Templates and broadcasts

Operations → Communications → Templates → /message-templates ^Beta

Every message the platform sends is rendered from a template. Templates make outbound communication consistent, reviewable and translatable — and they are what a collection strategy step or a broadcast actually sends.

The pages

Templates

A template carries:

Variables

Templates interpolate variables — tenant name, amounts, due dates, unit, paybill, officer name, promise date. The Variables page lists what is available; the editor inserts them so you do not have to remember the exact token.

Preview and test

• Render preview shows the template with sample or mock data.
• Send test delivers a real message to a test recipient and reports the queued status and the communication reference, so you can follow it in the Delivery Tracker.

Versioning and publishing

Templates are versioned. The published version is what modules render; drafts are not sent. Publishing can require approval, so a message that will reach thousands of residents is reviewed by someone other than its author.

1. Draft the content

   Write for the channel. An SMS is not a shortened email — it should stand alone in 160 characters where possible.

2. Insert variables

   From the editor, so tokens are correct.

3. Preview

   Check every variable resolves and the message reads correctly with real values.

4. Send a test

   To yourself, on the actual channel. Line breaks and encoding problems only show up on a real handset.

5. Publish

   Through approval where configured.

Broadcasts

A broadcast is an operator-initiated bulk send built on a template — a notice of a water shutdown, a service-charge change, a seasonal message.

Choosing an audience

Audiences are built from your data rather than from a pasted list: residents, leases, owners, or a filtered subset — for example leases in a block, or accounts above a minimum balance. Because the audience is a query, it is current at send time rather than as of whenever someone exported a spreadsheet.

1. Define the audience narrowly first

   Then widen. It is much easier to add a block than to apologise to one.

2. Check the recipient count

   A count far larger or smaller than you expected means the filter is not doing what you think.

3. Preview against a real recipient

   Not against mock data.

4. Send, then watch the tracker

   Filter the Delivery Tracker by the batch and check the failure rate.

Categories

Categories group templates by purpose and are what other modules filter on when offering you a template — a collections ladder step lists collections templates, not every template in the organisation.

Common problems