Connect your email

To start, open Skills, find Inbox and hit Install. The setup takes you straight to connecting your email.

Connect your email and you can read it inside Mucka, on the same screen as the job it is about.

What works today

Gmail (including Google Workspace), Outlook (including Hotmail, Live and Microsoft 365), and almost any other email: Yahoo, iCloud, BT, Sky, AOL, or your own business email.

In the Mucka app, Google or Microsoft opens on top of Mucka. Sign in and allow it, and it closes by itself and puts you back in the Inbox; you do not need to sign in to Mucka again.

When you first connect, Mucka reads the last 30 days, up to 250 emails. Anything older stays in your own email. The page counts the emails in as it reads them ("Read 40 of 250 emails") and fills in on its own, usually within a minute or two. You do not have to sit and watch it: it finishes whether the page is open or not.

After that Mucka keeps the mailbox up to date every few minutes and shows the conversation on the Inbox page, just under Actions in the menu. Where the sender is somebody already on your books, the email shows on their record too.

Finding your way round the Inbox

• More than one email account. Connect a second one and a menu appears at the top of the Inbox: choose All email accounts, or one address to see only that one. With All showing, each row says which account it came to, and the same email sent to both shows twice. New email starts from the account you are looking at.
• Your own folders. If Outlook or Gmail files an email into a folder of your own, it stays out of Mucka's Inbox too. Open the folder menu and you'll find your folders listed under the usual ones, by name, on Gmail and Outlook. That mail shows under Archive as well. Folders on other email aren't read.
• People first. The Inbox opens on People: your customers, your team and anybody asking for work. Post holds suppliers, bills, deliveries and newsletters, and All mail is everything except the marketing.
• Marketing waits under Post. Newsletters and offers, and anything Gmail files under Promotions, Social or Forums, stay out of All mail and out of the Inbox's unread number. Nothing is deleted or moved in your own email. Mail from a customer is never treated as marketing.
• Junk stays junk. Mail in your Junk or Spam folder shows only in Mucka's Spam folder. Mucka doesn't read it for jobs, file it onto a customer, or raise anything from it.
• Mucka spots the spam your filter missed. Scams, phishing, fake "your storage is full" warnings and dating or gambling mail that land in your inbox are moved to Mucka's Spam folder instead. Nothing is moved in your own email, and mail from a customer is never treated as spam. If Mucka got one wrong, open it and choose Not spam to put it back in your Inbox.
• On a phone, swipe a row as you would in Apple Mail. Swipe right to mark it read or unread. Swipe left for Flag, Archive and Bin, or swipe all the way left to archive. Each one gives you an Undo.
• Copy from an email. Press and hold on the text of an email in the app to copy a phone number, an address or a reference.

Ask Mucka to clear out newsletters

Say "clear out my newsletters" in chat, or on a call with Mucka in the app. Mucka lists the newsletters and offers still sitting in your inbox. Mail from a customer is never on that list. Then tell it which ones to deal with and how:

• Unsubscribe. Mucka does what the Unsubscribe button in Gmail or Outlook does. Most senders take a one-click request. Some ask for an email instead, so Mucka sends one from your address and you'll see it in your Sent folder. A few only offer a web page you have to click through yourself; Mucka gives you that link rather than pretending it's done. Senders can take a few days to stop.
• Bin or Archive. These go to your own email's bin or archive, so you can always get them back from there.

Mucka tells you exactly what it's about to do and waits for your yes. It never clears anything you haven't asked about.

Every morning, with one tap

If newsletters keep landing, Mucka can offer to clear them out each morning. Switch on Clear out newsletters each morning beside your mailbox in Settings → Connections → Integrations → Inbox, or just ask Mucka to do it every morning.

When there are newsletters sitting in your inbox, a card in Actions says how many and who from. Approve it and Mucka unsubscribes you from those senders and archives the emails. Tap Not today and it asks again tomorrow. One card covers the newest 25; anything older comes up the next morning.

• It works with every kind of email you can connect: Gmail, Outlook and other email (IMAP) alike.
• Mail from your clients is never on the card.
• It's just for you. Nobody else on the team sees the card, and they each choose for themselves.
• Nothing happens until you tap. Archived emails are still in your email, just out of the inbox.
• Mucka doesn't send you a WhatsApp about it. The card waits in Actions.

To turn it off, switch it off in the same place or ask Mucka to stop.

Writing an email on a phone

On a phone, tap the folder name at the top of the Inbox to switch folder; the list of folders comes up from the bottom of the screen. The pencil beside it writes a new email.

A new email fills the screen, like Apple Mail. Tap To and type an address, or tap the round contact button at the end of the line to pick somebody from your contacts. Mucka opens on the people you've dealt with most recently, and searching finds anyone in your book. Somebody with no email address on their record still shows, greyed out, so you know they're there; add the address to their record first. You can send to more than one person.

