Inbox & Email Management
Centralized email communication hub with powerful search, filtering, and collaboration tools.
Overview
The Inbox is your central hub for managing email communications, organizing threads, creating issues from conversations, and collaborating with your team. It provides powerful search and filtering capabilities to help you stay on top of all property-related communications.
Getting Started
Understanding the Interface
The inbox interface consists of several key areas designed for efficient email management:
Search & Filters
- Universal search across all content
- Facets for workflow status, assignment, read state, and Needs Reply
- Property and contact-based filters
Message Organization
- Threaded conversations
- Per-person read state — each teammate has their own
- Workflow status, assignment, and Needs Reply
- Bulk actions across selected threads
Real-time Updates
New messages arrive without a refresh, and so does your team's work on them. When a teammate changes a thread's status, assigns it, flags it Needs Reply, archives it, or reads it, your inbox list and any open thread update in place — so two people triaging the same mailbox never act on a stale view.
Message List & Organization
Understanding Message Rows
Each message row provides comprehensive information at a glance:
Participants
- Sender and recipient information
- Your email appears as "me"
- Hover for full participant details
Content Preview
- Subject line and message snippet
- Thread count for conversations
- Paperclip icon when the thread has attachments
- Mailbox chip showing which mailbox received it
Status & Assignment
- Bold text when you haven't read the thread
- Status icon — To Do, In Progress, or Completed
- Needs Reply chip when the thread is waiting on a response
- Assignee avatar, or an unassigned marker
- Message timestamp
Read State Is Per Person
Reading a thread marks it read for you — not for the rest of your team. A row is bold until you have opened it, and everyone working the same shared mailbox sees their own bold rows. Open a thread and its header shows avatars for the teammates who have already read it, so you can tell at a glance whether anyone else has picked something up.
Filtering Options
- Status: No Status, To Do, In Progress, or Completed — pick any combination
- Read Status: Unread by Me, Unread by Others, or Unread by Everyone
- Assignment: Unassigned (always first) plus any team members; you appear as "me"
- Needs Reply: Show only threads flagged as awaiting a response
- Archive Status: Active, Archived, or All
- Participants & Contacts: Filter by internal users or by the contacts on the thread
Every facet is multi-select, and active filters appear as removable chips above the list. Filters live in the page URL, so a filtered inbox can be bookmarked or shared with a teammate.
Sorting & Display
- Newest First: Most recent messages at top
- Oldest First: Chronological from oldest
- Pagination: 10, 25, 50, or 100 items per page
- Total Count: See exact message counts
Bulk Actions
Triage many threads at once instead of opening them one by one. The control at the top left of the list combines a select-all checkbox with the actions menu.
Selecting Threads
- Click a row's checkbox to select a single thread
- Shift-click a second checkbox to select the whole range between them
- Use the checkbox in the toolbar to select every thread on the current page
- Selection clears when you change pages, so an action never reaches a thread you can't see
Available Actions
- Archive (or Unarchive, on the archived view)
- Assign — searchable picker of team members, or clear the assignee
- Status — set No Status, To Do, In Progress, or Completed
- Read/Unread — mark as read or unread for yourself
- Needs reply — mark as needs reply, or mark as replied
Composing a New Message
Click Compose in the top right of the inbox to open the new message dialog. Draft, format, and send outbound email without leaving Cardinal.
Addressing the Message
- From: Choose which of your shared or property mailboxes the message is sent from
- To: Add one or more recipients by email address
- Cc/Bcc: Reveal carbon-copy fields for additional recipients
- Subject: Set the thread subject line
Formatting & Sending
- Rich text: Adjust font, size, bold, italic, and underline
- Links & media: Insert hyperlinks, inline images, and file attachments
- Send: Deliver the message and start a new thread in the selected mailbox
- Delete: Discard the draft without sending
Thread View & Management
Click on any message to access the full thread view with comprehensive management and collaboration tools:
Smart Message Folding
Long email threads are automatically organized for easy navigation:
Auto-Folding
- Threads with 4+ messages fold automatically
- First and last messages always visible
- Click count indicator to expand middle messages
- Individual message expansion on click
Content Processing
- Quoted/replied content automatically hidden
- Click "..." to expand full message history
- Inline image display
- Plain-text emails render correctly, including when you reply or forward them
Opening a thread expands the last message you haven't read, so you land on the part that's new to you. Unread messages stay visible even when the rest of the thread is folded.
