# Email intake
Let people start an application by email, and have Klarefi answer with the form
Source: https://www.klarefi.com/docs/guides/email-intake

## Overview

Connect the mailbox your applications arrive in. Klarefi reads every new
email in it, works out whether it is an enquiry and for which of your forms,
and answers in your name from your own address, with a link that opens the
application already filled in. An email that asks about several things, such
as three loans, gets one email back for each, and each becomes its own case in
your queue.

## Connect your mailbox

Open **Settings → Email**. Under **Your mailbox** there are three ways in. You
can also do this in the welcome wizard, and the setup checklist reminds you
until it is done.

### Sign in with Google

For Gmail or Google Workspace. Sign in with the mailbox your applications
arrive in, and leave both permissions ticked. That is all: Klarefi sends from
that address, replies come back to it, and Klarefi reads the inbox with
nothing to forward and no DNS to change. It changes nothing in your mailbox.

If Google's screen asks only for permission to send, or you untick the
permission to read, Klarefi still sends from your address, and you forward
the mailbox's mail as below.

**Disconnect** removes the connection here and at Google.

### Sign in with Microsoft

For Microsoft 365 or Outlook.com. Sign in with the mailbox your applications
arrive in and accept the permissions. Klarefi sends from that address, replies
come back to it, and Klarefi reads the inbox with nothing to forward and no DNS
to change. It changes nothing in your mailbox.

Some organisations let only an admin give apps access to mailboxes. If yours
does, Microsoft says so and nothing is connected: ask your Microsoft 365 admin
to connect it, or to allow Klarefi.

**Disconnect** removes the connection here and deletes Klarefi's access. To
remove Klarefi from your Microsoft account as well, open
[myapps.microsoft.com](https://myapps.microsoft.com).

### Other mailbox

For any other mailbox, such as Zoho or your host's own mail.

1. Choose **Other mailbox** and enter its address, such as
   `loans@yourcompany.com`.
2. **Send from it.** If your DNS is at Cloudflare, choose **Sign in to
   Cloudflare** and approve it there. For any other DNS host, choose **Add them
   by hand** and copy the records in. Klarefi checks for them at once when you
   come back, then every 15 minutes for 72 hours. The records only let Klarefi
   send: where your mail is delivered does not change, and Klarefi keeps no
   access to your DNS. Until they are found, emails go out from a Klarefi
   address with your organisation's name.
3. **Bring its mail to Klarefi.** In your mailbox, forward every email to the
   address shown under **Bring its mail to Klarefi**. Your mailbox keeps its
   own copy. Where Klarefi knows your mail host, the page links straight to its
   forwarding settings. Microsoft 365 forwards outside your organisation only
   once an admin allows it. If your mailbox asks to confirm the forward with a
   code, Klarefi shows the code on the page. The page says it is waiting until
   the first forwarded email arrives.

For an address on a part of your domain that takes no mail yet, such as
`applications@mail.yourcompany.com`, there is nothing to forward: its mail
comes straight to Klarefi once its records are found. Mail there that is not
an enquiry is passed on to the person who connected it, since nobody else reads
that address.

**Remove** stops the reading and puts the Klarefi address back.

### Reply after

**Reply after** is how long Klarefi waits before it answers an enquiry: at
once, or 1, 3, 5, 10 or 30 minutes. New workspaces start at 3 minutes.

## What happens to an email

1. Klarefi reads each new conversation in your mailbox, and the replies in
   the thread of a case (see [Replies](#replies)). Any other reply in a
   conversation that is under way stays with your team. Automatic messages,
   emails whose sender cannot be confirmed, and Klarefi's own emails to your
   team are not answered.
2. Klarefi's agent reads the email and your forms and works out whether it is
   an enquiry, for which form, how many separate requests it holds, and which
   attached file belongs to which. An email that is not an enquiry, such as an
   invoice or a newsletter, is left in your mailbox. Three loans in one email
   are three requests; one loan secured on three properties is one. A file
   about every request, such as the company's accounts, goes with each.
3. Each request opens an application of its own and is a case in your queue at
   once, waiting on the applicant. A request from an email with several says so
   in the queue, with the name it was given, such as the property's address.
   The email and the request's files are added to its case as documents, apart
   from the conversation on the form.
4. After the wait you set, Klarefi answers. One request is answered in the
   sender's own thread. Several get one email each, named after the request,
   with its own link and their email quoted underneath, so every request has a
   thread of its own. Each says which of the sender's files are in the form
   already, and which they still have to add, such as a file of a kind the form
   does not take.
5. Before the applicant opens the link, Klarefi's agent reads their email and
   its files for the answers the form asks for. It fills in a field only when
   the email or a file states its answer, and keeps the words it read from.
   Those answers are kept off the form until the applicant agrees to the
   notice, and deleted, with the copies of the email and its files, if they
   never do.
6. When the applicant agrees, the answers are in the form at once. Each one is
   marked as coming from their email, with the words it was read from and, for
   a file, its name and page. The applicant can change any of them. Their files
   are already among their uploads, and Klarefi's agent starts on the case.
7. The applicant adds what is missing. From here it is the same intake as one
   started from a link.

