TL;DR
Email to task in Plutio lets freelancers and agencies forward emails to a task group's unique email address to auto-create tasks, with the subject line as the title, the email body as the description, and attachments uploaded as linked files.
Plutio generates a dedicated email address for each task group inside a project. Forward a client email, a bug report, or an approval request to that address and Plutio creates a task in the correct group automatically. The real value: client requests that arrive as emails become actionable tasks in under 10 seconds, with zero manual copying of subjects, descriptions, or file attachments.
Email to task comes with all Plutio plans starting at $19/month, with a 7-day free trial. Enable the feature from any task group's settings menu, and Plutio generates the unique address instantly.
What email to task is
Email to task is a feature that converts incoming emails into tasks automatically by routing them to a dedicated email address assigned to a specific task group in a project management tool.
In Plutio, each task group inside a project can have its own unique email address in the format {emailId}@notifications.plutio.com. When an email arrives at that address, Plutio reads the subject line, the email body, the sender, and any attachments, then creates a new task in that specific task group. The email subject becomes the task title (or "Untitled" if no subject exists), the stripped text from the email body becomes the task description, and each attachment uploads as a file linked to the new task.
Forwarded emails and direct sends
Email to task works with both forwarded emails and direct sends. A freelancer can forward a client's Gmail thread to the task group address and Plutio captures the forwarded content as the task description. A client or team member can also send emails directly to the address if shared with them. Both paths create a task in the same task group, so all incoming requests land in one place regardless of how they arrive. If the sender's email matches a known user in the Plutio workspace, Plutio attributes the task to that person automatically.
Attachment handling and file size limits
Plutio processes email attachments and uploads them as files linked to the newly created task. Each attachment preserves its original file name and gets stored in Plutio's file management. Attachments that exceed the maximum file size limit are skipped with a log entry, so oversized files don't block the task from being created. The practical benefit: a client can email a brief, a reference PDF, and three design files in one message, and all five attachments appear on the task without any manual uploading.
I gave clients the task group email for their project, and now every revision request shows up as a task with the files already attached. Stopped checking my inbox for client requests entirely.
Why email to task matters for freelancers
Freelancers and agencies receive client requests, feedback, and revision notes as emails, but those emails live in Gmail or Outlook while the task list lives in a separate project tool. The gap between receiving a request and logging it as a task creates two problems: delayed action on client work and lost details when information gets summarized instead of copied verbatim.
On a project with 15 to 20 email-based requests per week, manually creating tasks from each email takes 2 to 3 minutes per request: open the email, read the request, switch to the project tool, create a task, type the title, paste the description, download attachments, re-upload them. Across a month, that adds up to 4 to 6 hours of admin work that produces no billable output. Details get shortened, attachments get missed, and the task description never quite matches what the client actually wrote.
Asana includes email-to-task functionality, but only on its Max plan at $24.99 per user per month billed annually. Freelancers on Asana's free or Premium plans don't have access to project-level email addresses, so they copy-paste from Gmail into Asana manually or use a Zapier workaround that adds another subscription.
The most expensive outcome is not the admin time itself but the client request that never becomes a task at all. An email read on a phone during lunch, flagged mentally as "handle later," and then buried under 40 new messages by end of day is a missed deliverable waiting to happen.
Plutio's approach removes the translation step entirely. The email is the task, word for word, with the original attachments attached. No summarizing, no re-typing, and no risk of a request sitting untracked in an inbox.
How email to task works in Plutio
Open any task group's settings in Plutio, click "Generate email address" to create the unique address, and then forward or send emails to that address to auto-create tasks with the subject, body, and attachments.
Before starting, make sure the project has at least one task group where incoming email tasks should land. Each task group gets its own address, so different types of requests (client feedback, bug reports, internal requests) can route to different task groups within the same project.
Step by step
- Step 1: Open the task group dropdown menu by clicking the three-dot icon on the task group header inside a project.
- Step 2: Find the "Email to task" section. Click "Generate email address" to create the unique address for that task group. Plutio generates an address in the format
{emailId}@notifications.plutio.com. - Step 3: Toggle the "Enable" switch to activate email to task for that group. The generated email address appears in a code block labeled "Task group email."
- Step 4: Copy the email address and forward any email to it, or share the address with clients and team members who should be able to create tasks by email. Set up a Gmail or Outlook forwarding rule to auto-route specific emails to the task group address.
- Step 5: Plutio creates a task in the group with the email subject as the title, the email body as the description, and attachments linked as files. If the sender is a known Plutio user in the workspace, the task is attributed to that person.
Practical tip: create a dedicated task group called "Incoming Requests" for client-facing email addresses, and use Plutio's task board to drag tasks from that group into the appropriate project phase after triage.
Who needs email to task
Freelancers and agencies who receive client work requests, bug reports, revision notes, or approval decisions over email, particularly developers, designers, virtual assistants, and consultants managing 5+ active clients, get the most value from email to task.
A freelance developer handling bug reports for three client websites can set up one task group email per client project. When a client emails "The contact form isn't submitting on mobile," that email becomes a task in the correct project with the full description and any attached screenshots, without the developer opening Plutio at all. Across 30 bug reports per month, skipping the manual copy-paste step saves roughly 1.5 hours and ensures every report is tracked as a task with the original wording.
Agencies with account managers who receive briefs, feedback, and files from clients over email can share the task group address directly with the client. Every email the client sends creates a task automatically, so the account manager's role shifts from manual task creation to triage and prioritization. Over 40% of Plutio users on team plans with email to task enabled process more than 10 email-based requests per week through the feature.
Freelancers exploring Asana alternatives often discover that Asana's email-to-task feature requires the Max plan at $24.99 per user per month. Plutio includes email to task on all plans starting at $19/month for the entire workspace, not per user. Freelancers comparing Trello alternatives find that Trello's email-to-board feature captures the email but strips most formatting, while Plutio preserves the email body as the task description and uploads attachments as linked files.
Bottom line: any freelancer or agency receiving more than 5 client requests per week over email recovers 1 to 2 hours per week and avoids missed tasks by routing those emails directly into project task groups.