Thread Status & Workflow
Every thread carries a workflow status so a shared mailbox can be worked like a queue. New threads arrive untriaged as No Status; set the status from the thread sidebar, the inbox's message details sidebar, or the list's bulk actions.
The Statuses
- No Status — untriaged; no chip on the row
- To Do — triaged and waiting to be worked
- In Progress — actively being handled
- Completed — resolved
Needs Reply
- Inbound mail from outside your team flags the thread Needs Reply automatically
- The flag is separate from status — a thread can be In Progress and still owe someone an answer
- Toggle it by hand, or clear it in bulk with Mark as replied
- Filter the inbox down to just these threads
Who Has Seen This Thread
The thread header and sidebar show small avatars for every teammate who has read the thread — hover one for their name. Because read state is tracked per person, this tells you whether anyone else has looked at a message before you start drafting a reply. Marking a thread read or unread only ever changes your own state, and the change shows up for your teammates immediately.
Attachments
The sidebar's Attachments panel gathers every file on the thread in one list — files that arrived on emails and files added in internal comments — so you don't have to scroll the conversation hunting for a document.
- Where it came from: hover a file to see who added it, when, and whether it arrived on an email or in a comment
- Rename for clarity: give an inscrutable
IMG_4821.pdfa name your team will recognize. Renaming changes the display name in Cardinal; the original file is untouched - Preview and download: click an image to open it in the viewer, or download any file straight from the panel
- Threads carrying attachments show a paperclip in the inbox list
Thread Actions
- Create Issue from thread
- Archive/Unarchive threads
- Reply, Reply All, Forward
- Mark as read/unread (for you)
- Set workflow status
- Flag or clear Needs Reply
Assignment & Organization
- Assign threads to team members
- Associate with properties
- Link to specific units
- Connect to lease agreements
Collaboration
- Internal comment threads
- @ mentions for notifications
- Emoji reactions on comments
- File attachments in comments
- Subscriber management
Comments & Reactions
Internal comments are private to your team — the people on the email never see them. Use them to agree on an answer before anyone replies.
- React instead of replying: hover a comment and use the smiley button to add an emoji reaction. Click an existing pill to add or remove your own reaction, and hover it to see who reacted
- Emoji in the editor: type
:followed by a name —:check— to pick an emoji inline, or use the emoji button in the toolbar - @ mentions: the autocomplete only offers people in your organization, so a mention always reaches someone who can open the thread
Participant & Contact Management
Thread Participants
The sidebar automatically organizes all thread participants into categories:
People (External)
External contacts in your database
Users (Internal)
Team members and internal users
Unrecognized
New contacts not yet in system
Adding New Contacts
- Click "+" next to unrecognized contacts
- Contact details pre-populate from email
- Automatic association with thread
- Real-time updates to participant lists
Contact Navigation
- Click contact names to view profiles
- Access full contact history
- See all related communications
- Edit contact information
Mailbox Management
Manage your team's shared and property mailboxes from the dedicated Mailboxes page. Open it from Inbox → Manage Mailboxes in the sidebar to see every mailbox in a sortable table with name, email, description, type, message count, and activity dates. Organization admins and owners can create, edit, and configure mailboxes to organize incoming communications.
Adding a Mailbox
Click Add Mailbox to create a new shared mailbox. You'll be prompted to enter:
- Mailbox Name: A descriptive label visible to users with access
- Email Address: Auto-generated from the mailbox name, used for receiving and sending messages
- Description: An optional note describing how the mailbox should be used
- Color: A color tag to identify the mailbox in the inbox
- Mailbox Access: Invite other users to receive and send messages from this mailbox
Editing a Mailbox
Click the edit icon on any mailbox to update its settings. You can modify:
- Mailbox Name: Rename the mailbox at any time — the change takes effect immediately
- Email Address: Update the address and share it with external parties to route communications. The old address will continue to forward mail indefinitely, and senders will receive an auto-reply with the new address. You can change the email once every 30 days, up to 4 times per year
- Description & Color: Keep mailbox details current
- Mailbox Access: Add or remove users who can manage and send from this mailbox
Property Mailboxes
Mailboxes linked to a property are managed through the property settings and cannot be archived or deleted directly. To remove a property mailbox, archive the property instead.
Mailing Lists
Mailing lists are reusable, named recipient groups for the people you email most often — residents, vendors, an executive committee, a maintenance crew. Build a list once, then pick it from the recipient search the next time you compose. Manage every list for your organization from Inbox → Manage → Mailing Lists.
