On a schedule

Get a morning mailbox count

Each weekday you see yesterday's new and closed conversations and how many are still active.

Runs: On a schedule
Apps: Help Scout
AI: Not needed
Access: read (user's mailboxes)

Send this to your assistant

Create a ClickRuntime automation: every weekday at 8am, email me how many Help Scout conversations were opened and closed yesterday in Support and Billing, and how many are still active.

Paste it into your assistant. It tells you what it will send or change before it runs live.

Add to ChatGPT Add to Claude

First time? Adding ClickRuntime to your assistant takes about two minutes.

Why use it

Why teams use this automation

Support managers using Help Scout want a feel for the mailbox before the first customer message of the day. Did the inbox clear overnight or is there a backlog? How many conversations were closed yesterday and how many are waiting on the customer? Opening the Reports tab and picking filters takes a few minutes each day, and on a busy Monday it is the first thing dropped. Then the team starts the week with a surprise. It is the first thing dropped on a busy morning.

Each morning, conversations are listed by status and modified date, counted into new, closed and waiting, and one email arrives with the totals. It is a short, consistent snapshot of the mailbox.

It suits support leads, founders who answer email themselves, and small teams with no dedicated reporting person.

What you get out of it

You start the day knowing the load
If the mailbox has doubled overnight, you can reassign people before the first reply is due, instead of discovering it at 11 am. That gives you time to move people around, or ask for help, while it still helps the customers waiting.
Backlogs are visible early
A run of days where more arrives than closes is a trend you can act on. Waiting is cheaper than a crisis, but only if you see it. Spotting a slow drift in the numbers early is far cheaper than reacting to a pile-up later.
Closed counts show team output
Seeing how many conversations were closed gives credit to the team and helps managers understand what a normal day looks like. A visible total for the day also makes it easier to show the wider company what the support team handles.
Waiting conversations are not forgotten
The count of conversations waiting on a customer reminds you which threads need a follow-up before they go stale. Follow-ups on those threads are the ones customers silently judge you by, and the count keeps them in view.
No reporting login to open
The figures arrive in your inbox, so busy managers and owners stay informed even if they rarely open the Help Scout reports page. Owners and managers who rarely sign in still get the numbers, without learning how to build a report.
A baseline for staffing
After a few weeks of the same email you know what a normal Tuesday looks like. That baseline makes it easier to justify an extra hire, plan holiday cover and notice when something unusual, like a product bug, is driving volume.

How it works

What happens, step by step

Each weekday morning ClickRuntime checks your Help Scout mailboxes, such as Support and Billing.
For each mailbox it counts the conversations opened yesterday, those closed yesterday and how many are still active.
You get one email with a line per mailbox.

Before it runs live

Connect Help Scout

What you get

RunsOn a schedule

Get a morning mailbox counttoday, 9:00Succeeded

Email · Help Scout daily reportSupport: 34 opened, 29 closed, 18 still active Billing: 9 opened, 11 closed, 4 still active

Build your own

Need it to work differently?

This template is a starting point. Copy the prompt and change it, or describe a different automation from scratch, with your own conditions, more apps or an AI step. Your assistant writes it, tests it and runs it on ClickRuntime.

Your own rules
Conditions, thresholds, filters and exceptions, written the way you'd explain them to a colleague.
Any number of apps
One automation can read from one app and update several others. Over 248 apps are ready, and anything with an API works too.
AI where it helps
Summaries, classification, extraction and drafts use ClickRuntime's built-in AI, with no extra key.
On a schedule or on each event
Runs as often as every 5 minutes, or the moment an app sends an event, and keeps track of what it already handled.

Changes you can ask for

Run it at a different time, more or less often, or only on weekdays
Add an AI step, for example to summarize, sort or draft a reply
Add another app, for example also send it to Slack
Combine it with other Help Scout steps into one automation

Under the hood

The code that runs this automation

This is the Python script that runs each time the automation starts. Your AI assistant writes it for you when you send the prompt, and you allow each step in your assistant. To change how the automation works, describe the change to your assistant and it updates the script for you. For every function it can use, see the script reference.

daily_mailbox_report.pyexample

from datetime import date, timedelta
from clickruntime import on_trigger, credentials, http, notify

MAILBOXES = {"Support": 123456, "Billing": 234567}

@on_trigger
def run(event):
    h = {"Authorization": f"Bearer {credentials.connection('help-scout', 'work')}"}
    y = date.today() - timedelta(days=1)
    rng = f"[{y}T00:00:00Z TO {date.today()}T00:00:00Z]"
    def total(mailbox, status, query=None):
        params = {"mailbox": mailbox, "status": status, **({"query": query} if query else {})}
        r = http.get("https://api.helpscout.net/v2/conversations", params=params, headers=h)
        r.raise_for_status()
        return r.json()["page"]["totalElements"]
    lines = []
    for name, mid in MAILBOXES.items():
        opened = total(mid, "all", f"(createdAt:{rng})")
        closed = total(mid, "closed", f"(closedAt:{rng})")
        lines.append(f"{name}: {opened} opened, {closed} closed, {total(mid, 'active')} still active")
    notify.email_me(f"Help Scout for {y}", "\n".join(lines))
    return {"lines": lines}

FAQ

Common questions

What does waiting mean in the report?

Conversations whose last reply came from your team and are waiting for the customer, or sitting in pending status, depending on how your mailbox is set up. The counts follow Help Scout's own statuses. The report notes each status so you can tell them apart.

Can it cover more than one mailbox?

Yes. Each mailbox can be counted separately in the same email, so a support, billing and sales inbox each have their own totals. You can also limit the report to one mailbox. Splitting them is a small change to describe.

How is the time window chosen?

It counts the previous day, using the time zone you set, so the numbers match your team's working day. Weekend days can be combined into Monday's email if you prefer a single Monday summary. Setting this up takes one sentence to your AI assistant.

What permissions does it need?

read (user's mailboxes). Nothing else in your accounts is used.

Does it need AI?

No. It runs without AI, so it doesn't use your plan's AI allowance.

How many runs does it use?

One run each time it runs (on a schedule). Checks that find nothing to do and stop right away aren't counted.

Can I change how it works?

Yes. Describe the change to your AI assistant, for example a different schedule, channel or filter. It updates the automation, tests it and tells you what changed.

The moment it happens