Inbox & Email Management
Centralized email communication hub with search, filtering, scheduled send, 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
- Filters for read status, workflow status, and assignment
- User, contact, and property filters
Message Organization
- Threaded conversations
- Per-person read state — each teammate has their own
- Workflow status and assignment
- Automatic Needs Reply flag on inbound mail
- 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, 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 — No Status, To Do, In Progress, or Completed
- Needs Reply chip when someone outside your team is waiting on a response
- Draft label when you have an unsent reply on the thread
- 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
- Read Status: Unread by Me, Unread by Others, or Unread by Everyone
- Status: No Status, To Do, In Progress, or Completed — pick any combination
- Assignment: Unassigned (always first) plus any team members; you appear as "me"
- Users & Contacts: Filter by the teammates or the contacts on the thread
- Property: Search for and pick one or more properties
Every filter 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. To see archived threads, pick Archived in the Inbox sidebar instead of All Messages; pick a mailbox under Mailboxes to see just that mailbox.
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
Cardinal remembers your sort order and page size, so the inbox opens the way you left it.
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
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, color, bold, italic, and underline
- Lists: Add bulleted or numbered lists, or start one by typing
-or1.at the start of a line - Links & emoji: Insert hyperlinks, or pick an emoji from the smiley button
- Images & attachments: Add inline images, attach files with the paperclip, or use the camera button to capture a photo or video from your phone
- Send: Deliver the message and start a new thread in the selected mailbox — or use the clock beside it to schedule the send for later
- Delete: Discard the draft without sending
Attachments on a single message can total about 7.5 MB. Over that, Send and Schedule are disabled until you remove some files. Your default email signature, if you have one, is already in place when the dialog opens.
Scheduling, Drafts & Signatures
Scheduled Send
Write a message now and have Cardinal deliver it later — a tenant notice that should land at the start of the business day, or a reminder the morning before a shutdown. Scheduling works for new messages, replies, and announcements.
Picking a Time
- Click the clock on the right edge of the Send button to open the picker
- It opens on tomorrow at 8:00 AM; times come in 15-minute steps
- Pick any time at least a couple of minutes from now and up to 12 months ahead — times already past are greyed out
- Every time is shown in your own time zone, with the zone labelled (for example, “Thu, Nov 26 at 8:00 AM PST”)
- For an announcement, the list is read when the message sends, so it reaches whoever is on the list at that moment
Confirming the Schedule
- Click Schedule send in the picker. The toolbar now reads “Sending …” with your chosen time
- Press Schedule to commit, or Clear to go back to sending right away
- Nothing is scheduled until you press Schedule, so you can keep editing until then
Managing Scheduled Messages
Open Inbox → Scheduled in the sidebar to see every message you have waiting to go out, soonest first. Each row shows the recipients, the subject, and when it sends. A message that is past its time shows Was due in red instead.
- Scheduled messages are locked. Once committed, a message can go out at any moment, so its content, recipients, and Delete button are read-only
- To change one, open it and click Unschedule to edit in the banner. It goes back to being an ordinary draft — edit it, then send or schedule it again
- Scheduled replies open their thread rather than the compose dialog
- If a send can't go out — it hits an error, or an outage keeps it from sending within a few minutes of its time — Cardinal does not send it late. The message returns to your Drafts and you get a notification saying it wasn't sent
Drafts
Cardinal saves your messages as you type. Inbox → Drafts lists every unsent message you have started — only you can see your drafts.
- Click a new message to reopen it in the compose dialog
- Click a draft reply to jump to its thread
- Start a fresh message with Compose at the top of the page
- Scheduled messages that didn't send come back here
Sent
Inbox → Sent lists outbound messages, newest first. Click one to open its thread.
- Author: starts on your own messages; add teammates or choose Everyone
- Mailbox: narrow to one or more mailboxes
- Your page size is remembered
Email Signatures
Set up your signature once and Cardinal adds it for you. Manage signatures under Settings → Profile → Signatures.
Setting Up
- Keep up to three signatures, each with its own name
- Format text and add images such as a logo — PNG, JPG, GIF, or WebP, up to 2 MB each
- Mark one as the Default; your first signature is the default automatically
- Turn Available for use off on the default to stop adding a signature without deleting it
In Your Messages
- The default signature is inserted when you start a new message, reply, or forward
- In replies and forwards it sits under your text and above the quoted conversation
- It's ordinary text in the draft — edit or delete it for a single message
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 5+ messages fold automatically
- First and last messages always visible
- Click the count indicator to expand the 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 and your unsent drafts 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; shown as a dotted circle
- 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
- Sending a reply from Cardinal clears the flag — there is nothing to toggle by hand
- The flag is separate from status — a thread can be In Progress and still owe someone an answer
- Look for the Needs Reply chip on inbox rows and in the thread header
Who Has Seen This Thread
The thread header and the sidebar's Read by row 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
- Header: Create issue, Link existing issue, Archive/Unarchive
- Each message's ⋮ menu: Reply, Reply all, Forward, Mark as unread (for you)
- Sidebar: set workflow status
Assignment & Organization
- Assign threads to team members
- See which mailbox received the thread
- 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's Participants panel lists everyone on the thread in a single list, with their name and the email address they used. A label next to each person tells you who they are:
Contact
Someone already in your contacts — even when they wrote from one of their other email addresses
Cardinal user
A teammate with a Cardinal account, shown with their avatar
Add contact
Anyone not yet in Cardinal gets an Add contact button instead of a label
Adding New Contacts
- Click Add contact next to an unrecognized participant
- Name and email pre-fill from the message
- Once saved, the person is linked to their past messages and their row switches to the Contact label
Contact Navigation
- Click a contact's name to open their message history
- See every thread they have been part of
- Edit their details from the contact's page
Mailbox Management
Manage your team's shared and property mailboxes from Inbox → Manage in the sidebar, on the Mailboxes tab. Every mailbox appears in a sortable table with name, email, description, type, message count, and activity dates; click the copy icon beside an address to copy it. Organization admins and owners can create, edit, archive, and delete mailboxes.
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
Open the ⋯ menu on any mailbox and choose Edit 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
Archiving, Deleting & Property Mailboxes
The same ⋯ menu also offers Archive and Delete for shared mailboxes. Deleting a mailbox removes its messages too and cannot be undone. 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 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: Search your Cardinal contacts by name or email, or add any external email address
Finding & Editing
Search lists by name, then click any list to add or remove members, rename it, or update its description. Changes take effect immediately for everyone in your organization; 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
Click Create issue in the thread header to turn an email conversation into a trackable issue with its context intact:
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
- The new issue is linked back to the thread automatically
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. Click Link existing issue in the thread header to pick one, and review or unlink issues in the Linked Issues card at the top of the thread sidebar.
Linking from a Thread
- Open the thread and click Link existing issue in the header
- Search by title and select the issue you want to associate with the thread
- Each linked issue shows a status icon, its title (a link to the issue), due date, and assignee
- An issue created from this thread carries an Origin chip
- Hover a linked issue and click the × to unlink it — 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 shown first on the issue, under Created from
- 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 card in the sidebar. It lists every thread tied to the issue, shows the thread the issue was created from under Created from, 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's Linked Issues card.
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
- Schedule notices to land at the start of the business day
- 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
- Shift-click checkboxes to bulk-select a range
Team Collaboration
- Assign threads to appropriate members
- Use @ mentions in comments
- Subscribe relevant team members
- Document decisions in comments
- Scan for Needs Reply chips 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