Channels — email, SMS, portal, internal

Every message in Assure Pro goes through one of four channels. They share the same thread but behave differently — different surface for the client, different controls for you, different status semantics.

Quick comparison

How to send email

Connect your mailbox first

Email is two-way. Connect Gmail or Outlook (Microsoft 365) once from Settings → Integrations. Once connected, emails from clients land in the inbox on their own, and your replies go out through your own address.

If no mailbox is connected, the inbox shows a banner:

Connect your Gmail or Outlook account to send and receive emails directly from Assure Pro.

Click Connect Email to go to the integrations page. Pick your provider, sign in to grant access, and you’re done.

How incoming email is handled

When a client emails your connected address, Assure Pro:

1. Pulls the message from your mailbox.
2. Looks up the sender’s email against your contacts. If matched, links the conversation to that client. If not, drops it into Unlinked.
3. Tags the intent — Question, Document, Payment, Scheduling, Urgent, FYI, or Follow-up.
4. Sends you a notification.

How to send an email

Open the client’s thread, pick Email from the channel dropdown. The compose form shows:

• To — pre-filled with the client’s primary email. Editable.
• Cc / Bcc — optional.
• Subject — required. Pre-filled with “RE: …” if you’re replying to an existing email.
• Body — rich text. Bold, italic, lists, links, signature blocks.
• Attachments — see Attachments & context.

Click Send (or press ⌘ Enter). Assure Pro sends the message through your connected mailbox, records it in the thread, and updates the conversation’s last-activity time.

[Screenshot: Email compose form with subject and rich-text body]

When email bounces or fails

If your mailbox provider returns a bounce or delivery delay, the message status flips to Failed and a small icon appears next to the bubble. Hover for the reason.

There’s no automatic retry — failed sends stay failed. Fix the address (or wait for the provider to recover) and re-send.

How to send SMS

Connect a firm phone number first

SMS only appears as a channel if your firm has set up a business phone number. Set this in Settings → SMS. Once configured, Assure Pro routes text messages through it.

If no firm number is set up, SMS won’t appear in the channel dropdown.

How incoming texts are handled

Clients text your firm’s business number, not your personal cell. When a text arrives, Assure Pro:

1. Matches the sender’s phone number against your contact list. Matched goes to the client’s thread; unmatched lands in Unlinked.
2. Tags the intent.
3. Sends you a portal and email notification (if your notification settings allow).

How to send a text

Pick SMS from the channel dropdown. The form shows:

• To — drops down to the client’s phone numbers. Pick one. If only one is available, it’s pre-selected.
• Body — plain text. The character counter at the bottom warns at 140 and turns red at 160.
• Attachments — not supported on SMS. The picker is hidden.

Click Send. The status updates as the carrier confirms delivery: Sent, Delivered, or Failed.

Why character counts matter

US text messages over 160 characters are billed as multi-part. Assure Pro shows a soft warning at 140 (you’re getting close) and a hard warning at 160 (you’re definitely sending multi-part). The carrier still delivers — you pay for more segments.

If you need to send a longer message, use Email or Portal instead.

How to send portal messages

What portal messaging is

The portal channel is in-app messaging between you and the client inside their client portal. The client doesn’t need a working email — they need only a portal login.

This is the right channel for:

• Document back-and-forth (“can you re-upload page 2?”)
• Secure messages
• In-portal events (“your engagement letter is ready to sign”)

How to send a portal message

Pick Portal in the dropdown. Plain-text body. No To/Cc/subject — the recipient is the client whose thread you’re in.

When you click Send:

1. The message appears in the client’s portal right away with a notification badge.
2. They also get an email digest if their notification settings allow.

Why portal vs email?

• Security — portal messages don’t leave Assure Pro.
• Easy to find — clients see every firm message in one place, not buried in their inbox.
• Notifications — portal messages alert the client even when they’re not on email.

The trade-off: clients have to log in to read them. For clients who live in email, prefer Email.

How to send internal notes

What internal notes are

Internal notes are messages visible only to firm users. The client never sees them — not in their portal, not in their email, not anywhere. Internal notes live in the client’s thread for context, but Assure Pro strips them out of every client-facing surface.

Use them for:

• Notes to other team members (“Sarah said she’d handle this Friday”)
• Tagging colleagues with @mentions
• Decisions, internal reasoning, and status updates the client shouldn’t see

How to @mention a teammate

Internal notes support @mentions. Type @ and an autocomplete dropdown shows your firm’s active team members. Pick one — the name renders as a pill in the message.

When you send the note:

1. The mentioned teammate gets a portal notification.
2. They get an email notification if their settings allow.
3. They see the note highlighted in their inbox.

How clients are kept out

Once you pick the Internal channel, the message is firm-only. There’s no “are you sure?” toggle. Assure Pro filters internal notes out of every client view, so they can’t slip through.

How the channel picker works

In the compose form, a dropdown lists the channels available for the current client. Each one has a color dot:

• 🟠 Email
• 🔵 SMS
• 🟢 Portal
• 🟣 Internal

If a channel isn’t set up (for example, SMS with no business number configured), it doesn’t appear in the dropdown.

If the latest incoming message in the thread was Email, the picker auto-selects Email when you open compose. Same for SMS or Portal — Assure Pro matches the client’s preferred channel.

Defaults & branding

Permissions

Next

• Inbox & triage — finding threads.
• AI drafts & intent — let Assure Pro start the message.
• Templates — reuse common message bodies.
• Attachments & context — sending files.