# How to use ChatGPT Work to open, sort, and distribute incoming correspondence, including faxes and email

Platform: chatgpt-work (2026-07-09-launch)
Guide coordinate: task/task-2773
Platform reviewed: 2026-07-11

## Direct answer

Use ChatGPT Work to prepare an incoming-correspondence routing packet: preserve the original email, fax, or scanned item; identify the claimed sender and recipient without assuming either is genuine; classify sensitivity; detect deadlines and attachments; and propose a destination with reasons. Keep custody and distribution human-held. Opening an attachment can execute a threat, forwarding can disclose privileged or personal information, and an apparent executive request can be impersonation. ChatGPT must not authenticate by prose alone, open unsafe content, acknowledge, forward, delete, file, or trigger the requested action. The attached figures are projected role-task priors, not measured adoption by executive administrative assistants, so they support a controlled trial rather than a claim about current practice.

## Best uses

- Open, sort, and distribute incoming correspondence, including faxes and email.
  - Artifact: Correspondence intake packet with immutable-item reference, verification status, attachment inventory, deadline ledger, sensitivity class, routing recommendation, and unexecuted distribution receipt
  - Review: Verify sender, recipient authority, sensitivity, deadline, attachment safety, and routing rule; personally forward, acknowledge, file, quarantine, or escalate.

## Workflows

### Turn incoming email, fax, and scanned correspondence into a verified routing recommendation without losing the original, opening unsafe content, disclosing it, or acting on its request.

Steps: Assign an immutable intake ID and preserve the original, headers, envelope data, page order, filenames, hashes where available, and receipt time. → Inventory sender claims, channel identifiers, intended recipients, attachments, links, requests, and deadlines; label identity unverified until checked independently. → Screen supplied triggers for credentials, payment changes, unexpected active content, legal process, regulator or media contact, threats, privacy incidents, and executive impersonation; quarantine and route rather than investigate beyond authority. → Classify sensitivity and routing using need-to-know, privilege, legal hold, matter, and delegated-coverage rules; distinguish FYI, decision, action, signature, deadline, and acknowledgment. → Return minimum-necessary recipients, deadline owner, attachment disposition, unsent acknowledgment, and exact distribution receipt; stop before opening, forwarding, replying, deleting, filing, or acting.

Artifact: Review-ready correspondence packet with original reference, verification status, attachment manifest, trigger screen, deadline ledger, routing rationale, and unsent acknowledgment

Human review: The authorized intake owner verifies identity and safety, confirms sensitivity and need-to-know routing, assigns deadline ownership, and performs every acknowledgment, forward, filing, quarantine, or escalation.

## Human-owned responsibilities

- Custody law: preserve the original item, headers or envelope data, page order, attachments, and receipt time; summaries never replace the source
- Identity law: display name, letterhead, signature block, fax cover, writing style, and urgency do not authenticate a sender or authority
- Attachment law: unknown links, macros, archives, and active files remain quarantined until the approved process clears them
- Minimum-disclosure law: routing follows verified need-to-know, privilege, privacy, and matter boundaries rather than convenience
- Action-and-deadline judgment: humans decide whether to acknowledge, respond, pay, sign, preserve, escalate, or treat a date as controlling

## Sources

- [Executive Secretaries and Executive Administrative Assistants occupational render model](https://singulariki.com/roles/executive-secretaries-and-executive-administrative-assistants) — reviewed 2026-06-03
- [ChatGPT Work and Codex](https://help.openai.com/en/articles/20001275-chatgpt-work-and-codex) — reviewed 2026-07-11
- [Creating and editing documents, spreadsheets, and presentations with ChatGPT Work](https://help.openai.com/en/articles/20001278-creating-and-editing-documents-spreadsheets-and-presentations-with-chatgpt-work) — reviewed 2026-07-11
- [Using cloud browser in ChatGPT](https://help.openai.com/en/articles/20001280-using-cloud-browser-in-chatgpt) — reviewed 2026-07-11
- [Using the built-in browser in the ChatGPT desktop app](https://help.openai.com/en/articles/20001277-using-the-built-in-browser-in-the-chatgpt-desktop-app) — reviewed 2026-07-11
- [Skills in ChatGPT](https://help.openai.com/en/articles/20001066) — reviewed 2026-07-11
- [Scheduled Tasks in ChatGPT](https://help.openai.com/en/articles/10291617-tasks-in-chatgpt) — reviewed 2026-07-11
- [ChatGPT Workspace Agents for Enterprise and Business](https://help.openai.com/en/articles/20001143) — reviewed 2026-07-11

Methodology: /methodology