Integrations

The Integrations screen (Administration > Integrations > Integrations) connects your account to third-party services so automated actions and AI features can work with them.

Opening an integration, and adding, changing, or removing one, requires permission to edit account information (see User groups and security groups). People without that permission still benefit from a connected integration, for example a process form that looks up ConnectWise data, or an automated action that sends a Slack message.

Add an integration

1. Click New Integration

2. Choose the Integration Type: ConnectWise Manage, Google, Microsoft, or Slack

   Your account can have one Microsoft integration and one Slack integration. If one is already on the list, open that one and authenticate it again instead of adding another

3. Complete the connection:

   • Microsoft - follow the steps in Connect Microsoft 365 below

   • Slack uses a secure sign-in - click Authenticate Slack. A ProcessPlan page opens that shows who asked for the connection and which ProcessPlan account it is for. Click Continue to Slack, then sign in and approve access. The button changes to Reauthenticate Slack once connected

   • The Slack sign-in link works for 24 hours from when you open the integration. If someone else in your company approves access, send them the link within that time. Whoever approves should finish in the same browser where they clicked Continue to Slack

   • ConnectWise Manage and Google present the credential fields they need directly on the form

Connect Microsoft 365

Connecting Microsoft 365 lets your processes send their email from one mailbox in your own Microsoft 365, instead of from ProcessPlan’s address (see Send email from your Microsoft 365 mailbox). You choose the mailbox, and ProcessPlan can send from that mailbox only.

The mailbox can be either of these:

• A mailbox with its own Microsoft 365 account - for example, an account you create for ProcessPlan’s AI, such as [email protected]. Somebody signs in to Microsoft as that account.

• A shared mailbox - for example, [email protected]. A shared mailbox has no sign-in of its own, so a person signs in as themselves. That person must be a member of the shared mailbox in Microsoft 365, with both the Read and manage and the Send as permissions on it. The connection then depends on that person’s account, and ProcessPlan still sends only from the shared mailbox.

Starting the connection requires permission to edit account information in ProcessPlan. ProcessPlan doesn’t require a Microsoft 365 administrator. Depending on your organization’s settings, Microsoft may ask an administrator to approve ProcessPlan the first time somebody signs in.

1. Go to Administration > Integrations > Integrations and click New Integration. If a Microsoft integration is already on the list, open it instead and skip to step 3.

2. Choose Microsoft as the Integration Type. ProcessPlan saves the integration straight away and shows its status, Not connected.

3. To send from a shared mailbox, type its address into Shared mailbox to send from (optional), then click outside the box. ProcessPlan saves it. To send from the mailbox of the account that signs in, leave the box empty.

4. If you will sign in yourself, click Authenticate Microsoft. If someone else will, right-click Authenticate Microsoft, copy the link, and send it to them. The link works for 24 hours from when you opened the integration. If it expires, open the integration again and send the new link.

5. The link opens a ProcessPlan page that names who asked for the connection and which ProcessPlan account it is for. It also says which mailbox the email will come from: the shared mailbox you entered, or the mailbox of the account that signs in. The person checks that they recognize the request, then clicks Continue to Microsoft. If they don’t, they close the window.

6. Microsoft asks which account to sign in with. The person chooses the mailbox’s own account. For a shared mailbox, they choose their own account. Microsoft then lists what ProcessPlan is asking for: to sign in and read that account’s own profile, to send mail as that account and from mailboxes it may send from, and to keep that access. ProcessPlan can’t read any mail. The person clicks Accept. They should finish within an hour, in the same browser where they clicked Continue to Microsoft.

7. A ProcessPlan page confirms that Microsoft is connected and names the mailbox your email will come from.

8. Back on the integration in ProcessPlan, the status reads Connected, with the mailbox your email goes out from, and the button reads Reauthenticate Microsoft. The integration updates when you return to its browser tab. If it still reads Not connected, close it and open it again.

To send from a different mailbox, change or clear Shared mailbox to send from (optional). The integration then reads Not connected until somebody authenticates again, so a mailbox is only ever used after someone has signed in for it.

Check that it works

Once the integration reads Connected, a Send Test Email button appears below Reauthenticate Microsoft. Click it, and ProcessPlan sends one email from the connected mailbox to you. The answer appears under the button and stays there. Every email your processes send leaves from that same mailbox, so one test speaks for all of them.

• Microsoft accepted the test email - Look for it in your Inbox. A copy is in the connected mailbox’s Sent Items. The sender shows the connected mailbox’s own name, not yours (see Send email from your Microsoft 365 mailbox).

