Your customer emails, brought into Uptick: sorted, matched to the right client and property, and ready to reply without leaving the platform.

Customer email isn't just messages, it's work: a fault report, a quote approval, a request to reschedule, a supplier invoice. In a shared mailbox it's hard to tell who's dealing with what, which property an email is about, or whether anyone has replied yet. The Inbox brings that work into Uptick, next to the jobs it relates to.

A message arrives from a client. Uptick turns it into a ticket, files it into the right folder, links it to that client and their property, and can assign it to the right person automatically, before anyone's touched it. Your team opens it and replies. The conversation stays in one place, next to everything else you know about that client.

Setup is a one-time job, and you don't have to do all of it at once. The fastest way to get value is to start simple, then expand.

Click Inbox in the left-hand menu, then Try it for free, and Uptick walks you through it: the mailbox, a starter set of folders, and who can use it. Uptick Inbox: getting started shows each step. Adding another mailbox later? Go to Control Panel > Inboxes and choose Create inbox.

You need the Configure inbox permission, which System Administrators and Managers have by default. Without it, Inbox shows Ask an admin to set up Inbox, with a list of the admins who can. Who can use each inbox, branches and confidential mailboxes are covered in Fine-tune who can use each inbox, below.

Your Uptick inbox address looks like [mailbox]@[yourcompany].mail.onuptick.com. You can find it again any time in Control Panel > Inboxes, where it's shown as the Redirect address on your inbox. Copy it from there rather than typing it out.

This step happens in your current email system, not in Uptick, so it's usually one for whoever looks after your email. They set it up so a copy of every email that arrives in your existing mailbox is delivered to your Uptick inbox address. The original still arrives in your mailbox as normal, your email address doesn't change, and your customers keep emailing you exactly as they do now.

The full step-by-step is in its own guide: Uptick Inbox: getting your email into Uptick. It covers Microsoft 365 and Exchange Online, Outlook on its own, and Gmail or Google Workspace, with the exact clicks for each and how to test it worked. It's written to be sent straight to whoever looks after your email, and it also covers a setting that makes sure your team's replies reach your own colleagues.

Set up a copy, not a forward. A forward changes the invisible security checks email systems use to spot fakes, so forwarded mail either bounces or arrives split into separate conversations.

Uptick has three signatures, and they work together:

The company signature can also pull in details about whoever sent the reply: their name, email, mobile number, and personal signature. The company signature editor lists them. Add the personal signature, and every reply carries the sender's own details, even though everyone shares one company signature.

Your inbox comes with a starter set of folders, so you're not beginning from scratch. Keep the ones that fit and adjust the descriptions to match how you work. See "Writing folder descriptions" below for how to write descriptions the AI can follow.

Everyone you choose in the setup wizard gets full access to that inbox: they can open it, work its tickets, and configure it. This section covers narrower access, keeping an inbox to one branch, keeping a mailbox confidential, and bringing someone in on a single ticket. You make these changes in Control Panel > Security Groups, and in the inbox's settings in Control Panel > Inboxes (click the pencil on the inbox).

Once you're set up, the Inbox settles into a simple rhythm: see what's come in, open it, action it, and keep track of what's yours.

The Inbox has three panels. If you've used Outlook or Gmail, it'll feel familiar:

The Inbox opens on Assigned to me, so you land on your own work rather than everyone's mail. If you run more than one inbox, it reopens on the one you had open last. Your counts and ticket list update on their own as email arrives and as your team works, so you don't need to reload the page.

New tickets arrive unread and stand out in the list, just like a new email in Outlook or Gmail, so you can see at a glance what you haven't dealt with. Opening one marks it read. To mark it unread again and bring it back later, hover over it in the list, click More actions (⋯) and choose Mark as unread.

You can narrow the list by Status (Open, Awaiting reply, On hold, or Closed; closed tickets are hidden by default), or filter it by keyword. To look across every inbox at once, use Search.

A new inbox comes with six Getting started emails that explain how the Inbox works. Click the Getting started row in the left panel, between New email and Search, to list them, whether they are open or closed. Inboxes created before the emails existed do not have them.

They behave like real emails, so you can practise on them. Whether you have read one is tracked for you alone. Assigning, internal notes and closing are shared with your team. If you reply to or forward one, the email is really sent.

Getting started emails never appear in other views, in Search, in dashboard counts or in reporting, and replies to them do not count towards your conversation usage. To hide the row, click the cross on it (Hide Getting started). It is hidden for you in that inbox only.

