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Email integration

video tutorial Check the Video Tutorial: Email integration 4 mins

Besides the Email Notifications sent by 5pm to user's email accounts, an email-to-5pm communication is also possible. Tasks, Messages and Progress Notes can be created and updated directly from emails.

Creating Tasks from Emails

You can use an existing email to create a new 5pm task from it.

To create a Task from Email, you have to send it to (entering this email into To, Cc or Fwd field):
task.yourdomain@5pmweb.com — replace "yourdomain" with the name of your 5pm domain (the XXXX part of XXXX.5pmweb.com).
Tasks from Emails

The new Task will appear in your 5pm account within a few minutes. The following rules will apply:

  1. Subject becomes the Task Name
    The email's Subject will become the 5pm's Task name. You can also include additional parameters in the Subject line to define the Task's parent project, deadline, and so on (read more about that in additional Subject line parameters).
    The Subject line is unique and is used to identify the task. If a task with such name already exists (within the indicated project or as a Single Task), it will be added to that existing task as a Message/Comment or Progress Note (find out more in Creating Messages and Progress Notes from emails).
  2. Email Body Task Description
  3. Attachment(s) Files
    Any files attached to your email will also be added to the newly created Task. Besides your email box file size limitations, the same 5pm files size limitations apply here as in the main 5pm interface.
    File size limitation — you can upload files up to 125Mb each. The maximum total size of all the uploaded files is defined by your Plan — to check it, use "my account" link on the top of your 5pm screen.
  4. Recipient(s)' email(s) Task Team
    You can also include other emails to the recipients list, besides task.yourdomain@5pmweb.com. You can include them into To, Cc and Fwd fields. The recipients' emails have to be associated with existing 5pm users. Those users will be added to the Task Team.
  5. Sender's email Task creator
    The sender's email has to be associated with an existing 5pm user, otherwise the email will be ignored. This user will become the Task's creator.
Additional Subject line parameters:

The Subject line can also include additional parameters included in square brackets after the task name. Here is the syntax for a Subject line that includes all those parameters:

Email subject: Task Name [Project Name][start: 25/05/07][deadline: 28/12/07][high][hide][on hold]

These parameters are optional and can be included in any order, except the first one( [ProjectName]). Here is the full description of each:

Creating Tasks from Emails. Subject line parameters.

[Project Name] This parameter should always follow first, right after the main subject part (Task name). It should contain the full name or just the first letters/words of an existing project. When this parameter is present, the following will happen:
  • A project with that name is being searched for. If it's located — the Task is added to that project.
  • If the project with this full name is not located, a project that starts with these words is being searched for. The task is then added to the first located project that starts with these words.
    Example: You can enter "Email integration" to point to "Email integration testing" project. This way you don't have to remember the whole project name.
  • If no project is found in the previous step, a Single Task (a task outside projects) is created.

Examples of usage:

  • Subject: "Update the logo [Website redesign]" creates "Update the logo" task in the "Website redesign" project (assuming that a project with such name already exists).
[start: date] or [startdate: date] This parameter is used to define the Task's Start Date. The date following the "start:" (or, the alternative spelling "startdate:") keyword should follow these formatting rules:
Date format (in email subjects).
Dates should be in the mm/dd/yy or dd/mm/yy format, depending on the settings in the sender's 5pm account (users can switch between US and EU formats through the "settings" link on the top of 5pm screen).

Alternative date formats are also accepted: mm-dd-yyyy and mm.dd.yyyy. You can also use 2 or 4-digits for the year — both will work.

Examples of valid dates: 01/01/08, 01/02/2008, 01.01.2008, 01-01-2008, 01-01-08...
If Start Date parameter is not passed, the Task is set to start on the day the email was sent.

