Skip to content

Launch via inbound email

What you need

  • Permission to edit Tallyfy templates.
  • The template you want to launch via email should have no required kick-off form fields. Optional fields are fine.
  • The email address you send from must belong to an active member in your Tallyfy organization.

Launching processes by sending an email

Tallyfy lets you start a specific process by sending an email to a special address. This is useful for starting workflows without logging into Tallyfy, especially for users on the go.

Cannot use with required kick-off fields

This email trigger method doesn’t work if the template has any kick-off form fields marked as Required. You’ll get an email saying the launch failed. Only use templates with optional (or no) kick-off fields if you want to launch them via email.

Setting up the email trigger for a template

Each template gets its own unique email address for launching.

  1. Go to the Templates library.
  2. Open the template you want to enable email launch for (in Edit mode).
  3. Click Triggers in the left sidebar.
  4. Choose Other options. Select Other options in Triggers menu
  5. Find the Via inbound email option.
  6. Tallyfy shows the special email address created just for launching this template. Copy this address.
  7. Share this address with team members who need to launch this process via email.

How it works when an email is sent

When someone sends an email to that special address:

  1. Tallyfy checks if the sender’s email belongs to an active member in your organization.
  2. If yes, Tallyfy starts a new process from the template linked to that address.
  3. The email’s Subject becomes the Name of the new process instance.
  4. If you added special kick-off fields (see below), the email content copies into them.
  5. Assignees for the first task(s) are notified.

Automatically capture email content

You can have Tallyfy automatically save the email body and attachments into kick-off form fields. To do this, add kick-off fields to your template with these specific internal names:

Field NameWhat it CapturesRecommended Field Type
email_bodyThe full text of the email bodyLong Text Area
email_attachmentsAny files attached to the emailFile Upload

If you don’t have these fields, Tallyfy might show a link to create them when you enable the email trigger.

Link to create email capture fields

Email address format

The trigger email address format is:

bot+[TemplateID]-launch@tallyfy.com

(Where [TemplateID] is the unique ID of your template).

Example uses

  • Field Updates: Technicians email status updates after site visits (Subject: Site Visit - Client X; Body: Details; Attachments: Photos).
  • Forwarding Requests: Support forwards an email to the trigger address to start a complaint process.

Important security notes

  • The sender must be an active Tallyfy member in your organization.
  • Use clear email subjects (they become the process name).
  • Each template has a unique trigger email.
  • Remember: Cannot launch templates with required kick-off fields via email.

Adding comments by replying to task emails

Separately, you can also add comments to existing tasks by simply replying to the Tallyfy task notification email.

  1. Get a task notification email from Tallyfy.
  2. Reply to that email.
  3. Your reply becomes a comment on the task.
  4. Files attached to the reply are added to the comment.

(The reply-to address for comments looks like bot+[TaskID]-comment-task@tallyfy.com)

Tips for using email triggers

  • Keep a list of trigger emails for your team.
  • Suggest standard subject formats for easier tracking.
  • Remind users to put details in the body if you’re capturing it.
  • Test the trigger from different email clients your team uses.

Triggers > Launch via a kick-off form

Kick-off forms in Tallyfy enable data collection at the start of workflows and can be used internally or shared publicly to initiate processes automatically while tracking progress throughout the workflow lifecycle.

Launching > Triggers

Tallyfy offers multiple process launch methods including manual buttons API integration email triggers magic links schedules task completion triggers and kick-off forms with options to automatically populate data during launch.

Launching > Launch a process from a web form

External web forms can automatically initiate Tallyfy processes by redirecting submissions to a special URL that populates template fields with form data using matching field names.

Triggers > Launch via a magic link

Magic links are special URLs that automate Tallyfy actions like creating tasks launching processes or updating fields when clicked by logged-in users through a simple web link integration.