How to add an inbound Email Account in VICIdial

An Email Account is how VICIdial reaches into a real mailbox, reads new messages, and turns them into work for your agents. You configure it under Admin in the Email Accounts area. Once it is set up, the inbound email parser checks the mailbox on a schedule and loads new mail into the dialer so it can be routed to an Agent.

The form has a lot of fields, but only a handful decide whether mail actually flows. Here is what each of the core ones does and the order that makes them easy to fill in.

The core fields

• Email Account ID: a short name, 2 to 20 characters, no spaces. Choose carefully, because it cannot be edited after you submit it.
• Email Account Name: the full, human-readable name, 2 to 30 characters.
• Active: set this to active so the account is actually checked for new messages. An inactive account is configured but ignored.
• Email Account Description: an optional longer note, up to 255 characters, for whoever manages it later.
• Email Account Type: set to INBOUND for an account that receives mail and loads it as work.
• Email Account Protocol: IMAP or POP3, matching what your provider supports.
• Email Account Server, User, and Password: the connection details for the external mailbox.
• Email Frequency Check Rate: how often, in minutes, VICIdial checks the mailbox.
• In-Group ID: the Email Group that fetched messages will be sent to.
• Default List ID: the list that new leads are inserted into, when one needs to be created.

How a message becomes work

Once the account is active, the flow is straightforward. The parser logs in on the check schedule, finds new mail, decides whether it matches an existing Lead based on the call handle method you chose, and then routes the message to the In-Group, which assigns it to an available agent. The default handling simply inserts every new message as a fresh lead, while the lookup options instead search your existing lists for the sender's address and reuse that lead if they find one. Pick the behavior that matches how you want repeat senders treated.

flowchart TD
  A["Parser runs on check rate"] --> B["Log into mailbox via IMAP or POP3"]
  B --> C{"New mail found?"}
  C -->|No| D["Wait for next check"]
  C -->|Yes| E["Apply call handle method"]
  E --> F["Match or create lead"]
  F --> G["Send to In-Group ID"]
  G --> H["Route to available agent"]

Two fields trip people up. The account ID is permanent, so name it well the first time. And the In-Group ID must point at an Email Group that already exists, so build the group before the account or you will have nowhere to route mail. The group is what decides which Agent or Closer gets the message and what a finished Disposition does next, so it is the more involved half of the setup. The Default List ID matters too: when a brand new message has no matching lead, that is the list VICIdial drops the new lead into, so point it at a real list rather than leaving it blank.

It also helps to know the account leans on a parser running on the server and a couple of perl modules being present. If you have those in place, a freshly active account starts pulling mail on its very next scheduled check. If mail never arrives, confirm the account is active, the In-Group exists, and the check has actually run at least once.

If you are unclear on which piece does what, read Email Accounts vs Email Groups first. The full setup, including how messages reach agents alongside calls, is in the inbound email and chat guide. Routing mail through an Ingroup takes some plumbing on the server side, so if you would rather skip the parser and cpan-module setup, our pricing page covers managed VICIdial plans with the email stack ready to use.