How email job matching works
The real rule for matching incoming emails to jobs — the job number in the subject line — and what happens to the ones that don't match.
When you connect Gmail or Outlook, VanMan watches your inbox and files matching emails onto the right job's Messages tab. The whole thing hinges on one detail in the subject line.
The matching rule
VanMan looks in the subject line for the job's job number — an eight-character code like a3f9c2b1. This is the same value that shows as {{JobNumber}} in your templates, and it is the first eight characters of the job's ID.
It is not "Job #1234", "VM-1234", or any numbering format you choose. Those never match. The code is eight hexadecimal characters (0–9 and a–f), and it is the only thing the matcher recognises.
So a subject that matches looks like Booking confirmed — a3f9c2b1, and it matches because of the a3f9c2b1, not the words around it. A reply keeping that code in its Re: subject stays matched.
Because your outgoing VanMan emails put {{JobNumber}} in the subject automatically, replies from customers usually carry the code back without anyone thinking about it.
Booking references match too
If no job matches, VanMan tries a booking reference — the BK-XXXX-XXXX code on a booking request. This lets a customer's reply attach to their enquiry before it becomes a job, so the thread carries over on conversion.
What it watches, and what it doesn't
Only your inbox is watched — incoming email. An email you type and send from Gmail or Outlook directly is not scanned, and never appears on a job.
Email you send from VanMan is a different matter: it now goes out through your connected mailbox, so it lands in your provider's Sent items and is recorded in VanMan's Sent tab and on the job. What isn't captured is mail composed outside VanMan.
Matching happens in near real time — Gmail and Outlook push new inbox mail to VanMan as it arrives.
No match — the Inbox catches it
If the subject carries no recognisable job number and no booking reference, the email is no longer thrown away. It lands in the Inbox, on the Unassigned tab, with its attachments, waiting for someone to link it to a job.
VanMan also compares the sender's email address and phone number against your job contacts and offers any matches as suggestions — a one-click assign. It suggests; it never assigns for you, because a repeat customer matches every job they've ever had.
This is the important change. Matching by job number still files replies automatically. But a fresh enquiry, or a customer writing from a different address, now shows up in the Inbox instead of disappearing — so nothing needs a human watching a mailbox to avoid being missed. See assigning messages to jobs.
It's a shared inbox
The connection is one shared mailbox for the whole business, not a per-user connection. You connect a central inbox — your bookings@ or office@ address — and everyone works from what it captures. There is no "each team member connects their own email".
Tutorial: make sure replies land on the job
You want customer replies to file themselves automatically.
Connect the central inbox customers actually reply to — bookings@ or office@ — not a personal one. It is a shared, business-wide connection, so pick the address your customer emails go through. See connecting Gmail.
Your message templates already put {{JobNumber}} in the subject line. Leave it there. That eight-character code is the entire matching mechanism — strip it out and replies stop filing themselves.
Do not add "Job #1234" style references expecting them to match — they will not. The only thing the matcher reads is the {{JobNumber}} code. Your own numbering scheme is invisible to it.
After a customer replies, open the job and its Messages tab. The reply should be there. If it is not, look at the subject line of what they sent — a reply that dropped the Re: and the code has nothing for VanMan to match on.
A customer who starts a fresh email with no job number in the subject will not match — there was nothing to match. It is not lost: it lands in the Inbox under Unassigned, often with a suggested job attached. Assign it from there.
A reply typed in Gmail directly is not captured onto the job — only inbound mail is watched. Reply from the job's Messages tab or from the Inbox and it is recorded, and it still goes out through your real mailbox and threads properly for the customer. See replying to emails.