Inbox

The shared triage surface for everything Graph delivers.

The shared triage surface for everything Graph delivers. Its Active tab is a board of enquiries. It is not Outlook, and a card is not a quotation: one job can still arrive as several conversations.

What a card is

An enquiry: the request a client sent, with every email of its conversations. A card sits in one of six columns. New is personal to the signed-in user; the others show the enquiry’s requirement progress and, once a quotation is issued, where it has got to (see Lifecycles). A card goes to the first column that fits, checked in this order: Ordered, Revision requested, Quoted, New, To review, Ready to quote.

All six columns sit in one row, in stage order. A column with no cards shrinks to a narrow strip showing its name and 0; one still loading, or that failed to load, keeps its full width. Other mail is a narrow button at the end of the row, and it opens the rail beside the columns. On a laptop, four columns with cards fit side by side; with five or six, the board scrolls sideways. On a narrow screen there is a chip for each column and for Other mail.

A Sort menu above the board and the List chooses the order: Needs attention (the board’s default: unread mail first, then, in New, To review and Ready to quote only, the soonest due date, then the newest mail), Newest received (the List’s default), Oldest received and Latest mail. Moving between Board and List keeps the choice. Sorting the List by a column heading the menu does not offer shows “Column: ” in the menu.

A card leads with a strip that says what is next, tinted for its column: in New, the newest mail you have not opened and when it came; in To review, the lines left, such as “Review 3 of 8 lines”, beside a bar of the lines already reviewed; in Ready to quote, “✓ Ready to quote · 6 lines”. Lines outside Flowtech’s range (R92) add “· 1 not in range”; in New and To review, a card whose client has answered a query leads with “Client answered 2 of 3”, else one whose client changed lines with “Client changed 2 lines”, and, when more lines await review or hold a change than it names, ends “· 3 lines to confirm” (see Line items); when every line is outside range the strip reads “Regret: not in Flowtech’s range”, in grey. Below it come the client, with the client’s RFQ or reference number, and the subject. The last line holds “Urgent” when the client said so, “Ordered” once the client has signalled an order (a purchase order, a confirmation in their own words, a request for a proforma invoice or a note that they will raise a purchase order), the due date, how many conversations hold its mail when there are several, its line count in New, and the owner’s initials, or a dashed “?” while it has no owner; rest the pointer on them for the name. A due date reads “Overdue” once its day has passed, and is marked as soon from today to three days ahead. The products asked for show when you rest the pointer on the subject, and on the reading when you open the enquiry. A name or subject too long for the card is cut short; rest the pointer on it to read it in full. From the first sign of an order, a later change the client asks for is held for a person rather than listed for the next revision. Nothing is dragged: a card moves when its lines are reviewed, a quotation is issued, the client asks for a change after a quotation, which moves it from Quoted to Revision requested, or an order is signalled. Within New, To review and Ready to quote, cards with new mail come first, then the soonest due date, then the newest mail. Within Quoted, Revision requested and Ordered, cards with unread mail come first, then the newest mail; they are not ordered by due date.

Every card also shows Received 3 Nov · last mail 7 Nov. Received is when the enquiry’s first email arrived; last mail is its newest mail, shown as the time of day when it came today. Only “Received” shows when the two are the same.

The Quoted, Revision requested and Ordered cards lead with a strip of their own:

Anyone who can see an enquiry on the board sees these quotation and purchase order numbers and decisions on its card, whatever their quotation or sales-order access. Prices and lines stay behind that access.

From Quoted onward, mail you have not opened does not move the card to New. It shows as an “N new” badge and the card sorts first in its column. Quoted and Ordered cards with no unread mail and no activity for 30 days fold into an “N quiet” row at the foot of the column. Activity is the newest of the latest mail, the latest issue and the order signal.

An enquiry’s mail can be on more than one conversation. Its card then says how many on its last line, such as “2 conversations”. Opening it lists the enquiry’s mail from every conversation, grouped by conversation: each under a header of its subject and the date of its newest mail, the newest conversation first, under a header that names the client followed by “— 2 conversations”. Choosing any email opens it, keeping the inbox’s tab, search and filters. The list stays the opened enquiry’s, even when one of its conversations also holds an email of another enquiry and that email is chosen.

Several conversations can still belong to one enquiry: mail joins it by its conversation, then by the client’s own subject or reference (R8), and mail after a quotation by R97 or by a person’s hand (R105). A card is one enquiry, not one quotation.

An enquiry email from a client joins their enquiry for the same requirement instead of opening a second card, even when it arrives on another conversation. It joins by subject when it comes from the same email address, under the same subject, as an email on the enquiry received within 60 days of it, and that subject carries a reference or project number. A subject such as “Requirement” or “RFQ for level switch” carries none, and a year, a range such as 0-100 bar or a size such as 150 NB is not one, so such mail never joins by subject. It joins by customer reference, however long after, when it names the customer reference the enquiry carries and comes from the address, or the company mail domain, of an email on the enquiry; a webmail domain such as Gmail names no company. Mail never joins on the client alone, and when two enquiries could take it, a new one is opened. A joined email is then treated like a reply on the enquiry’s own conversation.

