Product / Tools

3.  Click "Clients"

4.  Click "Active"

5.  Search for of Click on client.

6.  Search for of Click on client.

7.  Click here to end all services.

8.  Click "Billing Schedule" to check if there's anything further we need to turn off.

9.  Click "Invoices" to ensure we have billed everything we need to prior to termination.

2. Click "Settings"

3.  Click "Users"

4.  Click this button.

5.  Click here.

2.  Click "Pipeline"

3.  Click "Accepted"

4.  Click on the client name

5.  Find the Contact Details to add into the CRM.

6.  Add this information into the CRM.

7.  Click "Services"

8.  Add any services listed here into the CRM.

9.  Click "Pipeline"

10.  Click "Accepted"

11.  Click "View PDF". This will download on your computer. Add this into the CRM as the signed SOW.

New Client Onboarding

• Add a Client

  • • Apply a Task Template

• Add your Contact(s)

• Turn on Reminders

Deleting a Client

From the Client List:

1. Select the More Information button next to the client's name

2. Click on the Client Options drop down

3. Select Delete Client in the bottom right-hand corner
   Only Admin users have the ability to delete clients

Things to know when deleting a client:

• This action cannot be undone!

• Deleting a client deletes all client data

• Deleting a client does NOT delete associated Client Portal contacts

  • The client will no longer show as a listed business for the contact

Would you rather archive the client instead?

Archiving a Client

From the Client List:

1. Choose More Information (arrow) to the left of the client name

2. Select the Client Options button on the right side of the client list table

3. Select Archive Client in the bottom right-hand corner
   Only Admin users have the ability to archive clients

Editing / Renaming a Client (Business)

1. Go to your Practice Settings (⚙️ icon)

2. Navigate to All Client Settings

3. Select the Edit button below the client's (business) name
   Only Admin users can access Practice Settings

3.  Type the client name.

4.  Click the "BookkeeperDaily financial tracking for your clients.Starts at$84/moFirst subscription is FREE" field.

5.  Click the "Step 3 - Client Admin (Optional)" field.

6.  Type in the FPs email address. If you don't know who it will be, you can leave off for now or add the GM.

7.  Click "Add"

8.  Click "Connect an ERP"

9.  Click "Get Started"

11.  Click "Sign In"

12.  Click "Continue"

13.  Click this icon.

14.  Click "Stride"

15.  Click here.

16.  Click on the client's QBO instance.

17.  Click "Next"

18.  Click "Connect"

19.  Click "Exit". It will run in the background and could take up to 30 minutes to connect. We can add more users to the organization instance once a pod has been assigned.

4.  In the “Email Users” section, make sure the email Stride accounting uses is checked so we can help with any syncing errors.

Ticket Description

Once you open a ticket, you may check the discussion to identify the ticket concern in two ways.

1. Initial Description Pod - Displays the first message that is added to the discussion of the ticket.

2.  Notes Pod - Here you'll see the discussion thread. Discussion notes are sent to both external and internal contacts, while Internal notes and Resolution are only sent to internal contacts. Always use INTERNAL when creating a new note.

Entering a note in the ticket

Click the "+New Note" found in the Notes Pod. It will either open as a time entry or a pop-up note. Both can include attachments.

1. Time Entry

   • Unchecked the "enter time record"

   • Always check the "Internal"

   • Enter your updates & comments in the notes

   • Check the boxes of any internal contacts that you want to receive your update

   • Click Save & Close

2.  Pop-Up Note - You should check the Send Notes as Email Pod first to ensure the update is received by the internal resource before entering a note. Selecting the boxes means sending automatic emails to the respective email addresses. You may check the Contact and/or the Resource. 

• Always check "Internal"

• Enter your updates & comments in the notes

• Click save

Assigning a resource

If a ticket needs to be addressed by the client, it is important to assign them as a resource with a schedule to ensure they will see it on their end.

1. On the Resource & Meetings Pod, click the + sign to assign a member.

2.  Enter the following details

• Name of the member to assign

• Always Enter the Start Date & Time and End Date & Time

• Click save

Updating ticket status

Statuses should be changed as the work for the service ticket progresses. Each MSP Company may have a different type of status. You may follow whatever their status update process is. You can change the ticket status in Ticket Pod and click save

How to fix missing currency in ConnectWise Invoice

1. Log in to CW

2. Go to System → Setup Tables → Currency table

3. Open USD

   • You can choose the "display symbol" and/or "display currency id"

   • You can also have a description

Perform Invoice QA Review in ConnectWise

This documentation aims to breakdown QA review for Product: Process Invoices via ConnectWise for the following Options:

• Agreement Invoices

• Product Resale & Project

• Overage & Service invoice



Agreement Invoices

To QA agreement invoices, you need to compare them to the previous invoices and identify what causes any differences.

Agreement Comparison for Invoice Checking

1. In CW, go to Finance>Invoice Search>date should be the date of the previous agreement invoices

2. Download the agreement invoices from previous month and compare them with current agreement invoices. Here is a sample of an agreement comparison

3. Filter the customer with any differences in amount.

4. Send your comparison summary to the client for approval.

5. For customers that do not have differences, you may proceed on your next step.



Product Resale & Project

PRODUCT RESALE - PRODUCT/S ADDED FROM A SERVICE TICKET

If a product was added directly in the service ticket, it will automatically appears in the Invoicing Screen. Since there is no existing opportunity or sales order to compare it with, you can still check the following before you send out the invoices

• Check if all hardware is marked as taxable

• Check if all software is NOT marked as taxable

PRODUCT RESALE - PRODUCT/S ADDED FROM A SALES ORDER

To QA product resale invoices, you need the copy of Quote or Opportunity or Sales order.

