Email intake
Let people start an application by email, and have Klarefi answer with the form
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.
Other mailbox
For any other mailbox, such as Zoho or your host's own mail.
- Choose Other mailbox and enter its address, such as
loans@yourcompany.com. - 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.
- 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
- Klarefi reads each new conversation in your mailbox, and the replies in the thread of a case (see 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
| 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 and ends in the same case package. 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.