Setting Up the Bitrix24 Email Tracker
A manager sends an email to a client from their mail client — it's not recorded anywhere in the CRM, no deal is enriched with the correspondence history. The Bitrix24 email tracker solves this: all emails end up in the CRM automatically.
What the Email Tracker Is and How It Works
The email tracker is a feature of the crm module in Bitrix24 that links incoming and outgoing mail to CRM entities by email address. It works in two ways:
Personal mailbox connection — the manager connects their work email via IMAP. Bitrix24 periodically pulls emails from the server and creates activities in the CRM if the sender/recipient is found in the contacts database.
BCC tracker — the manager adds a special Bitrix24 BCC address when sending an email from any client. The email reaches the CRM through this address.
Technically both methods use the mail module to receive emails and crm for parsing and linking. IMAP check frequency — every 5 minutes via the agent \Bitrix\Mail\Internals\MessageTable.
Setting Up a Personal Mailbox Connection
Path: CRM → Mail → Connect Mail or in the employee's personal profile.
Supported protocols: IMAP (primary), POP3 (not recommended — emails are marked as read). For Google and Microsoft 365 — OAuth authorization; for others — IMAP login/password.
After connection Bitrix24 scans the Inbox (and optionally Sent) for the last N days. Emails whose addresses match contacts/companies in the CRM create email-type activities in the entity's timeline.
What if the email isn't found in CRM: configurable behavior — ignore, create a lead, create a contact. Path: CRM → Settings → Mailboxes → [Mailbox] → When receiving an email from an unknown sender.
Open and Click Tracking
When an email is sent from CRM (not from a personal client), Bitrix24 automatically adds an open-tracking pixel and wraps links in tracking URLs.
Open data is visible:
- In the deal timeline — a "Read" checkmark icon
- In CRM triggers — the deal can be moved to a stage when the email is opened
- In CRM reports — what percentage of clients open a manager's emails
Tracking doesn't work if the client has image loading disabled in their mail client — the pixel doesn't load. This is a standard limitation of all email trackers.
Shared Mailbox vs. Personal Mailbox
An employee's personal mailbox is only visible to them. A department shared mailbox (e.g., [email protected]) is visible to everyone who has access to it in Bitrix24.
For incoming requests from the website it's better to use a shared mailbox: an email arrives → a lead is created → it's distributed among managers. This is configured separately (CRM → Settings → Mailboxes → Shared Mailboxes).
Common Problems
Emails not linked to a deal — the email address in the email doesn't match the contact's address in the CRM (different domain, typo, alias). Check via CRM → Contacts → [Contact] → Email.
Duplicate emails — the mailbox is connected both as personal and as shared. One email creates two activities. Solution: use only one connection method.
IMAP won't connect — the provider requires a special app password (Google, Yandex), or IMAP is disabled in the mailbox settings.
Setup Time
Setting up the email tracker for one employee — 30–60 minutes. Setting it up for the entire team with a shared mailbox and inbound processing rules — 3–5 hours.