Frequently asked questions

FileChimp Central files email from new Outlook, classic Outlook and Outlook on the web into your file shares, SharePoint and OneDrive, and lets your team search what has been filed. It runs on one server for the whole office, with a small add-in in everyone’s Outlook.

A Windows server in your office or in the cloud that can reach your file shares, Microsoft 365 mailboxes, and a Microsoft 365 Global Administrator to approve FileChimp’s access and add the Outlook add-in for your team.

No. FileChimp Central is installed once, on your server. The Outlook add-in is deployed to everyone from the Microsoft 365 admin centre and appears in their Outlook automatically.

If you want more on Windows PCs, there is the optional FileChimp Outlook Helper, one installer your IT team can roll out to every PC. In classic Outlook it asks where to file each email when you press Send, and warns you when a name you are sending to has a different address in your contacts. Reply and Forward from search results open straight in Outlook. In File Explorer, right-click files or folders to copy or email links to them, or export a list to Excel.

Install FileChimp Central on your server. When the installer finishes, the dashboard opens with Setup steps that guide you through everything in order: your company and administrator, starting your free trial (we email you a 6-digit code), your server’s address, the folders and SharePoint libraries to file to, the Microsoft 365 connection (Set up Microsoft 365 for me does it in a few clicks), and adding the Outlook add-in. Each step shows when it’s done. Start your trial.

No. FileChimp Classic carries on working in classic Outlook, and you can move to FileChimp Central at a time that suits you, for example when your team switches to new Outlook. When you are ready, you can change your Classic subscription to Central from your account, with credit for the time you have left: see moving to Central.

Open FileChimp beside the email and pick the folder: double-click a folder to file to it, or right-click it to save the email, the email and its attachments, or just the attachments. Type a few letters to find a folder by name.

Yes. Ctrl+click to choose several folders, on different shares, SharePoint sites or OneDrive, and the email is saved to all of them in one go.

While writing an email, open FileChimp and choose where it belongs. When you send, the sent copy is filed there for you. Your administrator can also have Outlook ask “File this email before it’s sent?”, or require a choice. Replies can be filed automatically where the conversation was filed before. This needs the add-in to be deployed by your administrator.

Yes, in both new and classic Outlook. In new Outlook and Outlook on the web the prompt is part of the FileChimp Central add-in, so there is nothing to install on each PC. In classic Outlook on Windows, your administrator installs the FileChimp Outlook Helper, which asks where to file when you press Send.

Your administrator chooses whether Send asks or insists on a folder, and can let each person choose for themselves. Double-click a folder to file and send in one go, or choose not to file it, unless filing is required. Emails your filing rules recognise, such as a project number in the subject, can be filed without asking, and replies can go where their conversation was filed. You can also pick the folder while you write, with File when sent. On phones and tablets you file emails as you read them.

Filed emails get a FileChimp category in Outlook, and opening a filed email with the pane shows where it was filed, when and by whom, so colleagues don’t file it twice.

Yes. Name templates combine the date, subject, sender, recipients and plain text, for emails and attachments separately. Your administrator can set a company template and lock it.

If you want them to be: beside the email, in a sub-folder named after the email, or in a set sub-folder such as Attachments. The email itself always keeps its attachments. Filing rules can save attachments too, on every plan. Central Plus and Max add attachment rules, which sort attachments into sub-folders by file name, such as Invoices.

Your administrator chooses: leave it where it is, move it to a Filed by FileChimp folder, move it to another mailbox folder, or delete it.

Yes. People file from any shared mailbox they have access to just as from their own, and emails sent from a shared mailbox can be filed as they are sent, on every plan. With Central Plus and Max, automatic filing rules can also read shared mailboxes such as accounts@ or info@ and file the email that comes in from outside the company. Each shared mailbox the rules read uses one licence. An email a colleague is on is filed from their own mailbox instead.

Rules file email without anyone clicking: by a project number in brackets in the subject, a keyword, an email address, the Outlook folder it was dragged to, or an Outlook category. FileChimp finds the matching folder by name, so new project folders are picked up without new rules.

They wait on a Needs filing list, so nothing is filed to the wrong place and nothing is lost.

Yes. Company rules apply to everyone, and people can add their own rules on top.

