Notes with multiple links, and new list ordering options

We're working hard on a Gmail contextual gadget for Insightly for the next few weeks, but we managed to sneak in a couple of new features this week.

Notes with multiple links

The first one is around links in Notes. Previously, a note was tied to one particular item, such as a contact, organisation, opportunity or project. This week we added the ability to link a note to multiple items, so you can write a note and link it to two contacts, a project, and an organisation. The note will show up in the history and notes list for all the linked items. The dashboard now also displays all the links associated with a note too.

Entering in a new note is the same as always, but now if you click on a note to view it, there is a links sidebar present on the right hand side that you can use to link the note to any other items it's applicable to, in the same fashion as linking other items in Insightly.

New Ordering options on Opportunities and Projects


We also added new order options to the Opportunities and Projects list, so now you can filter by the date created, the forecast close date, or the responsible user for Opportunities - and by the date created or responsible user for Projects. The order options apply to searches too.

Dropbox internal upgrade and BCC messages

Update 14-Oct-2010: We just added a further check to our system so if you sent the email from your Google Apps domain email address we will now correctly identify the message and user of BCC'ed messages.

On the 5th of October we upgraded our dropbox software that handles incoming emails to a new system. The change will allow us to better handle peak loads and the increase in emails sent as more customers sign up.

The new software is slightly different to the old system, but the only change visible to customers is when some email servers send email to Insightly via a blind carbon copy  or BCC.

Insightly looks through the header information in the email to match the message to a users special dropbox email address when the message comes in, but some email servers do not add the addressee to the headers for BCC messages. In this case, the Insightly dropbox cannot identify which user the email is for and discards the email.

Google's Gmail servers add the header on BCC messages, and by far the majority of our users use Gmail. If you use Gmail for email no change is needed and your dropbox will continue to work great. 

Yahoo email servers on the other hand do not append the addressee to the email headers on BCC messages, so if you use Yahoo email you will need to send emails to your dropbox by CC or by a Forward.

If you use another type of email server software it's best to test it yourself. Send out an email with your dropbox address in the BCC field and check Insightly twenty seconds later to see if that email appears in the email tab in Insightly. If it does: great - but if it does not, you may have to send future emails to Insightly with your dropbox email address in the CC field, or just forward messages to your dropbox as they come in.

Also, as always - if you use Gmail's auto-forward feature to forward every single email you get to your Insightly drop box we will not import them.