Setting Up External Emails in CleanTelligent

Setting Up External Emails in CleanTelligent

Generate Work Orders from Emails in CleanTelligent

External emails allow you to connect 3rd party work order systems with CleanTelligent or submit work orders via email.

External email setup involves combining several parts of CleanTelligent's system:
  1. Creating Applicable Users
  2. Creating a Custom Email Address
  3. Setting External Email Rules
  4. Enabling External Email Settings
This article will be a step-by-step guide to setting up external emails and will suggest best practices for each phase of the setup.

Creating Applicable Users

At this point, it’s important to make sure you have the correct users set up. You need at least one user paired to each email address the system needs to expect emails from. That user's email address should be the email address or email pattern we are expecting emails from. Example: If they are sending emails from theirname@theircompany.com to testlocation.1234@cleantelligent.com which is the custom email address we will be setting up later in this process, then the email address for the employee or contact should be theirname@theircompany.com or if you are expecting several email addresses from @theircompany.com then you can set up a second email on that user with a pattern of *@theircompany.com in order for the system to recognize it.
You need at least one active Contact user able to create work orders for the location(s) you want the external emails connected to.
  1. Hover over Contacts in the Main Navigation
  2. Click on New Contact
  3. Fill in all required fields to create a new contact.
  4. Include the email address you expect the emails to come from that will generate the work orders.
  5. Click the Save button
  6. From the Contact Record, scroll down the page and verify that the correct email address(es) is/are shown in the Email Notifications list.
    1. If you are expecting multiple email addresses to create work orders for this client, you can include additional email addresses for this contact by clicking on NEW next to the Email Notifications header

    2. If you are expecting emails from a pattern, then set up the primary email address as a real email address and then create an additional email but mark it as a pattern.
    3. The primary email address on a contact record must be a full email address. You must have all patterns in secondary email addresses.
    4. If you want to activate this user without sending them an email, use your email address as the primary email and then add the expected "From" email address as a secondary email on the contact record.
  7. Scroll back up to the top of the Contact Record page and ensure that the User Information is Active

    1. If you haven't activated the user, click New next to User Information, otherwise click Edit next to User Information to review the Module Permissions
  8. Inside of the User Information, ensure that the Module Permissions for the user have been set to Allow for at least both Messages and Inbox

  9. Now that you have an active user with the correct email(s) or email pattern(s) you are ready to create your new External Email

Creating a Custom Email Address

If you are using one standard custom external email with multiple rules to route emails to different locations, skip this step and go on to Setting External Email Rules below.

  1. Hover over Admin on the Main Navigation
  2. Click Admin
  3. Scroll to the Work Order Configuration section
  4. Click Custom External Emails
  5. On the Custom External Emails page, click New Custom External Email
  6. Set an Email Prefix unique to the location you want to have these emails create work orders for
    1. Ensure there are no spaces or symbols in the prefix, only letters and numbers are allowed
  7. Turn Use Catchall to Yes
    1. This will allow you to catch any emails coming into the custom email address that don't match the rules you set up in the next section and troubleshoot the emails without loosing them. (See the Testing and Troubleshooting section at the end of this article for more)
  8. Click Save
  9. Next we will set up the External Email Rules for the Custom External Email we just created.

