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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.

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The pages

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Templates

A template carries:

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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.
A variable that does not resolve renders as an empty space in a message a customer reads. Always run a preview before publishing, and prefer variables the context genuinely provides — a collections template cannot use a variable that only exists on an invoice.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.
Broadcast is for operator-initiated bulk. Per-case messaging — dunning reminders, promise reminders — belongs in collection strategies, which respect contact-frequency caps and case state. Sending a bulk arrears blast alongside an active dunning ladder is how tenants receive four messages in a day.

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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.

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Common problems