Email & SMS

Cadence IP can send and receive email and SMS directly against a matter. This page covers the four things you set up under the Communication group in Settings: sending email from your own address, capturing incoming email onto matters, building your email signature, and sending SMS via Vonage.

Email Settings with the SMTP, Signature and Incoming Email tabs — Email Settings. Sender identity and SMTP are personal to your account.

Sending email (your sender identity and SMTP)

Outbound email settings are personal to your account — each user sends from their own address using their own mailbox login, so the From address always matches the person who authenticated.

On the SMTP tab, set:

Your Sender Identity — the From Name and From Email recipients see.
Your SMTP Credentials — the SMTP Server, Port, Username, Password and Encryption for your mailbox.

Click Test Connection to confirm the details work before you Save.

Important

Authenticate with your own mailbox login. Sharing one mailbox login across several users causes Exchange and Microsoft 365 to reject the send as "SendAsDenied", because the From address won't match the account that signed in.

Capturing incoming email

The Incoming Email tab sets up a shared intake address so email can be filed against matters. These settings are organisation-wide.

The Incoming Email tab with handle and subject-line tag fields — An intake handle and a subject-line tag let Cadence IP match incoming email to the right matter.

Incoming Email Handle — the local part of your firm's intake address. CC or BCC this address on an email and Cadence IP captures a copy against the matching matter.
Subject Line Tag — a pattern such as ACMEIP-${matter_id}, where ${matter_id} is filled with the matter's ID. This tag is automatically added to your outbound subject lines and used to match incoming replies back to the right matter (for example, ACMEIP-42).

Auto-forwarding from your mail client

Rather than remembering to CC or BCC the intake address on every message, you can set up a rule in your own mail client to forward matter correspondence automatically. The rule watches for your subject-line tag (for example MID) and copies matching mail to the intake address. Below are two Outlook rules — one for mail you receive and one for mail you send.

For received mail, forward any message whose subject contains your tag to the intake address:

An Outlook rule forwarding received emails whose subject contains MID to the intake address — Outlook Rules Wizard: forward received mail with the tag in the subject to your intake address, skipping mail already sent there.

For sent mail, CC the intake address on any message you send whose subject contains your tag, so outbound correspondence is filed too:

An Outlook rule CC'ing sent emails whose subject contains MID to the intake address — A companion rule for sent mail — CC the intake address so your outbound replies are captured against the matter.

Tip

Add the "except if sent to" exclusion (shown in both rules) so a message that already went to the intake address isn't forwarded a second time. Other mail clients such as Gmail and Apple Mail offer equivalent filter/rule features — the same two ideas (match on the subject tag, copy to the intake address) apply.

Building your email signature

The Signature tab builds the signature added to your outbound email. Like sender identity, your signature is personal to your account.

The Signature builder with a live preview — The structured signature builder, with a live preview on the right.

You have two modes, chosen with the Signature Builder toggle:

Builder mode (toggle on) — fill in structured fields such as Full Name, Job Title, Company, Phone, Email, Website, LinkedIn and X / Twitter, adjust the styling, and optionally upload a logo (up to 512 KB). The preview updates as you type, and the logo is embedded directly in your emails so it always displays.
Raw HTML mode (toggle off) — paste your own hand-built HTML signature instead.

Sending SMS via Vonage

The SMS Settings section connects Vonage so you can text notifications and reminders from a matter. The Vonage connection is organisation-wide.

SMS Settings with the Vonage configuration fields — Connect Vonage with an API key, secret and sender number.

On the Vonage tab, enter your API Key, API Secret and a Phone Number (From) — either an E.164 phone number or an alphanumeric sender ID such as SmithIP. Click Test Connection to verify; a status badge shows whether you're connected. The Signature tab lets you set a short plain-text SMS signature appended to outgoing messages.

Getting your own Vonage credentials

The API key and secret are your firm's own — you get them by creating a Vonage account:

Create a Vonage API account

Sign up at dashboard.nexmo.com/sign-up (the Vonage API dashboard — formerly Nexmo). A free trial account includes some starter credit for testing.

Copy your API key and secret

Your API Key and API Secret are shown at the top of the dashboard home page, under API settings. Copy both into the fields on the Vonage tab.

Get a sender number

Under Numbers → Buy numbers, choose an SMS-capable number in your country and use it as the Phone Number (From). Alternatively, where your country allows it, you can send from an alphanumeric sender ID (such as your firm's short name) instead of buying a number.

Note

SMS regulations vary by country. Some regions require you to register a sender ID or number before messages will deliver, and trial accounts can usually only send to numbers you've verified on your Vonage account. Vonage's own documentation covers the rules for your region.

For sending and receiving messages on a matter once these are configured, see Communications.