Overview
To send outbound emails or process COAs through TraceGains AutoStreaming, at least one publicly accessible mailbox must be configured in your TraceGains instance.
The mailbox may be:
- Hosted on-premise
- Hosted in a cloud email service
- Rented through TraceGains
Your IT team will provide the required mailbox settings. After configuration, contact your Customer Success Manager or the TraceGains Support team to perform an external connectivity test.
It is possible that the email test will work successfully in-house but not work from outside the network, so an outside test is necessary to truly verify the connectivity. There are various reasons for this situation, which are dependent on email configuration settings. An IT engineer at your organization can test from outside the network if they have an external port configured for such testing.
PART 1: What Your I.T. Team Needs to Know
Before configuring email settings in TraceGains, your IT team should review the mailbox requirements, security recommendations, and connection behavior outlined below. This information will help ensure the mailbox is configured correctly for both inbound and outbound communication and that connectivity with TraceGains services is successful.
Mailbox Behavior
| Topic | Details |
|---|---|
| Outbound Messaging | TraceGains uses the mailbox to send outbound messages from the platform. |
| Inbound Processing | Depending on configuration, TraceGains may download messages from the mailbox to process attachments delivered through email. |
| Message Deletion | If TraceGains is configured to download messages, each message is deleted after successful download so the mailbox does not fill its configured storage allocation. |
| Connection Frequency | TraceGains authenticates with and connects to the mailbox approximately 4–12 times per hour, depending on overall TraceGains system service workloads. |
| Rate Limiting | Outbound email transmission rates can be rate limited to support low-cost mailboxes in hosted environments. |
| Retry Logic | TraceGains queues outbound messages and retries failed messages for up to 24 hours. |
Configuration Update Behavior
| Configuration Type | Details |
|---|---|
| Global Configuration Delay | Changes in mailbox configuration may take up to 60 minutes to propagate to all TraceGains services. |
| Inbound Configuration Updates | Inbound mailbox configuration changes are pushed to TraceGains services only at the top of each hour and are then cached. |
| Inbound Testing | Inbound configurations can be tested and validated prior to saving changes. |
| Outbound Configuration Updates | Outbound configurations are updated in real time to the TraceGains mail processing queue. |
| Outbound Testing | Outbound configurations can be tested and validated prior to saving changes. |
Recommended Mailbox Configuration
| Recommendation | Details |
|---|---|
| Dedicated Mailbox | The mailbox should be a single-user mailbox where no other users routinely access the mailbox. |
| Authentication | The mailbox should require credentials for access. |
| Non-Authenticated Access | TraceGains does support connecting to mailboxes without authentication, but this is not recommended. |
| Port Encryption | Port encryption should be enabled. |
| Preferred Encryption Protocol | Port encryption should use the TLS protocol whenever possible. |
| Supported Encryption Protocols | TraceGains supports TLS 1.2, TLS 1.1, TLS 1.0, SSL 3.0, SSL 2.0, and SSL 1.0. |
| TLS Connection Behavior | Selecting TLS as the encryption protocol causes TraceGains to attempt a connection using TLS 1.2 first, then downgrade to TLS 1.1 and TLS 1.0 if a connection cannot be established using the prior protocol version. |
| SSL Recommendation | SSL is supported only for backward compatibility and is not recommended when the mailbox supports TLS encryption. |
| Network Restriction | Restrict mailbox access to the FQDN services.tracegains.net or the IP address 52.176.58.31. |
Special Considerations
TraceGains recommends restricting mailbox access to:
services.tracegains.net52.176.58.31
The screenshots throughout this article show the configuration dialog boxes within the TraceGains platform that users will complete after receiving the required information from IT.
PART 2: After Consulting Your IT Department
Using the data provided by your IT team, log in to TraceGains:
Step 1: Click the Configuration Icon on the top-right corner.
Step 2: Select Email Accounts on the lefthand side of the screen under the Notifications section or directly from the Configuration menu.
Step 3: In the 'Name' field, you can use any verbiage to identify the purpose of the mailbox for easy reference. For example: "Outbound Email", "XYZ Company"
Step 4: In the 'Inbound Configuration' dialog box, click the 'Email Address' field and type in the data provided by IT.
Step 5: Continue to place data provided by IT in each appropriate field.
Step 6: The 'Reply to Sender', 'Auto Attach', and 'Match Suppliers' toggle settings will depend on the function of the mailbox (see Part 3 below). Be sure to click the 'Activate' toggle (if appropriate) at far upper-right in the dialog box.
