Rainbook

Sidebars

The Rainbook sidebars for Gmail and Outlook show the customer's account, deals and health beside every email, and let you log, create and draft a reply without leaving your inbox.

What the sidebars do

Open an email and Rainbook shows who you are talking to:

  • A known contact: their name, title and account, the account owner, the health score with its top reason, up to five open deals with stage, amount and close date, and when the thread was last logged. On paid plans you also see the account's Rainbook summary and its next step.
  • A known company, new person: the account card, marked "Not yet a contact". The person becomes a contact when you log the email.
  • Someone new: "No Rainbook record" for their domain, with one click to log the email to a record you search for or to create a deal.
  • Several outside people on the thread: a list of everyone with their match, so you can pick who to look at.
  • Internal email: choose the customer record to log it to, then choose Log. A customer escalation a colleague forwarded to you can still go on the customer's record.

While you write, the compose view shows what Rainbook knows about your recipients.

Everything the sidebar shows is read from Jira as you. You see exactly the records Jira lets you open, and a record you can't open never appears, not even as a hint that it exists.

What you can do from your inbox

  • Log the email to a deal, account, follow-up or renewal. Rainbook suggests the matching deal (or the account), and you can pick files to attach from a checklist. Logging an email Rainbook Mail Sync already captured doesn't create a copy; it links the thread to the record you chose.
  • Create a deal or a follow-up from the email, with the account filled in and the email logged to it.
  • Always log this thread to keep capturing the replies, even from someone who isn't in Rainbook yet.
  • Stop logging this thread to stop capturing it from your mailbox. Messages already logged stay on the record.
  • Make private to make a logged thread visible only to you and the people Jira allows: by default, the owner and members of rainbook-admins.
  • Draft reply (paid plans): give an optional instruction, pick a tone (Neutral, Warm or Brief) and Rainbook writes a reply from the thread, the account's recent conversations and meetings, your open deals and the files on the thread. Facts it couldn't find in those sources are highlighted for you to check. Insert puts the draft into your reply; nothing is ever sent for you.
  • Open in Rainbook to jump to the full record.

Card numbers and US Social Security numbers in an email you log are masked before it reaches Jira, exactly as with capture. See Mail Sync.

Install the Gmail add-on

  1. Your Google Workspace admin adds the Rainbook Gmail add-on for your domain. It isn't in Google's Marketplace yet, so ask support@rainbook.humanr.ai for the steps.
  2. Open any email in Gmail and click the Rainbook icon in the side panel.
  3. Pair it with your Rainbook site (below).

The Gmail add-on works in Gmail on the web.

Install the Outlook add-in

  1. Your Microsoft 365 admin deploys Rainbook from the Microsoft 365 admin center (Settings › Integrated apps), using the manifest offered on the Rainbook Mail Sync admin page. Deployed this way, the add-in connects itself for everyone whose mailbox Rainbook Mail Sync already captures.
  2. You can also add Rainbook from Microsoft Marketplace in Outlook (Get Add-ins).
  3. Open an email and click Rainbook on the ribbon. Pin the pane to keep it open as you move between messages.

The Outlook add-in works in Outlook on the web, the new and classic Outlook for Windows, and Outlook for Mac.

Both add-ins need Rainbook and Rainbook Mail Sync installed on your Jira site.

Pair with Rainbook

Pairing tells the sidebar which Rainbook site to use and who you are. Everyone who uses Rainbook can pair; if your site limits Rainbook to a group, you need to be in it.

  • Automatic. If your admin deployed the Outlook add-in from Rainbook's admin page and your mailbox is connected, or you paired before on that mail client, the sidebar opens already connected. You see "Connected as" with your address.
  • Connect to Rainbook. Otherwise, click Connect to Rainbook, check your Jira site address (Rainbook suggests one from your email domain) and click once. Your Rainbook Mail Sync personal settings open in Jira, showing which mail client and mailbox want to connect. Click Approve. Gmail connects on its own; in Outlook, click Copy and paste the key into the waiting sidebar once.
  • Pairing key. If a pop-up is blocked, open Settings › Inbox sidebars in Rainbook, choose Open Rainbook Mail Sync settings, then Create pairing key, and paste it into the sidebar with Use a pairing key instead. A key works once, for 10 minutes.

A pairing lasts as long as you use it and expires after 90 days without use. Your personal settings list every sidebar you have paired, and you or a Rainbook admin can revoke any of them.

What the sidebars store

The sidebars store nothing but the pairing. Your mail client keeps your Rainbook site address and a pairing token in the add-in's own settings, and Rainbook Mail Sync keeps a fingerprint of that token so it can check each request. To make reopening an email instant, the card you last saw is cached for 10 minutes, for you only.

Email you read but don't log stays in your mailbox. When you log an email or a file, it goes straight to the Jira record you chose; files over 3 MB pass through a short-lived upload buffer that is deleted as soon as the file is in Jira.

Free tier, plans and limits

  • On the free tier (Standard on sites of 1 to 10 users) the sidebars are included at no cost. You get the account card with the health score and its top reason, open deals, Log, Create, Always log, Stop logging and Make private. Draft reply, Rainbook summaries and next steps need a paid plan, and so does background capture.
  • Rainbook Mail Sync on 1 to 10 users gives you the sidebars only, unless your site is on Advanced, which adds background capture at no extra Mail Sync cost.
  • On paid plans the card adds the Rainbook summary, the AI-written top reason and the next step, and Draft reply is on.
  • Drafts use your AI allowance. Rainbook's AI is included in your subscription, with fair-use limits. If you reach your monthly fair-use limit, the sidebar tells you when drafts are back; everything else in the sidebar keeps working. See AI.
  • On Jira Free there is no Make private, because everyone on a Jira Free site sees every record.

Prices are on Pricing and licensing.

If something looks wrong

  • "Rainbook is busy. Try again in a minute." Click Try again; the sidebar recovers on its own.
  • "Connect to Rainbook" after you had paired. The pairing was revoked or unused for 90 days. Pair again.
  • "Your Jira access needs attention: ask your Jira admin". Your Jira account can't be used right now (for example it was deactivated or lost access). Your Jira admin can fix it.
  • "Rainbook isn't answering from your Jira site." Ask your Jira admin to check that Rainbook and Rainbook Mail Sync are installed and connected.

More answers are in Troubleshooting and FAQ.