Microsoft 365 and Outlook mailboxes

The short version

You can't connect a Microsoft 365 or Outlook mailbox to WorkOrders with a username and password. Microsoft has switched that off. There's no app password to find, no setting to turn on, and no server name or port that will work. If you've been looking for the Microsoft version of the Gmail app password, you can stop. It doesn't exist any more.

What works instead is forwarding, and it takes about a minute. You set your Microsoft mailbox to forward to the address WorkOrders has already given you, and every request that arrives becomes a job in the same way. No password leaves your organisation, and nothing can expire.

The rest of this page explains how to set that up, and what changes and what doesn't.

Why the connection isn't possible

When another program reads a mailbox, it uses IMAP. Until recently, IMAP meant signing in with a username and password like any other mail program. Microsoft has stopped allowing that for Exchange Online, the mail service behind Microsoft 365 and Outlook, because a password saved in lots of programs eventually leaks.

Instead, you now approve an application from inside your Microsoft account, and the application never sees a password. WorkOrders doesn't offer that kind of connection for Microsoft, so there's no way to connect one of these mailboxes directly.

You'll find pages elsewhere that describe app passwords for Outlook. They were written when that still worked. If you follow them, the server will reject the details, and the error will make it look like you typed the password wrong when you didn't.

Forward the mailbox instead

Your company already has its own WorkOrders address. It was created at the same time as the company, and it looks like yourfirm@jobs.workorders.nz. Anything emailed to it becomes a work order on your board. Forwarding sends your Microsoft mail to it.

1. In WorkOrders, go to Settings → Mailboxes. The first card on the page is Your WorkOrders address, with a Copy button next to it. Copy the address. It needs to be exactly right, and typing it by hand is how mistakes happen.
2. In Outlook on the web, open Settings, then Mail, then Forwarding.
3. Turn forwarding on, paste your jobs.workorders.nz address in as the destination, and save.
4. Tick the option to keep a copy of forwarded messages if you want the mail to stay in the Microsoft mailbox as well. Most firms do. That way the inbox stays exactly as it was for everyone who reads it.
5. Send a test email to the Microsoft address, and check that a work order appears on the board.

Microsoft changes its wording from time to time, so the labels might not match exactly when you get there. The setting has had slightly different names over the years, and an administrator can also set up forwarding for a mailbox centrally instead of each person doing their own. If you can't find it, check Microsoft's own help for forwarding in Outlook.

Some organisations block forwarding to outside addresses

A Microsoft 365 administrator can stop mail being forwarded outside the organisation, and it's a common setting. If forwarding won't save, or saves and then stops working without any message, that's usually why. It can be allowed for one destination at a time, so ask whoever looks after your Microsoft account to allow forwarding to jobs.workorders.nz. They don't need to allow forwarding to everywhere.

A shared mailbox or a distribution list is fine

If requests arrive at a shared mailbox (service@, maintenance@, or the address the whole office watches), you can forward that, and it's often the better choice. It's the address your customers already use, and it doesn't depend on one person's account still being there next year.

A distribution list works too. Add your jobs.workorders.nz address as another member. Everyone who was already getting the mail keeps getting it, and a copy also becomes a job.

What this doesn't change

Replies still work

Forwarding only affects mail coming in. Mail going out works the same as it always does. WorkOrders emails your customer as the job moves along, and when they reply, the reply is added to the job it's about instead of starting a new one. Nobody has to quote a reference number or close a duplicate.

What your customer sees

Those emails come from yourfirm@workorders.nz, with your firm's name on them. When a customer replies, the reply goes onto the job in WorkOrders. If you want customers to have your own email address too, put it in the Email footer on Settings → Your company. Forwarding doesn't change any of this. Your own WorkOrders address explains why the address you receive at is different from the address we send from.

You won't get two of everything

Every email has an ID that the sender's email program gave it, and WorkOrders keeps track of the ones it has seen for your company. So the same message arriving two ways only makes one job. You can forward the Microsoft mailbox and give out your jobs.workorders.nz address directly, or use forwarding alongside anything else, without anyone having to close duplicate jobs.

If Microsoft changes its mind

If Microsoft ever brings back password sign-in for IMAP on your kind of account, you'll be able to connect the mailbox directly by following connect any IMAP mailbox. We don't expect that to happen, so set up forwarding and rely on it.

Still deciding how requests should reach you? How work gets into WorkOrders compares all four options. And if something you sent hasn't appeared, start with an email didn't become a job.