Connect a mailbox

Connecting your email lets Doft read broker rate confirmations automatically, so loads appear on your board without manual data entry.

Nothing needs to be installed. Forwarding does not ask for your mailbox password; Microsoft uses an authorization screen. Direct IMAP access needs mailbox credentials, including an app password where your provider requires one. Stored IMAP credentials are encrypted.

How to connect

1. Go to Settings → Email and choose Connect Mailbox.
2. Type the address rate confirmations actually arrive in — usually dispatch@ or your work inbox. We look up who runs the mail for that domain, so you do not have to pick from a list.
3. Choose how to connect. Most people use the first option:
   • Forward your mail to us. You add a rule in your own mailbox. We issue you an address to forward to, and you paste it into your mail settings.
   • Let us read the mailbox directly. For mailboxes where an administrator has blocked forwarding.
   • Sign in with Microsoft. For Microsoft 365 work accounts and personal Outlook.com or Hotmail addresses.
4. Follow the steps on screen for your provider, and save. Nothing is forwarded until you do — this is the step people miss.
5. We send a test message to your own mailbox and wait for it to come back to us through your new rule. The screen updates itself when it arrives.

If the test message does not come back

Nothing arrives at all. Forwarding is switched off, or the settings were changed but not saved. Open your mail settings again and check both. Some providers also make you confirm the forwarding address from a message they send you first.

It arrives, but without the attachment. This one matters more than it looks: rate confirmations are PDF attachments, so a forward that strips files gives us a message with nothing to read. The screen tells you when this happens. The usual cause is a rule set to forward as plain text, or a mail gateway that removes attachments.

Your provider is not offered. Some are not supported automatically yet. You can still forward a rate confirmation by hand to the address we issued, and it will be read normally.

The mailbox is already connected to another Doft Dispatch account. You can still connect it here. Both accounts will then receive a copy of every message.

What happens after it works

• Incoming mail is sorted. Likely rate confirmations are parsed by the AI.
• Parsed loads appear on the board as Needs review and in AI review. Check the draft against the original, correct missing or uncertain details and approve it.
• If mail was arriving daily and then stops, we tell you on the Email screen rather than waiting for you to notice. The usual cause is forwarding being switched off at the other end.

Good to know

• Connect the inbox brokers actually email. Forwarding a personal inbox that never receives rate confirmations will pass the test message and then stay quiet forever.
• If your account has more than one carrier, set Carrier for this mailbox on the Email screen when the mail belongs to one of them. Left as All carriers, we read the carrier off each rate confirmation instead.
• Plans include a set number of mailboxes — see "Plan limits and billing FAQ".
• You can disconnect a mailbox at any time from the same screen.