Connect your tools

Backhouse works best when it's connected to the tools you already use.

Available integrations

• Google. One connection covers Gmail and Google Calendar.
• Outlook. One connection covers Outlook mail and calendar, on Microsoft 365 or an Outlook.com account.

Either one lets Backhouse monitor your inbox, draft replies for your review, and schedule showings, consultations, and closings on your calendar. Each workspace uses one mailbox at a time.

How to connect

1. Go to Settings > Connected tools
2. Click Connect on the Google or Outlook card, then Continue with Google or Continue with Microsoft in the dialog that lays out what it gets
3. Sign in with the account you use for work and approve the permissions
4. Once connected, Backhouse imports your recent mail and keeps syncing automatically

Some companies only let an IT admin approve new apps for Microsoft 365. If Microsoft asks for admin approval, send the request to whoever manages your company's email.

Switching between Google and Outlook

If your brokerage moves its email from one to the other, connect the new account from Settings > Connected tools. It takes over from the old one in this workspace, and in any other workspace that used the same address. Mail you already have stays in Backhouse. Once everything looks right, disconnect the old account from its card.

Permissions

Backhouse only requests the permissions it needs. For email, it reads incoming messages and prepares drafts, it never sends anything without you. For calendar, it creates and updates events when you ask it to schedule something, mirrors your transaction dates if you turn that on, and checks your availability when finding a time. You can disconnect at any time from the same page.

Controlling what each one does

Connecting a mailbox is one grant covering both mail and calendar, so Settings > Connected tools is only where you link and unlink it. What each one actually does lives on its own page.

• Settings > Email. Pause mail sync, choose when Backhouse drafts replies, see and correct the writing voice it drafts in, and set the signature it adds. See Drafts and actions.
• Settings > Calendar. Stop writing to your calendar without disconnecting your email, decide whether clients get invited to showings, and put your transactions' key dates on your calendar. See Deadlines and milestones.

Turning calendar sync off keeps everything working inside Backhouse. Showings and key dates still appear here, they just don't reach your calendar.

Going the other way

The same page has an AI section, which works the reverse of everything above. Instead of Backhouse reading a tool of yours, it lets an AI client read Backhouse. See Connect Claude.