Incoming Email Capture

The most common way to capture your incoming emails is to set up a message rule which will forward emails from your mailbox across to a special capture or trap account inside AffinityLive. 

As a Gmail user, you also have another option - the sychronization method.

 Option 1 - Forwarding (recommended)

In short, you set up a forward so that emails that come into your Google Apps mail account are forwarded to your AffinityLive account.

Log in & go to "Settings"

Once logged into your gmail account, click settings from the top right corner:

Enter the AffinityLive incoming capture address

• Select the "Forwarding and POP/IMAP" tab, and enable the "Forward a copy of incoming mail..."
• Click on the "Add a forwarding address" button, and type richard@demo.affinitylive.com if richard is your username and demo.affinitylive.com is your AffinityLive URL.
• Gmail will then tell you it has sent you a confirmation code to verify permission.

Enter Verification Code

Google will now send a special email to the AffinityLive capture address. However, since this isn't a normal mailbox that you can log into, AffinityLive instead forwards the email back to your normal mailbox.

Confirm it is working

AffinityLive will only capture emails from addresses that are in the AffinityLive client database. Either get a client/friend who's email address is already in the system to send you a message and see that it appears on your todo list, or alternatively create a new company/contact record for an address you can send emails from.

NB: Do not test using your own primary email account or that of any other account linked to another staff member in AffinityLive - AffinityLive will also look in the list of staff or user emails, and will match against these addresses first.

 Option 2 - Synchronization

The Sychronization option can be configured from your Integrations page within in AffinityLive, and can support both Incoming and Outgoing synchronization methods.

This process works by telling AffinityLive to regularly checks your Gmail account for emails received from contacts that are known to AffinityLive. Matched emails then downloaded and stored as a an activity just like they would be under forwarding.

While the synchronization approach is easier to set up than the forwarding approach, this method is less responsive than the forwarding methods. This is because it relies on the AffinityLive servers "sweeping" your inbox periodically, whereas the forwarding methods happen almost instantaneously as email is delivered.

Log into AffinityLive and go to your Integrations setting page

Click "Integrations" from the top right corner of AffinityLive after you've logged in.

Ensure your Google account is connected

To synchronize AffinityLive with your Google mail account, you need to ensure you've given AffinityLive permission. This occurs when you connect AffinityLive to your Google account. You'll see a green tick and the text "Connected to Google".

Tick the "Sync" box for Incoming Email

Under Configuration options, select the Inbound Email Integration option.

Once checked, AffinityLive will automatically connect to your Google Inbox and start syncronising emails that you receive from clients.

This sync process will continue running, approximately every 30 minutes to keep your client correspondence in AffinityLive up to date.

 Outgoing Email

While incoming email capture is great, it is only half the conversation - you will also want to keep track of the emails that you and your colleagues send to clients.

The fundamental requirement for capturing outgoing email is for messages to be delivered to log@yourdomain.affinitylive.com - however, there are a number of ways to achieve this outcome with Google Apps.

Option 1 - Specifying a different SMTP Server (recommended for non @gmail.com addresses)

If you use an email address with Gmail (but not an @gmail.com account), you're able to set up email forwarding by specifying AffinityLive as your outgoing SMTP server.

Log in and go to Settings

Log into your Gmail account, and go to the "Settings" area.

Select your external/alias address from Accounts and Import

Under the settings area, select "Accounts and Import" and then scroll down to the "Send email as" section. Remember, this method only works for emails sent from an address that doesn't end in @gmail.com.

Click on "edit info" and choose to send email via your own SMTP server

When you click on "Edit info" for the account you want to configure, a new window will open.

The details you'll need on this form - server name, username, and password, are found back in AffinityLive on the "Integrations" page. You can access it by clicking on your own name in the drop down and choosing "Integrations".

From there, scroll down to the Outgoing SMTP section, and if you don't have access details displayed there, click on the "Connect" button.

Going back to the Gmail interface, you will want to move forward until you get to the screen which allows you to specify your own SMTP server.

Add the AffinityLive SPF details to your domain (optional)

Since AffinityLive is now relaying emails for your domain name, you’ll want to configure your SPF records to assert that the AffinityLive servers are allowed to send email on your behalf. See Google’s advice about how to configure your SPF settings, and alongside of Google’s servers, you’ll want to add:

include:affinitylive.com

 Option 2 - Synchronization

The Sychronization option can be configured from your Integrations page within in AffinityLive. This requires no changes to be made to either your mailbox or domain settings within Google Apps or Gmail.

This process works by telling AffinityLive to regularly checks your Google mail account for emails received from contacts that are known to AffinityLive. Matched emails then downloaded and stored as a an activity just like they would be under forwarding.

While the synchronization approach is easier to set up than the outgoing relay approach, this method is less responsive than the forwarding methods. This is because it relies on the AffinityLive servers "sweeping" your inbox periodically, whereas the forwarding methods happen almost instantaneously as email is delivered.

Log into AffinityLive and go to your Integrations setting page

Click "Integrations" from under your username in the top right corner of AffinityLive after you've logged in.

Ensure your Google account is connected

To synchronize AffinityLive with your Google mail account, you need to ensure you've given AffinityLive permission. This occurs when you connect AffinityLive to your Google account. You'll see a green tick and the text "Connected to Google".

Tick the "Sync" box for Outbound Email

Under Configuration options, select the Outbound Email Integration option. NB: If you're using the recommended "Forwarding" method for incoming email, DO NOT tick the Inbound Email sync method.

Once checked, AffinityLive will automatically connect to your Google Inbox and start syncronising emails that you receive from clients.

This sync process will continue running, approximately every 30 minutes to keep your client correspondence in AffinityLive up to date.

This method requires no configuration on Google's side, and is only enabled for those users who configure it. However, it is a little slower than other mail-routing methods as we have to fetch your email on a routine basis.