Setting External Email Rules

If needed, return to the Custom External Emails page (See steps 1-4 of Creating Your New External Email above), and click the email you just created. Our next step is to make Rules. 
CleanTelligent CANNOT accept any email unless it matches a rule you create. You MUST create clear rules or else your emails will end up in the Catchall instead of in your Work Order Inbox where you want them.
Best practice for setting up an external email is to match each rule to a person.
  1. Click New on the right side of the screen.
  2. Select the Service Location this email will apply to. 
  3. If you have only one user who will be using this email, you can select them under SP user or Client user at this stage, but it is not required.
  4. On the right of the screen, click Add Criteria.
    Best practice for setting up an external email is to match each rule to a person.
  5. To match each rule to a person, select "From" as the Field criteria, "Exactly Matches" as the Match Type criteria, and their full email address as the Pattern criteria
  6. Next you will set up External Email Settings for the location where the work orders will be created.
Note: Other criteria may be used to change the results, like finding information from the Subject field in order to filter which location the email should create a work order for, etc. If you want to do things differently, you can experiment with different ways of setting things up (for example, some have a specific word that needs to be in the subject line of an email in order for it to be accepted). Bear in mind that the Rules can be a bit finnicky about what is accepted and what is not, so be thorough and clear in the way you set it up.
While you can add multiple criteria under each rule, best practice is to only add one criteria per rule. To add multiple, click Add Criteria on the right; otherwise, click Save. Your new rule will now show up under the Rules section. If you need to add another rule (for example, if there's another email address you want to be able to use to email in to CleanTelligent), you may.
Because the criteria are setup as "if/and" statements, it is best practice to add only one criteria per rule unless you are very clear about your criteria.
It's a good idea to make sure at least one of your rules will allow you to email in from your own email address. This will help you test the end result and make sure it's working properly.

Enabling External Email Settings

Enabling the External Email Settings for a location will allow the system to create work orders from the emails received through the Custom External Email for the location the Rules point the emails to.
In order to configure an External Email, you must select a Contact User. If Message Types are set up on that location, you must select at least one Message Type. You can view this helpful video for instructions if you need to set up a new message type.
  1. Hover over Admin in the Main Navigation
  2. Click on Admin
  3. Scroll down the to the Work Order Configuration section of the page
  4. Click on External Email Settings
    1. This screen shows a list of all your Service Locations, along with their accompanying Message Types and Contact Users. Please note that in order to configure an external email, you need either Message Types, a Contact User, or both.
    2. If you want to set up external emails using an Employee User, you will need Message Types configured. 
  5. Navigate the pages at the bottom of the screen to locate the Service Location you are setting up External Emails for.
  6. Check the boxes for all the Message Types and Contact Users you want the external email rules to allow work orders to be created through.

  7. Click Save

Testing and Troubleshooting

Because of all the different moving part in external emails, it's important to test your new setup before rolling it out to your clients or employees. Send in a numbered test email (ex. test #1). Give it a few minutes, and check both your Catchall and your Work Order Inbox. To view your Catchall:
  1. Hover over Admin in Main Navigation
  2. Click View Catchall
Right when you get to the catchall, you will see 2 prompts, cancel out of both of them.

If 10 or 15 minutes have gone by and you don't see the test email in either your work order inbox or your catchall, you may need to readjust your rules, check your settings, etc. 
If your email arrives in the catchall, it usually tells you the reason why it ended up there. In the example below, no rules were matched (the message was sent from an unrecognized email address in this particular case).

Some common errors you may see include:
  1. No Sender Matched - the email address this message came from doesn't match anyone you specified in your rules. Follow the instructions in Creating Applicable Users above.
  2. No Rules Matched - the message didn't match any of your rules. Follow the instructions in External Email Rules above.
  3. Message Types Not Configured - Double check your message types (you can go back to the External Email Settings section of this article). You may have forgotten to configure them. If a message type is selected but you are still getting this error message, check to make sure you have selected a Contact user for that location as well. Not having BOTH a Message Type and Contact User selected for the location will cause this error to appear. Follow the instructions in External Email Settings above.
In the event that you see other errors or experience problems not covered in this article, don't panic! Feel free to reach out to the Customer Support Department by ticket or phone call with any questions.
Once you're done testing and everything is working correctly, don't forget to modify any relevant contact users, as well as relevant external email rules, to match the email of the person who will actually need to be using it.

Conclusion

We hope this guide to setting up External Emails has been helpful. The setup is a bit involved, but once it's all set up you'll be able to seamlessly funnel work orders from another system or email to CleanTelligent to generate work orders from clients or employees!

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