1. A copy of a Sales Order or Quote will be uploaded to client's external gdrive>AR>month folder. See the current month's folder. This is where you'll match the invoiced products.

   1. Check if the product IDs are correct - No generic product code is used. If there is any generic code use, inform FP to remind the client of the shared agreement.

   2. Check if the sales tax computation is correct

COMPLETED PROJECT - APPLYING DOWN PAYMENT INVOICE

Project should be setup as billable when completed; hence, a down payment invoice is needed to record deferred revenue and acknowledge the required deposit to start the project.

Below are the steps to QA project invoices with down payment.

1. Project invoice must be $0.00 in total due to the downpayment being restricted to the specific project.

2. If the Project invoice has an amount, below are the steps to check if there are any existing down payment that needs to be restricted.

   • From the project invoice, click on the "Apply To" to open the project settings

   • Once the project is open, go to finance tab>check if the "Restrict down payment to this project" was checked or unchecked.

   • If the "Restrict down payment to this project" was checked

   • go to Invoices tab>date should be ALL>then click search

     • if no downpayment invoice appears, your project invoice having an amount is correct. Meaning there was no downpayment invoice was created before the project started.

   • If the "Restrict down payment to this project" was unchecked

     • on your left panel, go to finance>company finance>search the company name and select>go to invoices tab

     • filter the invoice type to Downpayment>check if the Project/Phase column matches the project name on your invoice.

       • If not, it means that there was no downpayment invoice was created before the project started.

       • if yes, reach out to BOSS to resolve. This needs to be resolved in the Project settings.



Overage & Service invoice

Overage Invoice covers any excess billable time entries from Technical Service Agreements. There are also billable hours without an agreement which is referred to as Service invoices (for other Professional Services).

Overage invoice needs to be reconciled to existing Technical Service Agreements or also known as Block Time agreements. Below are the steps to follow to generate an agreement reconciliation report. This is needed for the client's reference to check the invoices when submitted for approval.

Overage Invoice

1. In CW, go to Finance> Agreements>click the "Agreement type" to sort the list.

2. Look for the following agreements to check

   • "Annual Block of Hours (Pooled Hours)"

   • "Monthly Block of Hours (Retainer)"

3. Open each agreement, click "reconciliation". The start & end date is as follows.

   • For annual agreements - make sure to capture the full year coverage

   • For monthly agreements - the report period should be last month.

4. Save the reports to client's external gdrive>AR>month folder. Annual & Monthly agreements and Time Detail reports must have a separate folders.

5. If the reconciliation report shows that the customer still have enough balance, they should not be billed for anything.

Service Invoice

Should there be any customer being billed without the mentioned agreements (non blocktime/pooled/retainer customer), pull their time detail report by following the steps below.

1. 1. 1. In CW>Service Desk>Service Report>Search the report name of "Time Detail"

      2. Enter the company name, Date range should be last month and click on the print icon, then download.

      3. Check if the total billable hours matches the hours billed on the invoice you created.

Prepare Invoice via ConnectWise

This documentation aims to breakdown invoicing preparation for Product: Process Invoices via ConnectWise for the following Options:

• Agreement Invoices

• Agreement Invoices with Manual Adjustments

• Product Resale & Project

• Overage & Service invoice



Agreement Invoices

This option has the simplest & easiest invoicing preparation since all of the invoicing information will be staged by the client in ConnectWise. Hence, no client approval is needed.

1. Log in to CW. Go to Finance>Invoicing>Agreement Invoicing Tab

2. Update the Thru Date & Invoice Date to equal 1st day of the month and click Search

3. All the agreements will load, check if the "Period Start Date" column matches your invoice date.

4. Click the Box beside Company Name to select all. 

   • Note: Make sure to take note of the count of the invoices you are processing.

5. Once all items are selected, Click “Create Invoices” and select OK on the prompt box.

6. Go to Finance>Invoice Search

7. Filter the date to your invoice date by clicking the dropdown>custom>prompt box will appear>select start & end date>click Ok.

8. Click Search

   • Note: The count of invoices must match to how many invoices you processed in Agreement Invoicing Tab Screen

9. Click the Box beside Open/Closed - all items should be 'open' at this step.

10. Click the dropdown button in the Actions>select “Change Billing Status”>prompt box will appear>select “Closed (Batched to QBO)”>click Ok.

Agreement Invoices WITH MANUAL ADJUSTMENTS

This option covers the process of updating CW Agreements for any pass-through data that needs to be manually added.

1. Log in to the client's CW, go to Finance>Agreements>

2. Open the agreements one by one to update the product volume by following the steps below.

   1. Open the agreement, click on the "Additions" tab

   2. Search for the product ID, check the quantity to see if it matches the quantity in the pass-through data report.

   3. if it matches, just press back

   4. if it does not match, follow the steps below.

      • open the product ID you need to update and enter a "cancelled date". Date should be the end date of the month the product was billed and save.

      • click the "+" button to add a new product ID with an updated quantity. Make sure that the product description matches the previous product.

      • Effective date should be the 1st of the month in which the product must be billed and save.

Product Resale & Project

PRODUCT RESALE - PRODUCT/S ADDED FROM A SERVICE TICKET

A product resale can be coming from a Sales Order or a Ticket. In this process, the product is coming from a ticket which automatically appears in Invoicing Screen.

