18.5. Set Up Email on the Appliance: Inbound Tickets and Outbound SMTP

Your appliance is installed and your team is signed in. The next thing most MSPs wire up is email: client messages should become tickets, and ticket notifications should reach clients from an address they recognize and can reply to.

Email on the appliance has two halves, and they are configured separately:

The point that trips people up: an inbound connector never sends email. The Microsoft 365 / Entra connector reads a mailbox. When it shows Ready, that means its Entra app credentials are configured, nothing more. If you connect Microsoft 365 and stop there, tickets get created from client email, but nothing goes back out. Outbound needs its own setup, and on the appliance that means SMTP.

Inbound: turn client email into tickets

The inbound connector watches your support mailbox and creates a ticket from each new message, using the board, status, and priority defaults you choose.

On a self-hosted appliance, connecting Microsoft 365 takes three parts:

1. An Entra app registration your organization owns. You create it in the Microsoft Entra admin center with a Web redirect URI of https://<your-host>/api/auth/microsoft/callback and the delegated, read-only Graph permissions Mail.Read, Mail.Read.Shared, and offline_access.
2. A provider profile in AlgaPSA. Enter the client ID, tenant ID, and client secret under Settings > Integrations > Providers, and bind the profile to the Email consumer.
3. The email provider itself. Add it under Settings > Email > Inbound Email, pick your ticket defaults, and authorize access to the mailbox.

The full walkthrough, including ticket defaults and troubleshooting, is in Sync Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace Inbound Email. Microsoft 365 inbound sync is an Enterprise Edition feature.

One appliance-specific requirement: Microsoft delivers new-mail notifications by calling your server at https://<your-host>/api/email/webhooks/microsoft. An appliance that Microsoft cannot reach at its configured base URL will authorize fine but never see new mail. If your appliance sits on a private network, plan for that reachability before you rely on email intake.

Outbound: send through your SMTP server

On the appliance, the outbound provider selector is locked to SMTP (managed email domains are available on paid plans). The appliance sends through a mail server you already have, such as a Microsoft 365 SMTP relay, your hosting provider's SMTP service, or a transactional mail service with SMTP access.

1. Open Settings > Email > Outbound Email.
2. Enter the connection details for your mail server:
   • SMTP Host and Port (587 with STARTTLS is typical; 465 for implicit TLS).
   • Username and Password. Leave both blank if your relay accepts mail without authentication.
   • From Address: the address outbound mail is sent as, for example support@northpointtech.com.
3. Select Save Settings.

The From Address matters beyond the individual emails. AlgaPSA derives your outbound email domain from it. Until you save an SMTP configuration with a From address, the Ticketing From Address section below it stays locked with an "Outbound domain required" notice. The domain comes from this SMTP setting, not from any connected inbound mailbox.

Point ticket notifications at your support address

With SMTP saved, the Ticketing From Address section on the same page unlocks. This controls the From header on ticket notifications: new ticket confirmations, status updates, and comment emails.

1. Locate the Ticketing From Address section at the bottom of Settings > Email > Outbound Email.
2. Select your connected inbound mailbox from the Connected inbox dropdown, for example support@northpointtech.com.
3. Select Save.

Use the same address as your inbound mailbox. When a client replies to a ticket notification, the reply lands in the mailbox your inbound connector watches, and AlgaPSA threads it back onto the ticket as a comment. Clients answer email; they do not have to open the portal. The details are in Configure Ticket Reply-To Email.

Troubleshooting

• "I connected Microsoft 365 and it shows Ready. Why is AlgaPSA not sending email?" Expected behavior. The Microsoft connector is inbound-only, and Ready only confirms its Entra credentials. Configure outbound SMTP as described above; sending starts once SMTP is saved.
• The Ticketing From Address section is grayed out. No outbound domain exists yet. Save your SMTP configuration with a From Address first; the section unlocks once the domain is derived from it.
• Notifications send, but client replies do not appear on tickets. Set the Ticketing From Address to a connected inbound mailbox, so replies arrive somewhere AlgaPSA is watching.
• Inbound authorized, but no tickets appear from new mail. Confirm the appliance's base URL is reachable from the internet, then check the provider's subscription health under Settings > Email > Inbound Email and retry the renewal.

What to check

• A test email to your support mailbox creates a ticket on the board you chose in your ticket defaults.
• A comment on that ticket sends a notification from your support address, not from a noreply address.
• Replying to that notification from the client's side adds the reply to the ticket as a comment.

With intake and replies flowing, the service desk runs on email the way your clients already work. Next, give them a second door in: invite them to the client portal.