Feature
One composer on every contact, project, quote and invoice. Templates, your own signature, your own sending domain and a check before each send.
Email in Combdex is one composer that opens over any contact, company, lead, project, session, quote or invoice, and logs the email on each record it is about. It starts from your templates, signs with your own signature, sends from your own domain once the domain is verified, and checks the message before it goes.
Where do I write an email?
On the record. Every record that a customer conversation is about has an email action, so the email starts with the right contact and the right links already attached.
| Record | Where to press |
|---|---|
| Contact, company or lead | Email in the record's menu. It is off when the record has no email address. |
| Project or session | Email in the header. |
| Quote or invoice | Send email on a published one, or Publish and send on a draft in the builder. |
| A payment | The receipt action on the invoice's payments card. |
The composer opens at the bottom right of the page, over the record, so the record stays readable behind it. It saves itself as you type. Close it at any time and the draft waits on its record. See Writing and sending email for the three views, the toolbar and the fields.
One draft per quote or invoice
Open the email of a quote twice and you get the same draft, not a second one. A draft exists only after a real change, so pressing Send email and closing again leaves nothing behind. This is the rule that stops a customer from getting two versions of the same quote from two people in the office.
What goes into an email?
Press Insert in the composer:
- A template: the subject and the message to start from.
- A quote or an invoice of the email's contact, as a link card.
- Photos from the project or the session of the email.
- A file from your computer.
- A field of a linked record, such as the contact's first name or the invoice balance. A field prints its value when the email goes, or its fallback when the record has no value.
The limits are printed on the screen when you reach them: 20 files and 25 MB of attachments in total, 50 addresses across To, Cc and Bcc, and a subject of 200 characters. You can schedule an email up to 90 days ahead.
Templates and the signature
Each company has one list of templates in Settings, Email, Templates. The built-in templates cover the emails a field business sends every week: the quote, the invoice, the invoice reminder, the payment receipt, the form reply, the quote follow-up, the appointment confirmation, on the way and work complete. Change the words of a built-in template and the next automatic email uses them. An admin adds and changes templates; every user can insert them.
Each user has their own signature, set with one switch per line in Settings, Email, Signature. See Email templates and signature.
How do I send from my own domain?
An admin does this once for the company:
- Open Settings, Email, Sending domain.
- Type the domain and press Add domain. The page lists the DNS records.
- Add each record at your domain host, or press Connect with your host where Combdex recognises it.
- Press Check now. Combdex also checks the records by itself every 10 minutes.
A new record can take up to 48 hours to show on the internet. When the domain is verified, the From line of the composer shows your address. The records go on subdomains and do not change where your own mail arrives. The steps and the record table are in Send from your own domain.
What does the send check catch?
Two mistakes that cost a customer's trust: "the quote is attached" with nothing attached, and a message with no subject. Press Send and Combdex asks "Send this email?" with the reason, or "Send without a subject?". You choose. After the send, the bar says Sent. with Undo for a moment, in case the wrong person was in To.
Where are the sent emails?
In the inbox, under Sent, and on every record the email was about. The email is logged on the contact, the project and the quote or invoice it links, so the office and the phone read the same history. See Inbox.
What Combdex does not do yet
Replies go to your company's email address today, through the reply address on each email. Replies that thread back onto the contact inside Combdex are built, and switch on when the platform's reply service is configured. Sending through your own personal mailbox is designed and not live. Combdex sends one email to one conversation; it has no bulk newsletter tool.
Related
- Quotes: what the quote email delivers.
- Invoices and payments: the invoice email, the reminder and the receipt.
- Forms: the automatic reply a form sends.
- Contacts and leads: where each email is logged.
Questions people ask
Can I send a quote or an invoice by email from Combdex?
Yes. Press Send email on a published quote or invoice. The composer opens with the Quote or Invoice template, and the message carries the customer's link. The customer opens the link, reads, signs or pays, and can download the PDF there.
Does the email go from my own domain?
It can. Add your domain in Settings, Email, Sending domain, then add the DNS records the page lists at your domain host. When the domain is verified, email goes from your domain. Until then, it goes from the shared Combdex address with your company name as the sender.
Is a PDF attached to the email?
No, not by default. The message carries the link, and the customer downloads the PDF from that page. A link always shows the current state of the quote or invoice; an attached file shows the state on the day it was sent.
What does the send check look for?
Two mistakes. A message that says attached or attachment with no file attached, and a message with no subject. The check asks before it sends. It never blocks the email.
Can I write email on the phone?
Yes. The mobile app has the same composer, full screen, opened from the Email section of a record or from Publish on a quote or invoice. The send check is the same rule on both.