What connecting does
Out of the box, the email Crewfather sends to your customers goes out from a Crewfather address, showing your business name, with replies directed to your business email.
Connect your own mailbox and Crewfather sends as you instead, and the replies land in an Inbox inside the app, next to the jobs they are about.
Connecting a mailbox is part of the Pro plan, and only an owner or admin can do it.
Pick your provider
Open Settings, then Integrations, and choose the Business email card. You can also start from the Email inbox step of the setup checklist on Home, or from the Inbox itself. Each one starts by asking where your business email lives:
- Gmail / Google Workspace
- Outlook / Microsoft 365
- Zoho Mail
- iCloud Mail
- Yahoo Mail
A provider that is not switched on for your workspace yet shows as Not available yet rather than disappearing.
Every provider except Outlook connects with an app password: a separate password you create in your email account just for Crewfather. Your normal password will not work, by each provider’s design, and Crewfather never asks for it. Whichever you pick, the connection is tested in both directions before it saves, so a typo fails here rather than on your first invoice.
Connect Gmail or Google Workspace
- Turn on 2-Step Verification for your Google account. Google only offers app passwords once it is on.
- In your Google Account, open Security, then App passwords, and create one named Crewfather.
- In Crewfather, choose Gmail / Google Workspace, enter your address, and paste the 16-letter password. The spaces Google shows between the groups are fine.
On Google Workspace, your admin must allow 2-Step Verification and app passwords for your account. If Google answers that an app-specific password is required, you entered your regular Google password: create an app password and use that instead.
Connect Outlook or Microsoft 365
Choose Outlook / Microsoft 365 and sign in with Microsoft. There is no password to create.
Connect Zoho Mail
- Choose Zoho Mail and enter your Zoho Mail address and an app-specific password, which you create in your Zoho account under Security, then App Passwords.
- Pick your Zoho region, so Crewfather talks to the data center your account actually lives in.
Connect iCloud Mail or Yahoo Mail
- iCloud Mail: sign in at appleid.apple.com, open Sign-In and Security, then App-Specific Passwords, and create one. Connect with your iCloud email address and that password.
- Yahoo Mail: in Yahoo Account Security, choose Generate app password. Connect with your Yahoo Mail address and that password.
One mailbox per workspace. Connecting a new one replaces the old one, and it says so before it happens.
Once connected, the same card offers Test connection, Sync and Disconnect. To revoke access entirely, also delete the app password in your email account’s security settings.
The Inbox
With a mailbox connected, a mail icon appears in the top bar, beside the bell. It opens your Inbox: the conversations from your connected mailbox, readable and answerable without leaving the app.
Turn an email into a job
A thread in your Inbox carries Create job.
- A sender you already know opens the job form with them picked and their address as the job site.
- A sender you do not know becomes a new contact right there, name and email carried in.
The new job’s activity feed keeps a note of the conversation it came from, so six weeks later you can still answer “where did this job come from”.