Overview
Visibility of Email communications to and from your customers and prospects is a key pillar of using any modern CRM system. It’s a vital component of the relationships that are built and maintained and, as such, should, in general, be accessible and visible within Pipeliner.
Having said that, there are certain situations where the content of individual emails should be kept private or where all emails belonging to certain types of user - Senior Management, for example - should not be seen by other users.
Email integration is a fundamental part of using all features that Pipeliner offers and this change opens up this functionality to organisations which have previously been limited by security or compliance requirements. More information about features relying on email integration can be found here.
From the 4.8 release (June 2022), sharing permissions can be set at the User Role level by Pipeliner Admins or, if allowed by their User Role, chosen by Users themselves. The email itself will still be visible but the content of the email can be shared as public or made private.
Remember that emails are only visible to users who have rights to see the Contact or Account that the email is linked to - this restriction still applies.
Please note that these changes apply only for new emails sent or received after the 4.8 release.
User Role Permissions
Pipeliner Admins are able to decide on the default Email Message Sharing Rights for each User Role. All users based on that role will then inherit the settings which will be applied as the default to all emails sent from or received by those users.
Admins will choose from:
User will decide - the user has the option to share or hide the content of their own emails on an email-by-email basis or the user can select their own default preference for emails when setting up their email integration.
Private only - the content of all emails sent from and received by users based on this role will be hidden. Users cannot change the default sharing settings of emails. Sharing can be manually changed on individual emails.
Public only - the content of all emails sent from and received by users based on this role will be shared to all users who have rights to see the Contact or Account the emails are linked to. Users cannot change the default sharing settings of emails. Sharing can be manually changed on individual emails.
Admin users may also be given the rights to delete other users' emails.
NOTE: existing emails already saved in Pipeliner before the 4.8 release in June 2022 will not be affected by any changes to Email Message sharing options. Users will be able to update the sharing of each individual existing email manually however.
Sharing Options
Manually changing Sharing Options
On an email-by-email basis, the Pipeliner User who is the sender or a recipient in the To: field of the individual email can change the sharing permissions so that the content is:
Private - visible only to themselves and other users who were cc’d on the email
Public - visible to all other Pipeliner users
Custom - shared with specific users chosen individually by name or because the users are assigned to the selected sales unit(s)
These options are selected from the sharing icon on an Incoming or Sent Email when it’s selected from the Feeds.
User Role set to “User will decide”
If their User Role allows (Pipeliner Admin has selected “User will decide” in Email Message Sharing Rights), the User can select their own default preference for emails they send or receive when they are setting up the email integration.
This example below is from the Gmail for Sending Emails integration and is accessed by clicking “Configure” once the integration is active:
On an individual email, the User who is the sender or a recipient in the To: field of the individual email can change the sharing permissions so that the content is:
Private — visible only to themselves and other users who were cc’d on the email
Public — visible to all other Pipeliner users
Custom — shared with specific users chosen individually by name or because the users are assigned to the selected sales unit(s)
These options are selected from the sharing icon on an Incoming Email or Sent Email opened up from the Feeds
And from the option in the top right corner when sending an email.
User Role set to “Private” or “Public”
If their User Role Sharing Rights are set to “Private” or “Public” the default preference for emails the users sends or receives is already configured when the email integration is enabled and cannot be changed.
This example below is from the Gmail for Sending Emails integration and is accessed by clicking “Configure” once the integration is active:
The default setting is enabled for all incoming emails
It’s the same when sending an email, the default sharing is set and cannot be changed
Users can still change the Sharing settings on each individual email.
Allowing other users to send emails from a user’s email address
It can be extremely useful for other users - for example, the Marketing Team - to be able to send emails on a user’s behalf. Another perfect example of this is when emails are sent to customers using the Automatizer tool and the email should be sent from the Owner of the Account or Contact rather than from the same generic email address.
Each user has to allow this level of access to their email address by selecting the preferred options. To allow their email address to be used by Automatizer processes and in Email Sequences, each user should tick the box “When option Record’s owner email account is used”
To allow Mass Emails to be sent from their personal email address by other users, tick the “Mass Emails” box and then choose whether “All Users” or “Selected Users” will be able to send the Mass Emails. Most users will probably choose “Selected Users” and then choose from the user list to select the right people.
Q&A
Who can see my emails?
Any user who has the rights to see the Account record or the Contact record that the email is linked to (linking is based on a matching email address), also has rights to see all emails linked to the Account or Contact and, additionally, the content of all emails where the sharing is “Public”. If sharing is “Private”, users will see that an email exists but will not be able to read the content.
Who can delete an email?
Emails can be deleted by the Owner of each one or by users who have been granted the rights to delete emails owned by other users
Who is the owner of an email?
If you are the sole recipient of an email or the sender, you are automatically assigned as the email’s Owner and can change the sharing settings of that email as well as delete it.
What if the email was sent to more than one user?
If more than one Pipeliner user is a recipient in the To: field, no Owner is set and so the email can only be deleted by an Admin user with rights to delete others emails. All recipients can manually update the sharing settings for the email.
If the email is sent to one user with additional users in the Cc: field, the recipient is set as the Owner and can delete the email and change the default sharing settings. Anyone who was cc’d can see the content of the email even if the sharing is set to “Private” but cc’d users cannot change the sharing settings.
What about attachments?
Attachments are handled in the same way as the content of emails. If you make an email “Private”, all attachments will also only be accessible to you individually (or vice versa, if you set an email as “Public”).
If I want to change sharing settings, do I have to do each email individually?
Yes if the emails are different. If they are all part of the chain or “conversation” however, you can take advantage of the option to “Update sharing of all my emails in this conversation” to change sharing in one go
Who can use my email address to send emails?
By default, only you can send emails from your own email address but you can choose to allow other users to also send from your email address in certain specific situations when you own a record that an email is being sent to. This does not mean that other users can use your email in day-to-day use. You can allow sending from your email address when emails are sent via an Automatizer process or as part of an Email Sequence (i.e. “automatic emails”) and also allow colleagues to send “Mass Emails” from your email address on your behalf if you choose.
If an email is sent using the "Record Owner's email address" to one of your records and you haven't authorised your email address to be used in this way, you'll receive a notification email message like the one below. You can click on the hyperlink to jump straight to your email settings to change your selected options.