Examples of usage:
  • Subject: "Update the logo [start: 05/20/19]" creates a Single Task called "Update the logo" with Start Date: May 25, 2019 (assuming you are working with the US date format).
[end: date] or [deadline: date] or [enddate: date] This parameter is used to define the Task's Deadline ( "end:", "deadline:" and "enddate" are alternative spellings). The same rules apply as with the "Start Date" parameter. If the Deadline is not defined, it will be left empty in the newly created task.
[Estimated time] or [Estimated hours] or [Estimated] Estimated Hours is the number of hours it would/should take the task to complete. Example of usage:
  • Subject: "Update the logo [Estimated hours: 10.5]" creates a Single Task called "Update the logo" with the estimated ten and a half hours needed for completion.
[hide] or [hidden] This keyword, when included in the subject line between square brackets, will hide the newly created Task from non-team members.
[notify task team], [notify task] or [NotifyTaskTeam] This keyword, when included in the subject line between square brackets, will send an email notification to the Task Team.
[notify project team] ,[notify project] or [NotifyProjectTeam] Same as "notify task team", but sends an email notification to the parent Project Team.
[group: groupName] Applies only to Single Tasks (tasks outside projects) and defines to what group the task should belong to. If a group with such name is not found, the Task is not added to any groups. If the parent project is indicated for the task, the task will belong to the project, and its group will be defined by that project's group.
[Open]
[On Hold]
[Done]
These keywords (just one of them to be used at a time) when included in the subject line between square brackets, will set the Task's Status as "Open", "On Hold" or "Done" respectively.
[Low]
[Normal]
[High]
[Urgent]
These keyword (just one of them to be used at a time) when included in the subject line between square brackets, will set the Task's Priority as "Low", "Normal", "High" or "Urgent" respectively.
To make it easier to create tasks from emails, you can use our Outlook Addin or Gmail Addon.

Creating Messages and Progress Notes from Emails

If you send other emails to task.yourdomain@5pmweb.com with the same subject, which you used to create a Task from email (or if a task with such name already exists), instead of creating a new Task with the same name, the new emails will be added as Messages or Progress Notes to the existing Task. You can reply to the original email that created the Task, forward it and so on, but as long as you keep task.yourdomain@5pmweb.com in the receiver's list, those emails will also be adding Messages/Progress Notes to the original Task is 5pm.

The format for creating a Message is exactly the same as when creating a Task.

To create a Progress Note, all you have to do is just add a new parameter ([progress:]) at the end of the subject line (without modifying the rest of it) to indicate the completion % of the Task. You can also add another parameter — [time:] to report the time spent on the Task. Here is the full syntax for creating a Progress Note:

Email subject: Task Name [Project Name] [progress: 50%][time:4]

Creating Messages and Progress Notes from Emails

[progress: 50%] or [percent: 50%] This parameter is mandatory if you want to add a Progress Note to an existing Task. If you skip it — a simple Message will be created.

Example of usage:

  • Subject: "Re: Test email integration [progress: 95%]" adds a Progress Note with a 95% completion to an existing task called "Test email integration".
[time: 5], [HoursDone: 5] or [hours: 5] You can also report the amount of hours spent on a task with a Progress Note.

Example of usage:

  • Subject: "Re: Test email integration [progress: 95%][hours: 10]" adds a Progress Note with 95% completion and 10 hours spent on it to an existing task, called "Test email integration".
[hide from Client] or [internal] This parameter can be added to Messages only (not Progress Notes). It will hide it from Clients.

Example of usage:

  • Subject: "Re: Test email integration [Test Project] [internal]" adds a Message to an existing task, called "Test email integration", inside the [Test Project], hiding it from Clients. This flag will be ignored for single tasks (with no parent project) since clients are assigned only to the project level, so single tasks can not have any clients associated with them.

Note: When sending an email notification about a message added to 5pm, if that message is hidden from clients, the email notification will already contain the "[internal]" flag in the subject line, so the reply to that email will create messages hidden from clients as well (unless you modify the email subject, removing that flag).

Any attachments from those emails will be added as Files to the Task.

You can not change other task parameters, as Priority and Status, by adding those parameters to Messages or Progress Notes emails. Those parameters can only be set when creating the new tasks.

Messages can also be added directly to Projects, if you skip the task name and only include the project name in square brackets.