Inbox

The Inbox is a triage view over the client email that reaches your studio through StudioFlow. It captures client replies and forwarded enquiries, lets the team turn them into projects or tasks in one click, and keeps the whole conversation readable in one place. You reach it from the sidebar as Emails.

There is no Gmail connection to set up — StudioFlow does not log in to or mirror your mailbox. Instead, mail reaches the Inbox two ways:

1. Client replies come back automatically. Every offer, contract, invoice, or message you send a client from StudioFlow carries a private reply address. When the client hits Reply, their answer lands straight in the Inbox, attached to the right conversation — nothing to configure.
2. Cold enquiries via your forwarding address — optional. Clients who email your own address (e.g. info@yourstudio.ch) directly land in your normal mail, not here. If you also want those in StudioFlow, set up an auto-forward rule to the private address your studio is given. This one takes a few minutes in Gmail or Outlook, and you can skip it entirely — the Inbox works without it.

The Inbox stores the message — sender, subject and the full body — so you and your team can read the whole thread inside StudioFlow without opening another mail app.

Nothing to set up for replies

Replies to the offers, contracts, invoices and questionnaires you send arrive in the Inbox on their own, from the day you start using StudioFlow. There is no switch, no connection, no address to copy. If that is all you need, you are done — skip the next section.

Optional — also catch mail sent straight to your studio address

Set up once per studio, by an Owner or an Admin:

1. Go to Settings → Email & calendar → Email.
2. Open Advanced, then Also receive mail sent straight to your studio address, and click Copy address. The panel has step-by-step instructions for Gmail, Outlook and iCloud.
3. In the mailbox where clients currently email you (e.g. info@yourstudio.ch), create an auto-forward rule that forwards incoming mail to that address.
4. Send yourself a test email, then use Start check in the same panel — it tells you the moment the forwarded message arrives.

The triage workflow

Every captured email is in one of three states, and the top of the page has a tab for each, with a count badge, plus All:

The default view is New.

This week vs older

The New tab splits emails into "this week" and "older". Older emails are hidden behind a Show more toggle so the triage view stays focused on what just arrived. Once something is more than a week old and still unfiled, it's probably low priority — click Show more to see them if you need to.

What you can do with an email

Click any email to open the detail panel on the right (or a full-screen view on mobile). You see the full thread content, any attachments, and the action buttons:

Create Project

Spins up a new project and links this email thread to it. Pre-fills the project title from the subject line and the client from the sender address (creating a new Client record if the email isn't from anyone you already know). You're dropped straight onto the new project's detail page to fill in the rest.

Link to Project

Attaches the thread to an existing project. Useful when a wedding client replies to an earlier chain — one click and the whole conversation is visible on the project's Communications tab.

Create Task

Turns the email into a to-do. The subject becomes the task title; the sender becomes the client; the email thread stays attached so whoever picks up the task can read the original message. Owners and Admins only.

Reply

Answer the client directly from the thread panel. Your reply is sent through StudioFlow and stays part of the same conversation, so their next answer threads straight back into the Inbox. You can also start a fresh message to a client with New Email.

Dismiss

Clears the email out of the triage view without creating anything. Moves it to the Dismissed tab where it can be restored later if needed.

Auto-dismiss filter rules

Most studio inboxes get a lot of noise that isn't worth a human look — automated "your form was submitted" confirmations, generic newsletters, payment processor receipts. Filter rules help you sweep them into Dismissed in bulk.

Adding a rule

1. Inbox page → Filter rules (top right)
2. Click Add Rule
3. Pick the field: Sender email, Sender name, or Subject
4. Pick the operator: contains, equals, starts with, or ends with
5. Enter the value
6. Save

Apply to existing

After you add a rule, click Apply to existing to move every email already in your Inbox that matches the rule straight to Dismissed — handy right after creating the studio's first filter rules on a busy inbox.

Examples

Restoring dismissed emails

Mistakes happen. Click the Dismissed tab → find the email → Restore button. It goes back to the New tab where you can action it properly.

Auto-replies

Emails → Auto-Replies answers incoming mail for you. It is off until you set it up.

The tab leads with the choice that decides everything else — Simple or Advanced:

Only one auto-reply ever fires per email thread, whichever mode you're in.

Review before sending

Under Auto-reply settings (collapsed by default) there's a Review every auto-reply before sending switch. Leave it on while you're tuning templates: every drafted reply queues up for your approval instead of going out. When something is waiting, an amber banner appears at the top of the tab with the count — that's the only time it appears, so an empty queue never nags you.