Central Plus and Max search the email you have filed and its attachments, with text recognition for scans and clear handwriting. Central on its own files email, manually or by rules, without search. Central Max searches every file type on your shares, not just email, finds photos by what is in them and where they were taken, and adds AI answers. Text and photo recognition are automatic, so how much they find depends on how clear the scan or photo is. See plans and prices.

Yes, on Central Max. Search for scaffolding, water damage or receipt and photos that show one come up, even when the file is just called IMG_4021. It recognises hundreds of everyday and business things, such as rooms, vehicles, property damage, documents and office equipment, and wider words find narrower ones, so vehicle finds a forklift. The camera and the date a photo was taken are searchable too. It is automatic recognition, so it finds most photos, not every one, and works best when the thing is clear and easy to see. Recognition runs on your own server, your photos are never sent anywhere, and it never identifies who a person is. Your administrator switches it on in the search settings, which downloads the recognition model to your server once (about 150 MB).

Yes, on Central Max. Most phone photos record a GPS position, so FileChimp Central finds them by town, county and country, anywhere in the world: search Bristol or France, and each result says where the photo was taken. Your administrator can add a country’s postcodes too, so BS8 1TH, or just BS8, finds the photos taken there: the UK, the Netherlands and Canada have every full postcode, and about 100 other countries their postcode areas. When a camera is set up with the photographer’s name, that is searchable as well. Photos with no position, such as screenshots, most scans and photos taken with location turned off, can’t be placed. Places are worked out on your own server, so a photo’s position is never sent anywhere.

No. Search only shows what each person is allowed to open.

Yes, from the Search tab in the FileChimp pane, or from the dashboard in your browser, with previews and your search words highlighted.

In your own storage: your file shares, SharePoint or OneDrive. FileChimp Central runs on your server and our servers only handle licensing.

One app registration that your administrator approves. It signs in as the app, never as a person, so no one’s password is stored. Access can be limited to the mailboxes and SharePoint sites FileChimp uses, and it can sign in with a certificate instead of a secret. The full list of permissions is in the technical pack.

Yes. FileChimp Central works with Microsoft 365 mailboxes.

New and classic Outlook on Windows and Mac, Outlook on the web, and Outlook for iPhone, iPad and Android, where you can file the email you are reading. In classic Outlook the add-in is rolled out from the Microsoft 365 admin centre.

Yes. The same add-in works in classic Outlook on Windows and Mac, so you can move to FileChimp Central before your team changes to new Outlook, and people can use either. Your administrator rolls it out to classic Outlook from the Microsoft 365 admin centre. It opens in a pane beside the email, where you file, search and pick from suggested folders as you would in new Outlook. To be asked where to file each email when you press Send, your administrator installs the FileChimp Outlook Helper on each PC. Without it, choose the folder in the pane before you press Send.

Choosing a folder while writing works on desktop and the web. On phones and tablets you file emails as you read them.

Per user, yearly or monthly, in three plans: Central files your email, automatically too; Central Plus adds search; Central Max searches every document on your shares and adds AI. Central is for 5 users or more, and monthly billing on the other plans for 3 or more. There is no set-up fee and no storage charge. Larger teams get volume discounts. See pricing.

Yes. Sign in to your account, open your subscription and choose Add users. You see the price before you pay: your current price per user for the time left until your next payment. Your renewals include the new users from then on. To remove users, contact us; the change takes effect from your next renewal.

Yes, at any time. Sign in to your account, open your subscription and choose Change plan: Central can move to Central Plus or Central Max, and Central Plus to Central Max, and you can add users at the same time. You see the price before you pay: the new plan for the time left until your next payment, less a credit for what you have already paid for that time. Your renewal date stays the same, and your renewals are at the new plan’s price from then on. Plans change within the same billing period, yearly or monthly. To move to a lower plan, contact us; the change takes effect from your next renewal.

No. Your trial installation carries straight on once a licence is added, with all its settings.

Yes. Every company can book a free 15-minute call, for a demo or to answer specific questions about setting it up. Fifteen minutes goes quickly, so follow the setup steps first and bring your questions, with your server and Microsoft 365 administrator sign-in to hand. See what to have ready and book a call.

Need more time, or would you like us to set it up with you? Book a remote session, or ask us about paid setup and training.