When an email arrives, Uptick runs it through three quick checks before it reaches your team: it works out whether it's junk, sorts it into the right folder, then works out who to assign it to. You stay in control the whole time. You can move, re-file, reassign, or override anything it does, and it never deletes a thing.

Uptick moves obvious junk straight to the Junk folder and closes it, so it stays out of your list. Nothing is deleted: junk still becomes a ticket you can open, and the Junk folder shows closed tickets so you can review what's been caught. Click Not junk on anything caught by mistake and it reopens. To change what counts as junk, go to Control Panel > Inboxes, click Edit junk prompt on the Junk step, and describe in plain English the kinds of email you don't want to see.

To add or change folders, click the pencil next to Folders in the inbox's left panel to open Manage Folders. Each folder needs a name and a prompt (its description), and the prompt is what the AI reads to sort emails, so it's worth getting right.

Uptick reads each email and compares it against your folder descriptions, then moves the ticket to the closest match if it's confident enough. If it isn't sure, the ticket stays in Unsorted rather than being filed in the wrong place.

Unsorted is your safety net: anything the AI couldn't confidently sort waits there for your team. And if it ever files something in the wrong folder, it's not lost. It only moves tickets between folders, so you'll find it in Search and can drag it to the right folder in seconds.

This is the most important thing you can do to make sorting work well. Think of a folder description as instructions for a capable but very literal assistant: the clearer the instructions, the better the sorting.

A good description:

When a ticket arrives, Uptick tries to match it to the right client or property in your account, and shows the result in the ticket details:

Hover over Uptick's match note on the ticket to see Why this match?: what it matched on, such as the sender's email address or an address in the email, and how sure it was.

For best results, keep your clients' and properties' names and contact email addresses accurate in Uptick, and if a client emails from more than one address, add those addresses to their record.

The details panel is what makes a ticket more than an email. It has sections for who the ticket is assigned to, Linked records, tags and attachments. Uptick links the ticket to the right records in your account, so everything sits in one place.

Linked records has a group for each record type, with a plus button on the group to link a record by hand: Link client, Link property, Link task, Link sales quote, Link defect quote and Link purchase order. The defect quote group only appears if your account uses defect quoting. The plus buttons for client, property and task open a picker, described below. For quotes and purchase orders, the plus button opens a search box where you pick the record. A ticket can have several of each. To unlink a record, hover over its card and click the cross.

Link client, Link property and Link task open the same kind of picker. Search has focus when the picker opens, and typing narrows every group. Results come in groups, each with a count that stays in view as you scroll. Each group shows the first page of results, and the count reads 1,000+ when there are more than 1,000 matches.

The Include archived checkbox is ticked each time the picker opens. Untick it to hide archived records. Archived records show an Archived badge in the picker, and the card keeps the badge in the details panel after linking. Archived properties stay hidden from users who are not permitted to view inactive properties. Linking from the picker is not the same as accepting an AI suggestion.

To use the keyboard, press the down arrow to move from search into the list, or Tab to move to Include archived and then the list. The arrow keys move between results across groups, and Enter links the focused result.

Assigning a ticket gives it an owner. It stays in the shared inbox with its full history, so the rest of the team can still see it and pick it up if needed.

Assign a ticket to a team member from the details panel. It then shows up under their Assigned to me (see The layout, above). You can also assign it to someone who doesn't use the inbox: they'll see that one ticket and nothing else (see Bring someone in on a single ticket, above).

A ticket has one owner at a time, so it's always clear whose it is. To bring someone else in without handing it over, use an internal note and mention them (see Internal notes and mentions, below).

Uptick can assign each new ticket to the right person automatically, using rules you set for each inbox. Go to Control Panel > Inboxes, open the inbox configuration and click Edit auto-assignment on the Auto-assign step. The Auto-assignment window opens, with a Beta badge and an Advanced mode switch in the header.

With Advanced mode off, the window shows Your rules. Click Add rule to create one. Each rule has:

Click Save to save all your rules at once. Nothing takes effect until you save. If a rule assigns to someone who cannot be assigned tickets from this inbox, Uptick does not save and asks you to check who each rule assigns to.

The AI works through your rules in the order you added them and uses the first one that covers the email. A rule whose person cannot be assigned on that ticket, for example a Client account manager rule on an email with no matched client, is skipped so the next rule gets its turn. If no rule fits, the ticket stays unassigned.

