Mail Flow | Committee presentation

Mail Flow

Every send,
accounted for.

Personalized society email with a clear view of progress, recipient results, and the next action.

Mail Flow overview showing reusable flows and recent campaigns — Current interface with fictional demonstration data. Select any screenshot to enlarge it.

Sending email needed a clearer view.

Our earlier Power Automate workflow was tedious to prepare and difficult to monitor during real committee work.

Understanding what had happened meant piecing together the automation's progress. We wanted the sending process to be easier to follow and control.

Mail Flow puts the campaign and its recipient results in one place.

This motivation comes from our experience with the previous workflow.

What has happened?: See campaign progress and a processing result for each spreadsheet row.
What needs attention?: Inspect recipient outcomes and keep uncertain submissions visible for review.
What can we do next?: Pause a campaign, resume eligible pending work, or export the results.

A status for each recipient.

See what is pending, what Microsoft accepted, and where to investigate. Paced sending continues after the browser closes.

Paused campaign with 12 pending, 32 accepted, 2 skipped and 2 Unknown rows, separate receipt verification, and result export — Current monitor with fictional data. Unknown outcomes and member-reported receipt evidence stay distinct.

Accepted by Microsoft confirms submission. It does not confirm inbox delivery. Unknown submissions require review and are not automatically resent.

A spreadsheet becomes individual messages.

Start with Recipients, continue to Message, then Review & send. Confirm your email column and check each row.

The current Recipients step with eight example recipients, spreadsheet controls, and an email column check — Current interface with fictional data. Workbook parsing happens in the browser.

One source row creates one separate personalized message when it is eligible to send.

Write once. Personalize each message.

Values from your file

Insert a name, event, date, or another spreadsheet value wherever the message needs it.

Familiar editing

Use visual formatting or sanitized HTML, then review the result for individual recipients.

Current message editor with readable green Name, Event, Date, and Venue tokens — Current message editor with fictional event details.

The details stay under your control.

Your Outlook stays the sender

Set fixed or spreadsheet-based CC, BCC, and Reply-to addresses. Choose message importance.

Campaign attachments

Every recipient gets the same reviewed files. Attach up to five files, totaling 20 MiB, through your OneDrive App Folder.

Attachments are temporary campaign storage. Microsoft mail and OneDrive permissions are required.

Sending rules with CC, BCC, Reply-to, Normal importance, and a ready example attachment — Current controls with a fictional attachment.

Review before the campaign starts.

Check representative personalized messages, send a test to yourself, and acknowledge the final review.

Personalized message preview for Aisha alongside sample recipients and the final review checklist — Current interface with fictional data. The test goes only to the signed-in mailbox.

Tests keep the reviewed message and files, while suppressing campaign CC, BCC, and Reply-to.

Useful work stays easy to find.

Reusable flows

Choose a saved template without losing imported recipients. One-off edits stay separate from explicit template updates.

Campaign records

Browse older campaigns with paginated history and export their recipient outcomes instead of reconstructing what happened.

Ownership today is individual. Shared society access is proposed on the roadmap.

Current reusable flow library with example Event invitation, Volunteer briefing, and Membership update templates — Current Saved templates screen with fictional examples.

Current features

Know the next useful action.

Keep sending decisions and recovery in the same place as campaign progress.

Pause, resume, or cancel
Campaigns take turns per mailbox. Pause eligible work, resume at the back of the queue, or permanently cancel unsent rows. Submitted mail cannot be recalled.
Reconnect without losing the record
If Microsoft authorization needs attention, reconnect the same account and resume pending rows. Accepted and Unknown outcomes remain protected.
Record receipt evidence separately
After checking receipt, mark an Unknown row as manually verified. Mail Flow records who confirmed it and when, preserving the original result without resending.

Roadmap / proposed feature

Society Workspaces.

A shared home for approved members, reusable templates, and committee records.

ImageGen concept of a future Society Workspace with shared templates, approved members, campaign history, and committee handover — ImageGen concept in the current visual theme. This screen is not implemented.

Approved membership

Admins approve student identities. Verified Microsoft sign-in connects members to the society.

Shared committee memory

Members create and reuse flows, view shared campaigns, and retain records across committee handovers.

Each sender still uses their own mailbox. A permanent society file library needs a separate storage decision.

Roadmap / future options

What could follow.

Alongside Society Workspaces, committee feedback can guide the next features.

Approval workflows

Let a designated reviewer approve the exact campaign before it starts.

Scheduled sends

Choose when a reviewed campaign begins, with clear ownership and cancellation rules.

Searchable archives

Find campaigns by event or academic year and preserve useful records for the next committee.

The purpose stays the same: clearer visibility and control over society email.

These are unimplemented proposals, without promised dates. Wider rollout also needs measured capacity and tested recovery.

Mail Flow: current product and proposed roadmap

Every send,accounted for.