Grant Management System Training Guide Module 9 Notification Center Home Dashboard Ver 6.1 Updated: 2.13.2014 Prepared by:
Table of Contents Module 9: Notification Center on the Home Dashboard This module covers the email capabilities within the Notification Center of the CommunityForce Management System. 1. NOTIFICATION CENTER ON THE HOME DASHBOARD... 3 1.1 ACCESSING THE NOTIFICATION CENTER... 3 1.2 UNDERSTANDING THE EMAIL TEMPLATE... 8 1.3 EDITING SYSTEM TEMPLATES... 11 1.4 CREATING A NEW EMAIL TEMPLATE... 13 1.5 SENDING EMAIL NOTIFICATIONS OUT USING A TEMPLATE... 15 1.6 VIEWING THE STATUS OF AN EMAIL IN THE NOTIFY STATUS TAB... 18 2
1. Notification Center on the Home Dashboard The Notification Center allows the administrator to manage the system generated notification email templates, as well as create customized email templates that can be used to send mass emails to a group of recipients. We recommend that you review and edit each template accordingly with your own messages. 1.1 Accessing the Notification Center After logging into the system from the Home Page select the Notification Center icon. This will direct you to the Templates. The email templates are created for each individual application, therefore, you will need to choose the appropriate application that you want to edit/create the template for. Note: Under Evaluations is an additional Notification Center. The Notification Center in that section is just related to the specific application you are working with. Both Notification Centers are the same in functionality. The Notification Center we are currently discussing will list your Global Templates and All Active Applications. 3
Before selecting an application from the dropdown menu you will see the following Global Templates. These templates are not application specific; they are used on all of your applications. The following are your Global Templates: a. Password: New Account confirmation same message is sent to all users in the system i. When applicant creates their own account prior to login ii. When Admin creates an account for a user in the Users Setup section b. Password: Admin Changed password message to all users c. Password: Forgot Password message to all users d. Password: Password change confirmation User has changed their own password message to all users The above templates are key items that need to be edited prior to going live with your system! Select an application from the dropdown menu. Applications must be published in the Fund Setup in order to appear in the dropdown list. Once you have selected an application the current templates that are available for the specified application will appear: 4
They include the following, before going live please edit appropriately to your process: a. Application: Additional information Request sent to applicant when requested by the Administrator to complete a section after submittal. b. Application: Applicant Accept Award sent to the contact assigned to the application. This email will be sent when the applicant accepts their award. c. Application: Applicant Decline Award - sent to the contact assigned to the application. This email will be sent when the applicant declines the award. d. Application: Deleted sent to the contact assigned to the application. This email will be sent when the applicant deletes their entire application. e. Application: Request completed Email to Applicant once recommended individual has completed the request section f. Application: Request Declined Email to Applicant notifying them that the individual they recommended to complete a request section has denied the request. g. Application: Request from Applicant (Default email) for Request Sections Email to Recommended individual requesting to fill out a section on behalf of the applicant h. Application: Submit Confirmation - submit confirmation email sent to applicant once they submit their application 5
i. Application: Withdrawn sent to the contact assigned to the application. This email will be sent when the applicant has withdrawn their entire application. j. Committee: Applications are ready for review sent to the reviewers when using the notify button in the Assignment section. Click on the Template that you want to edit. The Email s Create Template screen will appear. Make any appropriate changes to the email template. Note: that with System email you can only update the Template Description, Email Subject and Content, you will not be able to delete System emails. Update: Click on the Update Button to save your changes. Preview: Allows you to see a layout preview of what the email will look like when sent. Cancel: Click the Cancel to cancel any changes you have made. Design Mode: The html editor works exactly the same way as Microsoft Word works. Type the information into the body of the editor as you would be typing and formatting it in a Microsoft Word document. You can also copy and paste the formatted text from other documents. HTML Text: You can create email templates using html tags by clicking on the HTML Text tab present beside the Design Mode tab. Enter the html tags with the content and it will display all the content as formatted. 1.1.1 Exercise 1: Step 1: Go back to the Global Templates, Click on Select from the menu. Click on the template called: Password: New Account Confirmation. Step 2: Read the content of the email. With most of the templates you will get indication by the content the purpose of the email. For example this template is very basic information. Template Description can be edited. Only the administrators see this. Email Subject Line: Should be edited. Best Practice is to place the name of your Organization in the Subject Line: 6