Creating a Mailing List
Click New Mailing List to create one. You'll provide:
- Name: A descriptive label, unique within your organization
- Description: An optional note about how the list should be used
- Members: Any mix of internal users, Cardinal contacts (people), and raw email addresses
Editing & Deleting
Open any list to add or remove members, rename it, or update its description. Changes take effect immediately for everyone in your organization. Lists can be deleted permanently from the same view — messages already sent are unaffected.
Sending to a Mailing List
Announcements are designed for mass communication to multiple units — for example, “All smoke detectors will be replaced on the Third Floor at 123 Main.” To send one, click Compose and switch the toggle at the top from New Message to New Announcement. The recipient field becomes Mailing list, where you can pick a mailing list, property, or floor.
- Per-recipient delivery: Each member receives their own individual email — recipients don't see each other in the To line.
- Replies return only to you: Because each email is sent individually, replies come back to the sender, not to the full list.
- Always-current membership: Recipients are resolved when you send, so updating a list automatically affects the next announcement you send to it.
- Add individuals with Cc/Bcc: Use the Cc/Bcc fields on the announcement to include specific people (a building engineer, an owner, a vendor) alongside the mailing list, property, or floor recipients.
Size Limits
You'll see a warning in compose once a list resolves to 250 or more recipients, and a single send is capped at 500 recipients. The recipient preview shows up to 50 members; for larger lists, the full member count is displayed alongside the preview.
Issue Creation & Integration
Converting Threads to Issues
Transform email conversations into trackable issues with full context preservation:
Automatic Data Transfer
- Subject becomes issue title
- Description arrives prefilled with the email that prompted the issue — the most recent message your mailbox received, not your own last reply. Edit it before saving
- Property associations carry over
- Unit and lease connections maintained
- Participant information transferred
Issue Management
- Set priority and assignment
- Choose issue type and status
- Add additional context
- Attach relevant files
- Link back to original thread
Linking Threads to Existing Issues
Connect an email thread to an issue that already exists so every related conversation lives alongside the work it belongs to. Use the Related issues section in the thread sidebar to link, review, or unlink issues without leaving the inbox.
Linking from a Thread
- Open the thread and find Related issues in the sidebar
- Click Link issue to open the picker
- Search by title and select the issue you want to associate with the thread
- Linked issues show their current status as a chip and link directly to the issue detail
- Remove a link with the × next to the linked issue — the issue itself is not affected
What Gets Connected
- Threads can link to multiple issues, and issues can surface multiple linked emails
- The thread that created an issue is marked as the Origin email on the issue
- Linking does not copy message contents into the issue; it creates a two-way reference
- Anyone with access to both the mailbox and the issue can follow the link in either direction
Linked Emails on an Issue
Open any issue to see the Linked emails panel in the sidebar. It lists every thread tied to the issue, marks the Origin thread if the issue was created from an email, and lets you attach additional threads with Link email.
Seamless Workflow Integration
Created and linked issues maintain their connection to the original email thread, allowing you to track progress while preserving the full communication context. Access issues from your main Issues dashboard or jump to them directly from the thread sidebar.
Best Practices
Efficient Organization
- Triage new mail out of No Status daily
- Use assignments for clear ownership
- Associate threads with properties
- Create issues for actionable items
- Archive completed threads regularly
- Use internal comments for context
Search & Discovery
- Start with broad search terms
- Use property names for filtering
- Search by contact names for history
- Combine multiple filters for precision
- Save time with keyboard shortcuts
Team Collaboration
- Assign threads to appropriate members
- Use @ mentions in comments
- Subscribe relevant team members
- Document decisions in comments
- Work the Needs Reply filter so nothing waits on an answer
- Check read-by avatars before replying to avoid double-answering
Security & Access Control
- All email data is protected by enterprise-grade encryption and secure storage
- Access controlled by organization membership and property permissions
- Thread visibility based on participant lists and team assignments
- Complete audit trail of all thread interactions and status changes
- Regular automated backups ensure data protection and recovery
Support & Troubleshooting
- Verify organization permissions if threads aren't appearing
- Check email integration settings for missing messages
- Clear browser cache if search results seem outdated
- Refresh the page if real-time updates aren't working
- Check notification settings if you're missing updates
- Contact your administrator for permission-related issues