Getting Started with Conversations
Meet MonuDesk's built-in email inbox (Pro): the layout, the All inboxes view, and how threads link to contacts and orders.
Written By Dennis Rodin
Last updated 5 days ago
Conversations is MonuDesk's built-in email inbox. Find it in the left sidebar, between Inventory and Order Summary. Conversations is rolling out in early access. If you do not see it in the sidebar yet, it is not enabled for your shop yet.
Pro feature. This is included with the MonuDesk Pro plan.
What Conversations is
Conversations lets you connect your real Gmail or Microsoft Outlook account and read and reply to customers, cemeteries, and vendors without leaving MonuDesk. The big difference from a normal inbox: every thread sits next to the right contact and order, so you have the full picture while you write.
The guiding idea is simple: one thread per contact, linked to the right order, with the files already attached to that order a click away. No digging, no scattered emails.
Getting connected
The first time you open Conversations without a mailbox connected, you're greeted by a welcome screen where you can get started. From there, connect your Gmail or Microsoft Outlook account to begin. (A generic SMTP / IMAP option is shown but marked Coming soon.)
Once any mailbox is connected, the inbox always opens straight to your mail.
The three-pane layout
After at least one mailbox is connected, Conversations opens as a three-pane workspace:
Left rail: the mailbox switcher at the top, a Search conversations… box with Refresh and Compose buttons, a filter strip (All, Unread, Customers, Cemetery, Vendors, Unlinked, Spam, Trash, Archived) with a tag filter, and the list of conversations.
Center / right pane: the selected thread: its header, the message history, and the composer where you reply. If nothing is selected yet, you'll see a Select a conversation prompt.
Compose: the pencil button opens a window for starting a brand-new conversation with a contact.
The "All inboxes" view
You can connect up to three mailboxes per company. The switcher pill at the top of the left rail lets you jump between a single mailbox or the combined All inboxes view, which merges every mailbox you can see into one list with a single unread count. Open its popover, headed Connected mailboxes, to manage a mailbox or connect another one.
Threads, contacts, and orders
Conversations groups mail by the person you're talking to, not by subject line. All email to and from the same address collapses into a single thread, so one thread maps to one contact, and that contact's whole history lives in one place.
Each thread can be linked to a contact, which automatically sorts it as Customer, Cemetery, or Vendor, and linked to one or more orders. Linking an order is what lets you drop in files already attached to that order without leaving the reply. Threads without a contact stay Uncategorized and show up under the Unlinked filter until you connect one.
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