From “I need three things” to a complete file.
The whole mechanism, in order, including the parts that are still manual and the part most tools skip.
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1. You describe the chase
In the words you'd use briefing someone in your office: “Get certified photo ID and three months of bank statements from Sarah Whitfield.”
Obtainr asks questions back, because that sentence isn't yet checkable. Certified by whom? Which three months? Which email address? What if the statements are a PDF export rather than a scan? The back-and-forth takes a minute or two and produces the thing that makes everything after it work: a requirements list.
That list is the standard. Every reply gets measured against it, item by item.
2. You choose how much it does alone
Fully automatic
Sends the first chase and every follow-up on its own, whenever a reply falls short. For routine collection you'd never want to read.
Approval mode
Writes everything, sends nothing until you say so. Edit any message first, then either let Obtainr send it or copy it and send it from your own mail client — decided per message, not set in advance. Many people start here and stay here permanently.
Set per chase and changeable while it runs — watch a chase behave for a turn or two, then let it carry on by itself, or pull it back to approvals whenever you like. Switching never releases a message already waiting for you, and there is a hard turn limit either way so nothing can run away with itself.
3. It sends from your mailbox
Gmail or Outlook, connected once with OAuth — Obtainr never sees your password. The email leaves your address, carries your signature, and sits on the existing thread if there is one. Replies come back to your inbox exactly as they always have.
There is no relay domain, no “sent via” header and no branding from us anywhere in the message. To the recipient it is an email from you, because it is.
4. The recipient gets a secure link
Both open the same portal, which asks for exactly the items on your requirements list — files to upload, or details to type. No account, no password, no app, nothing to register for.
Most people do the whole thing on a phone: they tap the link in the email, photograph the document, and it's gone. That's the whole journey, and it's the only one that works reliably on people who don't want to be dealing with you at all.
The link stops working when the chase completes or after 30 days, whichever comes first.
5. The reply gets read — this is the part that matters
When a reply lands, Obtainr reads it against the requirements from step one and marks each item satisfied or not. Two statements out of three is not three out of three, and Obtainr says which one is missing.
If items are outstanding, it composes the next chase naming those specific items, on the same thread, in the same register — and either sends it or holds it for you, depending on the mode you picked.
The job completes when the requirements are met. Not when an email arrives.
Doing all of that for a group at once
When the same things are needed from several people — a new intake, the directors of a company, a block of tenants — you don't repeat steps one to five. You set the first chase up as normal, then add the others by pasting their names and email addresses. Everyone in the group is asked for the same things, because the requirements are copied from the chase you started with.
From there each person's chase behaves exactly as above: its own email thread from your mailbox, its own upload link, its own replies read against the requirements, its own follow-ups up to your turn limit. The link and the thread are per person by design — a shared link would let one recipient see another's documents.
What the group gives you is one row in the chase list instead of thirty, which opens to show who has replied and who hasn't. It isn't a single job: each chase completes on its own, there's no combined “batch complete”, and once the first email has gone out the requirements are fixed for everyone in it. Each person counts as one chase against your monthly allowance, and the whole group is checked against what's left before any of it sends.
What's still manual, and what it doesn't do
How the chasing works, plainly. Obtainr acts on replies: when one arrives it reads it and, if your requirements aren't met, sends the next chase. It can also follow up when someone says nothing at all — you choose the wait when you start each chase (3 hours, 24 hours, 48 hours or a week), and new accounts start on a week. Set it to Never — for the account or for one chase — if you would rather follow that one up yourself. Those follow-ups only go out on weekdays between 8am and 6pm, because they leave from your mailbox with your name on them. What it still doesn't do.
Two other things worth knowing before you start: the AI is included in your plan, though you can bring your own key if you would rather the processing ran on your own provider account; and chasing is email-only — WhatsApp can be connected but isn't used for sending.
Questions about the mechanism
Do I need to install anything?
No. Obtainr is a web application you sign into. The only setup is choosing a plan and connecting a mailbox with OAuth, which takes about five minutes. The AI is included — there is no key to obtain. Recipients install nothing either; they get an email with a link.
Which mailboxes work?
Gmail (including Google Workspace) and Outlook or Microsoft 365, both connected over OAuth. You never give Obtainr your email password, and disconnecting a mailbox in settings immediately stops every chase running through it.
What does the recipient actually see?
An ordinary email from your address, on your usual thread, naming the documents you need. Inside is a secure link to an upload page asking for exactly the items you specified. They can also just reply with attachments if they'd rather — Obtainr reads those too.
How many follow-ups will it send?
Up to a turn limit you set, which defaults to two. A turn is one round: Obtainr sends, and then either a reply arrives and it checks what came back, or the silence runs past the interval you chose and it asks again. A cooperative recipient usually takes one or two turns, and the limit is what stops a chase running away with itself.
See it on your own files
14 days free. Or have us walk you through it on a call first — connecting a mailbox is the only fiddly bit and we're happy to do it with you.
14 days free · cancel any time