Company rules
Edited

Overview

Company rules are rules that can be applied to all individual or shared inboxes. They are used to centralize management of individual rules that would need to be duplicated across all users. Company rules can only be set by company admins.


Company rules fundamentals

Usage

Company rules are rules that can target all individual or shared inboxes. They exist to help manage rules that you would need to duplicate across all users.

For instance, imagine you want to consolidate all communications with a VIP client in a shared inbox, but that client often sends emails to individual inboxes. You can create a company rule that moves all inbound emails from john@vipclient.com to a "VIP client" shared inbox.

Without company rules, you would need to implement the same logic in an individual rule for every user, which can be time consuming and challenging to maintain.

Conditions

Triggers (WHEN)

Company rules triggers are the same as individual or shared rules.

Filters (IF)

Company rules have three new filters:

  • All individual inboxes: rule will apply to all individual inboxes 

  • All shared inboxes: rule will apply to all shared inboxes 

  • Inbox belongs to: rule will apply to the inbox(es) you select

In addition, company rules filters can not use private tags or private contact lists. They can use shared tags, shared contact lists, and shared contact lists.

Actions (THEN)

Company rules actions can not use private inboxes, tags or contact lists. They can use shared inboxes, shared tags, shared contact lists, and shared contact lists.


Behavior

Ordering between company rules and individual/shared rules

Company rules will always have priority over individual or shared rules and behave as if they were ordered before all other rules. Since company rules always execute first, they cannot be triggered by shared rules.

You can also re-order your company rules amongst themselves using arrows or numbered positions, like other rules.

Company rules triggering other rules

Company rules will trigger other individual or shared rules, except for two cases:

  • When the conversation is moved from an individual shared inbox to a shared inbox or between workspaces.

  • Company rules using a delayed-rule condition, such as Unreplied after 5 hours, cannot trigger shared or individual rules.

Stop processing on company rules and how it affects individual/shared rules

Because company rules take precedence over individual/shared rules if a company rule is run that has 'Stop Processing' selected, subsequent individual/shared rules will not run.


Company rules exceptions

Archive/Delete actions

Archive/Delete actions function a bit differently for company rules. When a conversation is in multiple inboxes:

  • The IF condition of the rule is tested for each inbox individually. If it is not verified for an inbox, nothing happens. If it is verified for a given inbox, the action will then be:

    • In an individual inbox whose owner is not the assignee for the conversation, the company rule will archive/delete the conversation for the owner of the inbox only.

    • In an individual inbox whose owner is the assignee for the conversation, nothing happens

    • In a shared inbox, the company rule will archive/delete the conversation in the shared inbox.

Example
A message is sent both to individual@company.com (an individual inbox owned by Bob) and shared@company.com (a shared inbox).

Company rule #1: WHEN Inbound message, IF All individual inboxes, THEN Archive conversation

Company rule #2: WHEN Inbound message, IF All shared inboxes, THEN Archive conversation

Company rule #3: WHEN Inbound message, IF All individual inboxes OR All shared inboxes, THEN Archive conversation

Company rule #1 would archive the conversation only for Bob. Company rule #2 would archive in shared@company.com, but Bob would still see it in his Inbox. Company rule #3 would archive it in both the individual and shared inboxes. If the conversation is assigned to Bob, Company rule #1 would do nothing and Company rule #3 would only archive in the shared inbox, not for Bob's individual inbox.

How to exclude inboxes from all company rules

For very sensitive inboxes ("HR complaints" for instance), company rules could in theory threaten confidentiality.

You can make sure such inboxes are excluded from Company rules by toggling off the Company rules affect this inbox setting from the inbox's settings.

Delayed-rule conditions and business hours

While company rules can use delayed rule conditions, business hours won't apply.  Business hours are workspace-specific or inbox-specific, while company rules can apply to multiple shared and individual inboxes.


Pricing

This feature is available on the Scale plan or above. Some legacy plans may also have this feature.