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Global Settings article

Mailbox

The Mailbox settings allow you to configure how QuillCRM handles email communication with your contacts. It has three sub-tabs: Shared Email (team-wide IMAP inbox), Personal Email (per-user email accounts), and Email Provider Setup (OAuth credentials for Gmail and Outlook).

To access Mailbox settings, navigate to Quill CRM → Settings → Mailbox.

Mailbox Settings — Shared Email tab with Enable Inbox toggle and info banner

Shared Email

The Shared Email tab configures a team-wide email account. All CRM users share this inbox for sending and receiving emails. Only Admins and CRM Managers can modify these settings.

Sending Identity

Configure the sender information that appears on all outgoing emails sent from the shared account.

From Email

The email address that appears as the sender. If you have QuillSMTP installed, you can select from your configured SMTP connections. Otherwise, enter any email address.

From Name

The display name that appears alongside the sender email address (e.g., “Company Support”).

Reply To

The email address that receives replies when a contact responds to your email. Leave empty to use the From Email address.

Sending Identity fields — From Email, From Name, and Reply To

IMAP Connection

Connect an IMAP inbox so QuillCRM can automatically fetch incoming replies from contacts and display them in the contact timeline. This enables two-way email communication directly within your CRM.

Enable IMAP

Toggle this on to activate inbound email syncing for the shared mailbox.

Provider

Choose how to connect your email inbox:

  • Gmail (via QuillSMTP) — If QuillSMTP is installed with a Gmail OAuth connection that has the https://mail.google.com/ scope, you can reuse it for IMAP access. Select the Gmail account from the dropdown.
  • Outlook (via QuillSMTP) — Similar to Gmail, reuses an Outlook OAuth connection from QuillSMTP.
  • Gmail OAuth (Direct) — Connect directly with Gmail using your own OAuth Client ID and Client Secret.
  • Outlook OAuth (Direct) — Connect directly with Outlook using your own OAuth credentials.
  • Custom IMAP — Connect to any email provider using standard IMAP credentials.
IMAP Configuration — Provider selection, connection details, and Advanced Options

Gmail / Outlook via QuillSMTP

If you already have QuillSMTP configured with Gmail or Outlook OAuth connections, this is the easiest setup option.

  1. Select Gmail (via QuillSMTP) or Outlook (via QuillSMTP) as the provider.
  2. Choose the account from the Account dropdown.
  3. Click Test Connection to verify IMAP access.
  4. Click Save.

Note: The QuillSMTP connection must have the mail scope enabled (e.g., https://mail.google.com/ for Gmail) to allow IMAP access.

Direct OAuth (Gmail / Outlook)

If you do not use QuillSMTP, you can set up OAuth directly.

  1. Select Gmail or Outlook as the provider.
  2. Enter your Client ID and Client Secret from the Google Cloud Console or Azure Portal.
  3. Click Authorize. You will be redirected to sign in and grant permissions.
  4. Once authorized, click Test Connection to confirm IMAP access.
  5. Click Save.

Custom IMAP

Connect to any email provider using standard IMAP settings.

  1. Select Custom IMAP as the provider.
  2. Enter the following details:
    • IMAP Host — The server address (e.g., imap.gmail.com, imap.mail.yahoo.com).
    • Port — Typically 993 for SSL or 143 for STARTTLS.
    • Encryption — Choose SSL, TLS, or None.
    • Username — Usually your full email address.
    • Password — Your email password or app-specific password.
    • Sent Folder — The name of your sent mail folder (e.g., Sent, [Gmail]/Sent Mail). This field only appears when using Custom IMAP with Sync Sent Emails enabled.
  3. Click Test Connection to verify.
  4. Click Save.

Advanced Options

Sync Sent Emails

When enabled, QuillCRM also monitors the Sent folder of your IMAP mailbox. Emails sent outside of the CRM (e.g., directly from Gmail) to known contacts will automatically appear in their CRM timeline.

Auto-Create Contacts

When enabled, if an email arrives from an address not yet in your CRM, a new contact will be created automatically.

Excluded Domains

When Auto-Create Contacts is enabled, you can specify a list of email domains to ignore. Emails from these domains will not create new contacts. Enter one domain per line. Useful for filtering out automated notifications (e.g., newsletter.example.com).

Note: Emails from common no-reply addresses (noreply@, no-reply@, no_reply@, mailer-daemon@, postmaster@, donotreply@, do-not-reply@) are always filtered automatically.

Advanced Options — Auto-create Contacts, Excluded Domains, and Sync Sent Folder

Personal Email

The Personal Email tab lets each team member configure their own individual email account. This is useful when sales reps or managers want to send emails from their personal address rather than the shared company inbox.

Personal Email tab — Enable Personal Email toggle and Sending Identity

Every user with CRM access can configure their own personal email account, regardless of their role.

Sending Identity

Same as the Shared Email sending identity, but specific to the individual user.

From Email — The personal email address to send from.

From Name — The display name for outgoing emails.

Reply To — Where replies should go.

IMAP Configuration

Personal accounts support the same IMAP connection options as the shared account:

  • Gmail / Outlook via QuillSMTP
  • Direct Gmail / Outlook OAuth
  • Custom IMAP

Follow the same steps described in the Shared Email section above to connect your personal inbox.

Personal Email IMAP Connection — Provider, Host, Port, Encryption, Username, Password

Enable Personal Email

Toggle the Enable switch to activate your personal email account. When enabled, you will have the option to choose between your personal account and the shared account when composing emails.

