# The inbox, in depth

> How items arrive and leave, what happens when you approve a draft, which mailbox a message sends from, answering the agent, and who sees what.

The [inbox overview](/docs/getting-started/the-inbox/) covers the layout and a
daily routine. This article goes into the details worth knowing once you use it
every day.

## How items arrive and leave

Every item is something that happened on a case or a lead, together with a
question for a person. Lethra adds it when the situation comes up and removes it
when the situation is resolved, wherever that happens.

- A **draft** leaves when it is sent or discarded, whether that is in the inbox,
  on the case or in the assistant chat. If the agent writes a newer draft to the
  same person, it replaces the older one. If you send it from your Gmail drafts,
  Lethra notices that too.
- A **condolence** leaves when it is published or hidden, in the inbox or under
  **Growth**, **Obituaries**.
- A **First Call** or a **call back** leaves when you mark it handled, or when
  the lead becomes a case.
- A family asking **to talk now** leaves on its own as soon as someone answers
  the call.
- An **email that did not go out** leaves when it is sent again or dismissed.
- A **message from the family**, sent through the family portal, leaves when
  you have answered them and marked it done.
- An **ad alert** leaves on its own when the next morning's review finds
  the problem solved, for example after you publish the campaign it was
  about. You can also dismiss it; it
  then stays quiet for 14 days.

So the list stays honest: something you dealt with on the case does not linger
in the inbox.

## What happens when you approve

Approving sends the email straight away. It only goes out once, even if two
people approve the same draft at the same moment: the second person is told it
was already handled.

If the email cannot be sent, it comes back to the inbox as **Email did not go
out**, with the reason. Choose **Retry** to try again. If the email bounced, the
address is probably wrong, so check it on the case and then ask the agent to
send it again. Retrying a bounce would only bounce again, so that button is not
offered.

(Screenshot: An email that did not go out: the email to the municipality, marked Failed to send, the reason, and Retry, I'm on it and Dismiss.)

> **Note:** By default, nothing the agent writes to a family or a supplier leaves your firm
> until someone approves it. A firm can let the agent send on its own, under
> **Your Company**, **Vendors**, **Outbound emails**. Those emails skip the inbox, unless
> sending fails.
## Which mailbox a message sends from

Every draft to a family or supplier goes from one of two places, and the draft
shows which before you approve it.

(Screenshot: An agent draft marked From agent mailbox, with Approve and send, Discard, Use my Gmail and Save as rule beneath it.)

- **Your Gmail**, so the message arrives looking like it came from you
  personally.
- **The agent mailbox**, a separate address that belongs to the firm rather
  than to any one person.

If it is set to the wrong one for that message, switch it on the draft before
sending.

### Saving your choice as a rule

**Save as rule** teaches the agent to use the same mailbox for that kind of email
next time, so you correct the pattern once rather than every week. Most firms end
up sending family correspondence from a personal Gmail and supplier or
administrative email from the agent mailbox, but there is no fixed rule: it
follows what you teach it.

Replies come back to whichever mailbox the original message was sent from, and
Lethra reads case-related replies either way, so the case stays in sync.

## Your Gmail connection and draft mirroring

Connecting your Gmail account is what makes sending from your own address
possible. Once it is connected, a draft set to send from your Gmail is also
copied into your Gmail Drafts folder, so you can review it in either place.
Approving it in Lethra sends it.

Connect or disconnect Gmail from your account settings. Without it, drafts can
still be approved and sent from the agent mailbox.

(Screenshot: Your Account with a connected Google account: the calendar, Enable email sending, and the mailbox preferences the agent follows.)

## Answering the agent

The agent asks for a decision when it reaches something it should not decide
alone: a value on the case that differs from eLys, a choice the family left
open, information only your team has. Its question waits in the inbox until
someone deals with it.

(Screenshot: The agent's question about a date of death that differs from eLys, with a box to answer the agent, a Send to the agent button, and I'm on it and Mark done beneath.)

Type your answer and click **Send to the agent**. It goes into a conversation
with the agent about that case, which you find on the case's **Assistant**
tab, and the agent replies there. The family never
sees it.

## Who sees what

- **Urgent** items go to everyone.
- Items on a case go to the people responsible for it: whoever created the case
  and anyone with an open task on it. They see them under **For you**.
- On a case shared with the whole team, which is the default, everyone else
  sees its items under **Team**. You change this per case with **Share inbox
  items with the whole team**, on the case's **Agent** tab.
- Items not tied to a case yet go to everyone, under **Team**.

Sharing changes who is asked, not who can open a case. Everyone at your firm can
still open every case, and **Include cases not shared with me** at the top of
the inbox shows those items too.

## Next

What the agent does on its own, and what it always leaves to you:
[Working with the agent](/docs/getting-started/the-agent/).

Source: https://lethra.ai/docs/communication/inbox-in-depth/