Step 2: Change subject line to: (Organization Name) Your account has been successfully created in our Award/Competition Database. Step 3: Edit the content of the template. For example you could use this: Dear {FirstName} {LastName}, An account has been created in your behalf for the University s Grant Database. As a security precaution, we must confirm that you created this account for this email address or authorized the Administrator to create an account for you. Below is your log in information: Login: {EmailID} User Password: {Password} Please log in at: https://yoursiteadress.communityforce.com If you are receiving a temporary password you may change your password to a new personal password after logging in to your account by clicking, Change Password, on your dashboard. This is an automatic email notification; please do not reply to this email. If you did not create or authorize this account, please notify the Administrator immediately. Thank you for your interest, {Signature} To the left of the editor s box are Available Merge Fields that you can copy and paste into your email. Simply highlight, right click, copy and paste into the body of your email. 7
Step 4: Go ahead and edit the email template. When you have completed the edits, click on the Update button located below the editor s box. Regarding email templates, best practice is to come together as a group to discuss your email messages, decide on your branding strategy and edit your templates accordingly by starting with the Global Templates. Maintain a procedure for how emails will be handled in your organization for applications that are created in the future Step 5: After you have updated your Template the system will return you to the list of Global Templates. 1.2 Understanding the Email Template After logging into the system from the Home Page select Notification Center icon. This will direct you to the Templates. The email templates are created for each individual application, therefore, you will need to choose the appropriate application that you want to send an email to individuals. 8
Select an application from the dropdown menu. Applications must be published in order to appear in the dropdown list. Once you have selected an application the current templates that are available for the specified application will appear in a list. Select the Notify Tab next to Template Tab. The email template will open showing the following screen: 9
An explanation on the following fields to be used: From: This is the email address that the emails are sent out from. This is a system generated address. Application Status: This is the application status of an applicant s applications. Select which status group you want to send the email to. Once you select the Application Status the User Count to the right will show the total number of applicants to whom the mail will be sent. This will also populate the To field with a listing of all the applicant s emails that fall under the selected Application Status. Application Stage: The administrator can select a group of applicants by the Application Stage they are in. Click on the dropdown to see a listing of the Application stages that are available for your grants. This will populate the To field with a listing of all the applicant s emails that fall under the selected Application Stage. To: If you have selected an Application Status and/or an Application Stage this field will be populated automatically with all the email addresses of those applicants. If you did not select an Application Status and/or an Application Stage then you can enter the email addresses of the applicants here, separating each with a semi-colon (;) instead of spaces in between the email addresses. Select Date: Select the date you want the email to be sent. Select Time: Select the time you want to send the email. Note: The server that sends out the emails is set on Eastern Time. Therefore, depending on what time zone you are in you will need to adjust enter your select time to correspond with the appropriate PST or PDT for the time you want the email to go out on. Note also that the email may be delayed if there is a large volume of traffic at the time the email is being sent. Note: List was fetched at a specific time. If you set the Select Date and Time in the future, let s say a week from now it will not update the list. It will only send to the ones currently on the list at the time you created this email. Mail Format: This will send an email in the HTML format or Plain text format. Subject: You can enter the subject of the email that you want to appear in the Subject line to the recipient. Email Template: You can select the template from the existing created templates. If you select a template it will automatically fill in the body of the email accordingly. If you want to create your own email than leave this as Select. 10
