A mailbox folder is used to help you manage your mail more easily.
Multiple folders can be used if you want to have mail treated differently – for example, if you have several family members using your mailbox account, you may want mail for one person treated with a different rule set to another family member.
The catch-all folder
When you first create your account with Private Box, you have a single ‘catch-all’ folder.
This is where we will file all of your mail when it has been received, and is all you need if you want all of your mail handled in the same way.
For example: If you set up automatic mail scanning on the catch-all folder, absolutely all mail going into this folder will be scanned for you when it is received.
Folders for individual people
If you have several family members using your mailbox, you may want each person to have their own rules. This allows for a great deal of flexibility in how you utilise our services. You can even use these folders in combination with the catch-all folder.
So if you create only one folder for a specific family member, any mail addressed to them will go into their named folder. Any mail for other family members will go into the catch-all.
For example:
A family consisting of 4 people are using a mailbox account with Private Box. John Smith, Jane Smith, their son Simon Smith, and their daughter Sarah Smith.
John and Jane are on the road in their motor home, but want their mail handled the same way – so they just use the catch-all folder for any mail for themselves. They like to be able to know what mail they have received, so they set up automatic mail scanning on the catch-all folder.
Their son, Simon, is studying at university and is renting property while he is there. So they set up a unique folder in his name to sort any mail with his name on it for him. They set up automatic mail forwarding on Simon’s folder so that the mail received for him is automatically posted to him at the house he is staying at.
Their daughter, Sarah, is working at a job where she travels around and doesn’t have a regular internet connection. They set up a unique folder for any mail with Sarah’s name on it, but don’t set up automatic rules. This means any mail for Sarah is stored at the Private Box office and will wait until the family log into the account and manually decide what they want done with her mail.
Folders for companies
Another option we have is to separate out any business mail from your personal mail. This helps to offer great flexibility, and means that you can ensure your personal mail isn’t mixed up with your business.
For example:
Jason Jones and his wife Jane Jones have a business mailbox account with Private Box.
They use the catch-all mailbox folder for their personal mail, so all of their mail can be managed at the same time. They set up automatic scanning on this folder so they can read their mail online.
They set up a unique folder for their company Jones Jams. Any mail received at Private Box with the company name on it will be sorted into the company folder. They set up automatic mail forwarding on this folder to have any company mail posted directly to their accountant without them needing to worry about it.
What can you do with the folders?
You can choose to set up automatic mail processing rules on each of your folders. These automatic rules include: