How to create a new template for email and SMS messages.

In order for Glide to automatically generate an Email or SMS message, you first need to create a message template.

To create a new message template follow these steps:

1. Click on the menu labelled with the your business name.
2. Click on the Messaging Centre link.
3. You shall see 3 tabs across the screen; Messaging Centre, Options and Template Editor. Click on Template Editor.
4. For a message template that will relate to a specific job, use the drop down box to choose the relevant workflow system and click on the green Create new template button.
5. Enter an Internal name, this is how the template will be described internally. This can be useful where you have lots of message templates with the same subject line.
6. Enter a Subject if you are creating a template that shall be used with Emails (this is not relevant to SMS). Please note that you can include merge fields in the subject line, just add them to the message body and then cut and paste them into the subject line.
7. Click into the body of the message and type the message, include merge fields by selecting them from the range of drop down menus.
8. Click Create to save the template.
9. If you have created a job template this template will now be available when you are creating a new workflow action or alert to send e-mails or SMS messages. If you have created a new general client template this will be available when sending general e-mails to clients for example through the bulk e-mail sender.

General template tips:

You can see tips specifically in relation to fields here.

Job template vs Client template:

If you are looking for a message to be sent in relation to a job for example by a workflow action when a job progresses through a step or by an alert based upon a certain proximity to a deadline or the job date then you need a template that is specific to that workflow system. These templates will allow you to use fields that are specific to the job such as the job date (Year End, VAT Quarter end etc) target or actual dates for the stages, the job fields and deadlines.

If you wish to be able to e-mail a client(s) in a way that is totally unrelated to any specific job then you need a Client template. These templates are not able to pull in data from jobs such as job dates and deadlines. These templates can be sent at any time to any client without the need to be triggered by a specific job. An example may be that a new payroll legislation comes out and you wish to be able to e-mail all clients/contacts tagged as Payroll, you can do this via a client template without worrying about having a payroll job.

Spam filters:

If you are gong to send a message externally then your e-mail messages will likely be subject to several spam filters, this can be at an ISP (Internet service provider) level and locally by your customers firewall and mail servers. You need to take care to avoid your messages being rejected. We recommend you avoid subject lines with excess capital letters, unusual characters such as explanation marks and question marks.