Body: If you select an email template then the body of the email will be automatically populated according to how the template reads. If you do not select any template, you can write the content of the email in the body field. Content can be entered using one of the following tabs: Design Mode: The html editor works exactly the same way as Microsoft Word works. Type the information into the body of the editor as you would be typing and formatting it in a Microsoft Word document. You can also copy and paste the formatted text from other documents. HTML Text: You can create a mass email using html tags by clicking on the HTML Text tab present beside the Design Mode tab. Enter the html tags with the content and it will display all the content as formatted. Available Merge Fields: These are the auto-populated fields that the administrator can use, while setting up an email. When you send the email, these fields will automatically get converted, to the desired data. For example, if the administrator chooses a {First Name}, it will automatically change to the applicant s actual First Name, while sending an email. To insert one of these fields, copy and paste the field into the area of the content section of where you want the field to appear. Send: You can click on the Send button to send the emails. Preview: Allows you to Preview the email prior to sending it Cancel: You can click on the Cancel to cancel the email and go back to the Emails Tools page. 1.3 Editing System Templates Open the Notification Center. The email templates are created for each individual application, therefore, you will need to choose the appropriate application that you want to edit/create the template for. 11
Select an application from the dropdown menu. Applications must be published in order to appear in the dropdown list. Once you have selected an application the current templates that are available for the specified application will appear: System Templates: System email templates are automatically generated by the system when you create a new application and are linked to their specific features within the application process (i.e. Release A Section For An Applicant email is automatically generated when you click the Save and Email button when Releasing a Section back to the applicant to complete). System Global: These are System templates that apply to all applications and are not application specific. 12
They include the following, before going live please edit appropriately to your process: k. Application: Additional information Request sent to applicant when requested by the Administrator to complete a section after submittal. l. Application: Deleted message to applicant when they delete their entire application m. Application: Request from Applicant (Default email) for Request Sections Email to Recommended individual requesting to fill out a section on behalf of the applicant i. Are you including the Comment section in this email? ii. If using more than 1 request section are there different email messages you want to send for each. Did you create the templates for these? iii. Did you connect the correct template to the correct request section? n. Application: Request completed Email to Applicant once recommended individual has completed the request section o. Application: Request Declined Email to Applicant notifying them that the individual they recommended to complete a request section has denied the request. Do you give applicant next step instructions in this email? p. Application: Submit Confirmation - submit confirmation email sent to applicant once they submit their application q. Application: Withdrawn email to applicant when they click to withdraw their application from their dashboard. Custom: Custom Email templates are created by the administrator. Custom email templates cannot be linked to any other features of the system and are sent using the Notify Tab. 1.4 Creating a new Email Template The system allows you to create a separate email template for each request section. Please follow these steps: While on the Templates Tab, the administrator can create Custom Templates by clicking on the Create Template button. 13
When you click on the Create Template button the following screen is displayed: Template Type: Select Custom (only custom templates can be created by the Administrator, System emails must be created by a CommunityForce developer and are hard coded to a specific area within the application). Copy an Existing Template or Create New: To create a New Template you will need to select the Add New Template selection in the Template Name field, this will then open this field where you can enter the name of your new email template. Template Name: Select Add a New Template to create a new template name by selecting Add New Template from the dropdown and enter the name of the template to the right of the Template Name field. Template Description: To add a description to the Email Template you are creating enter it here. Email Subject: To add a subject line to your email, enter the Email Subject in this field. Template Content: Enter the content for the email template. Content can be entered using either of the following tabs: Design Mode: The html editor works exactly the same way as Microsoft Word works. Type the information into the body of the editor as you would be typing and formatting it in a Microsoft Word document. You can also copy and paste the formatted text from other documents. HTML Text: You can create email templates using html tags by clicking on the HTML Text tab present beside the Design Mode tab. Enter the html tags with the content and it will display all the content as formatted. 14
