Setting up shared mailboxes in Bitrix24

Shared Mailbox Configuration in Bitrix24

Applications to [email protected] are only seen by whoever is logged into the mailbox. Everyone else doesn't know an email arrived. Someone replied, someone didn't — no oversight. Shared mailboxes in Bitrix24 turn incoming mail into a shared workspace with assignment and control.

How a Shared Mailbox Differs from a Personal One

Personal mailbox — emails are visible only to the employee who connected it. Shared mailbox — emails are visible to a group of users with assigned permissions. Incoming emails can have responsible parties assigned, internal comments written, and reply history viewed.

Technically a shared mailbox in Bitrix24 is an object of the mail module (\Bitrix\Mail\MailboxTable), connected to the portal at the organization level, not the user level.

Shared Mailbox Configuration

Path: Bitrix24 → Mail → Shared Mail → Connect Mailbox (for administrators).

Steps:

1. Enter mailbox details: IMAP server, port, login, password
2. Configure SMTP for replies from the shared mailbox
3. Set access rules: which users or groups can see the mailbox
4. Configure incoming email processing rules

After configuration, the shared mailbox appears for all permitted users in the Mail section.

CRM Integration

Key configuration: automatic lead creation from incoming emails. Path: [Shared Mailbox] → Settings → CRM Rules.

Behavior options for an email from an unknown sender:

• Create lead
• Create contact + open deal
• Create nothing

For [email protected] — create lead. For [email protected] — create a smart process element "Support Request."

Emails from senders already in the CRM are automatically linked to their contact/deal. Correspondence history is displayed in the timeline.

Distributing Incoming Emails to Responsible Parties

Bitrix24 allows configuring rules for automatically assigning a responsible party for an email or created lead:

• Round-robin — in rotation among department managers
• By keywords — email with "VIP" in the subject → senior manager
• By sender address — emails from the partner.com domain → partner account manager
• Business hours — one manager during business hours, an on-call person at night

Rules are configured via CRM → Settings → Distribution Rules.

Reply Monitoring

In the shared mail interface you can see: who replied to an email and when, whether there are unanswered emails older than N hours. For a manager — a complete picture of incoming mail handling.

SLA for replies: Bitrix24 does not have built-in SLA for mail (unlike open channels). Solution: automation on the lead created from the email creates a task for the manager "Reply to client within 2 hours" with a deadline 2 hours after lead creation.

Multiple Mailboxes for Different Departments

Typical setup for a company with 3+ departments:

Each mailbox is configured independently, with its own access and processing rules.

Limitations

• Bitrix24 checks shared mailboxes every 5 minutes — for critical requests this may be too long. Solution: open channels (chat) for urgent requests.
• The maximum number of shared mailboxes depends on the plan. On basic plans — 1–2 mailboxes.
• No built-in "unavailable" function — for out-of-hours auto-replies an SMTP filter or configuration on the mail server side is needed.

Setup Timeframes

Full shared mailbox setup for a company — 1 working day accounting for testing incoming mail and verifying lead creation.