Replies to church email

When someone replies to an email Trellis sent for the church, the reply comes back to Trellis and lands in Replies, filed under the email it answers. That covers messages from Communications, serving asks and reminders, and the Monday check-on email. Nobody has to forward anything.

Admins, staff and anyone with the Communications role see every reply. Open Communications, then Replies.

Find what needs an answer

Each line is one conversation: one person and one email. The newest is at the top, and unread ones have a dot.

Three tabs sort them:

• Needs an answer: the person wrote last, and nobody has answered or marked it done. This is where Replies opens.
• Unread: replies nobody has opened yet.
• All: every conversation.

After a big send, use Replying to to see only the replies to one email. It shows when people have replied to more than one.

Read a conversation

Press a line to open it. You see the email it started from, each reply and each answer in order. Opening it marks it read.

At the top are the person's address, the email they replied to, and a link to Their page in People.

Automatic replies, like out-of-office notes, are kept but marked automatic reply. They don't need an answer.

Answer a reply

1. Open the conversation.
2. Write in the box under it.
3. Press Send.

Your answer goes as an email to the person, from the same sender the first email came from. When they reply again, it comes back to the same conversation.

Mark it done

Some replies need no answer, like "Thanks, see you Sunday". Press Done, no answer needed. The conversation leaves Needs an answer.

To put it back, open it and press Needs an answer. If the person writes again later, it needs an answer again by itself.

Replies still reach the sender's inbox

Each reply, other than an automatic one, is also copied to the sender's usual reply address, the one under Replies go to for that sender in Communications settings. If whoever gets the copy can open Replies, it has a link to the conversation in Trellis. Answering the copy from your own mail goes straight to the person, but that answer isn't kept in Trellis.

Group leaders

When a leader emails their group from Trellis, the replies land in Replies like any other, and a copy goes to the leader's own email. The leader answers by replying to that copy.

A leader who sends from an address of their own on the church's domain can also read and answer those replies in Trellis: a Replies tab shows in their menu once one arrives. A leader sending from the church's shared address doesn't have it, and their copy says to reply to the email.

What doesn't come to Replies

• Replies to an email written to one person from their page in People. Those go straight to the sender's reply address.
• Replies to a test email. They go back to the inbox the test went to.
• Replies to an email someone sent from their own mail app, like a leader using Open in my mail app.

If you're an admin and Replies says replies aren't switched on yet, write to support@trellischurch.app.

Still stuck? Ask Silas