Collecting mail
How mail and attachments reach FlowOS from a Flowtech mailbox.
What this process achieves
Brings new mail and its attachments from an enrolled Flowtech mailbox into FlowOS, grouped into conversations and labelled, so the enquiries in it can be worked.
Who is involved
- Administrator — enrols mailboxes, and pauses or resumes a person’s.
- The system — fetches on Graph delta, files, labels and reports.
- Sales person / office head — work what arrived.
What starts it
An enrolled mailbox with a live delta cursor. One mail process holds the cursor per mailbox. This is not a “Sync new” button.
The steps
- A mailbox is enrolled: a shared one in Email Management, with no office, or a person’s own from their mailbox panel, under their office. Its first sync starts straight away, or as soon as a sync already running finishes; after that it syncs on the regular schedule. Turning a mailbox back on starts a sync the same way. While a Developer has paused mail sync, a new or re-enabled mailbox waits for the first scheduled sync after sync resumes.
- The system fetches what Graph has not yet delivered, newest first.
- For each message it has not seen before, it saves the attachments, attaches the message to the conversation — creating it if this is the first message — and records who the enquiry originally came from behind any forward, or behind a colleague’s reply to colleagues that says nothing of its own above the client’s email. Unless the message is a copy (step 4), it also records what the message is and which project or quotation references it names. Mail from a client after a quotation is linked to the enquiry and quotation it answers (Linking mail after a quotation). For an enquiry, it also names the product categories asked for and records the colleague who forwarded it.
- A copy of a client email already held is not read again. When the same client email arrives again within 30 days of the first, at the same office, and adds nothing — the same files with the same words or none, or, with no files on either, the same words — one of the two is kept and read, and the other is linked to it as a copy and goes no further (R2a). The kept one is the earlier email. The first sync reads newest first, so a later email can arrive first: it becomes the copy when the earlier one arrives, unless it has already been typed. A copy still appears in its conversation and shows as ready, marked as a copy of the email kept, and joins that email’s enquiry; it has no type of its own. A note that is only a greeting or filler, such as “PFA” or “kindly quote”, counts as none, and so does a forwarding colleague’s note such as “FYI” or “please check and revert”. A re-send with new files, or with any other words, even “revised qty 10” or a colleague’s “client now wants 20”, is read in full. So is one arriving more than 30 days after the first, and the same enquiry sent separately to a second office is read for that office too. One email addressed to both offices is held once and read once. However, a colleague’s reply to colleagues that says nothing above the client’s email, with no files of its own, is a copy when the client’s words match an email already held under the same subject, whatever files that email had.
- A message already stored is skipped.
- A closed conversation receiving genuinely new mail is reopened.
- The customer is named from what the reading finds in the client’s signature and address: the party in the Party Master it matches by company, GSTIN, email domain or address, else the company the signature gives, else the contact’s name. A client that matches no party is shown under the name read and is not made a party.
- Sync state records last run, consecutive failures and last error, per mailbox, and Email Management’s Sync state tab shows it.
Decision points
| Point | What routes it |
|---|---|
| Is this mailbox enrolled? | Anything else is not synced |
| Have we seen this message? | Already-stored messages are skipped |
| Have we seen this client email before? | Same client, within 30 days, at the same office, nothing added (the same files with the same words or none; with no files on either, the same words; a note of only a greeting or filler, the client’s or a forwarding colleague’s, such as “PFA” or “FYI”, counts as no words) → linked as a copy, not read again. New files, any other words, even “revised qty 10”, more than 30 days apart, or sent separately to another office → read in full. A colleague’s reply to colleagues, with nothing of its own and no files, over a client’s email forwarded inside Flowtech → a copy when the client’s words match an email already held under the same subject, whatever files that email had |
| Is this a new thread or a reply? | A reply joins the existing conversation |
| Was it closed? | New mail reopens it |
| Do we know the customer? | A match in the Party Master names the customer; otherwise the company or contact read from the signature is shown, and no party is created |
Rules that apply
R1, R2, R2a, R5, R6, R7, R8, R8a, R10, R46, R48, R55, R56 in the business rules register.
What happens if it stalls
- One bad message is skipped and counted; the rest of the sync continues.
- An attachment with no content is skipped; the message and conversation are still created.
- Consecutive failures are visible on Email Management. Already-held mail stays workable.
See Mailbox management and Automatic behaviour.