New message template

This page is where you write a new message template: the subject and body of an email a rule sends, with merge fields that fill in the buyer's name, the amount due or the booking number from the record.

Where to find it

Click New template on the Message templates tab (Account menu > Settings > Workflows > Message templates). The breadcrumbs read Settings > Workflows > Message templates > New.

You need the View permission on Message Templates to open the page and the Create permission on Message Templates to save (in the default roles, the Administrator and the Sales Manager). Without the Create permission the form is read-only and the button reads Back.

Before you start

• Know which record the message is about (a demand, a booking, an estimate…): that decides which merge fields are on offer.
• If the email should carry a generated document (a demand letter, a receipt), that document template must be Published for the same record type (see Document templates).

What you see

The header reads New message template with the line "What a Send Email, WhatsApp, SMS or In-App action says, rendered against the record that triggered it." and the buttons Cancel and Create template. The page has three cards on the left and two on the right.

Details

Field	What it means
Code (required)	Capital letters, digits and underscores, up to 50 characters (hint "A–Z, digits, _"; placeholder "BOOKING_CONFIRMED"). What you type is turned into capitals. Messages: "Code is required", "Use at most 50 characters", "Use letters, digits and underscores only". A taken code gives "A template with this code already exists (codes are never reused)."
Name (required)	Up to 100 characters (the form lets you type up to 150, but the save is refused above 100). Placeholder "Booking confirmation".
Channel	Email (default), WhatsApp, SMS or In-App. The hint explains each: "Sent through the organization's mail server; needs a subject." / "Sent through the WhatsApp provider; give the provider's approved template id below." / "Sent through the SMS gateway; give the provider's template id below." / "Shown as a notification inside this app." The channel can't be changed after creation.
Record type	"Any record" or one record type (hint "Which record the template renders against; lists its fields on the right.").
Subject (Email only)	Placeholder "Your booking {{ entity.booking_no }} is confirmed"; hint "Merge fields work here too." Required for Email: "Email templates need a subject".
Provider template id (WhatsApp and SMS)	"The id of the template approved by your WhatsApp provider; the body fills its variables." (or "… SMS provider …"). Up to 100 characters.

Body

For Email:

• Email body: a rich-text editor with a toolbar for formatting and inserting merge fields. Hint: "Rich HTML with merge fields; insert them from the toolbar or copy them from the reference on the right. Leave empty to send the plain text only."
• Plain-text version (required): "Sent as the text alternative (and alone when the HTML body is empty). Jinja2, up to 20 000 characters." Message: "Body is required".
• Attachments: Attach a generated document adds a row with a document template picker ("Choose a document template…") and a Format (PDF or Word), up to five. Hint: "Published document templates of the same record type; generated and attached whenever this email is sent." A row without a template gives "Choose a document template".

For the other channels: one Body box ("Jinja2; the syntax is checked when you save. Up to 20 000 characters.").

Settings

• Description: "Optional; shown in the list."
• Sort order (0 or more): "Order in pickers".
• Active (ticked by default): "Inactive templates stay on existing actions but are not offered for new ones."

Variables (right)

"Jinja2 syntax. Copy an expression into the subject or body." Once you pick a record type, the panel lists that record's columns (with a filter box, "Filter <record> columns…") and its related rows (for example the contact of a booking), then the values that are Always available (your organization's name, a manual form's values, the event's keys, old and new values of a changed column, an earlier action's result, today's date and the link to the app) and the Filters for money and dates. Each row has a copy button. Without a record type it reads "Choose an entity to list its columns. Without one the template can still use the fixed roots below, and the action that sends it decides the record."

Preview (right)

Before the template is saved it reads "Create the template first; it then renders here against any record." The preview itself is described on Message template.

What you can do

Create template

Saves the template and opens its page (Message template) with the message ""<name>" created."

• Who: anyone with the Create permission on Message Templates.
• The wording is checked when you save. A merge-field mistake is reported as "<field>: <problem> (line N)". Other refusals: "Email templates need a subject.", an attachment whose document template is for another record type ("<CODE> renders a <record>; this template is for <record>"), the same document attached twice ("<CODE> is attached twice"), and a code already in use.
• Formatting in the email body is cleaned up for safe sending.

Attach a generated document

Adds an attachment row (see "Body"). Remove one with the x next to it.

Cancel

Returns to Message templates without saving.

Things to know

• The plain-text version is what is sent when there is no designed body. Email clients that don't show formatted mail fall back to it too, so keep it complete rather than a one-line summary.
• Record type is optional but matters for attachments. Attachments are generated for the record the rule runs on; if the rule's record kind differs from the attachment's document template, that attachment is skipped when the email goes out. Give the template the record type of the rules that will use it.
• "Today" is the calendar date in UTC, five and a half hours behind India, so a message sent very early in the morning may show yesterday's date.
• Money formats. The money format shown in the variables panel groups digits the international way (1,250,000.00). The system templates use an Indian-grouping format (12,50,000.00) and an amount-in-words format (lakh and crore) instead; copy from them to match.
• Only Email templates are sent today. WhatsApp, SMS and In-App templates can be saved, but no available action sends them yet.

Related

• Message templates
• Message template
• New rule
• Document templates
• Document template