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A salesperson goes on holiday, a customer writes to chase their quote, and nobody knows what was promised: the exchange lives in a single mailbox. Syncing email with the CRM solves that problem. It creates another, which teams feel straight away: a work mailbox also holds exchanges with HR, personal messages and negotiations nobody else needs to read.
This guide from our CRM and customer data section explains what syncing brings salespeople, and how to configure it so that it exposes only what is useful. Our examples come from Twenty, which we have run in production since early 2025; the same questions arise with Dolibarr or Odoo.
In short
Syncing keeps a customer’s history on their record, readable by whoever takes over the account.
Four settings decide what comes in: visibility, automatic contact creation, folders and internal emails.
The right setting depends on the role: a sales mailbox is not connected like the managing director’s.
The GDPR requires data to be limited to what is necessary, and a whole mailbox never is.
Email carries information, it does not keep it: a request is stored in a database first.
What syncing brings salespeople
The first benefit is continuity. When exchanges are attached to the record, the salesperson covering for a colleague reads the full thread before calling, instead of asking the customer to explain everything again. The second is the end of double entry: nobody copies an email summary into the CRM to prove they did their job.
The third benefit is less visible: automations become accurate. A scheduled follow-up that sees the customer’s reply arrive stops by itself, instead of going out while the deal is moving. We cover this use in our guide to sales follow-ups that keep a human tone.
Twenty, for example, connects according to its documentation to a Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 mailbox, and to other providers through IMAP. Exchanges then appear on the records of people, companies and opportunities.
between two syncs, once the initial import is done
messages imported per minute or so during the first import, which means 25 minutes for a 10,000-email mailbox
What a mailbox contains that the CRM has no need to see
A work mailbox mixes everything: an exchange with a prospect, a sick note sent to HR, a supplier’s newsletter, a salary negotiation, a message from the bank. Bringing all of that into a tool shared by the team makes visible what nobody chose to share.
The GDPR sets the limit. Article 5 requires data to be adequate, relevant and limited to what is necessary for the purpose: the data minimisation principle. A CRM’s purpose is to follow the business relationship; a whole mailbox always goes beyond it.
The four settings that decide
In Twenty, these settings are made mailbox by mailbox, when connecting and then in the account settings, according to the same documentation. Most CRMs have them under other names.
An email’s journey to the customer record
- The mailbox
Only the chosen folders are read.
- The filter
Internal emails and mailing lists stay out.
- The link
The exchange joins the contact’s record, or creates that contact if allowed.
- The display
Each colleague sees the level of detail chosen for that mailbox.
Visibility: metadata, subject or full content
Twenty offers three levels: metadata only (sender, recipient, date and time), subject and metadata, or all email content, attachments included. The first level is often enough to know that an exchange took place and with whom; full content is useful when the team genuinely takes over each other’s accounts.
Automatic contact creation
It can be deactivated, enabled for messages sent and received, or enabled for sent messages only. The last option is the most restrained: a contact enters the CRM because someone on the team wrote to them, not because they sent an advert. With the broadest setting, suppliers, platforms and newsletters fill the CRM with records nobody asked for, which will one day need cleaning.
Synced folders
You choose which folders are read (inbox, sent items, custom folders) and exclude the rest: spam, trash, and a personal folder anyone can create for what concerns them alone. This is the setting that reassures teams most, because it gives them back control.
Internal emails and mailing lists
By default, Twenty does not sync emails in which every participant shares the company’s domain, nor mailing lists. This behaviour can be turned off for the whole workspace; for a business, it is better kept: exchanges between colleagues are not customer data.
Key takeaway
The right default is the most restrained one: contacts created on sending only, chosen folders, internal emails excluded. You then widen it, mailbox by mailbox, when usage justifies it.
One setting per role, not one setting for all
The question is not “should we sync?”, but “which mailbox, with what level of detail?”.
- Salespeople and account managers: full content on working folders, since the team takes over their deals. It is their tool, and they gain the most from it.