Other mail

Mail that is on none of your cards is listed in the rail beside the columns, opened from the Other mail button at the end of the row, with the email-type filter above it. That is every conversation that holds no enquiry — follow-ups, quotations and the rest — and mail you can see on the conversation of an enquiry whose card you do not have, such as an email you were copied on for an enquiry a colleague owns. A purchase order, revision request or other mail that FlowOS links to the enquiry it answers (R97) joins that enquiry’s card instead, even when the client sent it as a new conversation; a purchase order or revision request it cannot link waits in Needs Review, where a person can link it by hand (see Linking mail after a quotation).

Until an email type is picked in the filter, the rail is grouped by type, in this order: Purchase orders, Revision requests, Follow-ups, Enquiries, Quotations & sales orders, Other, and Not classified. Each group is headed by how many conversations it holds and lists its newest; Show all narrows the rail to that group’s types. A group with no mail is left out, and with none at all the rail reads “No other mail”. A group that cannot be loaded says so with Retry, and the others still show. A conversation holding mail of two types, such as a purchase order and a follow-up, is listed under both groups. The count beside Other mail counts each conversation once.

Does it fit its enquiry?

Every email linked to an enquiry is checked against it, whatever its type: a revision request, follow-up, purchase order or repeat enquiry (R110). The email that started the enquiry and mail Flowtech sends are not, and neither is an email linked before FlowOS recorded how it was linked. The check compares what the email says with what the enquiry holds, in five rows:

Gmail and other free-mail addresses, lead portals such as TradeIndia, and Flowtech’s own mailbox domains, name no company. Each row agrees (✓), disagrees (✗) or has nothing to compare (–).

• Doubtful (red, “This email may not belong to this enquiry”): the product, tags or client row disagrees and nothing strong agrees. Strong agreement is a shared tag, a quote number the enquiry knows, a shared project reference, or the email being part of the same conversation: a reply in its thread, or a reply to Flowtech’s quotation email or query.
• Partly outside (amber, “Part of this email is outside the enquiry”): some of the email’s tags or products are on the enquiry and some are not.
• Nothing shows for an email that fits, or that has nothing to compare, as in a plain “any update?”.

The same client alone never makes an email fit, and a different client alone is not doubtful when something strong agrees. A copy of the same email that reached another Flowtech mailbox never counts as support. No score or percentage is shown. The check uses only what FlowOS has already read, so until the client’s changes are read the product and tags rows have nothing to compare.

A banner appears at the top of the email’s action column, for any email type, only when the email is doubtful (red) or partly outside (amber). It says who linked the email and when (“Linked by Priya on 12 Oct”, or “Linked by FlowOS (quote number cited) on 12 Oct”). Under a red banner come the five rows, “This email” beside “The enquiry”; an amber note shows only its title and that line. Then two buttons:

• Change link opens the usual link picker.
• It belongs here records who said so and when, and settles every copy of that email on the same enquiry, whichever one is confirmed. It is offered only to people who may edit the inbox. Change link shows to everyone, but its picker is disabled for people who cannot relink. The email’s history lists it as “{name} confirmed it belongs to “{enquiry}””. If the link later changes, the check comes back.

A doubtful email also carries a red “⚠ doubtful” chip beside its link in the mail summary, and its enquiry shows a red “⚠ Link doubtful” chip, on its card in every column and beside its client in the List, while an email the card stands on is doubtful and unconfirmed: a copy of an email, and mail waiting in Needs Review, don’t count. Amber shows in the action column only, never on the board or the List.

The panel beside an email

The panel beside an open email depends on the email’s type. An enquiry linked to its enquiry shows its lines (see Line items), with Raise query and the quotation button at the foot. Every other email shows a panel for its type, with Reply to Email leading at the foot; that includes a purchase order or a follow-up on an enquiry’s conversation, which never shows the enquiry’s lines or quotation actions.

Each such panel names the email’s type and what FlowOS does with that type, then the enquiry it belongs to, named by its client, with Open enquiry email to read the enquiry itself. That is the enquiry the inbox groups its mail under, so an email on another of the enquiry’s conversations names it too, and Open enquiry email opens the enquiry email on its own conversation. An email that belongs to no enquiry reads “Not part of an enquiry conversation”. The quotation numbers and customer references it cites are in the mail summary above the email. Under a purchase order, the PO check reads the PO and compares its lines, prices, taxes and terms with the quotation it accepts. It shows each difference, lets a person re-match lines or the compared quotation, and lets an Office Head record a decision. See Checking a purchase order. Under a revision request, its changes are listed with Accept and Decline and what each writes into the next revision, then Start R1, Add to R1 draft or Open R1 draft. See Revision requests. Under the enquiry, a step that is not built yet is marked Coming:

A quotation or sales order, mail of type Other, and mail not classified yet are kept with their conversation and start no work. An email we sent from FlowOS reads “Sent by us”. An enquiry email no enquiry holds yet says its lines are listed once FlowOS links it to an enquiry.

Changes the client asked for

FlowOS reads every email a client sends on an enquiry for what it asks to change: a size, a material, a quantity, an item added or dropped, a discount, payment or delivery terms, a moved deadline. On an email it has read, a column headed Changes asked for lists them line by line, in the same frame as the enquiry panel. On an enquiry email it starts folded above the enquiry panel and a click opens it; on a revision request, a follow-up or a purchase order it starts open. On an enquiry email or a purchase order, the column shows only when the email asks for a change.

The header holds Marked-up quote, which opens the PDF the client sent back, and What changed. Under it a summary reads, for example, “14 of 24 lines change · 2 new · 1 to look at”, and on the right names what the email was compared against: “on Q-1042 · ERP quote”, “on FQ-… · FlowOS quote”, “on an ERP quote · not attached” when the email cites an ERP quote it did not attach, or “matched to the enquiry’s lines” for mail that cites no quote, such as mail before any quote. When FlowOS does not know the whole list of lines it reads “14 lines change”. Four filters narrow the list: Changed, New, To look at and All lines. All lines is offered only when FlowOS knows the whole list of lines, on a FlowOS quote or when the changes are matched to the enquiry’s lines, and adds the lines nobody asked to change, under No change asked, after the others. The summary’s counts leave those lines out.

The column lists what the client asked for so the salesperson can answer and revise; changing the column itself changes neither the enquiry nor the quotation. Before a quotation is issued, FlowOS applies two kinds of change on its own: an answer to a question sent with Raise query, which fills the line’s field when that field is empty (R117), and a line the client adds in writing, which is gathered as a new line awaiting review (R120). An answer about the fluid waits for a person to pick the fluid. Every other change waits: once a quotation is issued it is listed on that quotation and decided there or from the email (see Revision requests), and after a purchase order it is held. A person who can open the email but not its enquiry sees the changes, with no enquiry values or lines. An email not linked to an enquiry is read once it is linked; after a person links an email elsewhere, its changes show again once FlowOS has read it against the new link.

What a change is compared with

What the column compares a change against depends on what FlowOS has:

1. A FlowOS quote version. Lines are numbered as on that quote, and what we quoted comes from the version. A version with no lines falls to the next case that applies.
2. Our quote sent back marked up. Lines are numbered as on the PDF, and what we quoted is what its commented rows print. Only commented lines are counted. A PDF counts as our quote when its first page carries our quotation number; comments on the client’s own documents fall to case 3.
3. No quote attached. The client’s changes are matched to the enquiry’s lines by tag, and nothing is struck out. This covers an ERP quote the email cites but did not attach, and mail before any quote.
4. Nothing to match. Changes are listed under the client’s own name for the item (“the magflow”).

A changed line

A changed line is a card showing the line as it would be. For each tag group it shows the value the client asks for beside the value we quoted, struck through. A value is struck through only when FlowOS quoted it, which is so in cases 1 and 2. A client’s addition (“also include wastewater”) reads “added to the list”.

Under the values, “Enquiry: …” gives what the enquiry itself said for that field, counting values it states once for every line. A chip then says how the ask relates to it (R111):

• ✓ as enquired: the client asks for what the enquiry already said, so our quote missed it.
• new ask: the client asks for something the enquiry did not say.
• No chip: the two cannot be compared, as when different words do not resolve to the same substance or to figures.

Figures in different units are compared in one unit, and a substance name that several library entries share counts as any of them.

A line splits into parts when some of its tags ask for different things, or when the enquiry holds different values on them. The tags left over read “2 other tags”. A tag’s own replacement outweighs a change to the whole line: “for LG-201 the service is sludge” beats a whole-line “also include wastewater” on LG-201. A tag’s own addition keeps the whole-line change and adds to it. A change is never moved to a tag the client did not name. If the enquiry holds the asked value on other tags of that line, the card carries a note saying where, and shows no chip.

A code counts as a tag only when a line of the quote or the enquiry holds it. A code no line holds shows on the line the comment sits beside, in its own row, and is not applied to that line’s tags: “Temperature element PT100” beside quote line 12 shows on line 12 in a row of its own, noting that PT100 is on no line of the quote or the enquiry. Written in the email’s body, such a code is listed under Not matched to a line. A tag written on two enquiry lines reaches both.

Groups

Changes sit in groups: New lines asked for, Removed lines, To look at (a mark with no words), Not matched to a line, From the enquiry (changes written in the email’s body, matched to the enquiry’s lines by tag) and Terms and the whole enquiry. Every change FlowOS read shows somewhere. Under All lines the lines nobody asked to change follow, last, under No change asked: each is muted, with its number, product, tags and quantity, and opens like any other line, with the enquiry’s values and nothing asked. Changed, New and To look at leave them out.

Each change quotes the client’s sentence it came from. A picture pasted among the client’s words, such as a screenshot of a revised table, is transcribed and read like typed text, and a change read only from such a picture says “only in a picture”. A picture that could not be read, or may not be sent, is named in the “Could not read” line, such as “Image 2 in the email body: unreadable”. A change that did not arrive as plain text says how it did: agreed on a call, only in a picture, a colleague’s note, typed into our quoted email. A comment on our PDF shows as the page beside its line instead, such as “p.7 ↗”, which opens the marked-up quote at that page in a new tab; until FlowOS has the file’s address it reads “p.7” with no link. The column names who read it: FlowOS, or its keyword rules when the reading model could not be reached.