1. Log in to CW. Go to Finance>Invoicing>Invoicing Tab

2. Update the Thru Date & Invoice Date to equal the date you are invoicing. It's either 15th or LDM and click Search

3. From the Invoicing Tab, you'll know it is for product resale if the "Product" column has an amount.

4. Check if the Bill Amount column equals to Product column. If yes follow the following

   • Select the customer with Product amount. Once selected, Click “Create Invoices”

   • Go to Finance>Invoice Search

   • Filter the date to your invoice date by clicking the dropdown>custom>prompt box will appear>select start & end date>click Ok.

   • Click Search.  Note: The count of invoices must match to how many invoices you processed in Invoicing Tab Screen

   • Sort your list through the "Product Total" column. Make sure the Service Total has no amount showing

5. Click the Box beside Open/Closed to select all product invoices (all items should be 'open' at this step)

6. Click the dropdown button in the Actions>select “Change Billing Status”>prompt box will appear>select “Closed (Batched to QBO)”>click Ok.

PRODUCT RESALE - PRODUCT/S ADDED FROM A SALES ORDER

Follow this process if the opportunity is always converted to Sales Order to bill for product resale. The workflow must be that the client will mark any sales order as "ready to invoice" so you can start the process of preparing the invoice.

1. Log in to CW. Go to Sales>Sales Order

2. Check the box for "Show sales orders for all members"

3. Set the filter by the following

   • Open/Closed column - ALL

   • Sales Status column - Ready to Invoice

4. Open the sales order, go to the "Attachment" tab and click on the PDF file from QuoteWerks and open it. Save the copy on client's external gdrive>AR>month folder for QA.

   • If the PDF copy is not available

     • Please inform your FP about it to remind the client of the shared agreement.

     • You may also click on the OPPORTUNITY which you can find in the Order tab of the sales order. Once the opportunity opens, click MORE>print opportunity>save

5. Compare the Sales Order with the PDF information

   • on the "Product" tab, check if the products, qty & amount are matching the sales order PDF

   • on the "Product" tab, make sure all items have PO # in the "PO info" column

   • on the "Order" tab, check if the sales tax is matching the PDF

6. If no issue is found, click the "Create invoice"

7. Select the product types to be invoiced and click ok.

8. Change the Sales Order status to "Closed"

9. Once the invoice is created, confirm invoice total ties back to the quote

10. Change the Billing Status to "Closed (Batch to QBO)" and save

DOWN PAYMENT INVOICE - FROM WON OPPORTUNITY/QUOTE

Invoicing Information: The Client will forward the emails from QuoteValet both the ACCEPTED & PAYMENT email. QuoteValet Payment is where you'll see the deposit amount made by the customer. QuoteValet Accepted is where the accepted quote pdf is for your counter checking for all billable items.

1. Once information is received, Log in to CW. Go to Finance>Special Invoices and follow the steps below.

   1. Select the Company

   2. Invoice Type should be Down Payment

   3. In the Apply to section, select the appropriate Project/Opportunity # applicable to the Down payment invoice you will find in the QuoteValet:Accepted email attachment.

      • This will restrict the downpayment to whatever project and/or agreement you select and automatically apply the downpayment amount to the actual invoice once created.

   4. Enter the deposit amount in the Down Payment Total section

   5. Change the Billing Status to Closed (Batched to QBO)

   6. Click Save

COMPLETED PROJECT

Project should be setup as billable when completed; hence, a down payment invoice is needed to record deferred revenue and acknowledge the required deposit to start the project.

When a project is marked completed, it will show up in the Invoicing tab. You'll know it's for a project if there's text in the "Project Name" column.

1. From the invoicing tab, select the customers with projects, then select Create Invoice

2. When the invoice is created,

   • If down payment covers 100% - the invoice amount must be $0.00 provided they have a down payment invoice issued on or before the project was created. It will be $0.00 because the downpayment is restricted to that project hence, applying it to the completed project invoice.

   • If down payment covers less than 100% - the invoice amount should reflect the remaining balance. You can always check the applied downpayment in the invoice by looking at the Calculations section

3. Change the billing status to "Close (Batch to QBO)" and save.



Overage & Service invoice

Prerequisite: All timesheets from the previous month must be approved. Below is the process to check the approval status of time sheets.

1. In CW, go to Time & Expense>Time Sheet Search>click Search

2. See Date Range & Status column for your checking

Creating the invoice

1. Go to Finance>Invoicing>Invoicing Tab

2. Thru date & Invoice Date should be the last day of the previous month and click search.

3. Check if the Bill Amount column equals to Hours column. If yes follow the following

   • Select the customer with Hours amount. Then click "Create Invoices"

   • Go to Finance>Invoice Search>filter your date to match your invoice date

   • Filter the "Open/Closed" column to only show open invoices.

4. Select all invoices, click "Action">Change Billing Status>Closed (Batch to QBO)

SSI Invoicing Process (CW)

Note: Sample Client: Sonic System Inc (SSI)

Standard Invoice - Service Tickets & Products

This is to process standard invoices consisting of service tickets of the month and products related to service tickets/project if any. This should be done every 15th & LDM.

1. Invoicing Information: The Client will review timesheets & products in CW and notify Stride if it is ready to invoice.

2. Creating Invoices: Once information is confirmed, Log in to CW. Go to Finance>Invoicing>Invoicing Tab and follow the steps below.

   • Update the Thru Date & Invoice Date to equal the date you are invoicing.

   • Click Search

   • Click the Box beside Company Name to select all. Note: Make sure to take note of the count of the invoices you are processing.

