Link an email to an Odoo record

Attach a MailDesk email to the business records it belongs to — a CRM lead or opportunity, a Helpdesk ticket, a Sales order, a Calendar event, or any other Odoo record that has a discussion (chatter) — so the conversation and the work stay connected. One email can be linked to several records, and the link stays in place even after you move or re-file the email.

Attach a MailDesk email to the business records it belongs to — a CRM lead or opportunity, a Helpdesk ticket, a Sales order, a Calendar event, or any other Odoo record that has a discussion (chatter) — so the conversation and the work stay connected. One email can be linked to several records, and the link stays in place even after you move or re-file the email.

Available in: Pro. The Link to Record action ships with MailDesk Pro and works on its own: from any email you can link to any Odoo record that has a chatter, no extra module required. The per-record-type integrations (CRM, Helpdesk, Sales, Calendar) are optional — they add a dedicated side panel, create-from-email, and the chatter overlay on top of the linking that Pro already provides. See Available in below.

What it does

A link is a stored connection between one email and one Odoo record. From the email side you decide which records it belongs to; from the record side the email then shows up in that record's discussion (chatter), so the whole team sees the relevant correspondence in context.

There are three ways a link is created:

• Link an email you received to one or more existing records.
• Create a new record from an email (for example a new lead or ticket) — the new record is linked to the email automatically.
• Bind a reply you are about to send to a record while you compose it — the link is saved when the message goes out.

Why it matters

• The email and the work it concerns are kept together — no copy-pasting, no lost context.
• A teammate opening the record sees the email conversation right in the record's chatter.
• Links are local metadata. Creating, changing, or removing a link never touches the email on the mail server and never sends anything to the sender.

Requirements

• MailDesk Pro installed and a mailbox connected. This is all you need to use the generic Link to Record action — it can link an email to any Odoo record that has a discussion (chatter) and that you can read.

• Optionally, the matching integration installed for the record types where you want the richer experience (a dedicated side panel, create-from-email, and linked emails shown in the record's chatter):

  Record type	Add this integration for the dedicated panel
  CRM lead / opportunity	CRM integration
  Helpdesk ticket	Helpdesk integration
  Sales quotation / order	Sales integration
  Calendar event / meeting	Calendar integration

• When installed, the integration must be switched on for the mailbox (each integration adds its own settings card on the mailbox account form).

• MailDesk runs on Odoo 17, 18, or 19 — the steps are the same on each.

Permissions required

• You can only link to a record type that you already have access to in Odoo. If you cannot open CRM, you cannot link an email to a lead — standard Odoo access rules apply.

• Each integration carries its own per-mailbox switches for what is allowed — for example, whether users may create a record from an email, link to an existing one, or unlink one. An administrator sets these on the mailbox account.

• For a shared mailbox, the administrator enables the integration for the team so everyone with access to the mailbox can link.

Available in

Steps — link an email you received

The generic way — works with Pro alone

1. In MailDesk, open the email you want to link.

2. Click Link to Record in the open email's toolbar. (You can also right-click a message row — or several selected rows — and choose Link to Record….) The Connect Records window opens.

3. Pick the Odoo model from the model selector (any chatter-enabled model you can read is offered), type in the search box (Search for records by name or ID…), and click Find Records.

4. Click a record in the results to link it immediately. It moves into the Linked Records list on the right and the link is saved straight away. You can add more than one; clicking a record that is already linked unlinks it.

5. To preview a record before linking, use the eye icon; to open it in a new browser tab, use the external-link icon.

6. Close the window with Save Changes (or Cancel) — both simply close the dialog; your links were already saved as you clicked.

The richer way — a per-type integration panel (optional)

If the matching integration is installed and switched on for the mailbox, the open email also shows a dedicated side panel for that record type (for example a CRM panel or a Helpdesk panel) where you can link to an existing record or create a new one from the email. This is an add-on to the generic action above, not a replacement.

Expected result

The record now appears in the email's Linked Records list, and the email appears inside that record's chatter the next time the record is opened. (See Chatter integration for how linked emails are shown on a record.)

Steps — create a new record from an email

1. Open the email in MailDesk.
2. Open the integration panel for the record type you want to create.

3. Choose the option to create a new record (for example Create lead in the CRM panel). The new record is pre-filled from the email.

4. Complete and save the record.

Expected result

The new record is created and linked to the email automatically — it becomes the email's primary link for that record type (see Primary and secondary links).

Steps — bind a reply to a record while you compose

1. Start a reply or a new message in MailDesk.

2. Use Bind to record in the composer to pick a model and a record.

3. Compose and send as usual.

Expected result

When the message is sent, the link to the chosen record is saved, so your outbound reply is attached to the record just like an inbound email would be.

Primary and secondary links

When one email is linked to several records of the same type (for example two CRM leads), MailDesk marks exactly one of them as the primary link and the others as secondary. The primary link is the one that:

• receives automatic reply logging (your sent replies and the customer's replies are logged to the primary record's chatter), and
• is used to route a reply deterministically when the email is part of a back-and-forth.

The first record linked (or the record you create from the email) becomes primary. If links change, MailDesk keeps exactly one primary — the oldest is kept and the rest become secondary. You can change which record is primary at any time.

Links survive folder moves

A link is attached to the email itself, not to the folder it sits in. If you move a linked email to Archive, to a custom folder, or change its labels, the link stays in place. When MailDesk groups related messages into a conversation, links are also carried across to the related messages so the whole thread stays connected to the record.

Troubleshooting

Related

• Chatter integration — how linked emails appear inside a record, and the internal discussion thread on an email
• Composing and sending
• Permissions & data access
• Licensing & tiers