Setting Up the Help Desk

Overview

The Help Desk brings together your shared inboxes, contact types, and boards into one workspace for managing communication with customers, owners, residents, and prospects.

Before using the Help Desk, you’ll need to complete two setup steps:

Define your Customer Groups

Connect your Shared Inboxes

This article walks you through both.

Step 1: Open the Help Desk Settings

Go to Settings in Aptly.

Under Company Settings, click Help Desk.

You’ll see two main sections here:

Customers – where you define your customer groups and contact types.

Inboxes – where you connect shared inboxes for email and SMS communication.

Step 2: Set Up Your Customer Groups

Customer groups allow you to organize communication by relationship type. Each group can include one or more contact types, helping you keep messages organized in your Help Desk.

To add or edit a customer group:

Edit an existing group:

Click the edit icon next to a customer group to rename it or update its contact types.

Add a new group:

Click New Customer.

Enter a unique name (e.g., “Prospects” or “Owners”).

Select the contact types to include (for example, Applicants and Prospects).

Click Save.

Once saved, your new group will appear in your Help Desk view and can be used to filter and manage conversations by customer type.

Step 3: Add Shared Inboxes

Shared inboxes are the channels your team will use to send and receive messages in the Helpdesk.

You can connect both email and phone (Twilio) inboxes.

💡 Only shared inboxes can be used in the Help Desk.

Add a Twilio Inbox

Click the Twilio logo to confirm your Twilio account is connected.

Import a number or add a new one to use it as a Help Desk inbox.

Add an Email Inbox

Click Add Inbox.

Choose Microsoft or Gmail.

Follow the authorization prompts to connect your account.

Once connected, you’ll see a setup window to configure your inbox details.

Step 4: Configure Inbox Settings

Basic Settings

Inbox Name: Give each inbox a clear, descriptive name (e.g., “Leasing Inbox”).

Color: Choose a color to help identify messages from that inbox visually.

AI Features (Premium Accounts Only)

If you have access to Aptly’s AI tools, you can enable these features for each inbox:

AI Summarization – Adds a summary of the email thread at the top of each conversation.

AI Categorization – Automatically labels messages with related topics.

AI Auto Drafts – Suggests a response to incoming emails.

AI Sentiment – Displays the tone or emotion detected in the conversation.

Additional Inbox Options

Enable Auto Categorization: Uses your shared topics to tag emails by keyword.

Exclude from Auto Sharing: Ideal for private or HR/admin inboxes that shouldn’t appear on shared boards.

Exclude from Work Order Processing: For Propertyware users—prevents work orders from generating via this inbox.

Leaderboard Toggle: Turn on to include inbox activity in performance metrics on the Team Performance Dashboard.

Inbox Signature: Add a shared signature used when no user-specific signature is available.

Send From Inbox Name: Emails appear from the inbox name (e.g., Peak Leasing) instead of an individual sender.

Access Permissions

Shared inboxes are only visible to selected users and teams.

Type a user’s name or team name to grant access (toggle on).

Toggle off to remove access.

Auto-Assignment Rules

Automatically assign new emails to users or teams based on your preferences:

Option	Description
Manual	All emails remain unassigned until manually assigned.
Assigned to User	All emails go directly to one selected user.
Round Robin (Users)	Distributes new messages evenly among users with access.
Round Robin (Teams)	Balances assignments across a team group.

This ensures balanced workloads and faster response times.

Inbox Actions

At the bottom of the settings, you’ll see three action buttons:

Make Inbox Private: Restricts inbox access to a single user.

Disconnect: Stops sending and receiving messages from the inbox (only do this if advised by Aptly Support).

Reconnect: Reauthorize the inbox connection—helpful if you’ve changed your password or emails stop syncing.

💡

If your emails stop coming in, try reconnecting your inbox first.

Step 5: Save Your Changes

When finished, click Save at the bottom of the page.

Changes aren’t applied automatically, so you’ll need to save manually.

Tips

✅ Use clear naming conventions like “Leasing Inbox” or “Maintenance Inbox” for easy recognition.

✅ Limit access to inboxes based on team roles to reduce clutter and confusion.

✅ Reconnect your inbox anytime messages stop syncing—this is often the quickest fix.

✅ Combine AI Categorization with shared topics for the most efficient workflow.

FAQs

Q: Can I connect a personal inbox to the Help Desk?

A: No, only shared inboxes can be connected and used in the Help Desk.

Q: Do I need a Twilio account to use Help Desk?

A: Only if you plan to manage text messages or phone communication within the Help Desk.

Q: Why don’t I see my inbox messages syncing?

A: Try reconnecting your inbox—most often, this resolves issues caused by password or permission changes.

Next Steps

Once your Help Desk is set up, you’re ready to start using it!

Continue to Using the Help Desk to learn how to view, manage, and respond to customer messages.

Navigating the Help Desk

Customizing the Help Desk Navigation Menu