Step 7: In the 'Outbound Configuration' dialog, paste the data provided by IT in each appropriate field.
Step 8: Set the 'Use for Notifications' toggle and the Rate Limit drop-down depending on the module being utilized. (See Part 3 below). Be sure to click the 'Activate' toggle (if appropriate) at far-upper-right in the dialog box. Click 'Save' at upper-right in the page.
Step 9: Select the 'Success & Error Alert Setup' tab.
Add an email address to the 'Notify on Error CC' field. This email address should be the email address of someone who can alert the IT team if there is an error or the mailbox connectivity fails for any reason.
Step 10: Select the 'Miscellaneous' tab.
Add an email address to the 'Account Contacts' field if desired. This is the email address of someone who can alert the IT team if there is an error or the mailbox connectivity fails for any reason. Your Customer Success Manager at TraceGains may be a good entry here.
Step 11: Click Save.
PART 3: Toggle Switches Defined
The toggle switches available within the Inbound and Outbound Configuration sections control how TraceGains processes incoming documents and sends outbound notifications. Review the definitions below to determine which settings should be enabled based on the functionality your organization intends to use.
Inbound Configuration
| Toggle | Definition |
|---|---|
| Reply to Sender | The Inbound Configuration settings will be used to send all success and error messages to the “From” email address of the incoming email message that contained the processed document. |
| Auto Attach | The Inbound Configuration settings will be used to accept an incoming document that could not be processed successfully using an OCR Import Template, Digital Import Template, ActionForm Import Template, or by reading the document as row data. If Auto Attach is enabled and a document fails processing, the document is still accepted, but no Supplier or Item references are added on the Documents tab. |
| Match Suppliers | This feature works together with Auto Attach to identify which supplier submitted the document. TraceGains queries the Contact_<Number>_Email attributes across all suppliers for a matching email address. If a single supplier match is found, the document is attached to that supplier on the Documents tab. If no email address match is found, TraceGains attempts to find a single match using the email domain from the Contact_<Number>_Email attributes. |
Outbound Configuration
| Setting | Definition |
|---|---|
| Use for Notifications | The mailbox configured in the Outbound Configuration settings will be used to send notification emails to suppliers. |
| Rate Limit | This drop-down menu option restricts the volume of outbound emails sent to suppliers per hour. Some mail servers restrict high-volume sending activity, so rate limiting can help prevent receiving mail servers from blocking outbound messages due to volume. |
PART 4: Using the Correct Toggle Switches for TraceGains Products
| Module | Inbound Settings | Outbound Settings |
|---|---|---|
| Supplier Management (SM) | Not Required |
Enable Use for Notifications |
| Supplier Compliance (SC) | Enable Reply to Sender |
Enable Use for Notifications |
| Quality Management (QM) | Not Required |
Enable Use for Notifications |
| Audit Management (AM) | Enable Reply to Sender |
Enable Use for Notifications |
| Specification Management (SpM) | Not Required |
Enable Use for Notifications |
| Formula Management (FM) | Not Required |
Enable Use for Notifications |
Recommended Rate Limit
- 310 emails/hour
PART 5: Testing Mailboxes
After configuring the mailbox settings, test both inbound and outbound connectivity to confirm the mailbox can successfully communicate with TraceGains services.
Because some network restrictions only apply to external traffic, testing should ideally be performed from outside your organization’s network.
External Testing Recommendation
For the most accurate results, mailbox testing should be performed:
- From outside the customer’s network
- On a machine not owned or managed by the customer’s organization
If external testing is not possible, contact the TraceGains Support Team at:
TraceGains Support can perform external connectivity testing on your behalf.
Testing Inbound or Outbound Configuration
To test mailbox settings:
- Navigate to the appropriate configuration section.
- Locate the Email Address field.
- Click the download/test button at the end of the field.
Troubleshooting Errors
Mailbox testing may fail for several reasons, including:
- Incorrect information provided by IT
- Typing or configuration errors
- Firewall or network restrictions
- Invalid mail server settings
If an error occurs:
- Copy the full error message.
- Provide the error to your internal IT team and the TraceGains Support Team.
- TraceGains will work with your IT engineers to troubleshoot and resolve the issue.
Additional Recommendation
A common recommendation is to create a temporary TraceGains user account for the IT engineer assisting with setup. This allows the IT team to:
- Log directly into the platform
- Validate settings
- Perform testing independently
PART 6: Activate
After successful testing:
- Enable the Activate toggle for the applicable configuration.
- Click Save.
The mailbox is now ready for use.