The same email never opens the same application twice. One sender gets up to
20 answers a day, and your mailbox up to 60 an hour; past that, an email is
left to your team.

Forms that had an address of their own on Klarefi's domain keep it: an email
forwarded there is answered for that form alone.

## Replies

Every email of a case is on its file page, under **Emails**, apart from the
conversation on the form: the email that opened it, Klarefi's answer, your
decision, and every reply. Emails your team sends from a connected Gmail or
Microsoft mailbox in the same thread are there too.

Klarefi knows a reply for its case when it is in the same thread, answers one
of the case's emails, or has the same subject and comes from the address the
case's email went to. A reply that could belong to more than one case is left
in your mailbox for your team to place.

- **Before you decide**, a reply goes to Klarefi's agent with its files, the
  way the first email did. The agent reads it, the rules run again, and the
  case shows what changed.
- **After you decide**, a reply is yours to answer. The case is closed, so
  the reply's files stay in your mailbox. Klarefi's agent drafts an answer
  from the thread, your decision and the case, and puts it under the reply. Change what you need and press **Send answer**. It goes to the
  applicant in the same thread, from the same address your decision came
  from. Nothing is sent until someone on your team sends it.

A case with a reply nobody has opened says **New reply** in the queue, and
counts among the cases that need attention, until someone opens its emails.

## Which address applicants see

Until a mailbox is connected, applicant emails come from a Klarefi address
with your organisation's name. A connected Gmail or Microsoft mailbox sends
from its own address; another mailbox sends from its address once its records
are found. If Google or Microsoft stops accepting the connection, for example
after a password change, the page says so. Until the mailbox is connected
again an offer that cannot go shows as failed on its case, and reminders try
again the next working morning. Nothing falls back to another address.
Removing your own address puts the Klarefi address back.

## Follow-ups

Klarefi follows up by email so an application does not go quiet. Each one can
be switched off under **Settings → Email → Follow-ups**.

| Email                     | When it goes                                                                                                       |
| ------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| Emailed and never started | On the first working morning 2 days after the reply, and once more on the first working morning after day 5        |
| Left the form unfinished  | On the first working morning after the form has been still for 16 hours, and once more 3 days later if it still is |
| File complete             | When the file is complete and with your team                                                                       |
| Offer still open          | 2 days before an offer's last day, and on the last day                                                             |
| Invitation to apply again | A set time after a decline: 30, 90, 180 or 365 days, or never                                                      |

The two reminders go out on working mornings only: at 08:00 UTC, Monday to
Friday. A reminder that falls due at the weekend goes on Monday morning. A
form counts as left once nothing has happened on it for 16 hours, so a form
left on a Monday evening is not reminded on Tuesday morning; its reminder
goes on Wednesday. An applicant who comes back to the form is not reminded
again until it has been still for 16 hours once more.

The reminder for an unfinished form goes to the address the applicant typed
in it, so it is sent for workflows that end with an offer or a decline. The
offer reminders go for an offer that is signed in Klarefi.

The invitation to apply again carries a link that opens a new application with
the earlier answers filled in. The link works for 60 days.

## What your systems see

A session opened by an email is an ordinary session. It sends the same
[events](/docs/reference/events) and ends in the same
[case package](/docs/api/cases). Nothing in your integration changes.

Applicant emails say that an assistant wrote them. An organisation admin can
switch that line off after confirming that applicants are told another way.

## Related guides

- [Hosted intake](/docs/guides/hosted-intake)
- [Offers and declines](/docs/guides/offers)
- [Webhook setup](/docs/guides/webhooks)