HaloITSM

HaloITSM Guides

Documentation to assist with the setup and configuration of the HaloITSM platform

Guides > Email Configuration(High Level)

Email Configuration(High Level)

In this lesson we will cover:

- How to change the Email start tag

- Setting up your mailbox

- Message Groups

- Mailbox Overrides

- Email Signatures 



Associated administrator guide:


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}]

Fig 1. Edit email start tag


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:

Fig 2. Custom tag


If you are making a change from [ID: ] to [{NEWTAG}: ], you will want to enable the following setting within Configuration > email, 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}]:

Fig 3. Use '[ID ]' as an additional subject tag check for Ticket matching setting


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 Mailbox

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 4. 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. 


Note: 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 connection 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 5. 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.


Note: 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 6. 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 7. Creating a new message group


Now when I go to email templates, I can decide what message group I am altering.

Fig 8. Changing the email templates depending on message group


The precedence of message groups is as follows (in which the client message group overrides all others):

  1. Client
  2. Team
  3. Department
  4. Mailbox
  5. 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

By default the outgoing mailbox 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 9. Outgoing email defaults


Changing the outgoing default here will change this for all clients, however, an override can be set on multiple levels. 

The hierarchy is as follows (in which action mailbox will override all others): 

  1. Action
  2. Customer
  3. Top Level
  4. Ticket type
  5.  Team
  6.  Department 
  7. Global

Action override is set against the action under the defaults tab. Ticket type override is set against the ticket type under the defaults tab. Team override is set against the team setup page under the details tab. 


To override the outgoing mailbox used users under a customers under a particular Top level, head to customers module > Top level > select a top level. Here, under the details tab you can use the 'Mailbox override' field to choose which mailbox is used.

Fig 10. Top level mailbox override


To override the outgoing mailbox used for users under a particular customer, head to customers module > customers > select a customer > settings tab > email defaults section.  Here, you can use the 'Mailbox override' field to choose which mailbox is used.

Fig 11. Customer mailbox override


To override the outgoing mailbox used for a particular department head to configuration > organisations > select an organisation > departments tab > edit a department, see 'Mailbox Override' field. 

Fig 12. Department mailbox override


Note: 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.


Email Signatures

There are configuration options at client, mailbox and agent level for setting signatures.

Fig 13. Email Signature Override at Client Level


Fig 14. 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 as follows (in which client signatures overrides all else):

  1. Client level
  2. Mailbox Agent Signature(A table configured via the incoming tab of a mailbox)
  3. Agent signature(Set on the preferences tab of an agent)
  4. Nothing

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