Files the client attaches are sorted before anything is read from them. A file the client already sent on this enquiry is passed over, so its comments are not read twice. Our own quotation sent back, whether a file we sent, one named by its FQ number or one titled Quotation, only names the version; its comments are read as above. A table grading our offer, with remarks such as OK, NOT OK, Acceptable or Complied, becomes one review for a person, quoting the graded rows and naming the file. A picture attached as a file is not read; it becomes one change for a person, “only in a picture”, naming the file. A revised requirement document, one marked R2, Rev or revised that revises a file the client sent earlier on the enquiry, is read against the enquiry’s lines, and each difference becomes a change on its line: a quantity, a stated field or a line it no longer holds (R128). An unmarked document is read the same way before a quotation is issued, and not after. The lines it adds are gathered as new lines before a quotation is issued (R120).

The opened line

Clicking a card opens that line beside the column. Under its title come its project, how many of the line’s own tags it holds, its quantity, the quote page and the enquiry line the part lands on, numbered as in the enquiry panel (“Enquiry: line 7”). FlowOS does not keep the row number of the client’s own document, so it names the enquiry’s line rather than the client’s row. A part whose tags are on no enquiry line reads “Enquiry: —”.

A table lists Field, Enquiry, Quoted and Asked: the fields that change come first, tinted. The line’s operating conditions and its technical or design specifications follow, muted, with the values the enquiry states once for every line; its documents, calculations and other details are left out, and so is a value FlowOS filled in from the fluid library or assumed. When a line splits, or carries a code no line holds in a row of its own, a switch moves between its parts. Under the table, “What the client wrote about” the part quotes their sentences. Show on the marked-up quote opens the client’s file, though not yet at the page, and Show in the enquiry opens the enquiry’s line.

What changed

What changed opens the enquiry’s whole conversation email by email, oldest first, with each quotation version issued along the way. Each email says what it did (“3 details · 1 new item · 2 price or terms asks”, “Nothing changed”, “Sent by us”), and choosing one shows its changes. It opens on the newest email that asks for a change, from the column’s header or from the foot of the panel on any email of an enquiry.

Entering an enquiry by hand

An enquiry that came by phone, WhatsApp, a visit or a marketplace is entered after the call, from notes or from a WhatsApp chat copied across, or from an order received on a marketplace such as IndiaMART. ＋ New enquiry sits at the right of the inbox toolbar and at the top of the All quotations list. It is shown to a person who can edit the inbox; a Sales Person enters only into their own offices.

The New enquiry dialog asks for:

• Customer. Search the Party Master and pick one, then pick one of its contacts. For a person the party does not list yet, choose ＋ New contact and type their name, phone and email. For a company that is not in the Party Master, choose ＋ New customer and type its name and a contact. A new customer or a new contact is kept on the enquiry only. It is not added to the Party Master: that happens when a sales order is raised. A typed contact needs a phone or an email.
• What they asked for. Type your notes, or paste the chat as it is, timestamps and names included. Files and photos go beside it, pasted, dropped or chosen: up to 10 files, each a PDF, a photo (JPEG, PNG, WebP or HEIC), an Excel or Word file, or a CSV or text file, 15 MB each and 25 MB in all. Text or at least one file is required.
• Came in by (Phone, WhatsApp, Visit or Marketplace) and Their reference, both optional. Choosing Marketplace asks which one: IndiaMART, TradeIndia, GeM, Alibaba or Other. That answer is required once Marketplace is chosen, and choosing another channel clears it.
• Office, only for a person with no home office or with several. Everyone else enters into their own office.

There is no subject and no owner to fill in. The subject is the first line of what was typed (cut at 80 characters with an ellipsis), or the channel, such as “Phone enquiry”, or the marketplace, such as “IndiaMART enquiry”, when nothing was typed, or “Enquiry entered by hand” when there is neither; the customer is not repeated in it, since the card already names the customer. The person entering owns the enquiry, and an Office Head reassigns it from the card as for any other.

Send for reading closes the dialog and shows a message linking to the card. FlowOS reads the entered text and files exactly as it reads an email. The card appears at once, marked Reading…, with an Entered chip that adds the channel when one was given, such as “Entered · WhatsApp”, or the marketplace’s name, such as “Entered · IndiaMART”, for an enquiry that came through one. A new customer’s card also carries New customer. It moves to To review when its lines are ready. Opened while it is still being read, the card shows “Saving what was entered” until the text appears.

Every entry makes a new enquiry and a new card; it is never folded into another. Sending twice from one open dialog does not enter it twice.

An entry is refused, and nothing is saved, when:

• the office’s mailbox is not set up for reading enquiries;
• there is no mailbox to file it in: not the person’s own in that office, not the office’s shared mailbox, and not a company-wide shared mailbox;
• a file is of another type or over the limits above;
• the person has already entered 20 enquiries in the last ten minutes.

An entered enquiry follows the ordinary path from there: line review, then Create quotation. The quotation takes the customer chosen in the dialog, not the customer the reading found in the text. For a new customer, its name and contact come from what was typed; the address, GSTIN and place of supply are typed on the draft.

The opened message is labelled Entered by hand where an email reads From client, and shows Customer, Entered by with the date and time, and Reference in place of From and To. A reply goes out as a new email to the contact, not as a reply in a conversation, and is offered as New email to the contact’s name. A contact with no email cannot be written to: the reply action reads “No email for this contact — call back” and Raise query is not offered, so call the customer back. The entered text cannot be edited once saved.

