Linking mail after a quotation

How a client's reply, revision request or purchase order finds the enquiry it follows, and how a person links it when FlowOS cannot.

What this process achieves

Every email a client sends after an enquiry, such as an answer, a revision request, a purchase order or a follow-up, sits on the card of the enquiry it is about, with the quotation it answers when that quotation was issued in FlowOS. Mail on an enquiry’s card is then read for what it asks to change (see Inbox).

How FlowOS links it

FlowOS links the mail itself, in the fixed order of R97 in Business rules; the first match decides. The email’s mail summary says what the link rests on:

Step 8 is tried only for a revision request or a purchase order. A step that fits two quotations or two enquiries equally sends the email to Needs Review, as does a revision request or purchase order that matches nothing.

Beside it the summary names the quotation the mail answers, by number with its revision; Quote not in FlowOS when it answers a quotation made elsewhere, such as in the ERP; and no quotation when it came before any. When linking corrected the email’s type, such as an enquiry email that answers a quotation and is read as a revision request, the summary notes the type first read, such as “(read as Enquiry)”.

When FlowOS cannot link it

The email waits in Needs Review, and its mail summary says why:

When FlowOS fetches earlier mail

A client’s revision request, purchase order or follow-up that FlowOS cannot link often answers a conversation that began before FlowOS read the mailbox, or our own quotation email, which sits in Sent Items where FlowOS does not read. When the email names earlier emails FlowOS does not hold, FlowOS looks for them in the mailboxes the email arrived in, in every folder, Sent Items included, up to 50 of them. It never looks in any other mailbox.

What it finds is read oldest first, as earlier mail:

• An enquiry email among it starts the enquiry, read as any enquiry is. When there is none, the oldest client email among it that is not a copy (R2a) starts the enquiry, read with the earlier messages quoted inside it.
• Our own quotation email joins that enquiry. Its Q or T quote number marks the later mail Quote not in FlowOS.
• Earlier mail is never sent to Needs Review, never read for what it asks to change, and never counts as unread on the board or towards an office’s load.

FlowOS then links the email again, with any other waiting email that names the same mail. Once linked, it leaves Needs Review, and what it asks to change is read when the enquiry’s requirements are gathered, or after six hours. The enquiry’s lines hold the client’s first ask, not later rounds agreed outside FlowOS.

The email’s mail summary says what FlowOS found:

FlowOS fetches earlier mail only where it has been turned on.

Linking it by hand

1. Open the email. Its mail summary says why it is not linked, such as “Not linked · No FlowOS quotation matched it”, and lists the Suggested enquiries: the matches FlowOS weighed, in its order, then up to five other enquiries the same client started. Each says what it matched on: what FlowOS matched, Same client for the same address, or Same company for another address at the same company. A webmail address counts only as itself, and a lead portal’s address suggests nothing.

2. When none fits, type at least two characters into Find another enquiry: the client’s address, the enquiry’s subject, its customer reference or a quote number. Up to 20 enquiries you may read are listed, most recently updated first.

3. Press Link on the enquiry. Each enquiry says what Link links it as:

   Links as	When
   The quotation FlowOS matched	FlowOS weighed that quotation for the email
   The newest quotation issued before the email	The enquiry has one
   Quote not in FlowOS	It has none, and the email cites an ERP (Q/T) quote number or is a purchase order or revision request
   No quotation yet	Otherwise

   To link it another way, open the menu beside Link and choose one of the enquiry’s issued quotations by its number, Quote not in FlowOS for a quotation made elsewhere, or No quotation yet when none was sent.

Linking an email that cites an ERP quote number teaches FlowOS that number: later mail citing it links to the same enquiry by itself, marked Quote not in FlowOS. Earlier mail FlowOS fetched teaches the numbers it carries the same way.

Mail already linked shows Change link, and post-quote mail linked to nothing shows Link to an enquiry; both open the same suggestions and search. The email that started an enquiry cannot be moved, and mail in Needs Review for another reason cannot be linked.

Once linked (R105), the email leaves Needs Review and takes the enquiry’s office and owner unless it was reassigned by hand. A client’s revision request, purchase order, follow-up, later enquiry or other email is read again for what it asks to change within five minutes. Mail typed as a quotation or a sales order is linked but not read, a purchase order read as Other is read for its changes alone, and a type cannot be corrected from the screen yet. FlowOS never changes a link a person made.

Who can link

Linking needs edit rights on the inbox for both enquiries, the one the email leaves and the one it joins. Anyone else sees the link and the suggestions with linking turned off. Mail in Needs Review is visible to the office it is assigned to, to whoever it is assigned to, and on the conversation of an enquiry a person may read; mail assigned to no office only to people who read across all offices.