Astalty for Outlook

The Astalty for Outlook add-in lets you log a task in Astalty directly against an email, without switching back to the app. Open an email, click Astalty on the toolbar, and a panel opens beside your inbox where you can pick a participant, choose a charge item, record your time, add a note, attach the email and its files, and create the task — all in a few clicks.

Adding the add-in to Outlook

The add-in is available to all Astalty users with an Outlook account. It is installed once and then stays available on every email you open. Depending on your organisation, it may be added for you by your Microsoft administrator, or you may add it yourself from within Outlook.

In Outlook, open the … (more actions) menu on the toolbar and choose Get Add-ins.

Search for Astalty, open the Astalty add-in, and click Get it now.

If you're prompted, sign in to the Microsoft Marketplace with your work or school account to finish adding the add-in.

Opening the panel and signing in

Open any email and click the Astalty button on the message toolbar to open the panel. The first time, you'll be asked to connect your Astalty account — click Connect Astalty account and a secure sign-in window opens where you log in exactly as you would in the browser, including any two-factor authentication step.

You only need to do this once. Your name and organisation are shown at the bottom of the panel, and you can Sign out from there at any time.

Logging a task from an email

With an email open, the panel shows the email you are working from at the top and a Log a task form below it.

Fill in the task the same way you would with a quick task in Astalty:

• Task title — a short description of the task.
• Participant — start typing to search, or pick from the list. The add-in reads the email's sender and recipients and marks any that match a participant in your account with a Suggested badge, so the right person is usually one click away.
• Charge item — once a participant is selected, choose the charge item to bill against. Their default charge item is selected automatically if they have one.
• Time — enter the time spent, or use the quick + buttons to add your organisation's standard increments. Use Clear to reset it.
• Note — an optional case note that is saved against the task.
• Billable and Completed — toggle these on or off just like a quick task.

Attaching the email and its files

If the email has attachments, or you want to keep a copy of the email itself, use the attachments button (it shows a summary such as Email + 1 more) to choose what to include.

The email and each attachment are listed, and you can select or deselect them individually before creating the task.

The selected files are saved to the task's documents when it is created. Opening the task in Astalty, you'll find them on the Documents tab — the email is stored as an .eml file and each attachment as its original file type.

Creating the task

Click Create task. This creates the same task, charge, and note you would get from a quick task in Astalty, and links it to the email you were viewing. The task's start date and time default to the moment you create it.

The form then clears so you are ready to log the next task. Use Reset at any time to clear the form yourself.

Seeing tasks already logged against an email

When you open an email that already has one or more tasks logged against it, a Linked tasks section appears at the top of the panel. Expand it to see each task, its participant, and the time recorded — a quick way to check whether an email has already been actioned before you log another task.