Sharing Data between Workbooks and your Email Client
There are two main ways to share information between Workbooks and Outlook/Google:
Note: The Mail Sync uses some of the background functionality of the Dropbox, so even if you’re using Mail Sync, Users still need to set up their Dropbox. Find out how here.
Click here to watch a recording of our drop-in clinic covering ‘Sharing information between Workbooks and Outlook’. The webinar focuses on sharing with Outlook but the logic is the same when sharing data with Google.
Summary Table of Key Differences
The table below shows a quick summary of the chief differences between the two.
| Feature | Mail Sync | Dropbox |
|---|---|---|
| Requires a specific licence? | Yes – a Mail Sync licence must be purchased as an add-on module per user. | No |
| Compatible with every email client? | No (see supported clients) | Yes |
| Sync emails in both directions? | Yes – most commonly, emails are sent from Outlook or Google & shared into Workbooks, but emails sent from Workbooks can appear in your email clients Sent folder. | No |
| Sync People in both directions? | Yes – People in Workbooks can become Contacts in Outlook / Google and vice versa. | No – Dropbox only supports the sharing of emails. |
| Sync Tasks in both directions? | Yes – Tasks in Workbooks will appear as ‘To Do’ in Outlook or Google Tasks. Tasks created within the email client will also sync back into Workbooks as Tasks. | No – Dropbox only supports the sharing of emails. |
| Sync Meetings in both directions? | Yes – Meetings in Workbooks can become Meetings in Outlook and Gmail. Once synced, they’ll appear in your Outlook calendar. | No – Dropbox only supports the sharing of emails. |
| Sync items marked as Private in Outlook? | Yes | Not relevant |
| Sync recurring meetings? | No | Not relevant |
| Sync meetings with reminders? | No | Not relevant |
| Runs automatically in the background? | Yes – every 30 minutes. | No – manual |
| Customisable views and categories? | Yes | Yes |
| Maximum number of sync records? | Yes – Limited to 10,000 records. | No – limited by mailbox size |
| Requires Outlook / Gmail rules or configuration? | No | Yes – Adding your Dropbox address as a Contact allows for quick sending. |
How data appears in Workbooks and your Email Client
The Mail Sync will sync records based on a Users own People/Contacts, Meetings, Tasks and Emails. For this reason, it is not supported for shared mailboxes. The table below shows which record types are synchronized, the direction of sync, and any important notes.
| Workbooks | Outlook | |
|---|---|---|
| Emails | Emails | Emails |
| People | Contacts | Contacts |
| Tasks | To Do > Workbooks Open Tasks | Tasks |
| Meetings | Meetings | Meetings |
To learn more about how the Workbooks Category works and how to apply it in Outlook, please see this article.
To learn about how categories work within Gmail, please click here.
Note: There’s a limit of 10,000 records that can be synchronized via Mail Sync. Exceeding this amount will cause the integration to error for the User.
If you’d like to automate categorization, Outlook rules can help. For setup guidance, refer to Microsoft’s official help page.
Workbooks Mail Sync Add-in
The Workbooks Mail Sync Add-in offers an additional way to create, update and link items to records in Workbooks from within Outlook or Gmail. With the add-in, you can:
- Save emails and attachments directly to Workbooks
- Create new records (e.g., Cases, Activities, or Opportunities) from your email client
- Link emails to existing records in Workbooks
More information is available here.
Tip: We recommend setting up a custom Outlook / Gmail view to easily spot emails and items marked with the Workbooks Category.