   • Once all items are selected, Click “Create Invoices”

• Go to Finance>Invoice Search

• Filter the date to your selected date by clicking the dropdown>custom>prompt box will appear>select start & end date>click Ok.

• Click Search. 

  • Note: The count of invoices must match to how many invoices you processed in Invoicing Tab Screen

• Sort your list through the "Service Total" column and upload the copies here for client approval. This is the only invoice that needs to be approved.

• Click the Box beside Open/Closed to select all invoices except those with service amount. (all items should be 'open' at this step)

• Click the dropdown button in the Actions>select “Change Billing Status”>prompt box will appear>select “Closed (Batched to QBO)”>click Ok.

3.  Batching Invoices to QBO:

• Log in to Mobius and go to Create Invoice Batch

1. • Select the invoices you’re processing and click Submit

   • Verify that the number of invoices from CW into Mobius is equal to what is synced in QBO.

Note: It will direct you to a progress screen, make sure it will be completed successfully. If not, look for the error message and create an asana task for the BOSS team to resolve

1. Sending Invoices in ConnectWise: Go to Finance>Invoice Batch Emailing. Note that you only need to send the invoices with an amount.

   • Member should be "Accounting Team"

   • Show All is checked

   • The list of invoices should match the number of invoices you batched.

   • Select all and click "Send Now"

NOTE: Zero dollar invoices are not to be sent. Follow the steps below when you see one.

1. • Select the invoice/s

   • Click the drop down button in "Actions"

   • Click "Remove from emailing listing"

Agreement Invoice

This is SSI’s monthly recurring invoices billed every end of the month.

1. Invoicing Information: Recurring agreement invoices are staged by the client, including volume changes in CW and notify Stride if it is ready to invoice.

2. Creating Invoices: Once information is confirmed, Log in to CW. Go to Finance>Invoicing>Agreement Invoicing Tab and follow the steps below.

   • Update the Thru Date & Invoice Date to equal last day of the month

   • Click Search

   • Click the Box beside Company Name to select all. 

Note: Make sure to take note of the count of the invoices you are processing.

2. • Once all items are selected, Click “Create Invoices”

• Go to Finance>Invoice Search

• Filter the date to your selected date by clicking the dropdown>custom>prompt box will appear>select start & end date>click Ok.

• Click Search.
  Note: The count of invoices must match to how many invoices you processed in Agreement Invoicing Tab Screen

• Click the Box beside Open/Closed - all items should be 'open' at this step.

• Click the dropdown button in the Actions>select “Change Billing Status”>prompt box will appear>select “Closed (Batched to QBO)”>click Ok

3.  Batching Invoices to QBO:

• Log in to Mobius and go to Create Invoice Batch

3. • Select the invoices you’re processing and click Submit

   • Verify that the number of invoices from CW into Mobius is equal to what is synced in QBO.

Note: It will direct you to a progress screen, make sure it will be completed successfully. If not, look for the error message and create an asana task for the BOSS team to resolve.

1. Sending Invoices in ConnectWise: Go to Finance>Invoice Batch Emailing. Note that you only need to send the invoices with an amount.

   • Member should be "Accounting Team"

   • Show All is checked

   • The list of invoices should match the number of invoices you batched.

   • Select all and click "Send Now"

Downpayment Invoice

This should be checked & done every 15th & LDM.

1.  Invoicing Information: The Client will forward the emails from QuoteValet both the ACCEPTED & PAYMENT email. Payment is where you'll see the deposit amount made by the customer. Accepted is where the accepted quote pdf is for your counter checking.

2. Creating Invoices: Once information is received, Log in to CW. Go to Finance>Special Invoices and follow the steps below.

1. 1. • Select the Company

      • Invoice Type should be Down Payment

      • Select the appropriate Project/Opportunity # applicable to the Down payment invoice you will find in the QuoteValet:Accepted email attachment.

      • Enter the deposit amount in the Down Payment Total section

      • Change the Billing Status to Closed (Batched to QBO)

      • Click Save

3.  Batching Invoices to QBO:

• Log in to Mobius and go to Create Invoice Batch

• Select the invoices you’re processing and click Submit

• Verify that the number of invoices from CW into Mobius is equal to what is synced in QBO.

Step 3

Click Move when it asks you to confirm the move. This action cannot be undone, though you can use our merge feature to combine the threads later.

Step 4

You will land in the new conversation with the single message you selected in Step 1. There will be an activity line in the new conversation linking to the original thread.

Step 5

There will also be an activity line in the original conversation linking to the new conversation.

Step 6

Reply from the new conversation if you would like replies to be threaded there. You can change the assignee, tags, or subject line of the new conversation without impacting the original conversation.

How it works

When you move an email message, it's removed from its original conversation and used to start a new, separate conversation. Anyone with access to the original conversation can access the new one by a link in the conversation, unless it’s moved to an inbox they don't have access to or their access is revoked. 

The new conversation will have the same followers and assignee as the old conversation. If the original conversation was unassigned, the new conversation will be also unassigned. Tags and comments will remain on the original conversation and will not be moved. 

Moving messages is only visible to your Front team, not to the external recipients on the thread. To make it easier for them to keep topics separate, we recommend changing the subject line when you reply to the new conversation to something different from the original.

Understanding Rules in Front

Overview

Front's rules engine allows you to automate your workflows. Rules can help you handle repetitive tasks to save time and increase your team's efficiency in Front.

This article will help you understand how rules work. After reading, check out our guide to rule conditions and try to create a rule. Or, utilize our Rules Library to browse and automatically create rules for your team.

