Invoice Email Customization

When you email invoices to customers, the text in both the subject line and the email body are merged from a template that you control. While you are free to personalize the message body each time you send out an invoice, this article will walk you through how to edit the template instead — changing the base message for each new email you generate.

Step by Step: Customizing Your Email Template

Updating Your Email From Address

The EXTERNAL DELIVERY SETTINGS section of the editor form allows you to adjust the name/email that will appear in your invoice email's "from" line.  While all email messages originate from BigTime’s email service, your address can be used as the “reply to” address -- so customer replies can go directly to you. 

Adjusting Email Subject/Body Text

The INVOICE EMAIL DETAILS section on this form will allow you to edit both the subject line and the email body for each email you send out.  Note that you always have a chance to personalize individual emails before they are sent out.  This template simply changes the "base" text that appears in your Email dialog when you send out an invoice from the system.

Working With Merge Fields

BigTime's email engine allows you to incorporate data from the invoice, project, client and/or billing contact into your email message.  We do that using a syntax called handlebar.js.  Both the email subject line and the message body can be customized with handlebar syntax.

If you want to make more advanced customizations to your BigTime invoice email notifications, you can do so by using handlebar syntax to personalize your email subject line or body text. Below is a list of all your handlebar syntax options, as well as the types of data they correspond to:

{{Staffer.FName}} – Staffer’s first name

{{Invoice.InvoiceNbr}} – Invoice number

{{Client.Name}} – Client’s name

{{Invoice.InvoiceAmt}} – Amount due on the invoice

{{Invoice.DueDate}} – The due date for the invoice

{{Task.Name}} – Task name

{{Project.Name}} – Project name

{{BillingContact.Name}} – Billing contact’s name

Note that in order for your handlebar syntax to be recognized by BigTime’s system, you’ll need to enclose the syntax with double curly braces ({{}}). 

Let's say, for example, that you'd like your email subject line to read:

ABC Company, Invoice #123 (3/1/16)

Instead of typing each subject line by hand, you can setup your email template for your subject line to read:

ABC Company, Invoice #{{Invoice.InvoiceNbr}} ({{dateFormat2 Invoice.InvoiceDt}})

Now, each invoice you email will be merged with that generic subject line.  For example, let's assume you have an invoice with an invoice number of "ABC-16-007" and a due date of "OCT-15-2016."  When the invoicing engine merges that invoice with a new email, the subject line would read:

ABC Company, Invoice #ABC-16-007 (10/15/16)

So, instead of Typing a custom message, you can use these merge fields to create a personalized message for each email.

What Merge Fields Can Be Included?

You can include any of the fields that are listed in the BigTime API documentation for Invoice or for Project, Client and Contact data.  Note that you precede the field name you'd like to use with the name of the object that field belongs to (e.g. - the primary contact's first name field is called {{Project.PrimaryContact.Fname}}).

Formatting Date, Currency and Numeric Values

In addition to fields, BigTime supports a small number of custom handlebar formatters:  formatCurrency,dateFormat2, dateFormat4, format Number are all available to use in your emails.  Formatters are placed before the field in handlebar syntax (see the Example column below).

Putting It All Together

Putting all of those options together, you can use to email system to generate a template for an invoice body that looks like this:

Hello {{Project.BillContact.Fname}},  
Thank you for your continued business!  Attached is Invoice#{{Invoice.InvoiceNBR}} issued for {{Project.Client.LegalNm}}. The amount due is: {{formatCurrency Invoice.InvoiceAmt}} and is due on {{dateFormat4 Invoice.InvoiceDtDue}}.  

For any questions, feel free to contact us!  

That message, once merged, would produce an email body that appears like this:

Hello Richard,  
Thank you for your continued business!  Attached is Invoice#ABC-16-007 issued for Allstate Insurance, Inc. The amount due is: $25,550.00 and is due on 11/15/2016.  

For any questions, feel free to contact us!  

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