A Step by Step guide


If you and your team log into a shared mailbox (info@..., sales@..., support@... ) to manage incoming requests, you'll know that it can be challenging to keep track of who's working on what and keep things from slipping through the cracks.  This guide will run you through how to correctly configure Sortd to work with a shared mailbox.


* Note: If you use a distribution list where everyone receives mails to a particular email address in their own mailbox (as opposed to a single mailbox that all members of the team log into), be sure to read the section at the bottom of this post.


How shared email works in Sortd


  • Unlike some other shared inbox solutions, Sortd only shows the Inbox of the account you are logged into in Gmail, so you only need to worry about managing one Inbox - your own. The Inbox of the shared mail account (if you are using a shared mailbox) remains intact.
  • The way email is shared with a team in Sortd is via a shared board to the right of the Inbox.  Each user who has access to the shared board will see the same shared board to the right of their own Inbox.
  • To share a board with multiple email accounts you simply invite users to that board.
  • If you want email sent to the shared mailbox automatically shared with the team, you can set up an automation (note: only a team admin can set up automations on a team). Once you have that in place there is no longer a need for anyone on the team to log into the shared mailbox, since they all now have access to the email on the shared board.
  • The automation criteria is important - if you want it to move all email that comes in, set the automation up to move anything where the recipient is @yourdomain.com to the board.
  • If multiple people have the same board open, when an email is automatically moved to that board everyone will see it on the board, so you can pick one list to function like an Inbox. If you have criteria that enables you to identify who in the team an email should be sent to, rather than adding all email to one list on the board you can automatically add to other lists and automatically assign to different team members (this is all done through the automation setup screen).
  • If one person on the team is responsible for assigning the tasks and doesn't log into the shared mailbox you might want to consider automatically assigning all email to that person in the automation - that way you can be sure that when there is a new email on an unassigned list someone always knows about it.


Quick Setup


To configure Sortd correctly to work with a shared mailbox, follow these steps...


1. Install Sortd (if you haven't already)


Install Sortd for Gmail - Chrome Web Store (google.com)


2. Switch to a Team board

* Note, automations don't work with the personal board.

Add a new board (open the Sortd menu and click the + button as shown below)



2. Choose a board type



4. Enable email sharing


If you don't see this prompt right away, don't worry it will come up again later.


5. Customize it


Depending on how you like to manage things you will either tweak the default list names on the board (by adding, renaming, deleting), or you can arrange your board with a list for each of your team members.  There's no right or wrong way, just go with what makes the most sense to you.


Default setup...



Organized by Team member...



At this point, if your team members all install Sortd and open up the shared mailbox they will see the board automatically - there's nothing more they need to do.  However, if you'd like to be able to track things through a more complex process and assign tasks and emails to individual team members - you'll need to invite them.



6. Invite your team members


Click on the + invite link button on the top right of the board ...



Simply type in their email addresses at the bottom.



Each of them will receive an email with a link to install Sortd (if they haven't already).  As soon as they sign in they will have access to the board (both from their own email accounts and from the shared account).  This means that anyone can reply to an email from their own email address to give the correspondence your team has with customers a more personal touch.


* Note: Even if you don't want to have your team members reply to emails on the shared board from their own Gmail accounts, if you want to be able to assign emails to them they will need to sign in with their own email accounts first.


How to use Sortd with your shared mailbox


With Sortd installed and all team members having signed in with their own email accounts, they can now switch to the shared email account like they always do.  But from here on, anyone on the team can drag an email to the board and assign it to themselves or another team member.


To assign an email, anyone on the team can simply drag it to the board. All team members will see changes on the board immediately.  To assign an email, simply click on the profile icon and start typing the name of the person you want to assign to.




USEFUL ARTICLE - Setting your team mailboxes (info@, sales@, finance@ etc) and getting new emails to appear on your shared boards



What if you use a distribution list (not a mailbox)?


The only difference with a distribution list (where everyone is copied on emails to the general address) is that you will set Sortd up on one of the accounts (yours is as good as any), and invite the others.  Anyone on the distribution list can drag emails to the shared board and assign them to themselves or someone else.  But since there are multiple copies of the same email you'll probably find it easier if you turn your distribution list into a dedicated mailbox.  When you assign an email to a team member they can either respond from the shared mailbox or their own mailbox for a more personal touch.


And that's about it.  Be sure to make use of due dates (the flag icon), reminders and grouping (by holding SHIFT when you drag).  If you have any questions feel free to log a ticket or send an email to team@sortd.com..



Setting up signatures and send-as email addresses


1 . Personalized Signatures

Each user in Sortd will have their own email address.  An email signature is text, like your contact information or a favorite quote, that’s automatically added at the end of Gmail messages as a footer.  


2. Non-personalized Signatures

In certain cases you may want your email address or your team's email addresses to come from a single non-personalized address.  This is typically used in Customer Support use cases, where anyone in the team can reply to any email and you don't want to a support agent to be attached a particular customer.


How to customize signatures and send-as email addresses, click here.