Rules
How to create advanced rules?

We have explored rules and examples, but they've always been simple, straightforward ones.

In this guide, we want to show you the power of rules by creating advanced subgroups of nested conditions.

Rules editor nomenclature

Incoming email advanced rule

We are going to be exploring three examples.

Incoming messages

A logistics company has hired a new routing associate. She is not yet used to the company's internal acronyms or the SLA (Service-level agreement) for different customers and drivers.

So, her manager will set up a rule that triggers when:

  • The message is sent to routing@company.com or the new employee is the assignee.
  • At least one abbreviation is present.
  • The label Driver is present.
  • The email has been sitting for more than 5 minutes in her inbox.

The rule will:

  • Show a message with the most common acronyms of the company.
  • Display a message saying she has 15 minutes to answer the email.

The setup in Missive looks like this:

Incoming email advanced rule

These are the actions triggered by the conditions:

Incoming email advanced rule result
The rule has laid out the most common acronyms and the time limit to reply to this email. Only works when this user is the assignee, and the message comes from a driver.

Outgoing messages

A project manager needs to keep all sent invoices organized for her Project Beta. She has two customers. It should be a relatively simple task, but the problem is that her customer, Acme.com, is pretty big, so her point of contact changes often. The other customer, Company.com, has established 2 points of contact and both contacts need to receive the invoice. She also needs to make sure the payments are made.

This project manager will set a rule that triggers on outgoing emails when either:

  • The recipient has an acme.com address
  • The recipients are lisa@company.com and arthur@company.com
  • There's an invoice attachment that's a PDF or an XLS file.

The rule will:

  • Apply the label Project Beta Invoices.
  • Will set the conversation color to yellow.
  • Will snooze the conversation for 15 days, to remind the Finance Team to collect payment. Unless they respond to her email with the payment first.

The setup in Missive looks like this:

Outgoing email advanced rule

These are the actions triggered by the conditions:

Outgoing email advanced rule result
The rule has applied a label, snoozed the conversation for the Finance team, and changed the color to yellow for easy access.

User actions

A sales employee wants to keep track of her to-dos in a single place, and she wants to have a more clutter-free inbox. She wants a straightforward action to get this done several times per day.

The sales employee will create a rule that triggers when:

  • She creates a task.
  • Text of the task ends with the action-code #td designated by her.
  • Only if she's assigned to the conversation or she initiates the action.

The rule will:

  • Apply the To-do label
  • Remove the conversation from her inbox

The setup in Missive looks like this:

User action email advanced rule

These are the actions triggered by the conditions:

User action email advanced rule result
The rule has applied a label to group to-dos in a single place and removed the conversation from the user's inbox.

We hope advanced rules can make your life a bit easier, just like they have done it for us.

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