Email is where most of a training provider’s real work arrives — an employer sending a signed logbook, a learner asking about an EISA date, a SETA asking for a data file. In an ordinary mailbox all of that is indistinguishable from newsletters, and nobody can tell you which messages are still unanswered.
Mail turns the same messages into a queue. The list looks like an inbox, but each row also carries what an inbox never tells you: what state the conversation is in, and how long you have to reply.
Mail does not replace your email provider. It gives you a workspace over the addresses you already use, and every message stays part of the record it belongs to.
1. Open the right mailbox
Mail shows the mailboxes you are a member of. Membership is per mailbox, not per role — so the person who works admissions@ does not see accounts@ unless somebody added them to it. If your list is empty, ask an administrator to add you under Mail → Settings → Mailboxes → Members.
2. Read the second line of every row
Under the subject you will see:
- State — New, Open, Awaiting customer, Awaiting internal, Resolved. Not read/unread: in a shared mailbox “read” only means somebody glanced at it.
- SLA — “Reply due in 38 min”, or a red “SLA breached”. The clock respects your business hours, so a message that arrives at 16:30 is not overdue at eight the next morning.
- Regulatory — a conversation flagged as regulatory (for example by a routing rule for mail from QCTO, DHET, SAQA or a SETA) is prioritised and cannot be deleted.
- 🔗 — the conversation is attached to a record.
The counters at the top — Unassigned, Assigned to me, SLA at risk and SLA breached — are the quickest way to see what nobody has picked up.
3. Check nobody else is already on it
If a colleague has the same conversation open, you will see “Someone else is viewing this conversation”. Talk to them before replying — that is what stops a learner getting two different answers from two staff members.
Assigning a conversation to a person from the inbox screen is not built yet. Conversations can be assigned by a routing rule; the Unassigned counter shows what is left.
4. Use an internal note for the question you cannot ask the sender
Internal note is never sent. Use it to ask a colleague whether the invoice is settled before you answer, and @mention them so they see it. Mentioning someone on a conversation that is Awaiting customer moves it to Awaiting internal, so the queue reflects who is actually holding it up.
5. Attach the message to the record it belongs to
This is the step that makes Mail worth having.
When an employer emails a signed logbook, use Attach to record and give the learner’s record. skillSYMS then:
- files the correspondence on the learner’s timeline,
- stores the attachment with a checksum,
- records who sent it, when it arrived, and when you took the copy,
- and writes an audit entry.
Choose evidence rather than correspondence when the message forms part of a compliance record. skillSYMS takes an immutable snapshot at that moment, and an evidence link cannot be removed afterwards — which is exactly what makes it evidence.
6. Reply
Sending a reply moves the conversation to Awaiting customer on its own.
The composer offers Follow up if no reply and scheduled sending, but these depend on a background job that is not yet running on a schedule. Don’t rely on a follow-up surfacing by itself — keep an eye on Awaiting customer instead.
7. Resolve it
Mark the conversation Resolved when the work is done, so the queue only shows what still needs attention. If the sender writes again, the conversation reopens by itself — a conversation the customer has continued is not resolved, whatever we decided.
Searching
The search box takes operators as well as words:
from:principal@abcacademy.co.za has:attachment before:2026-08-01 "Statement of Results"
is:unassigned status:awaiting-customer category:finance is:overdue
linked:learner/lrn_12345What administrators set up first
- Mailboxes — the addresses you work, under Mail → Settings. Mail only arrives once the address is routed to skillSYMS.
- Members — who may open each one, and at what level (viewer, agent, manager).
- Response targets — your SLA, with business hours on.
- Templates — wording that goes out under the institution’s name. Staff can only send the published version, which is what stops five variants of a regulated message circulating.
See Mail settings and response targets for the setup in detail.
Related
- Mail templates and approval
- Mail settings and response targets
- Communications Hub — for bulk messaging, which is deliberately kept separate from person-to-person mail so a campaign cannot damage the deliverability of your assessment notices.