Advanced mode. Inboxes that already had a written assignment prompt stay in Advanced mode. Here you write the prompt in plain English and choose Who can be auto-assigned: Users with access to this inbox, where the AI only assigns users who have access to this inbox, or Any desk user, where the AI can pick anyone and let them open the ticket. Switching Advanced mode on or off keeps the other mode's rules or prompt and takes effect when you save. While Advanced mode is on, only the prompt is used.

Prefer to assign tickets yourself? You don't need to set this up. Users who can manage the inbox also see a dismissible Assign new tickets automatically banner in the Assign ticket dialog, with a Set up auto-assignment link that opens the inbox's auto-assignment settings. Once dismissed, it stays dismissed for that user.

Not everything about a ticket is for the customer. An internal note keeps a conversation inside the ticket, and a mention brings a colleague in without changing who owns it.

Add an internal note. Need to leave a note for the team rather than email the customer? At the top of the reply box, switch from Email to Note, write your note, and click Add note. Notes are only visible to your team, never sent to the customer, and they sit in the ticket's history alongside the emails.

Mention a teammate. In an internal note, type @ and pick a teammate to bring the ticket to their attention. The ticket then appears in their Mentioned view in the left panel, and stays there until the ticket is closed. You can mention someone who doesn’t use the inbox too, and they’ll see just that ticket. A mention doesn’t send an email or push notification, so your teammate sees it the next time they open Mentioned.

Click a ticket to open the full conversation on the right. Messages run in order: emails you've received on the left, your replies and internal notes on the right, whoever wrote the note. The details panel shows the ticket's reference number (Ticket #) at the top.

Each email has a header showing the sender, who it went to (for example to Dana Whitlock), a paperclip with the attachment count if it has files, how long ago it arrived, and the Reply all, Forward and more options (⋯) buttons. Hover over the time to see the exact date and time. Click the chevron after the line showing who the email went to for the full From, To, Cc, Bcc and Date details. Cc and Bcc rows only appear when the email has them.

When you open a ticket, emails you have already read fold down to one line showing the start of the message, or the number of attachments if it has no text. The newest email is always open, and so are any emails that arrived since you last read the ticket. Click anywhere on a folded email to open it, and click its header to fold it again. If an email has earlier messages quoted beneath it, click the Show quoted content button (⋯) under the message to reveal them.

Everything you'd do with an email, you do from the ticket, including starting a brand-new one.

Reply.

Your reply goes out as a normal email and is saved in the conversation automatically. Your customer receives it as an ordinary email from your Uptick inbox address, with RE: in front of the subject, so the conversation stays intact in their own inbox and they reply as they normally would.

The reply box has the formatting you'd expect: bold and italics, lists, links, font size, text colour, and highlighting. What you type is saved on your own device as you go, so clicking away to another ticket and coming back doesn't lose it, and you can have part-written replies sitting on several tickets at once. There's also a tidy-up button that cleans up spelling, punctuation, and grammar without changing what you meant, and it highlights the change so you can check it before you send.

When a colleague has the same ticket open, their initials appear as small avatars in the ticket header, up to three, followed by a count such as +2 if there are more. Hover over or focus the avatars to see their names. Nothing shows when you are the only person on the ticket. When a colleague types in the reply, forward or note box on that ticket, a strip along the top of your own reply box shows who it is, for example "Alex is typing", "Alex and Sam are typing" or "Several people are typing". The strip clears when they send, close the box or pause, so check it before you reply to avoid sending the customer two answers.

Use the Actions menu. The lightning-bolt button in the reply, new email and forward boxes opens Actions, one menu for the shortcuts you'd otherwise go hunting for. It offers Snippets and, once the ticket exists, Create task, Create sales quote, Create defect quote and Create purchase order bill. The action the AI is most confident you need next is flagged inline.

Create a sales quote or defect quote. Each creates the quote from the ticket and drafts a covering reply into the composer confirming the quote is being prepared. If a defect quote is created but can't be linked to the ticket, Uptick shows "Defect quote created but not linked to this ticket. Link it from the Details panel."

Create a purchase order bill. Create purchase order bill requests a bill draft from the ticket. It needs a linked purchase order and an invoice PDF on the ticket, and you need permission to bill purchase orders (change purchase order bills). When the action is unavailable, the menu shows the reason: "Needs a linked PO", "Needs an invoice PDF on the ticket", "The linked PO can't take a bill" (the purchase order is not a materials order, or is not yet committed to the supplier), "The linked PO is already billed" or "This invoice already has a bill draft". If the request fails, Uptick shows "Failed to draft a bill".

