Your trial home page

Home is the first page in the console's top navigation. During a trial it answers three questions. Is INKY working, how much trial is left, and what should I do next.

The verdict

The first thing on the page is one sentence about this team. It reads one of three ways. Where the console knows the team's name it uses it, so you will see "INKY is protecting mail for Contoso" rather than the team-free wording below.

• "INKY is not protecting this team's mail yet." Mail is not reaching INKY. Underneath, the page names the one step to do next. Nothing else on the page matters until this changes.

• "INKY is protecting this team's mail." Mail is flowing and INKY is analyzing it. The page adds "everything below is extra", and means it. You are protected. The rest of the page is opportunity, not obligation.

• "We can't confirm whether INKY is protecting this team's mail." The setup check did not answer. This is a reporting gap, not a verdict that something is wrong. Work through the checklist anyway. INKY cannot tell you which parts are already done.

You can be protected and still have an outstanding setup step. The page says so and names the step. That combination is normal and not urgent.

The trial counter

Beside the verdict sits Day 4 of 30 with a progress bar, and 26 days left. On the last day it reads Ends today.

If your trial was extended, the counter says Includes your one extension, so the number you are reading is the real remaining time rather than the original schedule.

Next to the counter is Contact sales. Pressing it tells us you want to continue. It does not buy anything or change your trial. See Continuing with INKY after your trial.

Do this next

Below the verdict, the page nominates one thing to do and gives it the page's only prominent button, labelled Do this next. It is the earliest unfinished setup step, or once setup is done, the most useful thing left.

That step also appears in the checklist further down, where its button is quieter. The page offers the action once rather than twice.

The setup checklist

The nine readiness checks, with a meter reading N of 9. This is the only part of Home with a total. Each row explains what the check means and links to where the work is done.

Getting protected: the nine setup steps covers all nine, including what to do when one will not go green.

The cards below

Under the checklist sits a set of cards. Impersonation protection, Spam settings, Allow and block lists, Your INKY banner, Graymail, Account takeover detection, Domain spoofing (DMARC), and Email signatures.

Getting through as many of these as apply to you is the point of the trial.

• They are a menu, not a sequence. No order between them, no total, no score. The console will not grade you. But every card you turn on is a part of INKY you have seen work, and a trial where you opened one card told you about one card.

• They stay locked until mail is flowing. A locked card says "Opens once mail is flowing through INKY." Configuring detection for mail INKY cannot see tells you nothing. On a trial that ended before mail ever flowed, the card says so instead: "The trial ended before mail was flowing, so this never opened."

• Some are unavailable on your bundle or your routing. A card that needs a higher tier, or needs outbound mail routed through INKY, says so on the card instead of disappearing.

Getting more from your trial: the eight tracks covers each card.

What INKY has found

The last section is not a task list. It is what the trial produced: threats flagged, senders failing authentication, messages your team opened, threats acted on.

What INKY has found: reading your trial results covers how to read it, including what an empty one means.

Help and orientation

At the foot of the page is a row with the onboarding guide, a link to support, and the guided walkthroughs. You can also reach the walkthroughs from Show me around in the top bar on every page. See Guided walkthroughs in the INKY console.

After the trial ends

Home does not disappear when the trial does. The page stops urging you forward. The Do this next nomination goes away, the note reads "The trial has ended, so there's nothing to pick up next. These steps are here for when you come back", and the checklist stays readable.

The band at the top of every page

Separate from Home, a band sits above the console on every page for the length of the trial.

• Mail is not reaching INKY. The band says "INKY isn't analyzing your mail yet", shows how many setup steps are done, and offers Finish setup. Late in a trial that is still unprotected it changes color and drops the "yet", reading "INKY is not analyzing your mail".

• Mail is flowing, but a setup step is still open. The band names that step, as Next: Mailboxes are protected or whichever one it is, and its button goes straight to the page where that step is done rather than to the setup page generally.

• Mail is flowing and setup is finished. The band becomes the trial-day count with Open guide. On Home itself that button is not drawn, because it would point at the page you are already reading.

You cannot dismiss it while your mail is unprotected. An admin who wanders into an empty Overview should know why it is empty.