Email Provider Setup

The Email Provider Setup tab lets Admins and CRM Managers configure OAuth credentials for Gmail and Outlook. These credentials are shared across the entire CRM — once configured here, all team members can use the Connect Gmail or Connect Outlook buttons in their Personal Email tab without needing their own OAuth app.

Note: This tab requires QuillSMTP to be installed and active. If QuillSMTP is not detected, a notice will prompt you to install it.

When Do You Need This?

You only need to configure Email Provider Setup if you want to use Direct OAuth connections (i.e., your own Google Cloud or Azure AD app). If you are already using Gmail or Outlook via QuillSMTP, those connections are reused automatically and no additional setup is needed here.

Setting Up Gmail OAuth

  1. Go to the Google Cloud Console and create or select a project.
  2. Navigate to APIs & Services → Credentials and create an OAuth 2.0 Client ID (Web application type).
  3. Copy the Redirect URI shown in the Email Provider Setup tab and add it as an Authorized redirect URI in Google Cloud Console.
  4. Copy the Client ID and Client Secret from Google Cloud Console.
  5. Paste them into the Gmail fields in the Email Provider Setup tab.
  6. Click Save Gmail Credentials.

Once saved, a green Configured badge appears next to Gmail. All CRM users can now connect their Gmail accounts from the Shared Email or Personal Email tabs.

Setting Up Outlook OAuth

  1. Go to the Azure Portal → App registrations and register a new application.
  2. Under Authentication, add the Redirect URI shown in the Email Provider Setup tab as a Web redirect URI.
  3. Under Certificates & secrets, create a new client secret.
  4. Copy the Application (client) ID and the Client Secret value.
  5. Paste them into the Outlook fields in the Email Provider Setup tab.
  6. Click Save Outlook Credentials.

Once saved, a green Configured badge appears next to Outlook. All CRM users can now connect their Outlook accounts.

Editing or Updating Credentials

If you need to rotate your OAuth credentials or switch to a different Google Cloud / Azure project:

  1. Click Edit Credentials on the configured provider.
  2. Enter the new Client ID and Client Secret.
  3. Click Save.

Note: Updating credentials will require all users who connected via Direct OAuth to reconnect their accounts.

Inbound Email Sync

When IMAP is enabled, QuillCRM automatically polls the connected inbox every 60 seconds to check for new emails.

What gets synced:

  • Incoming emails from addresses that match existing contacts in your CRM.
  • If Auto-Create Contacts is enabled, emails from new addresses will also create a contact record.
  • If Sync Sent Emails is enabled, emails you sent outside of the CRM (e.g., from Gmail directly) to known contacts are also captured.

What gets filtered:

  • Emails from domains listed in Excluded Domains.
  • Emails from no-reply addresses (noreply@, no-reply@, no_reply@, mailer-daemon@, postmaster@, donotreply@, do-not-reply@).
  • Duplicate emails (based on Message-ID) are never imported twice.
  • Emails originally sent through the CRM are not re-imported from the Sent folder.

Sending, Viewing & Replying to Emails

Once your mailbox is configured, you can send, view, and reply to emails directly from any contact’s detail page. For full details on how to:

  • Compose and send emails
  • Choose between personal and shared accounts
  • View the email list and email details
  • Follow email threads with expand/collapse
  • Reply to received emails
  • Track an example conversation flow

See the Contact Details → Emails Tab documentation.

Automation Integration

When IMAP is enabled, every incoming email that gets synced can automatically trigger automations using the Email Received trigger. This connects your inbox directly to your automation workflows.

How It Works

  1. A contact sends an email to your connected mailbox (shared or personal).
  2. QuillCRM’s IMAP poller detects and imports the new email.
  3. The Email Received automation trigger fires for the contact.
  4. Any active automations using this trigger will run their workflow steps for that contact.

Each email only triggers automations once — duplicate emails (same Message-ID) are automatically filtered.

What You Can Automate

With the Email Received trigger, you can build workflows that respond to incoming emails automatically:

  • Auto-tag contacts who reply to your outreach (e.g., add a “Replied” tag).
  • Send auto-reply emails acknowledging receipt (e.g., “Thanks for your email, we’ll get back to you shortly”).
  • Notify your team on Slack when a prospect replies, including the email subject in the message.
  • Move deals forward by updating a deal’s stage when a contact responds.
  • Filter by content using the trigger’s Subject Contains or Message Contains fields to only automate specific emails (e.g., emails mentioning “pricing”).

Merge tags {{messaging:email_subject}} and {{messaging:message_body}} let you reference the incoming email’s subject and body in your automation actions.

For full details on setting up the Email Received trigger, configuring filters, and example workflows, see Automation Triggers.

Role Permissions

Access to Mailbox settings varies by user role:

Capability Admin CRM Manager Sales Manager Sales Rep
View/Edit Shared Email Settings ✓ ✓ ✗ ✗
Test Shared IMAP Connection ✓ ✓ ✗ ✗
Configure Email Provider Setup ✓ ✓ ✗ ✗
View/Edit Personal Email ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Test Personal IMAP Connection ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Send Emails ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
View Email Threads ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Reply to Emails ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓

Sales Managers and Sales Reps can only see the Personal Email tab in settings. The Shared Email and Email Provider Setup tabs are only visible to Admins and CRM Managers.

All roles can send emails, view email threads, and reply to emails from any contact they have access to.