Building the lines yourself

When the lines are known and there is nothing to read, choose Build lines myself in the New enquiry dialog, the second mode beside the one above. It asks for the customer, contact, office and channel as before, and a Note for the team. Files are not accepted, and nothing is sent for reading.

The card opens at once and reads “Add lines · no lines yet”. Generate quotation is held with “No lines yet. Add a line to quote this enquiry.” until a line exists. The person entering owns the enquiry, as for any entered enquiry.

Adding a line

＋ Add line works on any enquiry: one built by hand, or one that was read but missed a line. It waits for an enquiry’s first reading: while an enquiry with no lines yet is still being read, the panel shows the reading state instead. An enquiry that already has lines can always take a hand-added line, even while a later email is read.

1. Item group. Groups are listed by category and can be searched. Recently used shows the person’s last five picks. Typing an exact item code here fills in the group and the code, which leaves only Quantity and Tag No. to give.
2. Item code. Pick the code, shown with its description and size. Under each code is the Flowtech flow range of its size, from the family’s sizing tables on the Limitations page. When the family has tables for more than one phase, Flow range for offers Liquid, Gas, Steam or Any phase, and the ranges follow the phase chosen. A size the tables list more than once, by construction or connection, shows each range with its label; a code the tables do not list says “No Flowtech range at this size”. Below the list, Limitations shows what limits the family and, once a code is chosen, that code: restrictions, not-suitable ranges, installation notes and ideal use. Only limitations that are switched on are shown, and they are for reading: nothing here stops a code from being picked. Then give Quantity (required) and Tag No.
3. Line review. Next creates the line and opens it in line review as the third step. It shows the model number as the options are picked, and how many options are left. The catalogue’s rules apply as they do to any line.

Add and start another saves the line and returns to the first step. Add line saves it and closes. The line’s card shows “added by” the person’s name, or “Removed” when that user has been deleted.

Once a quotation is issued, the lines it covers lock; see Lines locked by an issued quotation. ＋ Add line is greyed out only when an issued quotation covers every line, because a new line belongs to no project yet.

A forwarded conversation

When a colleague forwards a whole conversation with no note of their own, FlowOS lists each email inside it as an email of its own, under the forward, oldest first, each marked in forward and carrying its own type. An email inside that FlowOS already held is listed there too, for anyone who may open it. Opening an email read out of the forward shows it on its own, with the same mark beside its type; an email FlowOS already held opens as it arrived. An email read out of a forward never appears on its own in the inbox list or counts as new; the forward does, until one is sent to Needs Review, where it is listed by itself. Opening the conversation marks the emails listed under the forward opened too. See Automatic behaviour for how they are processed.

New mail

An email is new to you until you open the conversation it is on. An enquiry with any processed, accessible, unopened conversation mail appears in New for you, even if its requirements have already been gathered. Opening it moves it out of New for you alone; a colleague who has not opened it still sees it as new. Once opened, it appears in the requirement-progress column that applies. Whatever comes in on an enquiry’s conversations brings its card back to New, and the strip says what came in: “New enquiry” for the enquiry’s own first email, “New revision requested” for a revision request, else “New” and the newest email’s type, such as “New purchase order” or “New follow-up”, and “New email” for one with no type yet or of type Other. Several unopened emails read as a count and the newest one’s type, such as “3 new · latest revision request”. A type corrected when the email was linked by hand is used in place of the classifier’s, and a copy of a client email already held (R2a) takes that email’s type.

On a phone or a narrow window

On a phone the board shows one column at a time. A row of chips above it names each column with its count, To review first, and the column you pick is still picked when you come back from a conversation. Search folds to a button that opens it on a row of its own. The Needs Review list is unchanged.

Below 1024 pixels wide, as on a phone, a tablet or a laptop zoomed in, an open conversation shows as two tabs in place of three panes: Email, and Lines for an enquiry or Actions for any other email. Above them, a link goes back to the column you came from, then the subject. The Email tab steps through the conversation’s emails, oldest first, with ‹ and ›; the button between them lists the enquiry’s mail. From and To keep to one line each. The Lines tab counts the lines awaiting review and opens filtered to them. Its foot holds Review next, with the assignment, Reply to Email, Raise query, the quotation button and What changed behind More. An enquiry opened from To review opens on its lines.