Rules features vary based on your Front plan. Please see the pricing section of this article for more information.

Rules fundamentals

Rule types

There are four kinds of rules: shared rules, individual rules, SLA rules and company rules.

Shared rules

Shared rules are applied to any shared inbox and can only be created by Workspace Admins or Company Admins. Shared rules can be accessed from the Company settings tab by clicking Rules under the workspace name.

Individual rules

Individual rules will apply to your individual inbox (but not internal discussions). Your individual rules can be accessed from the Rules section in your Personal settings tab.

Company rules

Company rules can apply to all individual and/or shared inboxes and can only be created by Company Admins, by clicking Rules under the Company section of the Company settings tab.

SLA rules

SLA rules are a type of shared rule, and need to set up by a Company Admin or Workspace Admin in Front.

Parts of a rule

Rules are made up of three types of conditions: triggers, filters, and actions.

See here for a full Guide to rule conditions.

1. Triggers (WHEN)

Triggers specify the types of events that will cause Front to start evaluating the conditions of your rule and see if they are met. Triggers can be done manually by a teammate or via Front's API.

2. Filters (IF)

Filter conditions are the criteria that determine whether a rule will be actioned on. More on how to use and/or statements in your filters can be found in this article.

3. Actions (THEN)

Actions specify the actions that will result when the rule is processed successfully (when all filters are met). You have the option to check off Stop processing other rules to prevent the actions of the rule to trigger other rules.

Ordering of rules

You are able to order your rules if you want certain ones to take priority over others. This means that the one ordered higher will have its actions take precedence, and the lower rule may only apply some of its actions so as not to conflict with the other. Delayed rules are special, in the sense that they will only be processed if the conditions are met at the designated time.

Type in the desired position of the rule, or use the arrows to the right of each rule, to adjust rules up or down the list.

Company rules will always execute before individual or shared rules. 

Rules triggering other rules

Sequential rules

With Front's rule engine, an action of a rule can be used to trigger a subsequent rule, so you can build a sequence of rules to rule one after another. Here's an example sequence:

Rule #1 WHEN: Inbound Message IF: From company.com THEN: Add Company tag Rule #2 When: Conversation tagged IF: Added tag is Company THEN: Assign to Andersen

Because Rule #1 is processed first, the Company tag will be added. This will create a conversation tagged action, which allows for Rule #2 to be triggered. And because the Company tag is present, the second rule is processed and the conversation is now assigned to Andersen.

Helpful to know:

• The ordering of rules also applies to sequential rules, so any rules that you want to run sequentially should be ordered below the original rules you want to run.

When conversations move across workspaces

You have the option for whether sequential rules continue to run when conversations move from one Workspace to another, or when moving from an individual to a shared inbox. By default, the option to continue running the rules in the destination workspace will be turned on, but you can turn this setting off in each rule where you do not want it to run after it moves to another workspace. The setting is located in the rule's Then section — click the dropdown arrow next to your Move action to show the checkbox for Trigger automated rules if moved to another Workspace.

In the destination inbox, the rule trigger that would continue the sequence of rules would be When conversation moved. For example, if you have the Trigger automated rules option checked:

Rule #1 in the original workspace or private inbox

• WHEN: Conversation tagged

• IF: Contact is in Finance

• THEN: Move to inbox Billing*

*Billing inbox would be in the destination workspace that the conversation is moving to.

Rule #2 in the destination workspace

• WHEN: Conversation moved

• IF: Inbox is Billing

• THEN: Assign to a specific teammate Helena

Keep in mind that when the conversation moves to the new workspace, all rules in the destination workspace that have a trigger When conversation moved will attempt to scan for matching conditions, if those rules have the Trigger automated rules option checked. If all conditions match, then the actions of those rules will run. Multiple rules may run if there are no conflicting actions, so you’ll want to ensure that you define your rules to be specific to your intended conversations.

Option to stop processing other rules

If a rule is processed, and you don't want other rules listed below to apply, check the Stop processing other rules box. When this option is checked, subsequent rules will be ignored even if they would apply to the conversation.

The exception to stop processing are delayed rules. Rules with Unreplied after or Unassigned after conditions are scheduled by time, and therefore are not taken into consideration as a rule to be stopped.

Rule exceptions

Most of the time, rules will work on both archived and open conversations. For instance, if you comment on an archived conversation and you have a rule set for When comment... and all the conditions match, then the rule will run.

However, there are some cases where rules will not run:

• Sending an auto-reply will not trigger a rule with a When outbound reply trigger.

• When messages are imported to your Gmail or Office 365 channel when you first add it, rules will not run on them.

• Vacation responder messages will not trigger any sequential When outbound reply rules.

• Conversations in the trash will not trigger any rules if you action on the conversations.

• The specific combination of using When inbound, if unreplied/unassigned after... and then you archive the conversation, then the rule will not run because you have manually marked it as complete.

• If a conversation is smart merged between shared and individual inboxes, only shared rules will run on the conversation. Individual rules will not run. This is true even if a reply in the merged conversation only addresses your individual channel.

Rules and analytics

Actions made by rules are not counted into analytics. For instance, if you have a rule to auto-archive emails, the archive does not count as a reaction time. These actions are excluded from analytics.

Smart rules

A Smart Rule is a type of rule that adapts intelligently to the different messages and workflows of your team to automatically run actions that save you countless hours. What makes a Smart Rule smart is the dynamic variables that decipher information that would otherwise require a human to analyze. Learn about Smart Rules use cases here.

