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Set Up Email

This guide takes you from an empty Daktela instance to answering emails as tickets. It builds the pieces in the order they depend on each other.

If you haven't yet, read How Email Works first β€” emails become tickets, so the setup runs through categories and views rather than a routing chain.

The whole setup:

  1. Prepare the ticket category
  2. Create the email queue and connect your mailbox
  3. Add agents to the queue
  4. Add email routing rules (optional)
  5. Test

1. Prepare the Ticket Category

Incoming emails become tickets in a category, and the category decides who sees them.

  1. Go to Settings β†’ Tickets β†’ Categories and create (or pick) the category for this mailbox's tickets β€” see Categories.
  2. Make sure the profiles of the agents who should work these tickets cover the category, with Access turned on β€” see Categories – Select Rights.

2. Create the Email Queue and Connect Your Mailbox

  1. Go to Settings β†’ Routings β†’ Queues and click Add new, then select Email.
  2. Fill out the Unique queue number and the Title (e.g. "support@example.com").

  3. Under Incoming mail server, select the protocol and connect the mailbox:

    Warning

    Connect a direct mailbox, not an alias. For your email queue to send and receive email, you need to set up both Incoming mail server and Outgoing mail SMTP server β€” with OAuth protocols you can instead enable Use same method for Outgoing.

  4. Set the Sender info and Sender address (the mail server must be allowed to send from this address).

  5. Under Tickets, select the Category from step 1.
  6. Optionally set an Auto response template and Working hours (a time group β€” the auto response is only sent during them), a Signature template and a Default template.
  7. Click Save.

Every field is described in the Email Queue reference.

3. Add Agents to the Queue

Info

Agents get queues only through their profiles: this dialog and the Queues area of a profile are two views of the same setting. If you have already given the queue a log-in type in your profiles, this step is done. Setting up Daktela for the first time? Set Up Your Contact Centre shows where queues, profiles and users fit in.

  1. In the queue list (Settings β†’ Routings β†’ Queues), find your new queue and click Change in the Agents column.
  2. Check (tick) the profiles that should have access to the queue and select a Login type β€” Automatic is a good default.

Tickets are automatically distributed only to agents that are logged in to the queue, and agents only see tickets whose category their profile covers. See Queue Basics – Assign Agents to a Queue for all the options.

4. Add Email Routing Rules (Optional)

Email routings refine tickets before they reach agents β€” e.g. send "noreply" senders to a Do not reply category, give VIP domains a high priority, or sort "complaint" subjects into a special category.

  1. Go to Settings β†’ Routings β†’ Emails and click Add new.
  2. Set the Direction, the filtering conditions and the action (category, priority, status, custom fields…).
  3. Mind the Order (rules are evaluated in order) and Stop (stop evaluating further rules on match).

The rule editor, ordering and import/export are described in Email Routings.

5. Test

  1. With an agent logged in to the queue and in the Ready state, send a test email to the mailbox.
  2. Check a ticket is created in the right category, your routing rules applied, and the ticket reaches the agent.
  3. Reply from the ticket and check the outgoing email arrives with the right sender address and signature.

Go Further

  • Ticket views β€” give agents filtered work lists (by category, status, age…).
  • SLA β€” response-time targets per category.
  • Macros β€” one-click ticket actions for agents.
  • Scheduled sending β€” agents can schedule outbound emails unless disabled in the queue settings.
  • For agents β€” working with email is described in Email and Tickets.

Not Working?

  1. No tickets appear? Check Queue active is on and the mailbox is still authorised β€” with Google or Microsoft 365, authorise it again in the queue.
  2. The queue can't be saved without a helpdesk? The Helpdesk title list is set up by Daktela Support β€” contact them if it is empty.
  3. Tickets are created but agents don't see them? The agents' profiles must cover the ticket's category, with Access turned on in the category. Check whether an email routing moved the ticket to another category.
  4. Tickets aren't assigned? Category Distribution only assigns tickets to agents logged in to the email queue.
  5. Replies don't go out? Check the Outgoing mail SMTP server (or Use same method for Outgoing) and that the mail server allows the Sender address.

More checks, by symptom, are in Troubleshooting.