With review off, clean replies send immediately. Drafts with unresolved placeholders — a {{client_name}} StudioFlow couldn't fill in, say — still queue for review regardless. It will never send a half-filled template to a client.

Sender name

Also under Auto-reply settings. This is the name clients see the reply come from; it defaults to your studio name. Clearing it doesn't break anything — replies that need a sender name simply queue for review instead of sending.

Testing a rule before trusting it

In Advanced mode, Test lets you paste a sample sender, subject and body and see which rule would match and what would be sent — without emailing anyone. If nothing matches it tells you which rule failed and why. Use it before turning review off.

Recent Auto-Replies (collapsed, at the bottom) is the record of what actually went out.

The other tabs on Emails

The sidebar's Emails entry opens more than the Inbox. Five tabs across the top:

Outbox — what went out

Replies, offers, invoices and automated messages you send will show up here.

One list of everything StudioFlow has sent on your studio's behalf, with who it went to, the subject, and whether it went out. Each row is badged:

• Sent — it left.
• Failed — it didn't. Worth looking at: a wrong address, a mailbox that bounced.
• Automated — StudioFlow sent it, not a person. Reminders, auto-replies, document emails.
• Follow-up — part of a chased conversation.

Filter with All, Sent or Draft at the top.

This is the place to check when a client says "I never got it". If the row says Sent, it left your studio, and the conversation moves to their spam folder. If it says Failed, you have your answer.

Drafts

Start an email and choose Save draft and it waits here rather than going out. Each draft has Send and Delete on it. "No drafts yet. Start an email and choose 'Save draft' to keep it here."

Signatures — how you sign off

Create a personal email signature that will be appended to your outgoing emails.

Your signature is yours — each person on the team has their own, and it goes on the emails they send.

The quickest route is a signature template. Pick one from the gallery and fill in the fields:

• Your details — Name, Title / Role, Phone, Email, Instagram handle, Facebook handle, and Your photo for the circular photo slot.
• Studio details (read-only) — the studio name, logo, phone, email, website, address and tagline. They come from Studio profile, so the whole team's signatures stay consistent and change in one place.

Apply to my signature puts the template in, asking first if you already have one ("Your current signature will be replaced with this template. You can still edit it afterwards."). Then edit it freely — the editor is yours once the template is applied. Preview shows how it'll look.

The same editor is also reachable from Settings → Email & calendar → Email. Both read and write the same signature, so it doesn't matter which one you open.

Templates — text you send often

Reusable email templates your team can insert into any reply or new email with one click.

Owners and Admins write these; everyone uses them. New Template asks for:

Placeholders

Click a variable to drop it in at the cursor. They come in two groups, and the difference matters.

Fill automatically — "These resolve from your studio settings on every reply." Studio name, studio phone, studio address, your name, your first name.

Need review — client name, shoot date, service type. "If used, the reply will queue in Pending Review on first-touch so the studio can fill or rewrite it." That's deliberate: a template that greets a stranger by a name StudioFlow doesn't know yet should be read by a person before it goes. Use one of these on purpose when you want a review gate.

Preview renders the template. Without a client or project to draw on it shows the placeholders as they are, and lists any it couldn't resolve.

Using one

In any reply or new email, open Templates, search, and click. If the template's language doesn't match the person you're writing to, StudioFlow says so and inserts it anyway: "This template is in German, but Anna Meier reads French. It has been added — you can still send it as it is."

What the Inbox is not

• Not a replacement for your mailbox. It sees the mail that clients send to your StudioFlow reply address or that you forward to your studio address — not everything in your account. Your personal or team Gmail is never touched.
• Not a full mail archive. Older history and cross-body search stay in your own mailbox, where those tools are stronger. The StudioFlow Inbox is a client-triage surface tied to your projects.

Automating inbox follow-ups

For recurring patterns — auto-replying to new inquiries, creating a task when a client emails back — see Automations. Automations can trigger on email events and queue actions for your approval before anything goes to a client.

Access control

Craft tags make no difference here. A Crew member tagged Editor has the same Inbox as one tagged Photographer.

Troubleshooting

Related

• Automations — turn recurring inbox patterns into recipes that acknowledge, task or draft on their own
• Projects — where a linked email thread shows up on the Communications tab
• Tasks — the to-dos an email turns into
• Settings → Email & calendar → Email — forwarding address, sending identity and signatures setup