  Accepted means Microsoft took the email, not that it arrived. If it doesn’t arrive, look in the connected mailbox’s Inbox for a message saying delivery has failed. Microsoft sends it there, not to ProcessPlan, and it gives the reason. A Microsoft 365 organization created in the last few days, such as a trial, may not be allowed to send to other companies yet. Microsoft then refuses with the code 5.7.708.

• The test email was not sent - The message gives the reason, in Microsoft’s own words where Microsoft refused it. A test is never sent from ProcessPlan’s own address instead, so it can’t pass by going out another way. The usual reasons:

  • Microsoft no longer accepts the connection - The connection has ended (see When the connection ends). Click Reauthenticate Microsoft.

  • Microsoft refused the message - For a shared mailbox, the person who signed in usually lacks the Read and manage or the Send as permission on it. Your Microsoft 365 administrator can add both.

Connected means somebody signed in for the mailbox, not that Microsoft is sending today. Send Test Email shows whether Microsoft is sending now.

When the connection ends

Microsoft ends the connection when any of these happens:

• An administrator resets the password of the account that signed in, or signs it out everywhere.

• The account that signed in is removed or blocked.

• ProcessPlan sends nothing through the connection for 90 days.

The account changing its own password doesn’t end the connection.

When the connection has ended, the integration still reads Connected, and your email goes out from ProcessPlan’s own address, with replies going where they did. The Instance Audit Log says why. Click Reauthenticate Microsoft and sign in again.

Send email from your Microsoft 365 mailbox

Once your Microsoft integration is connected, emails your processes send go out from the connected mailbox, and a copy appears in that mailbox’s Sent Items. Replies still go to the email’s Email ‘Reply To’ Address, such as the person who started the process (see Which mailbox the email is sent from). No passwords or SMTP settings are needed.

ProcessPlan sends from the connected mailbox and no other. Nobody’s own mailbox is used, whoever the email’s Email ‘Reply To’ Address is.

Recipients see the connected mailbox’s own name as the sender. Microsoft replaces the sender name your email action chose with the name the mailbox has in Microsoft 365. For example, an email action that sends as Jane Smith from a mailbox named Acme Operations shows Acme Operations. Replies still go to Jane. So give the mailbox the name you want recipients to see. Your Microsoft 365 administrator can change it.

If Microsoft can’t deliver an email it accepted, for example because the recipient’s address doesn’t exist, the notice goes to the connected mailbox’s Inbox, not to ProcessPlan. Check that Inbox from time to time.

A few emails don’t use the connected mailbox:

• ProcessPlan’s own notifications, such as task assignment emails, come from ProcessPlan’s address.

• An email with an Email ‘BCC’ Address goes out from ProcessPlan’s own address, with replies still going to the Email ‘Reply To’ Address.

• An email Microsoft can’t send is still sent, from ProcessPlan’s own address, with replies going where they did. That happens when the connection has ended, when the attachments make the message too large for Microsoft to take, or when the mailbox has reached Microsoft’s sending limits. Microsoft allows one mailbox 10,000 recipients a day and 30 messages a minute.

• An email sent while somebody responds to a task through a public link uses the person’s SMTP settings if they have some, otherwise ProcessPlan’s own address.

If ProcessPlan can’t tell whether Microsoft sent an email, for example because the connection dropped just after the message went out, it doesn’t send the email again, so nobody gets it twice. The email action fails instead. Check the connected mailbox’s Sent Items before you send it again.

An account with a Microsoft integration doesn’t use people’s SMTP settings for these emails, even before the integration is connected. To use them instead, remove the integration.

Connected before the integration used one mailbox?

A Microsoft integration that an administrator approved for your whole organization now reads Not connected, and your email goes out from ProcessPlan’s address until you connect a mailbox by following Connect Microsoft 365 from step 3. ProcessPlan no longer uses the organization-wide approval. Your Microsoft 365 administrator can revoke it in Microsoft Entra, under Enterprise applications > ProcessPlan > Permissions.

Other integrations

Once connected, the related action types light up in your automated actions - see the ConnectWise action types and the Slack action type. For Zapier, which connects ProcessPlan to thousands of other apps, see Connecting ProcessPlan & Zapier.

ConnectWise does more than automated actions: it also adds process field types that search your live ConnectWise data. See ConnectWise Manage for the whole picture, from credentials to a worked example.