---
title: "Sorting mail from a shared inbox"
description: "Shared inbox sorting starts with a suggestion per email: the right colleague, the customer details found, and a draft you review and send."
image: "https://bombos.ai/assets/og-en-v2.png"
---

# How do you sort a shared inbox so every email has an owner?

![Piet Baudoin](https://bombos.ai/assets/team/piet.jpg)By Piet Baudoin, updated September 26, 2026

Sorting a shared inbox starts with a suggestion for each email: the colleague responsible, the customer details found, and a draft answer that you review and send.

Works in your own Outlook, next to your own software.

The inbox is where it starts; after that, your firm does more with the same team, and your people teach Bombos the next task themselves.

## This is how it goes now, and how it goes with Bombos.

**Now**

**Everything arrives in info@, three people check it, and half of it gets forwarded around with "is this yours?"; nobody knows who is handling what.**

Three people check info@, and when one opens an email, the others leave it alone. To answer it, someone works out which customer or resident it belongs to, retrieves the details from the software and decides who handles the question. Then the email is forwarded. Outlook has categories, flags and folders, and TwinQ is launching its own mail assistant to sort messages and draft answers. A folder still does not answer the customer's question.

**Withbombos**

**Every email is assigned to the right colleague, with the draft answer already underneath.**

Bombos reads the incoming email, recognizes the question and looks up the customer details. The suggestion shows which customer or resident and which colleague the email belongs to, with the reason and a draft answer. That reason follows your inbox rules. You check the assignment and the content, then send the answer. If there is not enough information to choose, Bombos asks for your judgment instead of guessing.

**After three months**

After three months, no email is left sitting because nobody knew it was theirs. The assignment is ready, and your colleagues only need to approve it. The time this frees up goes to work customers pay for. Your firm takes on more customers without hiring someone to keep the inbox moving.

## What's ready for you then

-   Every email has an owner, no more forwarding
-   The answer is ready beneath the question
-   Customer details are there, no searching required
-   See everything still open on one list

## Where do you see that?

In Bombos you see the work from the agreed inbox on one list of suggestions. Next to a message you see the reason for the suggestion and the status: "ready for you" or "waiting on your input". That way you read the question, the details found and the suggested answer together. You are reviewing a concrete next step, without first having to work out why a colleague forwarded the email.

Reviewing the assignment does not require your software to be open. The customer details sit with the email they were looked up for. A suggestion on the list is not yet a change in the customer file or a sent answer. Every action with an effect outside Bombos is recorded in a log you can look through. For a question about how info@ was handled, that shows what Bombos has done. The list of suggestions shows which reply is ready and which email still needs input from a colleague.

## How does it start?

In the first week we discuss how to sort info@ in a setup conversation of about an hour. You point out the inbox and show which software holds the customer details. We fill in the rules for sorting: which colleague handles the question, which details go with it, and who reviews the answer. You give access to the systems needed for that. You keep your email and your software; nothing has to move and you do not need to take a course. That is also where we bring up the sorting habits that, until now, only your colleagues knew.

After that, Bombos puts preparing the assignment live at the "proposing" level, where every task type begins. A correction to the chosen colleague becomes the rule for the next email. Without your corrections, Bombos does not learn which colleague an email should go to. Once the assignment has gone well for a while, you choose "run after approval" or "run on its own" per task type, with the log to look back on. Answers to the sender still need your approval. Changing the inbox rules is done with settings, without custom work, even if you do not work with computers much. After three months, no email is left unattended because nobody knew it was theirs to handle.

If you see a question that comes back every month, a suggestion for that question later sits ready at the inbox, with the reason attached. You say yes or no. The inbox is the first task, not the whole offer: we take your office through this step, and after that your own team teaches Bombos the next task.

## The empty inbox is just the start.

Once the inbox is under control, you suddenly see how much other work arrives through the same route. Fast-growing firms reach that point first. More customers are coming in, but you do not want headcount to grow with them. With Bombos, your team does more work, of a higher quality, with the same people.

After the inbox, your team teaches Bombos the next task. They do not need to be technical. They correct a suggestion just as they would guide a coworker, and learn to work with AI as they go. We guide you through the first step, and we do not want you to have to keep coming back to us.

Bombos costs less than half a day a week of the person you would otherwise hire. Leave your number and we will call you back to talk through your situation.

## What Bombos does, in three steps

1.  ### It reads what comes in
    
    An email, a message, a photo or a PDF: Bombos reads it, looks up the client and the details in the systems you already have, and sees what is missing.
    
2.  ### It drafts the work, you approve it
    
    The proposal sits on one list with the reasoning next to it. You read it, adjust it and approve. Only then is anything sent, booked or filed.
    
3.  ### It remembers what you decide
    
    Every correction becomes the rule for next time. Once a kind of task has gone well for a while, you hand it over step by step, and you check the log afterwards.
    

## What can Bombos not do here today?

Working agreements that only live in a colleague's head, Bombos does not know. That is why Bombos can interview you: it asks the questions it needs to get those assignment agreements out of your colleagues' heads, so the suggestion names the right colleague next time. An unclear email or an unknown sender also does not always make clear which customer or colleague it belongs to. When in doubt, Bombos puts the choice to you. A suggestion that reads convincingly can still be wrong, even when the sender's name looks familiar. So the chosen customer, colleague and answer text are all part of reviewing the email.

Bombos never sends an outgoing message to a third party without prior approval from a staff member, through any channel. For an answer from the shared inbox that limit is technically enforced. Only Bombos can switch it off, at your explicit request and at your own risk. A colleague's name next to a suggestion does not mean the sender already has an answer. Sorting the inbox is also not the same as actually handling every question. A question about a customer still depends on what is in the available email and your software. A read email still needs someone to pick it up.

## Leave your number and we'll call you back to talk through your situation.

A few lines about how things go at your company is enough, or just your number. You won't get a sales pitch but a conversation: what stands out to us, which work could get lighter first at your company and what your team can take on after that. It costs nothing. If we see something worthwhile together, we start with that first piece of work.

## More use cases like this one.

From the same niche, and a few from others.

### [How do you answer the ten questions customers or residents ask every week from Outlook, with the real numbers from your software next to it?](https://bombos.ai/en/use-cases/the-same-ten-questions-every-week/)

*The shared inbox at bookkeeping firms and homeowners associations*

Recurring questions answered, leaving your team more time.

### [How does complaint handling keep moving after the first reply?](https://bombos.ai/en/use-cases/complaints-that-stall-after-the-first-reply/)

*The shared inbox at bookkeeping firms and homeowners associations*

Every complaint tracked until it is truly resolved.

### [How do you see which of a bookkeeping firm's customers have not heard from you in a year, from email and software together?](https://bombos.ai/en/use-cases/customers-who-go-quiet/)

*The shared inbox at bookkeeping firms and homeowners associations*

No customer leaves without someone speaking to them.

### [How does a leak a resident reports on info@ become a work order for the contractor in your homeowners association software, without any digging around?](https://bombos.ai/en/use-cases/resident-report-to-work-order/)

*The shared inbox at bookkeeping firms and homeowners associations*

Report received, work order for the plumber ready.

### [Outlook appointment scheduling: how do you settle a time in one email?](https://bombos.ai/en/use-cases/three-emails-for-one-appointment/)

*Planning for installation and technical maintenance*

One email with a fitting time, including travel.

### [How do you answer a quote request within the hour, even late on Friday?](https://bombos.ai/en/use-cases/quote-requests-after-hours/)

*Planning for installation and technical maintenance*

Every request gets a reply before the customer calls elsewhere.


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