Delayed rules and time zones

Front has powerful advanced rule conditions that are based on the amount of time that has passed after an inbound, outbound, or moved message. These delayed-rule conditions are: Unreplied after and Unassigned after.

The time zone that you are in when creating the rule is the time zone that the rule will act on. If any teammate modifies the rule in a different time zone, we will detect this and the time zone will update to the latest one.

Types of rule conditions

Basic

Most rule conditions are Basic type and available on all plans. All the rule conditions not listed below in the Advanced or Scale sections are considered Basic. In Front, you will also see which rule conditions you have access to according to your plan. For an explanation of all rule conditions, see here.

Advanced

Advanced rule conditions are used in more complex workflows and available on the Growth plan or above. The Advanced rule conditions are listed below. For an explanation of all rule conditions, see here.

Rule condition category

Advanced condition

WHEN

New comment is addedTeammate is mentionedAssignee is changedAssignee is removedConversation is archivedConversation is reopenedConversation is deletedConversation is restoredConversation is snoozedSnooze expiredTag is removedConversation is movedMessage delivery fails

IF

Conversation is in specific channelsAssignee currently is one ofAssignee currently is not one ofConversation has no tagsConversation does not have specific tag(s)Message HTML Body containsMessage language isHeaders containMessage has attachmentMessage has no attachmentAttachment file name containsAttachment extension isFront Chat visitor URL containsCustom conversation field containsMessage type isMessage direction isCustom contact field containsTime is between specific hoursDay of the week isMessage unreplied afterConversation unassigned and open afterDelay since triggerTime is during business hoursTime is after business hoursContact is in specific listContact is not in specific listCustom account field contains

THEN

Assign to teammatesUnassignNotify assignee (if any)Reopen conversationDelete conversationAdd linksForward toAdd commentAdd contact to a specific listAssign based on a contact fieldRemove contact from a specific listAssign based on an account fieldNotify based on an account fieldSend to HipchatLog message in HubspotTrigger in PagerDutyCreate activity in PipedriveCreate lead in SalesforceSend email to SalesforceSend task to SalesforceSend to SlackSend to a WebhookSend to Zapier

Scale

Scale rule conditions are available on the Scale plan or above. The Scale rule conditions are listed below. For an explanation of all rule conditions, see here.

Rule condition category

Scale condition

IF

Dynamic variable contains

THEN

Log variables in a comment (debugging)Update custom field value

Understanding Rules in Front

FP - END OF DAY PROCEDURE - USAA

1. Review and Resolve items in the Urgent & Unresolved view

2. Review and Resolve SLA issues

   1. Are there any Unresolved emails in SLA Breach? Respond to each

   2. Are there any emails in your client portfolio with an SLA Warning? Review and take action if you desire

3. Review your open Assigned Items

   1. Snooze anything that you don't expect to work on until the future

   2. Review Keeper for any related updates

4. Ensure Keeper is clean

   1. Review Keeper for any past due tasks

   2. Review Keeper for any past due tasks for your clients (need to make this easier for folks, build a report)

ACCOUNTING LEAD - END OF DAY PROCEDURE - USAA

1. Review any Urgent and Unresolved items. Resolve

2. Resolve SLA Breaches and Warnings

   1. Are there any Unresolved emails in SLA Breach? Respond to each

   2. Are there any emails Assigned to you with an SLA Warning? Respond to each

3. Review all Team Inbox Assigned Items and Personal Assigned Items

   1. Snooze anything that you don't expect to work on until the future

   2. Review Keeper for any related updates

4. Ensure Keeper is clean

   1. Review Keeper for any past due tasks

   2. Review Keeper for any past due tasks for your clients (need to make this easier for folks, build a report)

Front FAQs - Team Inbox

Front Updating Signature block

 Video Link here: Front Updating Signature block

Front FAQs - Personal Inbox

Syncing Stride Gmail to Front and making your Stride email as your default email

Video Link here: Syncing Stride Gmail to Front and making your Stride email as your default email

How to move messages and split conversations

Get started in Front 

Welcome to Front! We couldn’t be happier to have you along for the ride. Here we’ll give you all the details you need to know when you’re setting up Front for your team. You’ll learn how to:

• Set up your new workspace

• Create shared inboxes

• Collaborate with your team

• Create team tags, rules, and message templates

• Connect integrations

Read through this guide to make sure you set up Front exactly how your team needs. After that, you’ll be ready to invite your team to Front. Let’s dive in!

#Setup

Set up your new workspace

We’ll start by familiarizing you with your workspace. If you haven’t already, watch our video on how to navigate Front so you’re comfortable here. Begin to play around a bit and personalize your space:

• Make your profile personal by adding a picture, specifying your user name, and setting up your personal signature. You can do all of this in your settings.

• Set up your notifications so you never miss a message (but you still get your focus time!).

• Click into your calendar on the right side panel so you don’t have to leave your inbox to schedule or join meetings. If you’re a Gmail of Office365 user and have added your personal email (rather than just a team email), you can sign in to get Calendar going.

• Try sending an email to a friend! From their perspective, it’ll look like a regular old email.

• Subscribe to and mute conversations to prioritize your inbox.

#Shared inboxes

Create shared inboxes

In Front, your shared inboxes are called Team Inboxes. Team inboxes are where you and your team will manage and collaborate on messages together. Channels are the different types of messages you can add to Front, like Twitter, SMS text, live chat, and more. Inboxes can contain many different Channels.

