Overview
The Outlook integration enables Glossa to capture requirements from your email conversations with clients. By connecting your Outlook account, you can process emails that contain important requirements, decisions, and project context—all with full citations back to the original email threads.
Outlook integration works on a per-project basis, giving you control over which emails are added to which projects. You can choose to automatically include all relevant emails or manually select specific email threads.
How It Works
After connecting Outlook to Glossa, you select which emails to process for each project. Glossa matches emails based on client contact information—any email with a client contact in the To, From, or CC fields can be processed.
When emails are processed, Glossa:
Extracts requirements mentioned in the email content
Creates citations linking requirements to specific emails
Processes any attachments included in the email
Maintains the thread context for better requirement understanding
Setting Up Outlook Integration
Step 1: Enable the Integration
Navigate to Integrations in the main navigation
Find Outlook in the list of available integrations
Enable using the slider
Click Connect
Step 2: Authorize Access
You'll be redirected to Microsoft's authorization page where you'll:
Sign in with your Microsoft account (if not already signed in)
Review the permissions Glossa is requesting
Click Allow to authorize the connection
After authorization, you'll be redirected back to Glossa.
Note: The Outlook integration connects your personal Microsoft account. If you need to access different Outlook accounts for different projects, you can disconnect and reconnect with a different account, but only one Outlook account can be connected at a time.
Each team member in Glossa can connect to their personal Microsoft account, even if they're working in a shared Glossa project.
Step 3: Ensure Client Contacts Are Set Up
For Glossa to automatically identify relevant emails, you must have client contacts configured in your project:
Open the project where you want to add emails
Navigate to the Client at the top of the dashboard
Ensure your client contacts have email addresses added
Glossa uses these email addresses to match incoming emails
Without client contact email addresses, Glossa won't be able to identify which emails are relevant to your project.
Adding Emails to a Project
Once Outlook is connected, you add emails on a per-project basis.
Step 1: Navigate to Files
Open the project where you want to add emails
Click the Files tab
Click Add Input Data
Step 2: Select Outlook Integration
In the Add Input Data menu, click Select Email Integration
Select Outlook
Step 3: Choose Email Processing Mode
You have two options for adding emails to your project:
Option A: Process ALL eligible Outlook emails automatically
Select this option to automatically import all emails that:
Have a client contact email address in the To, From, or CC fields
Match the client contacts configured in your project
Use this when:
You want comprehensive coverage of all client communications
The client contact is only involved in this one project
You trust that all emails with this contact are relevant
Processing Settings:
Select the Timeframe for which emails should be included
Last 30 days is the default
Considerations:
This includes both sent and received emails
May import more emails than needed if the contact is involved in multiple topics
Emails are processed immediately upon selection
Option B: SELECT specific Outlook emails
Select this option to see a list of emails matching your client contacts, then manually choose which ones to import.
The interface will display:
Email subject lines
Sender and recipients
Date sent/received
Preview of email content
Use this when:
You want precise control over which emails are processed
The client contact is involved in multiple unrelated projects or topics
You want to review emails before processing them
You want to include emails that are more than 90 days old (there is no timeframe limit when selecting manually)
Select the emails you want to process and click Import.
Email Processing
After you select emails (either ALL or SELECT):
Emails are added to your project's Files tab
Processing begins automatically (typically completes within a few minutes)
Requirements are generated and appear in the Requirements tab
Email attachments are also processed
Email Attachments
When emails are processed, Glossa automatically processes any attachments included in those emails:
Documents (PDF, Word, PowerPoint, Excel)
Images (with OCR for text extraction)
Other supported file types
Attachments are processed alongside the email content to give Glossa complete context.
Adding Emails After Processing
Glossa will prevent duplicate email processing.
