURITY  Security level with Admin permission to configure Service Desk (Tickets). Refer to Admin security settings.

NAVIGATION   > Admin > Automation > Email Notifications & Surveys > Incoming Email Processing

NOTE  This feature is not included with an Essentials Autotask contract. Please contact your Kaseya Account Manager.

BEFORE YOU BEGIN  This feature may be hidden in your Autotask instance because it is not activated. If so, you can activate it on the > Admin > Admin Categories > Activations page. Refer to Activations.

Autotask is tightly integrated with email. It will generate outgoing email messages that inform stakeholders when certain events happen, and process incoming emails and convert them to tickets, tasks, notes, or time entries.

It is best practice to configure Autotask so the processing and generation of emails is completely automated.

  • You can determine which emails are converted to Autotask entities by filtering the ones that are forwarded to an Autotask mailbox. Refer to Incoming email processing.
  • You can select who will receive a notification email by selecting recipients based on their role in a given process. Refer to Role-based notification recipients.
  • You can create standardized communication messages that are selectively sent in a large number of situations. Refer to Notification emails.
  • You can determine who will be the apparent sender (and Reply to: addressee) of the email communication. Refer to Selecting a notification sender.
  • You can automate the sending of notifications for almost any conceivable circumstance. Refer to Autotask workflow rules.

All these processes should be viewed as a system and configured together. Administrators and managers should design when a message is going out, who will receive it, what the body of the message looks like, and who appears as the sender. Manual notification is always possible, but should be the exception.

IMPORTANT  More is less! Customers are inundated with messages. Send only messages that are really necessary, and make them stand out visually.

About incoming email processing

Incoming Email Processing converts emails to Autotask entities. The Subject line is converted into the entity title, and the email Body is converted into the description.

Depending on information contained in the Subject line and the first line of the email Body, incoming emails can create

  • Tickets
  • Ticket notes
  • Ticket time entries
  • Project notes
  • Task notes
  • Task time entries

With all these possibilities, how does Autotask know what kind of item to create? Refer to How we determine what entity to create.

The sender's (originator's) Email Address determines which organization and contact, or which resource, the item should be attributed to. For detailed information on how the right organization and contact are identified, refer to How we attribute the email.

Of course, it does not make sense to convert every single incoming email into a separate ticket. Most often, several emails are part of the same conversation about a specific issue, and you want the email attached as a note to an existing, rather than creating a duplicate, ticket.

For information on how this is set up, refer to Loops and dupes.

To prevent the rapid growth of stored data related to the closed loop feature and infinite loops, some restrictions apply. Refer to FAQs.

Basic and advanced Incoming Email Processing

Depending on your Autotask contract, you will have one of two versions of Incoming Email Processing.

Basic Incoming Email Processing is available to all Autotask customers at no additional cost, and includes:

  • The Add Ticket Email Service (ATES) mailbox, which is already set up
  • One additional active custom mailbox. You can create additional mailboxes, but you won't be able to activate them.
  • Incoming emails will be converted to tickets only; creation of ticket notes, ticket time entries, project notes, task notes, and task time entries is not available.

Advanced Incoming Email Processing includes:

  • The Add Ticket Email Service (ATES) mailbox, which is already set up
  • An option to configure up to 15 additional custom mailboxes
  • Emails can be converted to tickets, ticket notes, ticket time entries, project notes, task notes, and task time entries

To license Advanced Incoming Email Processing if it is not included with your contract, contact your Datto Account Manager.

IMPORTANT  If you had Datto disable advanced incoming email processing, all mailboxes would be disabled. You would have to manually enable the one you want to keep.

Autotask continues to support the Add Ticket Email Service (ATES) for legacy users or those with special circumstances, such as remote-monitoring applications. ATES users should refer to The Add Ticket Email Service (ATES) and Configuring the ATES mailbox.

Creating and managing mailboxes

If you have access to advanced incoming email processing, you can configure up to 15 mailboxes. Each mailbox can convert emails into all supported items. So why would you want to create more than one?

The answer is that since all items in a mailbox use the same set of defaults, each mailbox can only create one kind of ticket, ticket note, etc. If you want to treat emails from VIP customers differently, you can set up a second mailbox, and have your mail server redirect VIP emails to that separate mailbox. You can then configure different default settings, for example, a Critical priority.

To manage mailboxes, do the following:

  • To open the page, use the path(s) in the Security and navigation section above.
  • To create a new mailbox, click New. The New Email Processing Mailbox page will open. Refer to Configuring a custom mailbox.
  • To edit an existing mailbox, select Edit from the context menu.
  • To delete a mailbox, select Delete from the context menu. Deletion cannot be undone.
Option Description

Edit, Edit [Entity Name]

Puts the selected row into Edit mode or opens the Edit <Option> dialog. The fields that can be edited are usually the ones you populate when you create a new list item. Make your changes and click Save, or Cancel.

NOTE  On some pages, you may not be able to edit System options.

Delete, Delete [Entity Name]

The ability to delete an option is severely restricted. List options cannot be deleted if:

  • The option is a system option
  • The option is the default option where a default is required
  • The option is associated with (has been used for) an entity

IMPORTANT  To preserve data integrity, Autotask prevents deletion of entities that have dependent entities or are referenced elsewhere! If you are unable to delete an entity, you should inactivate it to make it unavailable for use.

Configuration overview

To implement Incoming Email Processing for your local organization, review the following configuration tasks:

  • Configure your Autotask mailbox. Refer to Configuring a custom mailbox.
  • If you do not want to publish the Autotask Incoming Email mailbox name, set up your support mailbox to automatically forward or redirect customer emails to your Autotask incoming email mailbox. Outlook users must redirect.
    • For Outlook, set up the mailbox to redirect (not forward). Refer to Microsoft documentation on using rules to automatically redirect email messages.
    • For most other mail services, use the mail service settings to forward (or redirect) customer emails to your Autotask incoming email box. For example, for Gmail, log into the Support email account. From the gear icon menu, select the Settings > Settings > Forwarding and POP/IMAP tab. Follow the service provider's instructions.
  • Optionally, modify notification templates that inform your customers when entity creation succeeds or fails. Refer to Notification templates.
  • Establish workflow rules that assign and notify resources. Refer to Adding, editing, and copying workflow rules.
  • Determine what will constitute a duplicate ticket. Refer to Configure the Duplicate Ticket Handling system setting.
  • Determine if you want to have Autotask automatically parse incoming emails for key words and, if they match existing tag labels or aliases, apply the corresponding tags. Refer to Automatically assign tags to tickets created through Incoming Email Processing based on Title and Description.

NOTE  Also review the following article: FAQs.