Here are some popular inboxes we have set up at Front:

• Sales: A team inbox for inbound leads that includes a channel for our inbound sales email and a channel for our business’s social pages (e.g. Facebook)

• Support: A team inbox for customer support. We add a channel for our support email, and another for our website chat (e.g.Intercom, Smooch, Front Chat, etc.)

• Marketing: A team inbox for all inquiries about PR, partnerships, and content.

#Collaborate

Collaborate with your team

Now that you’ve set up the basics, it’s time to start playing around with all the different ways your team can work together. Try these actions in Front — they’re game-changing features you won’t find in regular email:

• Assign a conversation from a shared inbox to the person who is responsible for responding. You can assign a conversation from your own private inbox to a teammate, too!

• Start an internal discussion with teammates about an upcoming offsite or work issue you’re resolving.

• Share and edit a draft together for an important client.

• Comment on emails with a simple @mention to a teammate – comments replace messy forwarding and cc chains, and remain private from the email recipients.

#Automate

Create team tags, rules, and message templates

Once you have a shared inbox set up, it’s time to personalize Front for your team. You can start by creating a team tag, a rule, and a message template.

Tags allow you and your team to categorize messages and prioritize work. We like to create tags for:

• VIP customers

• High value prospects

• Refund request

• Urgent messages

• Bugs

Learn more about setting up Tags.

Rules let you automate communication and assignment processes so you and your team don’t get bogged down with time consuming administrative tasks. An example of a rule would be:

When: there’s an inbound message

If: the inbox is [inbox name] and from an email address that contains [@domainname.com]

Then: Add tag [select tag]

You can customize rules in a variety of ways to fit your team’s needs. Some examples are:

• Time-based rules

• Routing rules

• Archiving rules

• Tagging rules

• After hours rules

Read this guide for all the details about rules.

Message templates save you and your team time. When you’re writing a reply you write often, you can create and save a message template, then select it next time you come across a similar message. Message templates are especially useful for things like:

• FAQ style emails

• Billing questions

• Meeting requests

• Proposals and pricing

• After-hours responses

Learn more about creating and using message templates. Now it’s your turn: Take a moment to create one of each:

• A team tag

• A rule

• A message template

• A personal signature

Read more about automating your workflow in Front.

#Integrations

Connect integrations

The last step is connecting Front to the other apps you and your team rely on. Make sure the tools that your team loves are connected by setting up your integrations. You’ll find that there are already some common integrations connected in your integration panel, like Salesforce or Shopify, so all you’ll need to do is sign in to those apps to get started. Here are some customer favorites:

• Salesforce

• Asana

• Jira

• Github

• Nicereply

• Hubspot

• Pipedrive

• Aircall

Read more about integrations.

#Invite team

Invite your team to Front

Now, take a minute to congratulate yourself: Front is lookin’ good for your team! Double check with this checklist before reading on, where we’ll outline everything you need to know to invite your team to Front.

This is also a great time to set up team email signatures for your teammates to ensure email signatures are the same across your organization.

Learn more about creating team signatures.

Next steps

It can feel like a leap to leave behind your routine email structure and communication process, but we know that once you’re set up properly your team, clients, and inbox will all be thankful. Take a moment to set your team up for success and make sure nothing’s missed. If you’re ready for more, check out these resources:

1. Invite your team to Front

2. Boost your personal productivity in Front

3. Learn more about improving customer communications with Front

4. See how you can measure results with Analytics

5. Set up an SLA to improve response time

Meet your new inbox

Individual inbox productivity in Front 

When we started Front, we took email as you know it and added a few game-changing improvements. With email that works more efficiently, you have more time to make an impact. Here we’ll walk you through the many ways you can organize your inbox and focus on work that matters.

#Preferences

Set your preferences

Control your notifications

That ping! sound from a notification can quickly snap you out of the zone. Edit your notifications so you’re able to focus on work with only the most necessary interruptions, or so you can keep track of the important work you need to pay attention to across your inbox and team inboxes. You can have different notifications for your desktop, mobile, and email.

Add and edit signatures

Set up multiple personal signatures that you can toggle between when ending a message. They’ll be accessible whether you’re writing from your individual inbox or your team inbox, so you can save time and focus more on the customer message than your sign-off.

#Open vs. Archive

Open, archive, & snooze

Open messages are your to-do list

The goal with Front is to achieve inbox zero every single day . To do this, start with your open messages in your personal inbox and treat it as your to-do list. Can you respond right away and be done with it? Go for it. If not, snooze it or assign it to someone else so it’s not left sitting there with no action.

Snooze to take action later

When you come across a message that you don’t have time for right now, you can snooze it for a time when you’re ready to handle it. Rather than writing down on a Post-It to check back later and letting the email gather dust in your inbox, the snoozed message will just reappear in your inbox when the time is right. You can snooze messages for later in the day, or months from now — choose the day and time that works best for you.

Pro tip: when you’re sending a message and you want to make sure to follow up if it doesn’t receive a response, click “Send and Snooze” and choose a time to be reminded to check back in.

Archive means no action is needed

Rather than leaving read messages that don’t require an immediate response left to clutter up your inbox, archive them. When you archive a message in Front, it means no more action is needed on it. If the customer replies, the message will resurface back into your Open view. You can easily go to the archive tab at any point and reopen a message if you need to. And because archived messages are saved forever, it’s simple to search for old messages at any time.

#Follow conversations

Follow conversations

Subscribe to read all updates to a thread

Want to follow a conversation to make sure you can read through or give input later? Hit Subscribe. This means the conversation will pop back up in your inbox with every new action that’s made — like a comment or a reply.