What the business can do

• Triage open incoming work: Review customer inquiries and RFQs delivered through Microsoft Graph delta streams, automatically grouped into conversation threads.
• Enter an enquiry by hand: ＋ New enquiry takes an enquiry that came by phone, WhatsApp, a visit or a marketplace, from typed notes, a pasted chat and files, for a customer from the Party Master or a new one kept on the enquiry only. FlowOS reads it like an email, and its card appears at once as Reading… with an Entered chip. See Entering an enquiry by hand.
• Build lines myself and ＋ Add line: Build lines myself enters an enquiry with no reading, to which lines are added by hand; ＋ Add line adds a line to that or to any enquiry, once its first reading has finished. See Building the lines yourself and Adding a line.
• Ready mail only: Active shows completed non-enquiry mail and enquiries only after requirement gathering succeeds. Gathering starts by itself for an enquiry’s first email while requirement gathering is switched on; an email read while it is paused is gathered once it resumes. Pending mail is hidden from every inbox user, including administrators. A later enquiry email of a conversation whose enquiry has requirements shows at once, and those requirements are kept. An enquiry whose requirements were gathered stays in Active while it is gathered again, and keeps the lines it has if that attempt fails. A copy of a client email already held (R2a) is finished once it is recognised, with no type of its own: its type reads “Copy of the 1 Oct email”, linked to that email when you may open it, or “Copy of another email” when you may not, and it sits on the enquiry that email is on.
• Needs Review: Extraction or requirement gathering that fails permanently or exhausts its retries is marked Needs Review. So is mail FlowOS cannot link (R97): ambiguous_quotation when it matches several quotations, ambiguous_enquiry when its customer reference matches several enquiries, and quotation_not_found for a revision request or purchase order that matches nothing; no_purchase_order_found (“FlowOS found no purchase order in it.”) and purchase_order_unreadable (“A file that may hold its purchase order couldn’t be read.”) for a purchase order email FlowOS read; the email’s mail summary gives the reason in plain words and a way to link it by hand (R105). So is an email FlowOS cannot tell the type of (R7), its type showing FlowOS’s best guess: Reclassify beside its type, offered to people who may edit the inbox, gives it the type they pick, and the email is processed again as that type. An enquiry email with several matches is read as an enquiry instead, and mail Flowtech sends to someone outside Flowtech is never sent there. It is visible as processed mail is: to the office it is assigned to and to whoever it is assigned to, within their permission scope, and on the conversation of an enquiry a person may read, whether or not a reason was recorded. Mail assigned to no office stays with people who read across all offices (Administrators, Developers and Stakeholders), and so does moving review mail to another office or owner. With nothing waiting, the tab says “Nothing waiting for review”. Pending retries do not expose the mail. Drafts stay off.
• Search: The search box narrows the columns and the rail as you type. On the board it finds an enquiry by its client’s name (the customer it matched in the party master, else the company or contact read from the email), the client’s RFQ or reference number, a quotation number with or without its revision (-R2), or an email’s subject, sender or origin address. Characters such as % and _ are matched as written. The rail’s search still covers the subject, sender and origin address.
• Recently opened and search list: On the board, clicking into the empty search box lists the five enquiries you opened most recently that you may still see, newest first, each with its client, its RFQ number and the column it is in now. While you type it lists up to eight enquiries the search finds instead. Pick one with the mouse, or with the arrow keys and Enter, to open it; Show all on the board, Escape, or clicking away closes the list and leaves the board filtered. An enquiry counts as opened when you first open its mail, so opening one again does not move it up the list.
• List: The Board | List switch on the Active tab shows every enquiry you may see as one table instead of the board: its client (with an “N new” pill beside it while it holds mail you have not opened, and a red “⚠ Link doubtful” chip while its link is doubtful), RFQ number, subject, stage (To review, Ready to quote, Quoted, Revision requested or Ordered, in that order when sorted), the type of its newest email (such as Revision request or Purchase order) and when it came, owner, when its first email arrived, due date and a Next step column that says what the card’s strip says. Stage chips above the table (All, To review, Ready to quote, Quoted, Revision requested, Ordered) narrow it to one or more stages and are kept in the address; they stay visible if the List fails to load, so the filter can be cleared. Click Client, Stage, Received, Last email or Due to sort, and again to reverse; an enquiry with no client name or no due date sorts last either way. With no sort chosen, the newest received enquiry comes first. It shows 25 enquiries a page (the page size can be changed), follows the board’s search and assignment filter, and keeps the sort and page in the address. Clicking a client opens the enquiry, and the way back reads List.
• Back on the board: The card of the enquiry you opened last in this browser tab is outlined in whichever column it now sits, and scrolled into view when it is on the cards loaded.
• Email type: Each conversation and email shows its type (Enquiry, Revision request, Quotation, Purchase order, Sales order, Follow-up or Other), with the classifier’s confidence on hover; a type its link to an enquiry corrected is shown in place of the classifier’s. The email-type filter narrows the Other mail rail, or the Needs Review list, to any mix of types, and to emails not classified yet; the tab counts follow it.
• Assignment filter: The board can be narrowed to enquiries that have an owner, or to those that have none, and the rail to mail that has an office assigned or none. All assignments is the default. A sales person has no such filter: everything they see is theirs.
