Importing an old email thread as history

What it is

A job often starts long before it's in Pleno: months of email between the property manager, an owner and a contractor. Forward that thread to your strata's Pleno address and it becomes part of the card's record, in the Conversation tab, in the order it was written.

Imported messages are history. Pleno never sends them to anyone, never holds them for approval, and doesn't read them for quotes. Nobody joins a conversation because of them: each one shows who wrote it by the name and address in the email.

How to import a thread

1. Open the thread in your mailbox and forward it. Gmail's Forward all and Outlook's Forward both work: what matters is that the earlier messages are in the email, each under its own "On … wrote:" line or From / Sent block.
2. Send it to your strata's Pleno address (such as bcs1234@in.pleno.ca), on To or Cc. An email that reaches Pleno only as a BCC, or through a mailbox rule, isn't imported: it goes on the card as a note, and Pleno's answer says how to import it.
3. Put the card number and the word history next to each other in the subject, for example MNT-042 history or Fwd: [MNT-042] History: windows fogging. "History" elsewhere in the subject ("Roof history for MNT-042") doesn't count, and neither does a draft card's number.

Pleno answers you by email: how many messages it imported, the dates they span, which conversation they went into, and anything it couldn't read. If it went to the wrong card, you can remove it for 7 days (see Removing an import).

Importing is for the property manager, president and vice-president, when Pleno can confirm the email came from your address (your mail provider signs it: Gmail and most work mail do). It isn't for an archived card, or while your account is read-only. Otherwise your email goes on the card as a note, unread, and Pleno's answer says why.

What Pro does

On Pro, Pleno reads the thread and splits it into its messages: who wrote each, from which address, when, and its own words, without the earlier mail quoted under it.

• Pleno keeps a message only when your email shows it: its first lines right under the header that begins it (its "On … wrote:" line, or its From and Sent lines), the writer's name or address in that header, and the date that header gives. Anything else is left out, and the email Pleno sends you says how many. Forward a message that was left out again on its own to keep it.
• What Pleno keeps is your email's own text under that header, never a copy Claude made: every line at the message's own quote level (the ">" marks your mail program put in front of it), up to the next header, with its line breaks. So nothing at the end of a message (a "P.S.", a "Not.", a signature) is left off.
• A line the writer quoted from an earlier message (one ">" deeper than their own words) stays a quote: it's kept marked "> ", never as their words. A reply typed between quoted lines (one ">" less deep) ends the message it answers, and isn't imported: Pleno doesn't put one writer's answers under another's name.
• Pleno reads headers in English and French ("From:" and "Sent:", "De :" and "Envoyé :", "On … wrote:", "Le … a écrit :"). A header in another language (such as "Am … schrieb …:", "Von:", "发件人:") ends the message above it, and the messages under it aren't imported. A line with an email address that ends in ":", or a one-word label with an address followed by a date, reads as such a header too, so the message it's in ends there.
• A quoted message whose lines have no ">" marks under its "On … wrote:" line (some emails sent as HTML only) can't be told apart from the replies around it, so it isn't imported.
• The writer and date come from the text of the email you forwarded, as its headers show them. Pleno can't confirm them. Whoever forwards a thread could have edited it first, and a header or an "On … wrote:" line that someone typed inside their own message looks the same as a real one: what follows it is imported as a separate message under that name and date. An imported message is shown under the name and address on it, never as a council member's own message.
• A date without a time zone is taken as your building's time.
• Reading a thread counts against the month's history readings (20 a month), apart from forwarded email and contractor replies. When they're used up, when Pleno can't read the thread, when the thread has too many messages for Pleno to copy out one by one, or when it finds none of the earlier messages, the forward is kept whole, as on Free, and the email says so.
• Only the first 40,000 characters of a very long thread are read; the email says when that happened.

What Free does

On Free, the forward is kept whole as one message, from you, dated when you forwarded it. Nothing in it is read. The whole thread is there to read, in the card's Imported history.

Where the messages go

• When the card has one open conversation with exactly the people outside the council who wrote in the thread (contractors, an owner contact, anyone else), the history goes into that conversation, in date order among its messages. Nobody new joins it, and nothing is sent.
• Otherwise it goes into the card's Imported history: a conversation listed after the council thread, with no one in it. Nothing can be sent from it, and every import onto the card that doesn't go into a conversation lands there.

Each imported message says Imported from earlier email by and who forwarded it, shows its writer's address, and sits where it was written in the thread, between the messages and logged calls before and after it. On a project, it can be linked to the project's items like any other message, and discussed with the council.

Forwarding the same thread again

Pleno doesn't import a message twice. Forward a thread again after more mail has come in, and only the new messages are added; the email you get back says how many were on the card already. The same forward kept whole on Free isn't added twice either.

Files

The files in your email are saved in the card's Documents, typed from their names (quote, scope of work, report, invoice), as a conversation's files are. Each goes with the imported message that names it, and the rest with the newest message. Pleno takes the same kinds of files as from a contractor's reply, up to 50 MB an email.

Removing an import

Sent a thread to the wrong card? For 7 days after an import, the person who forwarded it, or a council admin (the president, the vice-president, or a property manager with delegated admin), can remove it. Under the import's newest message, choose Remove this import…; Pleno asks first, saying how many messages go.

• The whole import goes: every message that one email imported, with the files saved with them, unless something else on the card uses a file (another message, a quote or a share). Other messages, and other imports, stay as they are.
• The card's log records who removed it and how many messages went.
• Then forward the email again with the right card's number. It's imported again, as if for the first time.
• A Pro reading of the thread counts against the month's history readings, removed or not.
• It isn't for an archived card, during the 90-day read-only period after a term, or while your account is read-only.
• In the first minutes after an import, while Pleno is still saving its files, it can't be removed yet: try again a few minutes later. Once it is removed, Pleno won't import that email again on its own, even if the email's delivery is retried.

After 7 days, an import is kept like the rest of the card's correspondence.

Keeping the record

Imported messages are kept like the rest of the card's correspondence: at least two years. Apart from removing an import within its 7 days, they can't be deleted before then. Pleno also keeps the email you forwarded, with the messages it imported (removing the import removes it too).

Related

• Requesting quotes and contractor conversations
• Forwarding email into Pleno
• Plan comparison