Available Merge Fields for Custom generated templates: These are auto-populated fields that the administrator can use when setting up an email template. When you send an email, these fields will automatically be populated with the desired data. For example, if the administrator chooses {First Name}, it will automatically change to the applicant s actual First Name, while sending a mail. To insert one of these fields, copy and paste the field into the area of the content section of where you want the field to appear. Save: Click on the save button after adding all the content to save the changes and go back to the Email Tools page. Preview: Allows you to see a layout preview of what the email will look like when sent. Cancel: Click on the Cancel button to go back to the Email Tools page and cancel any changes you have made. 1.5 Sending Email Notifications out using a Template Step 1: Select your application from the dropdown menu. The email templates are created for each individual application, therefore, you will need to choose the appropriate application that you want to send an email to individuals. Select an application from the dropdown menu. Applications must be published in order to appear in the dropdown list. Once you have selected an application the current templates that are available for the specified application will appear in a list. Select the appropriate template that you wish to use to send out an email. The email template will open showing the following screen on the next page: 15
An explanation on the following fields to be used: From: This is the email address that the emails are sent out from. This is a system generated address. Application Status: This is the application status of an applicant s applications. Select which status group you want to send the email to. Once you select the Application Status the User Count to the right will show the total number of applicants to whom the mail will be sent. This will also populate the To field with a listing of all the applicant s emails that fall under the selected Application Status. Application Stage: The administrator can select a group of applicants by the Application Stage they are in. Click on the dropdown to see a listing of the Application stages that are available for your grants. This will populate the To field with a listing of all the applicant s emails that fall under the selected Application Stage. 16
To: If you have selected an Application Status and/or an Application Stage this field will be populated automatically with all the email addresses of those applicants. If you did not select an Application Status and/or an Application Stage then you can enter the email addresses of the applicants here, separating each with a semi-colon (;) instead of spaces in between the email addresses. Select Date: Select the date you want the email to be sent. Select Time: Select the time you want to send the email. Note: The server that sends out the emails is set on Eastern Time. Therefore, depending on what time zone you are in you will need to adjust enter your select time to correspond with the appropriate PST or PDT for the time you want the email to go out on. Note also that the email may be delayed if there is a large volume of traffic at the time the email is being sent. Mail Format: This will send an email in the HTML format or Plain text format. Subject: You can enter the subject of the email that you want to appear in the Subject line to the recipient. Email Template: You can select the template from the existing created templates. If you select a template it will automatically fill in the body of the email accordingly. If you want to create your own email than leave this as Select. Body: If you select an email template then the body of the email will be automatically populated according to how the template reads. If you don t select any template, you can write the content of the email in the body field. Content can be entered using one of the following tabs: Design Mode: The html editor works exactly the same way as Microsoft Word works. Type the information into the body of the editor as you would be typing and formatting it in a Microsoft Word document. You can also copy and paste the formatted text from other documents. HTML Text: You can create a mass email using html tags by clicking on the HTML Text tab present beside the Design Mode tab. Enter the html tags with the content and it will display all the content as formatted. Available Merge Fields: These are the auto-populated fields that the administrator can use, while setting up an email. When you send the email, these fields will automatically get converted, to the desired data. For example, if the administrator chooses a {First Name}, it will automatically change to the applicant s actual First Name, while sending an 17
email. To insert one of these fields, copy and paste the field into the area of the content section of where you want the field to appear. Send: You can click on the Send button to send the emails. Preview: Allows you to Preview the email prior to sending it. Cancel: You can click on the Cancel to cancel the email and go back to the Emails Tools page. 1.6 Viewing the Status of an Email in the Notify Status Tab Notify Status Tab: shows the status of the Mass Emails sent using the Mass Email tab to send your email. It will also show the status of emails sent using the Notify button to send an email using one of the Templates in the Templates tab. Step 1: Select your application from the dropdown menu. Step 2: Click on the Notify Status Tab for the screen below to open. Step 3: Click on view to preview the email that was sent. From this Screen you can see a listing by the of the Applicants Name, showing their Email ID, the date and time of the Email/Notify Date, email subject and the Email Message. 18