• What the reading found: An enquiry’s card carries its due date, and “Urgent” when the client said so. Opening it shows the reading above the email: the job references found in it, such as a job or enquiry number (a number only read from the subject is marked unconfirmed); the projects, sites or packages its lines are listed under, highlighted, each with how many lines it holds (R74; absent until the lines are read, and when no line names one); the product categories asked for (a “?” marks one the reading is not sure of), and whether the client asks for something not catalogued; the due date in the client’s words; each thing the client asks of the offer, such as delivery, taxes or documents; the attachments named as the client’s terms; the client contact from their signature, with designation, email, phones, GSTIN and place, and the company from the logo in the signature when its text names none; and the colleague who forwarded it, to whom, when, and their note. A conversation is named after the client company the reading found, else the sender. The reading is shown, not edited here.
• Mail summary: An email with no enquiry reading shows a summary above it in place of the reading: its type, the quotation numbers and customer references it cites, including FlowOS quote numbers (FQ-…, with the revision) and earlier Q and T numbers, also when they appear in a document the client attached (quote numbers and the client’s RFQ or reference number, never a project or job number, and never from our own quotation, proforma invoice, sales order, order acknowledgement, tax invoice, tag schedule, technical datasheet or packing list; a reference read only from an attached document links later mail, but does not group a new enquiry or fill its quotation’s customer reference), such as “Our quotation …” or “PO …” (“No quote number or reference cited” when there are none); while it waits in Needs Review, why, in plain words, a reason with no wording yet shown as written; and, for mail that follows an enquiry, how it is linked: the enquiry, the quotation number, Quote not in FlowOS or no quotation, and what the link rests on, followed by a red “⚠ doubtful” chip when the link may be wrong (see Does it fit its enquiry?), with Change link or Link to an enquiry, and, while it waits for a link, why it is not linked on that line instead, the Suggested enquiries (FlowOS’s matches, then the same client’s) and a search, each enquiry with one Link that says what it links as and a menu of the other ways to link it (R105).
• Read the email: Opening an email shows it the way a mail client does: its subject, From, To, Cc and when it arrived, its body, its attachments, and the office, owner and client it relates to. Pick another email of the conversation in the list to read it. A body shows its formatting and the pictures it carries; pictures linked from the internet are left out, and so are pictures the body shows from the attachment list. Links open in a new tab, and nothing in an email can run in FlowOS.
• Conversation view: Opening a card gives the conversation the whole page; the board’s title, tabs, filter and search stay on the board, and ← at the top of the email list goes back to it. The fold button beside it narrows the email list to a strip of tiles, one per email, newest first. Each tile shows the sender’s initials with a dot in the colour of the email’s type, a crimson dot while the email is unopened, and a crimson mark on the open one. Hovering a tile shows the email’s sender, date, subject, type, due date, attachments and status, and choosing it opens the email; the unfold button brings the list back. Dragging the divider left past the list’s narrowest width folds it too. FlowOS remembers in this browser whether the list was folded, and opens the next conversation the same way. Until you have folded or unfolded it, the list opens folded on a laptop and unfolded on a monitor 1800 pixels wide or more.
• Review extracted requirements: Open the line items to review each extracted line and its parameters, compare lines in the matrix, or read the evidence documents beside the matrix. The action panel beside the open email leads with the lines. Beneath them, shared requirements, unresolved requirements and additional information are each folded to one row that opens when chosen. The foot of the panel stays in place while the lines scroll: it names the office and owner the email is assigned to, or says Unassigned, above Reply to Email, Raise query and the quotation button. See Line items.
• Who sees which mail: Successfully processed assigned mail is visible to its assignee and the office team within their permission scope, whichever mailbox it arrived in. Successfully processed unassigned mail—including unresolved, ambiguous, uncovered and Outside India—is held for people who read across all offices, except on the conversation of an enquiry a person may read. Pending mail is hidden from everyone in the inbox; mail in Needs Review, failed extraction included, is shown within the same reach as processed mail. Administrators can assign visible mail to an office and owner. Office Heads can assign or reassign within their office; sales people see only their own assignments. An enquiry’s assignee and the head of its office can read every email of its conversation, a reply that arrived in another office’s mailbox or that nobody is assigned included, and such a reply counts as unopened on the enquiry’s card. Stakeholders and Administrators read across all offices.
• Customer identification: A conversation names the client company the reading found — from the signature, or from the logo in it when the text names none — and matches it to the Party Master by GSTIN or by name, choosing the branch by PIN, city or state. The card shows a match as “Matched” and other likely companies as “Maybe”, and names the conversation after the matched party. A company spelled two ways in the Party Master counts as one. Nothing is added to the Party Master; a party can still be picked by hand on the quotation.
• Quotation launchpad: Generate a quotation from an enquiry, or open its quotations, from the foot of the action panel. Generating is unavailable until the enquiry has lines, for an emailed enquiry as for one entered by hand, and says “Lines appear once the enquiry is read.” Once there are lines, it is unavailable while a line the quotation would cover still needs review, and says how many, such as “3 lines still need review”; confirm or exclude those lines first. While the enquiry’s lines cannot be read, generating is unavailable too, with Retry to read them again. See Quotation builder.
