By 'not done remotely', are you saying you want to meet personally with someone for help? My inference is that you are already using Thunderbird for the account(s)? If I may make a suggestion, instead of focusing on how to make Thunderbird mimic Virtual Access, focus instead on what you're trying to accomplish, as you will likely miss out on some of Thunderbird's strengths if you try to make it act like Virtual Access. That has been my experience. Possibly, if you share what filter rules you are using, someone here can offer comparative options in Thunderbird. Out of curiosity, I downloaded a copy of Virtual Access and I see that it lost support some years back.

Hi David, Grateful for your response and sorry if came across too heavily with Virtual Access and yes, meet with an actual person here, post Covid ;-) I'd like to get Thunderbird set up as close as possible to the functionality of VA. I've tried and know I must be missing some tricks. I agree that there will undoubtedly be tricks Thunderbird has that I'm oblivious to. For an example of how we use VA: Emails come in/go out and get sorted in to one of five User's folders and if is doesn't match one of their email addresses, it goes to a folder just called 'Mail' which itself has three sub folders depending on Rules (I'll use Filters hereon in) for that folder. Each User has sub folders. So 'Sales' has folders for individual customers and if the Filters don't find the customer, end up in their 'Messages' folder. 'Purchase' has folders for suppliers and works like the 'Sales'. Then there are three actual individuals, Managing Director, Production Director and Sales Director. They have their own Folders and sub folders as they wish similar to Sales & Purchase. So far so good you might say. Then the Administrator (me) can grant Users access to other peoples folders and sub folders. Furthermore, if the 'guest' user, for want of a better word, replies to or sends an email in someone else's folder, the email response stays in that folder but with the guest's signature. (Not even looked to see if or how Thunderbird has User signatures which are associated with and unique to the FOLDER and not a global signature) We currently have 532 Filters. The Administrator creates the Filters and the Filter can be used to create a Folder and its location. As part of setting up a Filter that creates a Folder, the Administrator sets up who can access that folder. Something I can't see or don't know how to set up in Thunderbird Filters, is an option (a tick box in each VA filter) to enable or disable 'Stop looking for other matching rules if this rule matches' That's just a glimpse of how we use VA. You'll probably say that could all be done by a remote connection or email exchanges but past 40+ years of experience in setting up new software, such as Accounting software, on site is the only way to go.

Sounds like an impressive system you've constructed. And I concur; this is a production engine and deserves to be redeveloped by a hired professional under contract to develop the system, not a developer who just bills hourly for the effort. Your business is tied to this. There are many sites that focus on freelance developers and you will likely do best by looking there, not here. All the best to you.

Thanks David. I would still like to have had some person to person sessions but because my post has only been responded to by you, I assume that there is no such individual interested, or at least one within striking distance of Milton Keynes or perhaps in the UK.

That is because this is a support forum, not a forum to locate customers. I suggest you do a web search for freelance developers uk - I did that an a number of URLs appeared. You will likely do much better there. All the best to you in your pursuits.