Cc/Bcc, From is one line until you tap it. Then you can copy people in, openly (Cc) or without the others seeing (Bcc), and see the address it goes from. The round Send at the top right lights up once there is somebody to send it to, and X at the top left closes it, asking first if you've written anything.

Reply and Forward look the same. A reply goes to whoever emailed you last, so its To line is filled in for you. A forward goes to one address, and lists the files that go with it.

Send every customer email from your own address

By default Mucka sends your emails on your behalf, and replies come back to you. Once a mailbox is connected you can have every email Mucka sends your customers go out from your own address instead: quotes, invoices, certificates, job reports, booking confirmations, reminders, chasers, payment thank-yous, review requests and calendar invites. They land like any other email you send, and they sit in your Sent folder.

Go to Settings → Connections → Integrations → Inbox and pick the address under Send my customer emails from. Your sending address then shows that address.

Three things worth knowing before you change it:

• It changes where the customer's reply goes — into that mailbox, not wherever they were landing before.
• Only the workspace owner can change it. Connecting your own mailbox is one thing; deciding what address the business sends from is another.
• You can only pick a shared mailbox or your own. Somebody else's private mailbox is theirs — ask them to share it first.
• When you send something yourself, a hidden copy still comes to the email you sign in with, and that address is on the reply too, whichever mailbox it went from. If you sign in with a personal address and want those at the business one instead, email support@mucka.ai and we'll change your login.

If that mailbox ever stops working, Mucka goes back to sending on your behalf rather than letting a quote sit unsent.

Mucka drafts your replies

Ask Mucka to answer an email — "reply to Karen and say Thursday's fine" — and it writes the reply and puts it on a Reply ready — Not sent card. The same reply sits in your Gmail or Outlook Drafts, so it is there whichever one you open first.

Read it, then tap Send reply. It goes from your own address to whoever emailed you last in that conversation. Mucka never picks who it goes to.

Once it is switched on for your account, Mucka also drafts one on its own when an email needs answering: somebody asking for work, a customer asking about a job, or a complaint, when it needs an answer today or soon. Supplier mail, receipts, newsletters and out-of-office replies are left alone. It only drafts for mail that has just arrived, never for the backlog it read when you first connected.

Two things worth knowing:

• Changed it in Gmail or Outlook, or sent it from there? Then the card will not send. It tells you, and your version is the one that counts. That is how you avoid a customer getting the same reply twice.
• The card is only yours. It quotes your email, so nobody else on the team sees it, even people who approve everything else.

On WhatsApp or a phone call, Mucka reads the reply back to you and sends it when you say yes.

Mucka does the little bits of admin an email implies

• Somebody new asking for work? The reply Mucka drafts asks for their best number and a good time to call. Sending it also saves them to your client book as a Lead. Untick the box on the card if you'd rather not.

• A customer gives you a new number or email address? You get a card to add it to their record. Mucka never overwrites a number you already have: a different one goes in as their second number.

• "Please go ahead"? A card to mark their quote accepted, and to book it in if they said when.

• "Can we move it to Friday?" A card to move the visit. "Please cancel"? A card to cancel it, which also tells the engineer.

• "The key's in the key safe, code 4471"? A card to save it on the property, under Getting in, so the engineer has it on the job.

• A new supplier writing in? A card to save them to your contacts as a supplier. You're only asked once per supplier.

• "I've paid"? A card to record the payment against their invoice. It reminds you to check the money has actually arrived before you tap.

• "Can you send me the gas safety certificate?" The reply Mucka drafts has the certificate attached. If Mucka can't tell which one, it attaches nothing.

• Anything else they need? A to-do on your notepad.

If Mucka can't tell which quote or which visit they mean, you get a to-do instead of a guess.

Every card quotes the line of the email it came from, and nothing changes until you tap it. You can also change the reply's wording on the card before it goes.

Supplier invoices go straight to your books

When a supplier emails you an invoice or a receipt, Mucka reads the attachment (a PDF or a photo) and gets it ready for you:

• With Xero, QuickBooks, FreeAgent or Sage connected, you get the usual Add to accounts card: supplier, total, VAT and date read off for you, an expense account picked, and it goes in as a bill still to pay. Change anything before you approve. Pick a job on the card and the cost goes on that job too.
• With no accounts app, you get a Put on a job card instead. Choose the job and the cost goes on it, with the invoice attached.

Nothing goes into your books or onto a job until you approve the card.

Mucka only does this for mail that arrives after it is switched on, never the old mail it read when you first connected. If the same receipt turns up twice, say as an invoice and a receipt for one payment, you only get one card.

Works orders from agents

When a letting agent or property manager emails you a works order as a PDF, and you use the Work Orders skill, you get a Works order card: who sent it and the file's name. Tap Add to Work Orders and Mucka reads the PDF exactly as it does when you upload one: the job, the property, the tenant, their order number, and which of your job types it is. Then open it on the Work Orders page, check what Mucka read, and tap Create job. See Book in a work order from an agent.

