Trackops has offers the ability to automatically capture email replies to your case updates, alleviating the need to manually copy and paste feedback from clients and investigators back into the system. When this feature is enabled, all case update replies will automatically be handled by the system instead of your personal email.
An inbound email reply is handled exactly the same way as if that person had logged in and posted the update manually, meaning that all validation rules and update notifications are processed accordingly. If you have the system configured to notify the case manager when a new update is posted, they will still receive a notification from an inbound update email. There are a few important details to remember when dealing with inbound update emails:
- To counteract spam and unauthorized posts, the author of the reply must have been sent the original case update through the system. If someone replies from an email address that is not logged in the update recipient list, the reply will be forwarded to the the specified Inbound Email Catch-All, which can be configured in your General Case Settings.
- Valid email attachments will be automatically uploaded and attached to the new case update (max of 5 files per email). Inline attachments (e.g. embedded images/signatures) will be ignored in most cases. Note: Only supported file types will be processed.
- Inbound emails are handled in batches approximately every 5 minutes. There may be a slight delay from when the email is sent to when it actually posts into your system.
Enabling/Disabling Inbound Update Emails
To enable or disable inbound update email handling, click the Settings tab, and then click General Case Settings. From here, scroll down to the Case Updates section and toggle the Enable Email Update Replies setting. Finally, click the Save Settings button to confirm your selection.
Emailing Case Updates Directly to Cases
Each case in Trackops has a unique email address that can be used to email new case updates directly into the case from an email client. You can locate the case email address on any case by clicking the the envelope icon next to the case number from the case overview.
Just like email case update replies, new case update emails are restricted to valid email addresses in your system to prevent spam and abuse.
In addition, the case email address can be included as a template variable for use in update presets, assignment emails or other related information.