Email (Basic): Create & apply templates
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Email templates are messages you frequently send to clients that require little to no change other than the recipient’s name. They can be used when sending emails to your clients manually or in bulk. Or they can be added as automations, so that they automatically go out to the client when a job moves to a new stage in a pipeline. Having email templates handy saves time. They’re not just helpful to you but to the whole team.
Covered here:
- Creating email templates
- Adding attachments to email templates
- Adding images to email templates
- Adding email templates from the Marketplace
- Applying email templates
- Sending emails to client accounts via automation
- Editing email templates
- Duplicating email templates
- Deleting email templates
Creating email templates
An email template can be created by a firm owner, an admin or any team member with access rights to manage templates.
To create an email template, go to Templates > Firm templates from the left menu bar, open the Emails tab, then click Create template.
Or access this page by adding the Send email automation while editing a pipeline, then clicking New template.
Below, find out what to do in the numbered sections of the Create Email Template window:
1. Template Name: Enter a name for the template—what you’ll see when selecting it.
2. Mode: Decide whether you want to use contact shortcodes (dynamic data) in your template. When contact shortcodes mode is selected, you can apply both account name and contact name shortcodes. For more information about shortcode modes, go here.
3. From: Select the name of the team member on behalf of whom the email should be sent. This is what the recipient sees in the From field no matter who has moved the job to the next stage.
Note: In order to be able to select someone, team members must have synced their email and have the Allow others to send from my email toggled on in their TaxDome account settings.
4. Email Subject: Write a subject line.
5. Add shortcode: To individualize the email, apply shortcodes to include dynamic data, such as the name of the person associated with the account or the date. If contact shortcodes mode is selected, you can use contact data. Shortcodes are available for both the email subject line and body. Learn more about shortcodes here.
6. Body: Compose the email, using formatting, emojis, bullet points and more,
- WYSIWYG: This allows you to use different formatting and add links.
- HTML: This allows you to insert custom HTML code that contains images, links, and so on. Note that tables are not supported for now.
Tip: Use the free WORDHTML tool to build and get HTML—then paste it into the TaxDome email by toggling on HTML.
7. Save & Exit, Save and Cancel: Click Save & Exit to save the template and go back to the templates list, Save to keep your changes and continue editing the template or Cancel to exit without saving.
8. Drag & drop file here or Browse files: Add attachments to the template.
Adding attachments to email templates
Note! The maximum size of all files attached to one template is 20 MB. Supported file types: PDF, DOC, DOCX, XLS, XLSX, JPEG, JPG, PNG.
You can add attachments to email templates from your computer. Use one of the options available while creating or editing an email template:
- Drag-and-drop a single file to the designated area.
- Click Browse Files and select one or several files in your file explorer.
Note: If you’re sending a message containing a file from TaxDome to a recipient who is not a TaxDome user, they won’t need a login to access it. To keep the file secure, give the link an expiration date. Find out more about email attachment security.
Adding images to email templates
The image needs to be hosted by a third party or added as an attachment. Videos can be added to emails only as attachments and can't be embedded in templates.
There are three ways to add images to your email templates:
Adding an image by copying it from a webpage
1. Upload the image to your computer or to an image-hosting site such as imgbb.com.
2. Right-click on the uploaded image in your browser, then select Copy image.
3. Go to the Email Template creation screen, make sure WYSIWYG is selected, then paste the image into your template.
Adding an image by inserting an HTML code
1. Upload the image to an image-hosting site such as imgbb.com.
2. Copy the HTML code for the image.
3. Go to the Email Template creation page, make sure HTML is selected and paste the code into your template.
4. Find the <img src="https://**********************> code block and add data-signed-id=" " to the end of the block as you can see in the example screen below. Otherwise, the image may be displayed incorrectly in emails you send.
You can preview the image by selecting WYSIWYG.
Once the template is selected, the code turns into the image.
Adding email templates from the Marketplace
You can download ready-made email templates with the best practices. To add an email template from the Marketplace:
1. Go to Templates > Marketplace from the left sidebar and open the Emails tab.
2. Click Get free on the template you want to add or click on its price and proceed with the payment if it's a paid template.
3. Go to Templates > Firm Templates page, open the Emails tab and click on the name of the email template to edit it. In most cases, you will need to customize the downloaded template.
4. When you add a template from the Marketplace, the From field displays your name. The recipient will see your name there no matter who moves the job to the next stage. However, you can edit the name if needed, then click Save & Exit.
Applying email templates
Once you’ve created a template, use it to speed up the process of writing new emails. Here’s how:
1. Create a new email either by clicking the New button at the top left and selecting Email or by selecting the one or more recipients in your Accounts list and then clicking on @Send Email.
2. Click in the Template field to select a template from the pull-down menu.
3. Edit the email or compose a new one, then continue by selecting the settings for the email.
Note: Changes you make to your email don’t alter the selected template.
Editing email templates
To make changes to an email template, follow these steps:
1. Go to Templates > Firm templates from the left menu bar, open the Emails tab, then click on the email template’s name in the list.
2. Make changes to the email template, then click Save & Exit.
Duplicating email templates
Create new email templates based on existing ones: Click the three dots to the far right of the email template’s name, then select Duplicate. The template’s copy will be saved with the appropriate suffix (e.g., Email (2)).
Deleting email templates
To remove an email template, go to Templates > Firm templates from the left menu bar, then open the Emails tab. Click the three dots to the far right of the email template’s name, click Delete, then confirm by clicking Delete in the Delete Confirmation pop-up.
