To enable your employees to submit requests directly from Slack, as well as receive updates about the progress of their requests there you need to connect your Slack workspace to Back. As part of this process, we will install a bot into your Slack workspace, which will be immediately accessible to all the users in your workspace and ready to accept requests.
Don't worry, you only need to do this once, and it takes just a couple of minutes!
Connecting Back to Slack
We will start the process in Back, so log in to your Back account first. Then, go into the Integrations section through the Organization menu.
This will bring you to an overview of available integrations, where you start the Slack authorization process by selecting Connect in the Slack row.
In the modal we describe in more detail what exactly happens when you install the Back app, so click on Connect Slack to start the authorization process, which will redirect you to Slack's own authorization page.
Authorizing Back for Slack
💁🏻♀️ Before you proceed, you need to be logged into the right Slack workspace!
If you are not logged in at all and you see the Slack login screen, log in to Slack first and then start the process from Back again.
If you're logged in to multiple Slack workspaces you can always switch using the button in the top right corner.
You should now see a screen similar to the one below, where ACME Corp. is replaced with your own company name.
❓If you don't see it and you see a screen asking you to Request to install, click here for instructions how to proceed.
The overview above shows you all the permissions the Back application is requesting. Let us explain why we need all of that...
Why do we need these things to view?
We need to know content and info about you and about your workspace to know who you are and associate your Slack account to your Back organization.
By giving us access to info about your workspace, we can keep Back in sync with your organization, and recognize all the employees both on Slack and on e-mail.
Similarly, we use the information about the channels to allow you to associate specific channels to teams in Back to make submitting requests even easier.
Why do we need these things to do?
We need to be able to perform actions in channels and conversations to:
Install our @Back bot and let it receive messages in channels and direct conversations
Send messages to keep employees updated about the status of their requests
Mark your replies as received with ✔️emoji reaction
Install Slack actions to make your life easier
💁🏻♀️ All of our communication is always done directly from our bot and we never send messages as you or anyone else in the organization.
Finishing installation
After authorizing the installation you will be redirected back to Back, and you're all set. We will also send you a message on Slack directly to introduce ourselves and help you get started creating requests through Back.
If you run into any issues, feel free to reach out through the little Intercom bubble in the right corner and we'll make sure to sort it out for you.
For further reference below you can see a recording of the whole installation process:
Finding Back
You can always find the Back assistant in the Apps section of the Slack app. If it's not visible in directly in the sidebar you can find it by clicking on the Apps heading and searching for Back. Feel free to invite it to the relevant channels to make it easier for your employees to submit questions and requests.
💁🏻♀️ If you want to quickly switch to the Back bot just press Cmd + K (Mac) or Ctrl + K (Win) and type "Back"
Requesting permission to install
In case you are not allowed to install the Back application into you Slack workspace, you will be prompted to submit a request to your workspace administrators.
The screen will look similar to this:
Why is that?
Some organizations allow all of their Slack users to install new Slack applications, while others don't and require the administrator to explicitly approve each application prior to installing it.
What should I do?
Simply submit the request to install the Back application to the administrators. It helps to provide a comment about what is Back and why you need it.
Then, click on Submit and your administrators will receive your request.
What next?
Once your request is approved, you will be notified on Slack by the Slackbot.
Then, start the connection process again from Back and this time it will go through without a hitch!