CRM document management: auto-file email attachments

CRM document management is the practice of keeping every document about a client on that client's record in the CRM: the account application, the ID, the bank statement, the signed advisory agreement. A wealth advisory firm that stores them in a shared drive and a CRM side by side keeps two filing systems, and someone on the team copies files between them by hand. In Standards, each record carries its own drive with folders, and document attributes declare the pieces the record must hold, so the client file is one place. The record also shows the email threads exchanged with the addresses on it, so the message, its attachments and the filed document end up on the same record. Standards does not run a client upload portal, so clients keep sending documents the way they already do, by email. A Standards agent then moves those emailed documents from the inbox to the client's record, so no one on the team drags files by hand.

Standards files an email attachment on a client record through an agent that holds read access to your mailbox. The agents and routines documentation lists what starts a routine: a record created, updated or deleted, a form submitted, a webhook, or a schedule. An incoming email is not on that list, so the filing runs on a schedule you set, or when someone asks the assistant. The agent searches the mailbox for recent mail with attachments, saves the attachments it needs as files in Standards, and attaches each one to the client's record, under the document attribute it belongs to.

Standards links an email to a client record through the email addresses stored on that record. The record's Emails tab lists the threads exchanged with those addresses, so a statement sent by a client from the address on file appears on their record without any tagging. The agent uses the same key: its mail search filters by correspondent, by date and by the presence of attachments, and it looks up the client whose email attribute holds the sender's address. A message from an address the firm has never recorded, such as a spouse's personal account or an accountant writing on the client's behalf, matches no record. Standards does not guess in that case: tell the routine in its instructions to leave such mail for a person, or to look for the client named in the message and say which record it chose.

The email categories are a separate feature: they sort new mail in the inbox from its sender, subject and body, see only the names and types of its attachments, never what they contain, and file nothing on a record.

In Standards, the agent qualifies a filed document, classifying it and extracting its data, into the properties the firm declares on the document attribute. A document attribute groups files under one title and limits their type and size; you can mark it required. It also carries properties such as a kind (statement or ID) or an amount, as the relations and documents documentation shows. The agent sets them as it attaches a file to a new document. To fill them, the agent reads the file: a PDF or an image gets its text by OCR and a plain-text file gives its own content, per the files and documents documentation. A Word file, an Outlook .msg or a .zip has no extracted text, so by default the agent files it unread. Standards refuses a file whose type the attribute does not accept, and the agent sees the refusal in its run. The firm decides which properties exist: Standards ships no fixed list of document types or expiry dates.

A Standards routine files without asking: nobody approves its runs as they happen, so they always work in Auto, the approval mode where saving attachments and attaching them to a record pass like any creation or edit. A conversation with the assistant offers two approval modes, Manual or Auto, and Auto is the default; in Manual, each filing call waits for a person's go-ahead. Some actions always ask, whatever the mode: sending an email, and deletions. With read access alone, an agent never sends, archives or deletes mail, as the agents and routines documentation states. The agent also acts within the access of the person it works for, so it cannot file on a record that person cannot see. At first, a firm that wants a person to check every filing asks the assistant to file new mail in a conversation set to Manual; once those filings come out right, it moves the work to a routine. A failed run notifies the person the routine acts for.

This illustrative example is not a client: a fictional five-person wealth advisory firm in Denver files its onboarding documents in Standards. The firm adds to its client object a required document for each piece it asks new households for: a photo ID, a proof of address and recent account statements. Each accepts PDF and images, and statements carry a property for their institution and date. The firm connects the shared onboarding mailbox and creates a routine that runs every hour on weekdays, with read access to that mailbox. The routine's instructions say: file each attachment from a known client on their record with its properties set from the document, and list in the run's conversation any mail from an unknown address. The adviser opens a household's record and finds its documents filed under the required pieces, and the threads they came with in the record's Emails tab. Before Standards, the adviser saved each emailed document to a shared drive and kept a checklist of what was still missing.

A CRM that files documents sent by email has to answer four questions: which mailboxes it connects, which file types it reads, how it matches a sender to a client, and who approves what it files. Standards answers each one with a limit. On the hosted Standards cloud, the mailbox connector is Gmail; a firm on Outlook runs Standards on a dedicated instance or on its own infrastructure. Scanned PDFs and photos are read by OCR, while Word files, .msg files and archives are filed unread by default. A document sent from an address that is on no record needs a rule in the routine's instructions, or a person. A routine files without asking, so the review happens on the record afterwards.

For the workflows Standards carries for advisory firms beyond documents, see the page for wealth advisers, or browse all industries.