• Message assignment: An enquiry that arrives in a person’s own mailbox stays with that person. A reply goes to the office and owner of the enquiry it belongs to. Any other enquiry is routed by full PIN, extracted State/UT, then GSTIN state code to active offices whose configured zones cover the region. It goes, together with its enquiry, to the active Office Head there who was assigned the least mail in the last 30 days; tied heads rotate by assignment recency. Unmatched mail and its enquiry stay unassigned for Administrator handling. Administrators and Developers can assign across offices or unassign; Office Heads can reassign within their office. A person who may reassign chooses the assignment line at the foot of the action panel, picks an office and then an owner, and saves; closing it without saving changes nothing. On the board, the same person can right-click a card to assign its enquiry without opening it: the menu names who holds the enquiry now and offers Assign to me and each office with its active people, the current owner ticked. Choosing the person who already holds it changes nothing. If someone else reassigned it since FlowOS last loaded it, FlowOS says so and the card shows the latest, to choose again. Unassigning stays on the assignment line of the open email. The clock button beside the assignment line opens the email’s Email history, oldest first: each time it was linked to an enquiry, moved to another or unlinked (when its enquiry was deleted), each time its type changed, by a person’s reclassification or by the type its enquiry link gives it, and each change of its office or owner. Each change says when it happened, who made it (FlowOS, for linking, routing and an email following its enquiry), what it changed from and to, and why: what the link rests on, such as the same conversation, or the routing or reassignment that moved it. An enquiry is named by the subject of the email that started it, and as Removed once it is deleted. Anyone who can open the email can read it. Changes are recorded from the release that added this history; an email moved before then shows only its later changes.
• Reply from FlowOS: Choose Reply to Email at the foot of the conversation’s action panel, then select a template in the compose dialog: Enquiry Acknowledgement, Query to Customer or Quotation Offer. Review and edit the draft before sending. The To field starts with the original sender when identified, rather than the colleague who forwarded the email; otherwise it uses the email’s sender, and a reply to an email of ours starts with that email’s recipients. The greeting names the same person: the client contact the reading found on a forward or an email of ours, or “Customer” when it found none. Check and edit the recipients before sending. CC starts with the enquiry’s office head, so a client’s reply-all reaches a mailbox FlowOS reads: its assignee when they head its office, otherwise every head of its office, each at their own mailbox. A line under CC says so, and the head can be taken out before sending. Nobody is added on an email to colleagues only, by a head to themselves, or on an email with no enquiry, and CC holds at most 10 addresses, naming any head it leaves out. Acknowledgements require a next review date. Microsoft Graph sending must be enabled by an administrator, who also chooses where email goes: to the addresses typed, or, on a test system, to one test mailbox in place of every To, Cc and Bcc. In test mode the compose dialog says Test mode and names the test mailbox, and the conversation shows the email as sent to it.
  • Who may send: only a person whose role lets them send inbox replies sees Reply to Email. Of the seeded roles those are Sales Person, Office Head, Administrator and Developer; a Stakeholder reads and does not reply. A Sales Person replies on their own enquiries, an Office Head on those of the office. On a conversation with no enquiry, a Sales Person replies only from their own mailbox.
  • Which mailbox it goes from: a reply goes from a mailbox the conversation arrived in. That mailbox may be your own, or a shared mailbox. On a conversation that belongs to an enquiry you may work on, any shared mailbox it arrived in will do, whichever office that mailbox belongs to, so an enquiry routed to your office from a central mailbox or another office’s is answered by your office from the mailbox the customer wrote to. On a conversation with no enquiry, the shared mailbox must belong to an office of yours. A colleague’s own mailbox is always refused, so a conversation that arrived only there is answered by that colleague. Administrators and Developers, who work across every office, may send from any mailbox the conversation arrived in. The reply appears in the conversation’s message history, filed under the enquiry’s office.
  • Where the customer’s answer comes back: on a conversation that belongs to an enquiry, the customer’s answer is addressed to the shared mailbox of the enquiry’s office, even when the reply went from a person’s own mailbox (R55). On a conversation with no enquiry, or when that office has no shared mailbox, it comes back to the mailbox the reply went from.
  • Limits: To and Cc take up to ten addresses each, and an address goes in only one of them, once. The dialog has no Bcc field. The subject takes up to 255 characters.
  • Sending and retrying: FlowOS shows Sending while it submits the reply, and Sent by us once Microsoft has accepted it, without waiting for it to appear in Sent Items. If the result is uncertain the reply stays in the conversation as Send status uncertain; sending it again checks the existing message first and submits it again only while Microsoft still shows it as a draft. A reply that was submitted is never removed from the conversation. A reply stuck on Sending can be sent again after three minutes, which settles it the same way.
• Raise a query: When a line cannot be quoted without the customer’s answer, choose Raise query at the foot of the conversation’s action panel, beside the quotation button. It is offered on an enquiry email linked to its enquiry, not on the other emails of its conversation. FlowOS lists, for each line still to confirm, what only the customer can state, the same list as the line review’s Ask the customer group, and the line review’s Raise query (n) button opens it: the fluid, the flow rate, the line size, the measuring range, a gas line’s operating temperature and pressure, a steam line’s operating pressure, whether a steam line needs IBR approval, and a fluid property from the library that the line’s product fails on (R97). Every question starts ticked. Untick what you will not ask, and add questions of your own. Write email opens the reply to the open email with the query template filled in: lines asked the same questions share one heading, each line is named by its number and the start of its wording in the enquiry, and your own questions come last under General, or with no heading when they are the only questions. The draft is edited and sent like any other reply, and only a person who may send replies sees Raise query. Sending it also saves the query: the email it went as, who sent it and when, and each question kept, with the line and the need it asks about; sending the same email again saves nothing more. Asking a line about the same need again withdraws the earlier question, and a query left with no open question is closed. Closing the email without sending discards the list. An excluded line is asked nothing, and a confirmed line keeps the questions only the customer can answer. The product, the option menus and a stated value that matches no option are the salesperson’s to settle and are not proposed.

Upcoming in Plan 2: closing conversations (“done for now”).

See Collecting mail · Message labelling · Lifecycles.