You will be using your own email application (e.g. Gmail, Outlook) for day-to-day inbox management and emails.
You can get a copy of these emails in Brightpearl, so that you and other staff can see the whole communication history when you need to make a call or follow-up. Using a special inbox called a "Dropbox", Brightpearl will automatically attach incoming and outgoing emails to the relevant contacts in your Brightpearl account.
Your Brightpearl account has an email address in the format: dropbox+bn876234dg7@thisispearl.com - which is unique to your company.
Find your Dropbox email address at Setup > Contacts > Dropbox.
It's easy to integrate your email with Brightpearl.
Sending Outgoing Emails
If you're sending an email to a client or customer from software outside Brightpearl (e.g. from Outlook or iPhone), make sure you also copy (CC or BCC) the Dropbox email address. Brightpearl checks the Dropbox email account every 5 minutes and does the rest for you.
If you forget to copy to your Dropbox just forward the email to the Dropbox address. Don't add any text, and don't change the subject. Brightpearl will extract the original sender and recipients as long as you're using standard email software.
You can get some email programmes to automatically copy your Dropbox.
Incoming Emails
Ideally you'd set up your email system so that every incoming email is delivered to you as well as being delivered automatically to your Dropbox. If you're using GoogleMail, then see below for instructions. If you can't get your incoming emails copied to your Dropbox, then you can forward the relevant ones as they arrive.
Learn more about setting up GoogleApps with Dropbox
Brightpearl will try to clean out any "quoted text" to prevent an email containing content that's already been added to the trail, which also means that if you reply to an email with replies inserted into the "reply" section then these will get removed.
Showing Emails on a Contact Timeline
Every Brightpearl account comes with a "Dropbox".
This is an email address that you send emails to in order for them to be captured and included on a contact, quote, sale or project timeline.
Your Dropbox email address is found at Setup > Contacts > Dropbox.
Viewing the Emails
Emails appear in the contact's timeline.
Search for, and open the contact record then select the Timeline tab. Brightpearl will display all emails where any of the contact's three email addresses appears in the recipient list on that email. This means that if a customer has more than one email address, you can still see ALL the emails in the same timeline as their sales, notes, tickets and accounting information.
The Clever Stuff
OK, so someone has just sent you an email but they're not in your CRM. If you add them shortly after they send the email, you can still see the email in the timeline, even though their email address wasn't in Brightpearl when the email was delivered.
Every email that finds a matching email address in CRM is stored permanently, but we also store up to 100 emails that haven't got a matching email address in case you want to add the contact after the email arrives.
Frequently asked questions
Why are my emails not showing on the contact timeline?
Brightpearl ignores all emails sent just between staff members. These emails are not "customer relationship", and will fill up your data space unnecessarily. So if you send a test to your Dropbox from your own email and don't CC a client or supplier, it won't show.
Why are no emails showing on the company timeline?
When you view a company timeline (search and open the contact then click the company name), it shows activity across all the company contacts (colleagues). This view excludes emails, otherwise it would be swamped with too much information.
How do I set up Google Apps?
Also see Thunderbird Integration
