Once you’ve enabled Messaging in Trash Flow click the Messages button on the tilebar to view any messages from your customers. Trash Flow automatically checks for new messages throughout the day. You can always click Get Mail to manually check for new messages. By default this window shows the Inbox—any new messages you’ve received that you haven’t done anything with yet. Each line shows the customer’s account number and name, the subject line, and the date and time the message was received. Click anywhere along the line to read the message.

There are four buttons across the top of the Message window that let you do something with a message: Reply, Open Cust, Archive, and Reminder.

1. Reply: Type your response to the customer and click Send, or Cancel if you decide to not respond right now. Replies to a customer’s message always go to whichever email address they provided in their initial message; this may or may not be the same email address listed on the customer’s account.
2. Open Cust: Click to open the customer’s account.
3. Archive: Takes the message out of the Inbox, though it remains viewable from the customer’s account or by changing the view in the Messages window.
4. Reminder: Create a Reminder for you directly from the message.

You can change the view using the drop-down menus at the upper-right hand corner of the screen. Switching from All Messages to Customer Messages shows only the messages that your customers have actually sent you. Switching to Bounced Messages shows only the automated messages from Trash Flow letting you know that an email bill could not be delivered. The second menu lets you switch between the Inbox (that is, new messages that haven’t been archived yet), or all messages from today, the past week, or the past month.

You can always send a new message to a customer directly from their account. Click the Msgs tab on their account and click the Send New Message button at the bottom. If desired, use a saved template from the dropdown menu directly above the Cancel button; otherwise write the message and click Send. The will be sent to the email address on file under the customer’s Billing Address. This tab will also list any messages you’ve received from the customer; double-click the line to read the message. If you find yourself frequently needing to send the same kind of message to different customers you can write a reusable template.