Drop in a saved snippet. If your team sends the same answer over and over, save it once and reuse it. Open Actions in the reply box, choose Insert snippet, search for the one you want, and it drops in at your cursor, formatting and all. Snippets are shared across your team and are set up in Control Panel > Inboxes, under Global configuration.

Set a status. Use the status dropdown at the top of the ticket to move it between Open (needs attention), Awaiting reply (you've replied and are waiting to hear back), On hold (parked for now), and Closed (done). You can also set Awaiting reply or On hold at the moment you send a reply. To close a ticket straight from the list, hover over it and click Close ticket.

Move it to a folder. Use the folder dropdown in the details panel, or drag the ticket from the list onto any folder in the left panel.

Flag it urgent. Hover over a ticket in the list, click More actions (⋯), then Add flag, or use the flag at the top of an open ticket. It turns red for the whole team. To clear it, choose Remove flag from the same menu or click the flag at the top of the ticket again. You can filter for urgent tickets in Search.

Mark it junk. If an email isn't something your team needs, mark it junk. It moves to the Junk folder and is closed, so it's out of your list. Nothing is deleted, and you can bring it back from the Junk folder (see Filtering junk, above).

Compose a new email. You don't have to wait for someone to email you first. To start a fresh email, the same as hitting New in Outlook or Compose in Gmail, click New email at the top of the left panel, add your recipients, type a Subject, write your message, and send. It becomes a ticket like any other. If an email can't be sent, Uptick shows a clear warning in the ticket so you know to try again. Clicking an email address anywhere else in Uptick opens the same compose window in the corner of the screen, so you don't get bounced out to Outlook.

Forward an email. Need to pass a message on to someone else, like a subcontractor or a colleague? Open the message, click Forward in its header, add the recipients, and send. The original attachments go with it, so there's nothing to download and re-attach, and the forward is kept on the ticket so the whole history stays in one place. The forward starts its own ticket, and it carries the client, property and anything else the original was linked to, with a link back to the ticket it came from. If forwarding it finishes the job, use the arrow next to Send to forward and close the ticket in the same action.

Download an email. Need a copy outside Uptick, for a claim or your own records? Open the message, click the more options button (⋯) in its header and choose Download email to save it as an email file (a .eml) you can open in Outlook. This works on emails you've received, not on ones sent from Uptick.

While you're viewing a ticket, Uptick may suggest a next step: creating a task when the email looks like a service request, or starting a quote request when someone's asking for a price. The details are filled in from the email, so your team just reviews and confirms.

Quote approvals. When a customer emails back to approve a quote you've sent, Uptick matches the email to that quote and offers to mark it approved, right there on the ticket. Check it's the right quote, then approve it in one click instead of going to find it. This works for sales quotes and defect quotes, and you can dismiss the card if the email isn't really an approval.

Supplier invoices. When a supplier invoice arrives as a PDF and Uptick can match it to one of your purchase orders, it reads the invoice and drafts the bill for you. Open the draft, check the figures against the purchase order, and confirm it. Nothing reaches your accounts until you do. Once you confirm, the email's attachments are saved onto the purchase order so the paperwork lands in the right place, and the card clears itself once the bill has been processed.

Click Search in the left panel to look across every inbox you have access to, not just the folder you're in. It's like search in Outlook or Gmail, but across all your inboxes at once, and it's the place to work through a batch of tickets together.

Search looks at the subject, the sender's email address, and the text inside the email. Part of a word is enough, so "broken lif" still finds "broken lift", and typing a ticket number takes you straight to that ticket. Narrow the results with filters: Status, Urgent, Junk, Assigned to, Mentioned, Client, Property, Supplier, Inbox, and Folder (pick one or more of each), plus Created and last activity date ranges.

Above the list you'll also see a summary of everything still open, broken down by folder or by teammate, with how long tickets have been sitting without a reply. Click any number to filter the list down to it. It's the quickest way to see where the work is piling up.

Any filter you use often can be saved as a favourite and reapplied in one click. Say you want to keep an eye on emails from a particular client: filter by that client in Search, save it as a favourite, and it's ready whenever you need it. You can keep a favourite in either place, or both:

Save a favourite

To choose which favourites show in your left panel, click Edit favourites.

Add it to your dashboard