Messaging and communication

Messages is a conversation list — one thread per person you talk to. It exists so that “can you send me last year’s return?” and last year’s return are not in two different systems.

Starting a conversation

Open Messages, choose the person from Chats, and write. Everybody in your firm’s portal can be messaged: colleagues and clients alike.

Attachments

Files can be attached to a message. An attachment stays inside the portal under the same access rules as everything else — the recipient reads it signed in, not as something forwarded on to wherever their email ends up.

Each conversation keeps its shared files and shared photos together, so “the scan they sent in February” is findable without scrolling back through the whole thread.

Messages against documents

For anything that belongs to a particular document, say so in the message and the recipient can open it from their own document list. A short message is also the most effective way to chase a signature request that has gone quiet — more effective than another automated notification, which people learn to ignore.

Being told about a reply

Unread messages show as a badge on Messages in the sidebar and are counted on the dashboard. Whether they also reach your email inbox is up to you: see Notification preferences.

What messages are not

Messages are not a record of an engagement, and they are not searchable the way documents are. Anything that has to be findable in two years belongs in a document in a folder, not in a thread.