Workist Smart Inbox
The Workist Smart Inbox connects Microsoft Outlook mailboxes to Workist so that incoming emails are classified automatically — as an Order, Request for Quotation (RFQ), Invoice, Order Confirmation, or Other. Relevant documents reach the right Workist channels without any manual forwarding.
Two variants
There are two variants of the Smart Inbox, depending on the type of mailbox you want to connect:
- Shared Smart Inbox — the most common setup: teams connect shared Outlook mailboxes (collective inboxes). Workist classifies incoming emails and applies actions such as moving them to a folder or marking them as read.
- Personal Smart Inbox — employees connect their individual Outlook mailbox. Workist classifies incoming emails and tags them directly in Outlook (e.g. Orders or Requests for Quotation).
Each variant has its own admin guide that explains the requested permissions and walks through granting admin consent step by step.
Admin consent
To let Workist access the mailboxes, an Outlook administrator must grant the application the required Microsoft Graph permissions once (admin consent). The Workbench shows the link for this as long as consent is missing. Copy it with "Copy link" and send it to your Outlook administrator.
| Variant | Where the link is | Who sees it |
|---|---|---|
| Shared Smart Inbox | "Settings" → navigation on the left under "Workflow Tools" → "Smart Inbox" | Users with the Manager or Admin role |
| Personal Smart Inbox | Your name in the bottom left → "Your profile" → section "Personal Smart Inbox for Outlook" | Users with the Member, Manager, IT or Admin role |
When Workist adds new functions that need further permissions (e.g. custom categories), the Workbench shows the hint "Admin approval required" with a new link. The roles are described under Users and roles.
Setting up the Shared Smart Inbox
After admin consent, users with the Manager or Admin role connect the mailboxes under "Settings" → "Workflow Tools" → "Smart Inbox" → "Add Integration". You set the name and mailbox address and choose, for each document type (order, order confirmation, price request, invoice), the channel in which Workist creates the documents. The channels cannot be changed later.
Via a mailbox's menu → "Manage" you adjust its behaviour:
- Unprocessed Documents: Emails that contain one of the given keywords or come from one of the given addresses or domains are not created as documents. They stay in the mailbox for manual processing.
- Events: For each document type, you define what happens in Outlook when a document was, for example, created, finished, discarded or deleted: move the email to an Outlook folder and/or mark it as read.
- Custom Categories: see the next section.
Custom categories
For emails that are not an order, price request, invoice or order confirmation, you can create your own categories, for example for delivery complaints or questions about missing order confirmations. An AI assigns each of these emails to at most one active category, and only if it clearly fits.
You find the categories at the mailbox under "Manage" → "Custom Categories" → "Create Category". As a starting point, Workist offers "Recommended Categories" (e.g. "Order Confirmation" and "Delivery Complaint"). You describe a custom category with:
- Name
- Detection Criteria: which emails belong to it, in your own words
- Supporting Keywords (optional) that improve detection
For each category you define what happens to the detected emails:
| Action | Effect |
|---|---|
| "Add Outlook Tag" | The email gets a tag in Outlook (one tag per category, colour selectable). |
| "Move to Outlook Folder" | The email is moved to the selected Outlook folder. |
| "Mark as Read" | The email is marked as read in Outlook. |
| "Enable Auto-Forwarding" | The email is forwarded to email addresses or created as a document in a Workist channel. |
Use "Pause" and "Resume" to switch a category off and on temporarily, and "Delete" to remove it. Categories marked "Agent" belong to an AI agent.
Personal Smart Inbox
The Personal Smart Inbox is marked as Beta in the Workbench. Every user with the Member, Manager, IT or Admin role sets it up for their own mailbox under "Your profile":
- "Connect to Outlook" and sign in with Microsoft.
- Choose the channels for orders and price requests in which Workist places detected documents.
Under "Excluded Content", enter keywords and email addresses or domains. Matching emails remain in your inbox and are not sent to Workist. Use "Pause" and "Resume" to interrupt forwarding temporarily, and "Disconnect" to end it.
If Workist loses access to your mailbox, you see a hint in your profile and receive an email (if you receive email notifications). Disconnect the Personal Smart Inbox and connect it again.