If you choose process ALL and some emails in range have already been processed, Glossa will only import the new emails
If you choose SELECT, emails that have already been imported will be visible and grayed out, so you can see they've already been created in Glossa
Viewing Gmail Citations
When requirements are generated from emails:
Open the requirement in Glossa
Navigate to the Reference Data tab
You'll see citation(s) showing:
Date the email was sent/received
Email subject line
Who sent/received the email
Email content preview
"Open Preview" button
Click Open Preview or the email subject to view:
The full email content
Highlighted relevant portions
Thread context if part of a conversation
Citations link directly to the specific email, giving you instant traceability from requirements to source communications.
Sent vs. Received Emails
Both sent and received emails are available through the Outlook integration. This ensures you capture:
Received emails: Client requirements, questions, and feedback
Sent emails: Your responses, proposals, and clarifications
This bidirectional capture ensures complete documentation of email-based requirements discussions.
Managing Outlook Integration
Disconnecting Outlook
To disconnect your Outlook account:
Go to Integrations
Find Outlook
Click Disconnect
Important: Disconnecting Outlook does not delete:
Requirements that were generated from emails
Email files that were already imported to projects
Citations to those emails
It only prevents future email imports.
Reconnecting Outlook
If your Outlook connection fails or you need to connect a different account:
Go to Integrations
Find Outlook
Click Disconnect (if currently connected)
Click Connect
Follow the authorization flow again
Troubleshooting
No Emails Appearing in SELECT Mode
Possible causes:
No client contacts with email addresses configured in the project
Client contact emails don't match any Outlook conversations
Solutions:
Verify client contacts have email addresses in the project (Clients → Edit Contact)
Check that you're connecting the correct Outlook account (the one that receives client emails)
Ensure the client contact's email address is exactly correct (including any dots, underscores, etc.)
Emails Processed But No Requirements Generated
This can happen when:
Emails don't contain actionable requirements (just scheduling, pleasantries, etc.)
Content is too vague or high-level
Glossa determined the content wasn't requirement-related
What to check:
View the email in the Files tab to confirm it was captured
Review the email content—does it contain clear feature requests, business rules, or decisions?
If requirements should exist, consider manually creating them and adding the email as a citation
Attachments Not Processing
Verify:
Attachment file types are supported
Attachments aren't corrupted or password-protected
File size is within limits
Want to Add More Emails Later
You can add additional emails at any time:
Go to the project → Files → Add Input Data
Select Email Integrations → Outlook
Choose ALL or SELECT mode
New emails will be processed and added to existing requirements
Best Practices
Set Up Client Contacts First
Before connecting Outlook, ensure:
All client contacts are added to your project
Email addresses are correctly entered
Contact information is complete
This ensures Glossa can accurately identify relevant emails.
Combine with Other Sources
Email works best as one of multiple input sources:
Use Outlook for async client communications
Use meeting integrations for discovery sessions
Upload formal documentation
Glossa will detect contradictions across all these sources.
Review Generated Requirements
After processing emails:
Review newly created requirements in the Requirements tab
Verify requirement accuracy and completeness
Edit titles or descriptions as needed
Check that citations link to the correct emails
Limitations
One Outlook account at a time: Only one Outlook account can be connected to your organization
Client contact matching required: Emails must have client contact email addresses to be automatically identified
No automatic ongoing sync: Emails must be manually added to projects (not automatically synced in real-time)
Both sent and received included: Cannot filter to only sent or only received emails in ALL mode
Manual re-authorization: If connection fails, requires manual reconnection
Security & Privacy
Data Access
The Outlook integration requires read-only access to your Outlook account to:
Search for emails matching client contacts
Read email content and metadata
Access email attachments
Glossa never sends emails or modifies your Outlook account.
Data Storage
Emails processed through Glossa are:
Encrypted in transit (TLS 1.2+)
Encrypted at rest (AES-256)
Stored on secure servers
Revoking Access
You can revoke Glossa's access to your Outlook at any time:
From Microsoft Account settings (account.microsoft.com → Privacy → Apps & services)
From Glossa (Integrations → Outlook → Disconnect)