# Inbox Assistant

The Inbox Assistant sorts your business email in your own Gmail, drafts replies in your words for you to send, and keeps track of who owes you an answer.

Status: available; get started and we set it up with you. Checked 2026-11-07.

## Who it's for
- Small New Zealand businesses whose office or info@ inbox is everyone's job and nobody's
- Trades and service businesses answering the same questions about prices, times and call-outs every day
- Owners who read email on their phone between jobs and lose track of what still needs a reply

## The problem it solves
The inbox is full of bills, notices and newsletters, so the customer who needs an answer gets buried, replies go out late, and nobody remembers who still owes you one.

## Why businesses use it
- What needs you is at the top, with the one thing it needs to be finished
- Replies drafted in your words from what your business knows, ready to check and send
- Bills, notices and newsletters filed under their own labels, so your inbox holds only what matters
- A nudge ready for everyone who hasn't answered your question
- Bills passed to Invoice Entry and quote requests to Quoting, when you have them
- It never sends on its own and never deletes an email

## What it does
- **Sorts new email.** Each email goes into one of seven kinds: To reply, New enquiry, FYI, Bills and receipts, Updates, Marketing and Waiting on them. You choose which stay in the inbox and which are filed under their label. Nothing is deleted.
- **Says why.** Every email shows one sentence on why it's where it is. Wrong? Change it, for this email or every email from that sender, and it learns.
- **Drafts replies.** For To reply and New enquiry it writes a reply in your words, using your prices, hours and answers from the AI control centre. The draft is saved in Gmail too, so you can send it from there.
- **Asks once.** When a draft needs something it doesn't know, like your after-hours fee, it asks you. Your answer goes into the draft and into your AI control centre, so no assistant asks again.
- **Keeps money to you.** Complaints, money disputes and legal letters come to you with no draft.
- **Tracks who owes you a reply.** Emails you send that ask something are watched. If there's no answer after the days you choose, they show under Waiting on them with a short nudge ready.
- **Passes work on.** Bills and statements go to Invoice Entry, and quote requests become leads in Quoting. Each waits for your yes until you switch it on.
- **A daily brief.** One email a morning to the people you choose: what needs you, the drafts ready, who owes you a reply, and what was filed.

## How it works
1. **Connect your mailbox.** Sign in with Google as the mailbox you want looked after. It reads, labels and drafts; it can't delete.
2. **Choose what stays.** Pick which kinds of email stay in your inbox and which are filed.
3. **Say how you write.** Your greeting, sign-off and words you never use.
4. **Try it.** It sorts your most recent emails without changing anything, least sure first. Correct any it got wrong.
5. **Go live.** From then, new email is sorted every few minutes. Your inbox as it was is left alone.
6. **Check and send.** Open what needs you, fill any gap, change the draft if you like and press Send. You have a few seconds to undo.

## Setting it up
About 15 minutes.

1. **Connect.** Sign in with Google. If your business uses Google Workspace, its admin allows Buildloop once, and set-up shows them how.
2. **How to sort.** Keep or file each kind of email.
3. **How you write.** Greeting, sign-off and words never to use, with a reply written your way beside them.
4. **Try it.** See how it would sort your latest emails, and correct any.
5. **Go live.** Choose what it does on its own and when the daily brief comes, then turn it on.

## How it uses the AI control centre
Every Buildloop assistant works off your AI control centre, which holds your company details, knowledge and settings, trains each assistant and passes what one learns to the others. The more it knows about your business the more accurate every assistant is, and each one you add makes the others stronger.

Your AI control centre keeps what it knows about your business in Content Sections you can open, check and add to, with what's missing shown. Each says whether it's for customers, staff or both. You start with About the business, Products and services, Pricing, Payments, Opening hours, Contact details, Locations and service areas, Booking and ordering, Delivery and collection, Returns, refunds and warranty, Terms and policies, Common questions, Staff knowledge, Other, and can add, rename or remove them; the AI suggests sections from what it reads. How we talk, Rules and Suppliers are kept beside them.

It reads:
- Your business name, prices, opening hours and answers to common questions, to write replies
- How we talk, so replies sound like you

It adds:
- Every answer you give when a draft asks, kept in Customer knowledge for every assistant
- How you like replies written, from the changes you make to drafts before sending

## How it gets better
- The prices and fees you tell it once when a reply needs them, such as your after-hours call-out fee, into Pricing in your AI control centre.
- Other answers you tell it once when a reply needs them, into Common questions in your AI control centre.
- How you like replies written, from the changes you make before sending, into How we talk in your AI control centre.
- Kept as a test: every reply you changed before sending: what you took out must not come back.
- Kept as a test: every email you moved to another kind: the same sender sorts the way you said.
- Anything it works out for itself waits for you to check before your other assistants use it.

## Training
A screen-by-screen narrated training video and guide are being made.

## What it connects to
- **Gmail and Google Workspace** (needed): Reading new email, adding labels, filing, saving drafts and sending the replies you approve
- **Outlook and Microsoft 365** (optional (coming)): The same, for businesses on Microsoft email
- **Invoice Entry** (optional): Bills and statements passed on to be entered
- **Quoting** (optional): Quote requests passed on as leads

## What a person approves
- Every reply and every nudge is sent only when a person presses Send
- Sorting and filing happen on their own only if you switch them on at Go live
- Passing a bill to Invoice Entry or a quote request to Quoting waits for your yes until you switch it on

## Price
NZ$79 a month, including 2000 emails a month, then NZ$0.02 for each email after that. Cancel any time. Plus a one-off set-up and configuration fee, agreed after a short call about your business. Every account also has the AI control centre, NZ$49 a month, once for all its assistants.

## What it doesn't do
- It never sends a reply on its own
- It never deletes an email, unsubscribes or opens a link
- It only sorts email that arrives after you turn it on
- Complaints, money disputes and legal letters get no draft
- Gmail first; Outlook is on the way

## Your data
- What it keeps about each email (who, the subject, a short excerpt, its kind and the draft) is stored in Sydney, Australia, and only people in your business can open it
- The email itself stays in your own mailbox
- Emails are read by the AI model to sort them and write drafts, and are never used to train it
- Its access to your mailbox is stored encrypted, and Disconnect removes it at once

## Questions
**Will it send emails without me?**
No. Every reply and nudge waits for you to press Send, and you have a few seconds to undo.

**Can it delete my email?**
No. It can label, file and draft. Filed email is kept under its label and can be moved back.

**What about the email already in my inbox?**
It's left as it is. Only new email from when you turn it on is sorted.

**Our Google Workspace admin has to allow it. How?**
Once, in about a minute: in Google Admin go to Security, Access and data control, API controls, Manage third-party app access, add Buildloop by its client ID (set-up shows it), and set it to Trusted. Then connect again.

**Does it work with Outlook?**
Not yet. Gmail and Google Workspace come first; Outlook and Microsoft 365 are on the way.

**How does it know our prices?**
From your AI control centre. When a draft needs something it doesn't know, it asks you once, and every assistant knows it from then on.

**How do I start?**
Watch the demo, then choose it on Get started and tell us about your business. A short call agrees your set-up price (see Price), then we set it up with you.