Outgoing rules for emails

With the help of Outgoing rules, you can decide which emails can be sent by the users and filter out unnecessary emails based on the entire content of the email including the email header, email content and attachment content. In order to filter the outgoing emails, you have to establish a set of conditions against which all the outgoing emails of your organisation will be validated.

Create an Outgoing Rule

To create a new Outgoing rule, follow these steps:

1. Log in to Zoho Mail Admin Console and select Security & Compliance on the left pane.
2. Navigate to Rules and select Outgoing Rules.
3. Click the Create now button to add the first rule or click Create from the top pane.
    
4. Provide a rule name and a description for the rule. If the entered rule name is already in use, "Name already exists" warning is shown.
5. If required, set an Expiry Date.
6. Select either of the Condition Type from the below options:
   • Apply for matching conditions - When chosen, all the emails will be checked for the conditions mentioned.
   • No Condition. Apply to all emails. - When chosen, all the emails you receive will go through the preferred action.
7. Select one or more Conditions, the Operating parameter and the corresponding Action.
8. Click +Add values under Conditions to enter multiple values separated by a delimiter which you can choose from Choose delimiter drop-down. Select Custom from the drop-down, to add your own custom delimiter for the values and select Update.
9. Choose the users whom you want to select or exclude from the rule under the Apply To section:
   • All users - The rule will be applied to all the users in your organization.
   • Selected Users - The rule will be applied to the specific set of users you add.
   • Selected Groups/Shared Mailbox - The rule will be applied only to the users who are members of the specified groups/Shared Mailbox.
   • Excluded Users - The rule will not be applied to the selected list of users.
   • Excluded Groups/Shared Mailbox - The rule will not be applied to the users who are members of the selected groups/Shared Mailbox.
10. Skip to this step if you chose All users.
11. Select the users you want to add to the list and click Submit. You can also remove a user from the list by clicking the Delete icon next to the user.
12. Select the Reset to default button when you have to clear all the selected conditions and provide a different criteria.
13. Review your rule and do one of the following:
    • Create and enable rule - Your rule will not only be created but also be enabled automatically to start processing emails with respect to its conditions and actions.
    • Create rule - Your rule will only be created and not enabled. That means if you want the rule to be applied to the emails you receive, you will have to manually activate it.
14. Click Yes in the Confirm Action! dialog box.

15. Select either Done or Go to created rule or Add more rules depending on your requirement once the rule is created successfully.

    Note: The new rule created will be highlighted in the list of rules section under Outgoing Rules home page.
     
16. Hover over a rule in the list to rearrange it using the drag and drop icon. You can only drag and drop rules created within the same rule type indicated by your theme colored bar towards the left pane.
17. Alternatively, you can select the rule to be rearranged, and click the Reorder button on the top pane. Now select Move up or Move down from the list.
18. Rearranging them automatically changes the rule processing priority based on the order they are currently listed.

Available Conditions

Zoho Mail provides multiple conditions based on which you can filter outgoing emails. There can be more than one condition for a single rule depending on your organization's requirement. The various conditions are listed in the tables that follow:

After selecting the Conditions and the Operating parameters, provide the values with respect to the chosen conditions that need to be verified against. Upon providing these proceed to select the Actions that need to be performed for the emails with the chosen conditions. 

Available Actions

Filter

Once the rules are created, they are listed under Outgoing Rules home page. You can view and filter the rules based on their status/action. Follow the below steps to perform the filter operation:

1. Select Filter button on the top pane of Outgoing Rules home page.

2. Click the desired status/action from the drop-down. The types of rules based on the status are:

   • Active Rules - Lists all the rules where the status is marked active.
   • Inactive Rules - Lists all the rules where the status is marked inactive.
   • Expired Rules - Lists all the rules where the set expiry date of the specific rule has been lapsed. However, you can modify the expiry date of a rule by hovering over the status and selecting a different date.
   Note: The expired rules are also included in the filtered list when Inactive Rules is selected from the Filter drop-down.
3. Select Action from the Filter drop-down to filter rules based on the available actions.

