Your inbox isn't a filing problem. It's your filing problem.
Off the shelf is great. Custom is better. Owning it is best.
Every email tool promises inbox zero. Most get you to "inbox slightly less awful". This guide is about the other way — a boutique inbox manager built around how your work is really sorted, with a prototype you can try today.
The inbox is where work goes to hide
Email was meant to be a letterbox. It's become the filing cabinet, the to-do list, the document store and the project record all in one. And it does none of those jobs well.
The work isn't reading email. The work is deciding where each one belongs, saving what matters, and replying. Do that a hundred times a day and it's a part-time job nobody was hired for.
Why off-the-shelf only gets you halfway
Off-the-shelf tools are good. We'd tell you to use one if it fits. They sort by sender, by keyword, by "important" or "other". Fine for general mail.
But they don't know that "Lot 14 Riverside — L3 slab pour" belongs to project 2207, trade: concrete. They don't know your reply to a variation request. They don't know which attachments need to land in the job folder and which are just someone's email signature logo.
So you bend your work to fit the tool. A custom build does the opposite — the tool bends to fit your work.
- 01
The drawing revision you need is somewhere in 400 unread emails.
- 02
Attachments live in the inbox, not in the job folder, so nobody else can find them.
- 03
You write the same five replies every day, just with different names.
- 04
Each new project means half an hour of setting up folders and rules.
- 05
Someone goes on leave and their inbox becomes a black box.
- 06
Your filters were set up in 2019 and nobody dares touch them.
If you nodded at two or more, your inbox is costing you hours every week.
"You've got NO more mail"
We built Inbox Done for one of the messiest inboxes there is: construction projects. Dozens of jobs, a dozen trades each, drawings flying in from every direction. If it works there, it works anywhere.
Project › Trade containers
Every email lands in the right project, then the right trade — concrete, steel, electrical, or containers you make up yourself.
Works inside Outlook
A side panel files, tags and moves emails and attachments, one at a time or in batches. No new inbox to learn.
Replies ready to approve
Your own rules draft the reply. Click approve and it opens in Outlook, ready to send. Nothing goes without you.
Projects set up in seconds
Drop in a tender document or a screenshot and the project details and containers are filled in for you.
No account needed to try the demo.
The prototype is the starting line, not the product
Inbox Done shows what's possible. Your version won't look exactly like it — and it shouldn't. A law firm sorts by matter. A property manager sorts by address. A recruiter sorts by role and candidate. A supplier sorts by order number.
Because we start from a working base, we're not building from a blank page. That means you see your own email sorting itself much sooner, and you only pay to build what's different about you.
- 01
Tell us what hurts
A short chat about your inbox. What comes in, how you sort it in your head, what you keep retyping, what goes missing.
- 02
We shape your containers and rules
Your projects, clients, job numbers, trades or categories. Your reply wording. Your filing logic — not a vendor's idea of it.
- 03
Build, test on real mail, tune
We start from a working base like Inbox Done, so you're testing on your own email in days, not waiting months for a spec.
- 04
Run it — or own it
Keep us looking after it, or take ownership of your version outright. Your system, your data, your call.
Rent forever, or own it
Most software is rented. Price goes up, features move, the vendor gets bought, and your way of working goes with it.
Our model can end with you owning your version. It's an option, not a catch. Take it and the system is yours — your copy, your data, no licence back to us. Or keep us on to look after it and keep improving it. Either way, you're not locked in.
We'd rather earn the next job than trap you in this one.
A person always has the last word
The system sorts, saves and drafts. It doesn't send. Every reply waits for you to approve it, then opens in Outlook ready to go. Less typing, same judgement.
Try this before you call us
- Open your inbox and look at the last 50 emails.
- Write down how you'd sort them if you had a magic wand — by job, client, trade, whatever.
- Note the replies you've typed more than twice this week.
That list is your brief. Send it over and we'll tell you straight whether a custom inbox manager would earn its keep.
What is Inbox Done?
A working prototype we built for construction project inboxes. It files emails by project and trade, saves every attachment, drafts replies from your own rules and works from a side panel inside Outlook. Nothing is sent without you approving it.
Do I have to be in construction?
No. Construction is the example. The same idea works for any inbox that drowns in the same kinds of email — jobs, clients, suppliers, claims, orders, tenders. We build the containers and rules around how your work is actually sorted.
Why not just use an off-the-shelf tool?
If one fits, use it. Off-the-shelf is great for general sorting. Where it falls short is your specific pain — your job numbers, your trades, your reply wording, your filing rules. That's the gap a custom build fills.
What does owning my version mean?
As an option, at the end of the build the system is handed over to you. Your copy, your data, no ongoing licence to us if you don't want one. Or keep us on to look after it. Your choice.
Does it send emails by itself?
No. It drafts. You approve. The reply opens in Outlook ready to send, so a person always has the last word.