Mucka spots one from the words: "works order", "work order" or "job instruction" in the subject, the email or the PDF's name, with a PDF attached. The same PDF sent again on a reply or a chaser doesn't raise a second card. The card waits until you add it or dismiss it, and nothing is read or added until you tap.

What is not built yet

• Putting the conversation on the right job on its own

That is being built now.

Connect a mailbox

1. Install Inbox from Skills once it is switched on for you. Mucka opens a short setup: what the Inbox does, then Where is your email? (Later, it is always under Inbox in the menu, and in Settings → Connections.)
2. Pick Gmail, Outlook, or Yahoo, iCloud, BT or something else.
3. For Gmail or Outlook, sign in and leave the email permissions ticked. For anything else, see below.

On Gmail, Google will say it hasn't verified the app. That is expected, and it is safe to carry on: tap Advanced, then Go to Mucka. Google also lets you sign in while switching the email permissions off, and if you do, Mucka can see which account you picked and nothing else. If that happens, the Inbox page says so and you can connect it again.

On Outlook with a work Microsoft 365 account, you may see Need admin approval. Lots of companies' Microsoft accounts are set up so staff can't let an app read their email on their own. That's Microsoft's standard setting, not a problem with your account. Go back to Mucka and it explains what to do:

• If you look after your company's Microsoft account, tap Approve Mucka for my company. You approve it once for the whole company, and Mucka carries straight on to connecting your inbox.
• If somebody else does (your IT company, say), send them to the same page. Once they've approved it, connect again.

Personal Outlook, Hotmail and Live addresses don't need any approval.

Reading your business email in the Outlook app isn't the same as having it at Microsoft. Plenty of business email is kept by IONOS or another provider and only read in Outlook. Signing in with Microsoft can't reach that, because Microsoft never receives it. Mucka checks where your email is kept when you sign in. If it's somewhere else, it says where, and opens Yahoo, iCloud, BT or something else with that provider already picked. Then it's your email address and its password.

Yahoo, iCloud, BT, Sky, AOL and other email

Type your email address and Mucka works out who it is with (you can change it). Then it asks for a password, and for most of these it is an app password, not the password you log in with:

• Yahoo, Sky and AOL: make an app password in your account's security settings (for Sky, on Sky's own page, not Yahoo's).
• iCloud: make an app-specific password at account.apple.com, under Sign-In and Security.
• BT: use your normal BT email password, the one set in My BT for email. Basic BT accounts are webmail only and can't be connected.
• IONOS (1&1): if your business email is hosted by IONOS, choose IONOS (1&1) and use that email address's own password, not your IONOS login.
• Your own business email: choose Another provider and enter the incoming (IMAP) and outgoing (SMTP) server names. Whoever set up your email can tell you them.

The form shows the steps for yours, with a link to the right page. Mucka checks the login works for both reading and sending before it saves anything.

Two things work slightly differently from Gmail and Outlook: marking an email read or flagging it in another mail app on your phone doesn't show in Mucka for mail it already has (new mail, and mail you archive or delete, does), and if you change the password or remove the app password, Mucka asks you to connect again.

Who can see it

A mailbox you connect is yours. Nobody else in the workspace sees it unless you share it, and sharing is a choice you make per mailbox.

Anyone on your team with permission to see the Inbox can read a shared mailbox. Your own stays yours.

Hear about client emails on WhatsApp

If you read WhatsApp more than you open the app, Mucka can message you there when a client emails. Go to Settings → Connections → Integrations → Inbox and switch on WhatsApp me when a client emails.

• Clients only. It's for people on your books. Suppliers, newsletters and strangers don't set it off.
• Once per conversation. A run of emails about the same job is one message, and a reply a few hours later is a new one.
• Just for you. Everyone on the team chooses for themselves, and it's off until you turn it on. A private mailbox only ever messages the person who connected it.
• Your WhatsApp has to be paired with Mucka. If it isn't, the switch says so and takes you there.

Something that comes in late at night waits until your quiet hours finish. To reply, open the email in the Inbox.

Mucka never sends an email on its own

Every reply Mucka writes waits for you to read it first. Nothing goes to a customer over your name until you tap Send or say yes.

What Mucka keeps, and getting rid of it

Mucka keeps a copy of the mail in the connected account so it can show it to you and search it. Where an email is from one of your customers, it also shows on their record.

Disconnect the mailbox in Settings → Connections → Integrations → Email and that copy is deleted: the messages, the attachments, the emails on your customers' records, and any cards from that mailbox you haven't approved.

Removing Mucka from your Google or Microsoft account does the same. Mucka finds out the next time it checks your mailbox, usually within a few minutes, and deletes the copy. The mailbox stays listed in Settings so you can connect it again.

What stays is anything you approved: a reply you sent, a number you saved to a customer, a payment you recorded, a supplier bill you put in your books. Those are your records now, not a copy of your email. Replies Mucka drafted stay in your Gmail or Outlook Drafts until you delete them there.

Your email is never used to train anything.