- Support: a real shared mailbox (such as support@) connects as an account in its own right; a simple alias forwarding to another mailbox cannot be connected in Twenty, according to its documentation.
- Management, HR, accounting: often no sync at all, or metadata only. Their exchanges with customers exist, but the detail need not circulate.
The CRM’s access rights complete these settings: who sees which objects, who can export. A well-configured mailbox in a CRM where everyone exports everything protects very little.
The other tools in the range have their own mechanisms. Dolibarr, for example, offers an email collector module that reads a mailbox over IMAP to record events in the ERP. The four questions stay the same; only the place where you answer them changes. Our comparison to choose between Twenty, Dolibarr and Odoo helps place this need among the others.
Email carries information, it does not keep it
Syncing copies exchanges; it does not turn the mail system into a database. A quote request that arrives through the website form must exist in the CRM even if the notification email gets lost.
From the field
Palmora Property, a property listings portal we operate, learned this the hard way: the notification email for a request was sent on a best-effort basis, its failure was silently swallowed, and the visitor received a confirmation even when the service was down. The rule that came out of it: store the request in the database before any email, then create the record in the CRM, with no loss going unnoticed.
That is also what makes the customer record reliable afterwards: billing, support and sales read the same source, as we explain in our article on the single customer view.
Where to start
- List the mailboxes
That exchange with customers, and the role of each.
- Choose a visibility level per role
Before connecting anything.
- Start from the most restrained setting
Contacts created on sending only, chosen folders, internal emails excluded.
- Tell the team
What is synced, who sees it, and how to keep a folder out of the CRM.
- Review after a month
Records created needlessly, missing exchanges, and adjust mailbox by mailbox.
Syncing also commits you on retention: an email attached to a record is kept as long as the record, and erased with it. Our guide to GDPR in a CRM, retention periods and the right to erasure covers that side. The rest of the section covers Twenty in production, Twenty as a back office for business data, migrating from HubSpot, why salespeople do not fill in the CRM and automated decisions.
For a CRM installed on your own server with its mailbox connections set role by role, see our CRM and ERP offer: Twenty, Dolibarr or Odoo, depending on your team. For a simple question, write to us.
Frequently asked questions
Will my colleagues be able to read all my emails?
No, if syncing is properly configured. Only the chosen folders are read, internal emails are excluded by default, and visibility can be limited to metadata: your colleagues then see that an exchange took place, with whom and when, without reading its content. A personal folder excluded from syncing keeps what concerns you alone.
Do customers need to consent to email syncing?
Syncing is not a separate processing operation: it files in the CRM exchanges the business already holds, in order to follow the business relationship. What matters under the GDPR is limiting the data to what serves that purpose, stating it in your privacy policy and keeping it for a defined period. If in doubt, your data protection officer decides.
Can a shared mailbox such as contact@ or support@ be synced?
Yes, if it is a real mailbox with its own inbox. In Twenty, a simple alias that forwards to another mailbox cannot be connected, according to its documentation. A well-configured shared mailbox is often the best starting point: it receives incoming requests, and each exchange joins the customer’s record whichever colleague replies.
What happens to the history when a salesperson leaves?
Exchanges already attached to records belong to the business and remain readable by the team, at the chosen visibility level. You then disconnect the employee’s mailbox and reassign their records. This is the main benefit of syncing: the portfolio does not leave with the person, and their successor picks up the thread without making the customer explain everything again.
Sources
- Twenty documentation: Calendar & Emails (new tab)docs.twenty.com
- Regulation (EU) 2016/679, General Data Protection Regulation, EUR-Lex (new tab)eur-lex.europa.eu
- Dolibarr wiki: Module EMail Collector (new tab)wiki.dolibarr.org
Regulation (EU) 2016/679, General Data Protection Regulation, EUR-Lex
Read on eur-lex.europa.eu(new tab)Jim · founder of Brain Plus AI
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