Communication

Email Integration is where you connect external mailboxes to GEMS CRM, enabling emails to flow both ways — inbound messages land in your CRM Email Inbox, and outbound messages get automatically logged as interactions against the right Lead, Deal, or Customer.

Connect Mailbox

The starting point for linking any email account to the CRM.

Choosing a Provider

Six options are available, each with its own connection method:

Provider	Connection Method
Gmail	OAuth 2.0 secure sign-in
Outlook / Microsoft 365	OAuth 2.0 or Graph API
Custom Mail (SMTP/IMAP)	Manual configuration for any provider
Yahoo Mail	IMAP with an app-specific password
Zoho Mail	IMAP with an app-specific password
Other IMAP	Any IMAP-compatible server

• Gmail and Outlook/Microsoft 365 redirect you to that provider’s own sign-in screen — you authenticate there and grant access, and your credentials are never stored directly in the CRM
• Everything else opens a manual configuration form for entering server details and credentials
• Every credential you do enter manually is AES-256 encrypted before storage — never kept in plain text

Connected Accounts Summary

A quick glance at the bottom of this screen shows how many mailboxes are currently active across your workspace, with a Manage Accounts shortcut straight to the Connected Accounts tab.

Connecting a Mailbox via IMAP (e.g., Zoho Mail)

For IMAP-based providers, connecting a mailbox walks you through a guided four-step wizard: Authorize → Configure → Test & Sync → Done.

Step 1: Authorize

• Enter the email address you want to connect — it must already be added and verified in Social Setups before you can proceed
• Once verified, the same step expands to ask for your mail server details: IMAP host, port, and encryption (pre-filled with sensible defaults for the provider), plus the same for SMTP
• Your email address is locked in as read-only at this point, and you’ll enter your app-specific password — not your regular account password

Step 2: Configure

• Choose which folders to sync — Inbox and Sent are checked by default; Drafts and Spam are optional
• Set your Sync History window (default: Last 90 days) — this determines how far back historical emails get imported on first connection

Step 3: Test & Sync

The system runs five automated checks in sequence, each showing Passed or In Progress:

1. Verifying credentials
2. Connecting to IMAP server
3. Connecting to SMTP server
4. Importing initial history
5. Matching contacts to CRM records

Finish Setup only becomes available once all five checks pass — if something fails, you’ll see an error description and need to resolve it before trying again.

Step 4: Done

A confirmation screen shows the mailbox is connected, along with a Next Sync timer. Clicking Done closes the wizard and takes you back to Connect Mailbox, where the new mailbox now appears in your active count.

Good to Know

• Inbox must be included in the sync — deselecting it disables inbound email capture for that mailbox entirely, which breaks Sales/Service Channel routing
• OAuth providers (Gmail, Outlook) skip this wizard altogether — the whole thing is handled through the provider’s own consent screen

Connected Accounts

Your management dashboard for every mailbox linked to the workspace.

Summary Panel

• Connected Mailboxes – total count
• Active Sync – how many are actively syncing
• Selected Mailbox – whichever one you’re currently inspecting

Mailbox Grid

Column	Description
Mailbox	The email address, with a sub-label showing selection status
Provider	Which channel it’s assigned to — Sales Channel or Service Channel
Last Update	The most recent sync date
Status	Active, Inactive, Error, or Paused
Role	Default Mailbox or Additional Mailbox

Each row has View (opens its full configuration) and Sync now (triggers an immediate manual sync).

Good to Know

• Clicking a row selects that mailbox for monitoring, updating the Selected Mailbox card at the top
• Only one mailbox per workspace can hold the Default Mailbox role — everything else is classified as Additional
• A mailbox can only belong to one channel at a time, either Sales or Service, never both

Connection Status

Real-time sync health for whichever mailbox you’ve selected in Connected Accounts.

What You’ll See

• Mailbox Identity – channel + email address
• Summary Cards – Last Synced, Emails Fetched, and current Status
• Recent Sync Log – a chronological record of every sync event, its type, email count, and outcome (Pending, In Progress, Completed, or Failed)

Actions

• Force sync now – triggers an immediate sync outside the scheduled interval
• Disconnect – a destructive, irreversible action that severs the connection entirely. Previously synced emails stay in the CRM, but no further syncing happens until you reconnect the mailbox through the full wizard again

Advanced Settings

Workspace-wide governance controls that apply across every connected mailbox — not per-mailbox settings.

Sync Frequency

• Sync Interval – how often the CRM polls all mailboxes for new emails (e.g., every 5 minutes)
• Initial Sync Window – the default historical import range applied to any newly connected mailbox going forward

Email Threading

• Group emails into threads – when enabled, reply chains collapse into a single expandable thread in Contact and Deal timelines
• Show internal replies in timeline – when enabled, internal CRM user replies show up alongside external correspondence

Visibility & Sharing

• Who can see emails – controls visibility scope across the workspace (Everyone, Only the Owner, Team Members Only, or Admins Only)
• On deal reassignment – decides what happens to email history when a deal changes owners (Transfer Email History, Keep with Original Owner, or Duplicate for Both)

Signature Stripping

A single toggle that, when enabled, automatically detects and removes email signatures from the previews saved against Contact Person records.

Good to Know

• Nothing here auto-saves. You need to explicitly click Save settings to commit any change — navigating away first discards it
• These settings apply globally and immediately to every connected mailbox in the workspace once saved