Mute to only be notified if you’re mentioned

No longer need to be a part of a message? Cut the noise with Mute, so you can stay focused. Mute means you won’t get notified of new comments or replies on a message — unless you’re directly @mentioned.

#Prioritize work

Prioritize work with tags

Create new tags to categorize your work

Tags act similarly to folders in that they categorize your work. They’re especially useful in helping you prioritize your day and avoid context switching at every new email. For example, if you create a tag for a specific project, you can handle all related messages at once rather having them interspersed with support requests. Some other examples are:

• Product launches 🚀

• Marketing requests 🎥

• Feedback 💙

Personal tags are only seen by you, whereas team tags can be created for use by everyone.

Pin common tags to your workspace

You can pin your most commonly used tags to your workspace for easy reference. Is a project over, but you don’t want to delete the tag altogether in case you need to refer to it again later? Unpin it in your settings.

Star important emails

Clicking the ️star button at the top right of an email immediately sends it to the ‘Starred’ tag, which is automatically pinned to your personal workspace in Front. This is a great tool for signaling to yourself which messages are most crucial for the day. And, it makes it easy to refer back to critical messages later — just click into the Starred section to see your top priority items.

#Automate workflow

Eliminate busywork with personal message templates and rules

Reply to routine messages with message templates

You can save message templates for emails you find yourself typing up often. They allow you to respond faster and lessen the monotony of replying to frequently asked questions – and save time. You can save personal message templates that are visible to you, or create message templates to be used in a team inbox. This is great for keeping a unified voice across your whole team.

Alternatively, ever been frustrated when family members keep using your work email rather than your personal? Save a message template like: “I love you but please stop emailing me at work. Thank you.” Easy peasy.

Automate admin work with personal rules

It’s an all too common feeling when you get to noon and feel like all you’ve done is organize and sort through your inbox. Rules do that for you. They’re easy to set up and very customizable, so you can work exactly the way you like.

Rules follow a “When _____, if _____, then _____.” For example:

When: there’s an inbound message If: the inbox is [inbox name] and from an email address that contains [@domainname.com] Then: Add tag [select tag]

You could make a rule that routes by keyword, so if a project name is included in it the email will be directly routed to your project tag. Or, maybe you make a rule that sends messages that you haven’t responded to within a day to an ‘Urgent’ tag. If your mom didn’t listen and keeps emailing you at work, make a rule that archives all messages from her (just kidding, don’t do that to moms – moms are great).

Manage customer messages

Respond faster, 24/7: Five ways to optimize shifts in Front 

Sometimes, customer support can feel like a game of telephone. When shifts change and issues pass to new teammates, key information is lost along the way — or even worse, conversations get stuck with teammates who aren’t online to handle them. Your team feels like they’re missing messages, and your customers are left hanging.

Front’s new Shifts solution connects your team’s schedule with your support workflow, so it’s easy for teams working in multiple shifts to deliver a smooth customer experience. Conversations only go to teammates available to handle them, and you can distribute workloads evenly to optimize your entire team’s bandwidth. It’s easy to schedule across multiple timezones, so coordinating a global team has never been simpler.

The end result? Your customers get the fastest response possible — 24/7.

🗓 Never let a message slip through the cracks (in your schedule)

Most of the time, keeping track of who’s on what shift is easy to forget. Conversations are assigned to off-duty teammates by mistake, which leaves customers with urgent issues waiting too long for a response.

With Shifts, it’s quick and easy to set up your team’s schedule, and Front takes care of the rest to help you minimize wait times for your customers. Assignment rules skip off-duty teammates automatically, so conversations won’t sit in their queues and put your response time service levels at risk.

📈 Measure performance with greater precision

Especially when your team is distributed across multiple regions, getting a clear picture of response time performance can be a challenge. These insights are key to improving your team’s efficiency over time, so attention to detail matters.

Setting specific shift hours for each teammate makes Front analytics more accurate, so you can reliably spot opportunities for improvement. Each teammate is measured against the specific hours they work in their local timezone, rather than a single set of business hours, for more precise metrics.

⚡ ️Optimize response time with load balancing

Shifts works with Front rules to get conversations into the right hands based on specific skills, clients, or other criteria. Together, they enable your team to consistently conquer the queue, even on your busiest days.

Now, load balancing rules make it easier than ever to manage high volume. With load balancing, conversations are assigned to the teammate with the most bandwidth to handle them (and are held in a queue if no one is ready). Custom conversation limits ensure messages always go to the person who can respond fastest, even if some agents are still in training.

🚀 Help new teammates ramp up faster

Shifts and load balancing help you keep your support workflows up to date with your growing team. It’s simple to add new teammates to Shifts when they come on board, and if you manage team scheduling in another tool, Shifts can be updated through the Front API for smart scheduling behind-the-scenes.

You can also set lower load balancing limits for new teammates to ensure their workload stays manageable, so your customers won’t suffer if they take longer to respond per conversation. As they get up to speed, you can increase their limit to match your more experienced agents.

🌍 Set up teams in other timezones for success

Shifts and rules work together to make sure conversations are only assigned when a given teammate’s business hours start. It’s less overwhelming for your team — and a better experience for your customers.

Instead of coming into find a queue of assigned messages from customers who have been waiting for hours for a response, your team can start fresh when their shift begins.

✨ Coming soon in Front

Together, Shifts and load balancing empower your team to stay on top of their work and respond to customers as quickly as possible. With accurate reporting to share with internal teams and customers, you can make informed decisions to keep giving better service.