Rule Processing and Priority

The outgoing rules are created to apply specific filters to the outgoing emails. These emails are handled based on one or more filters. In such cases, the multiple filters applied are processed according to their priority such that the filters with high importance gets applied before the others for better handling of emails. The types of priority available are:

• Filter level priority
• Apply To priority

Filter level priority 

You can add any number of Outgoing Rules to process different types of outgoing emails. When there are multiple filters, the sequence of processing will be based on the priority of filters. The filter with the highest priority (1) will take precedence over the filters with lower priority (2). Once a particular rule is processed, subsequent rules will not be processed for the same email. 

Apply To priority 

When an outgoing rule is created, you can decide the application/exclusion of the rule to a specific user/group as per your requirement. You need to provide the following applicable details under the Apply To section for the same:

• All Users
  • Selected users (priority 2)
  • Selected groups/Shared Mailbox (priority 4)
• Exclude users or groups
  • Exclude users (priority 1)
  • Exclude groups/Shared Mailbox (priority 3)

 However, the application of the selected/excluded users and groups are processed based on their priority. Consider the below cases:

Case 1: If a user is added under Exclude users category, the particular rule is not applicable for this user even when the group he/she is a part of is included under Selected groups/Shared Mailbox. This is because Exclude users has higher priority and is processed first.

Case 2: If a user's group is added under Exclude groups/Shared Mailbox, but the particular user is added to Selected users under All users category, the corresponding outgoing rule is still applicable to this user, as the Selected users precedes over Exclude groups/Shared Mailbox in priority. 

Case 3: When a user is added to Exclude users category, and no other selection is made under All users, the outgoing rule created will still be applicable to all users by default, apart from the one selected under Exclude users.

Modify Outgoing Rule

You can modify the existing rules as per your needs. Follow the instructions given below to modify a rule:

1. Log in to Zoho Mail Admin Console and select Security & Compliance on the left pane.
2. Navigate to Rules and select Outgoing Rules.
3. Select the desired rule and click Edit from the top right corner.
4. Make the desired changes and click Update.

Additionally, you can search and edit the outgoing rules based on the rule name, or associated users. Navigate to the search bar on the top right corner and select the contains or applicable to parameters from the listing as per your requirements. Type in a rule name, or select a specific user from the list and press enter. All the outgoing rules satisfying the search will be displayed. You can then select the rules from the list and make the required changes.

User-specific outgoing rules can be viewed by selecting Users on the left pane of Admin Console. Under Anti-Spam Settings, select Outgoing Rules to view the list of outgoing rules applicable for that user.

Enable or Disable a rule

You can enable or disable a rule to start or stop filtering.

1. Log in to Zoho Mail Admin Console and select Security & Compliance.
2. Navigate to Rules and select Outgoing Rules. You will find the list of filters you have already added.
3. Toggle the Status key to   ON or   OFF in order to enable or disable a rule.
   

Remove Rules

There can be scenarios where you do not require a rule or a rule might have expired. In such cases, you can remove them using the delete option. Follow these steps to delete a rule:

1. Log in to Zoho Mail Admin Console and select Security and Compliance on the left pane.
2. Navigate to Rules and select Outgoing Rules.
3. To remove a rule:
   1. Hover over an existing or expired rule and click the   delete icon.
      
   2. Alternatively, you can select the desired rules, click Delete on the top menu and choose the required option:
      • Delete selected rules
      • Delete all expired rules
      • Delete all rules

   3. Click Delete in the confirmation dialog that appears.
      
       

      Note:
      When a filter is applied, the Delete drop-down includes additional value of Delete filtered rules for quick deletion of rules that satisfies a specific filter.

This will remove the outgoing rules from your list and cannot be recovered.