HaloITSM Guides
Documentation to assist with the setup and configuration of the HaloITSM platform
Email Configuration(High Level)
Topics Covered In This Guide
- Changing the Default Start Tag
- Setting Up Your Mailbox
- Message Groups(The same content can be found in the Email Templates guide)
- Mailbox Overrides
- Email Signatures
Email Start Tag
When you begin using Halo, you will notice that within Configuration > Email, there is an option to edit the start tag of emails, this refers to the tag given to the ticket ID. By default the tag will be [ID:{YOURTICKETSID}]
This can be changed to be something more unique to your system i.e. [MSP:{YOURTICKETSID}], this will mean that when tickets come into your system the tag is different. The tag is automatically prepended onto email subjects:
If you are making a change from [ID: ] to [{NEWTAG}: ], you will want to enable the following setting within Configuration > Advanced Settings, this will mean that any current tickets in the system where the customer has the ID tag in the email chain, will still be caught by the system as it will check to see if there are subjects that lead with the format [ID: {TICKET ID}]:
After making the change to the email start tag, it is not recommended to change it ever again, as this can cause complications for the email processing and matching in Halo.
Setting Up Your Mailbox
Incoming
IMPORTANT: Adding a new mailbox will remove ALL emails from the inbox and turn them into tickets/opportunities, moving the emails to the deleted items in the process. For this reason it is recommended that you start with an empty mailbox.
Start by opening the configuration page, head to email, choose Mailbox Setup and click New. This takes you to a new mailbox setup screen and you can have as many mailboxes as you require.
Fig 1. New Mailbox screen, including all Mailbox connection types
First enter a name for your new mailbox, then select the mailbox connection type. This is entirely dependent on the mail server you are using with common public mail servers providing support for most connection types.
- Office 365/Azure - Instant Email Processing (Requires the Incoming Service to be Enabled, Outgoing can also be enabled)
- Office 365/Azure - Azure Mailbox (NHServer scan times apply)
NB: When authenticating your mailbox via Azure, you are redirected to the Microsoft login page. The address you log in with here will be the mailbox used for creating tickets & sending emails, so if you authenticate with your personal (admin) account, all of your personal emails will be deleted & created as tickets in HaloPSA. If you are using a shared mailbox, please ensure that the licenced user is added as a delegate user on the shared resource.
For other conection options:
- POP3
Fill in the credentials.
- IMAP
Fill in the credentials.
- EWS (Exchange Web Services)
Fill in the credentials.
Then configure the Ticket Type for New Tickets created from this Mailbox to what you want your default ticket type be (this can be overridden with Email Rules to create a certain email to a certain ticket type).
Outgoing Emails
Next at outgoing email configuration, navigate over to the outgoing tab at the top of the settings list. Here we see a similar range of settings related to how HaloPSA will send emails to your customers.
Fig 2. Outgoing Email Configuration for the Azure Connection Method
When not using Google/ Azure this page, much like the previous, asks you to input the SMTP credentials for your address on your mail server. This is the set of instructions that tells the server who is sending and how the mail will get sent.
NB: When setting up outgoing email, make sure to select a mailbox within the "Outgoing Email Defaults" Button.
You will also see some additional options beneath the 'Send a Test Email' option:
- Message Group - This is a collection of email templates and can be used to personalise the emails sent from HaloPSA based on the mailbox sending the emails.
- Sending Restrictions - Allows you to determine who can send emails from this mailbox, based on Team or Department membership.
- Email Signature Overrides - Allows you to set, per agent, a distinct email signature to be used. This ensures agents send emails with the relevant email signature based on the mailbox the email is being sent from.
Simply click 'Save' to save your mailbox configuration.
Message Groups
Email Templates can be grouped into Message groups. New Message Groups can be created via heading to Configuration>Email>Message Groups and clicking 'New'. Once you have created a new message group. New email templates will be automatically created and assigned to this group. This then allows you to tweak your email templates per group and apply to the relevant mailbox or team to make use of.
Fig 3. Message Groups, used for collecting distinct email templates
After creating a new email template you can configure the standard templates specifically for the new message group
Fig 4. Creating a new message group
Now when I go to email templates, I can decide what message group I am altering.
Fig 5. Changing the email templates depending on message group
The precedence of message groups:
They use the first one which is set in the following order;
- Client
- Team
- Department
- Mailbox
- Organisation
So the system will check if there is a message group at client level, if not there then it will check if it is set at team level, and so on down the above list. So i.e. if it is set at team level, then the system will have already checked to make sure it is not set at client level, as if it was set at client level, that message group would be used instead.
Mailbox Overrides
In order to override the address that emails send from, you can change the setting in the "Settings Tab" of each client.
Fig 6. Settings Tab on a Client
Fig 7. From Address Override on a Client
The mailbox override option will use the outgoing options set on the mailbox, smtp can be used, but there is no need to if you are using the Azure mailbox.
Alternatively you can change the outgoing email default global setting(changes it for all clients) in Configuration > Email:
Fig 8. Global Override
If you set this globally and then change one client, the override for the client will take precedence over the global override.
Department Level
There is an option for mailbox override at the department level as well. Navigate to Configuration > Departments > *Click a Pencil icon on one of the Organisations*:
Fig 9. The List of Departments For The Organisation
Fig 10. Changing the Mailbox Per Department
NB: Deleting a mailbox record will also clear mailbox overrides for Clients and Departments where the mailbox is in use. These will then fall back to the default mailbox set at the email level within the "Outgoing Email Defaults" button.
The From Address Overrides have the following Hierarchy:
- Client From Override
- Team From Override
- Department From Override
- Action From Override
- Ticket Type Override
So the system will check the Client override, if tha tis not set then it will check the Team override, if not that then department and so on.
Email Signatures
There are configuration options at client, mailbox and agent level for setting signatures.
Fig 11. Email Signature Override at Client Level
Fig 12. Email Signature at Agent Level(Can be accessed from the agent icon on the top right of the screen, in the "My account" link
In order to apply the signature to an email template is to use the $-SIGNATURE variable in order for the signature to populate on emails. Signature Hierarchy is configured in the code so that the client level signature will be checked first, if that isn't populated then the mailbox signature will be checked, if not that then the agent, and finally if there is nothing, then the variable will not populate on the email. The hierarchy for signatures is shown below:
- Client level
- Mailbox Agent Signature(A table configured via the incoming tab of a mailbox)
- Agent signature(Set on the preferences tab of an agent)
- Nothing
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