Automatic emails

Some emails and texts go out on their own when something happens. For example, a household gets one when you approve their notice to leave, when a payment clears, or when a camp spot opens up. Open Reach → Messages → Automatic emails to see every one of them, see exactly what people get, change the wording of almost all of them, and turn most of them off.

Clubs trying the new admin layout find these under Messages → Automatic messages → Built-in. The list is grouped the same way, with each group closed until you open it; search by name or by when a message is sent, or show only the ones using your wording or turned off. Press a message to open the same page described below, where you preview it, change its wording, send yourself a test or turn it off. On that page in the new layout, When it's sent and who gets it comes first, with Turn off (it asks "Stop sending this email?" first), then the wording, then the preview for a household you pick, then the reply-to choice.

Emails are grouped by topic, such as membership, payments, camp and lap swim. Each one has a label:

• Standard wording: the wording the platform wrote. Your club hasn't changed it.

• Your wording: your club changed it, and people get your version.

• Turned off: your club stopped sending it. Nobody gets it until you turn it back on.

Select What do the labels mean? at the top of the list to read this on the page.

Select an email to open its page. The preview shows the subject and the full email as members see it, including your own wording if you've changed it. If an email reads differently in different situations (for example, when a refund check will be mailed versus when there was no bond), each version is shown. An email that also goes out as a text shows the text too.

In the new admin layout the preview page opens with a line at the top saying This is a preview. Nothing has been sent, and people whose email address isn't confirmed yet, or who have stopped receiving email, are skipped when it sends. The link below the preview takes you back to where you came from.

Some payment emails follow the invoice as it is when the email goes out. For example, if a check didn't clear but the household's other payments still cover the invoice, the email says nothing more is due instead of asking them to pay. These sentences are chosen from the invoice even when your club has written its own wording: when the invoice is still paid, already cancelled, held by another payment that hasn't finished, or isn't for dues, the household gets the platform's sentence for that case. Your own opening and closing are used when the invoice is simply open again. Your subject line is always used. The preview shows each version.

Previews use example names, amounts and dates. To see one with a real household's names, search for the household under What members get now and pick it. The greeting, and for most emails the list of who gets it, come from that household. Amounts, dates and links are still examples.

A preview never sends anything.

Managers and admins can change the wording of an email whose page shows a Wording box. That is every email except the sign-in and security emails (below).

1. Open the email from Messages → Automatic emails.

2. Change the parts you want. Each part is labeled in plain words: Subject line, Heading, Message, Closing, Small print, and Text message for emails that also go out as a text. An email shows only the parts it has: a payment receipt, for example, lets you change only the opening and the closing. If an email comes in more than one version, each version has its own box. Dues reminders have one for each reminder on your Renewals schedule, and the automatic payment notice has one for the email and one for the text.

3. Check the problems shown next to each part. They appear as you type, in plain words, and Save stays off while there are any.

4. Select Preview to see exactly what people will get with your changes. Nothing is saved or sent.

5. Select Save. Your wording starts going out right away. If you change anything after previewing, Save turns off again until you preview once more, so what you save is always what you looked at.

You can add a short note under What changed (optional). It's kept in the history.

Which emails you can change

You can change the wording of these emails:

• Renewals and dues: the renewal announcement, the dues reminders, the more-time-to-pay email and the late fee. In the renewal announcement you change the standard opening, heading and closing for every household. The note you write when you send it stays just as you wrote it, for that one send.

• Payments: receipts, the notice before an automatic payment or a one-off charge, bank payments that didn't go through, automatic payments that were turned down, checks that didn't clear, payments that were reversed, autopay being turned off, statements, and the request to add a bank account when your club requires autopay.

• Membership: notice to leave received, approved or not approved, the bond refund check being mailed, and the email to the treasurer when a refund check needs writing.

• Waitlist: application received, the membership offer and its text, the welcome after accepting (one version for when new members can pay straight away and one for when your club asks them to finish joining first), the reminder to pay the joining invoice, the joining invoice not paid in time (and the email to staff about it), and an offer that ran out.

• Help requests: the email a member gets when you reply to their request, and the emails to staff about a new or assigned request. When you reply, your reply is printed exactly as you wrote it. You change only the line before it and the closing.

• Camp: registration confirmed, a registration canceled (one version for one swimmer's spot and one for when you cancel the whole week), a week changed, the lottery results (one version for families who won a spot and one for families who were waitlisted), the warning that a spot hasn't been paid for, and the notice that the spot was released. See the email on the camp Registration & pricing tab opens the confirmation.

• Lap swim: a booking made, a booking canceled (one version for one booking and one for when you cancel the whole lap swim time), a booking released after the hold time, a lane opening up from the waitlist (and its text), and a lane offer that ran out.

• Camp and program waitlists (program waitlists too): a spot opening up, an offer that ran out, and a waitlist closed.

• Lessons: booked and canceled (to the household), booked and canceled (to the instructor), a time you approved or didn't approve (to the instructor), and the daily list of times waiting for approval (to managers).

• Events, rentals and the shop: a rental request received, approved, declined or canceled, and a shop order confirmed, canceled or picked up.

• Reminders: the day-before reminders for a lap swim, a rental and a one-day program.

• Closures: the club is closed, the club is open again, their texts, and a lap swim canceled by a closure. The reason you type when you close is printed as you wrote it (without a full stop or other mark at its end, since the sentence adds its own), for that closure, and your wording can't leave it out. If the reason reads as a web address (for example "updates at ourclub.org"), the text leaves it out and says "details are on the club's website" instead, because a link in a text can get every club's texts blocked. The email, and the banner on the member portal's Home page, still carry the reason in full. A reason with no space after a full stop, like "4 p.m.Thanks", can read as a web address too; add the space and it stays in the text.

• Announcements: "Registration open" for a camp, lap swim, lesson or program registration. It still carries its unsubscribe line, which you can't remove.

• Program registrations: registration confirmed, and a registration canceled (one version each for when the member cancels, when you cancel one registration, and when you cancel the whole program). The day-before reminder for a one-day program is under Reminders.

Programming confirmation, cancellation and day-before reminders replace the retired Event RSVP emails. Existing message history is retained.

What you can change, and what we fill in for you

You write the words. Amounts, dates and the buttons and links we add come from your club's data, so they are always right. For example, the late fee amount comes from Settings, and a Pay button always points at the right invoice. The page shows each of these as a grey card, like Filled in for you: the Pay button with the new balance. This can't be removed. For a text, the card comes after the box, because the link is added after your words.

Some lines appear only when they are true for your club, and we add them for you:

• "Paying by bank transfer (ACH) is free; cards add a processing fee." appears on the late fee and the dues reminders only when your club adds a card fee and takes both card and bank payments for dues (set in Settings).

• "No late fee applies before then" in the more-time-to-pay email appears only when your club's late fees can apply: automatic late fees are on, dues are billed once a year, and a late fee and a dues deadline are saved in Settings. When you edit that email, the box starts from the wording that matches.

• "You can pay part now and the rest later" in the more-time-to-pay email appears only when your club turns on Let members pay part of a bill under Club → Payments (Allow part payments on Settings → Payments in the new admin layout). When you edit that email, the box starts from the wording that matches this setting, and the preview shows it the same way. If you wrote your own wording, it goes out as you wrote it, so check it still matches if you change the setting.

• The late fee and the more-time-to-pay email ask members to reply only when your club has a reply-to address for member email in Settings, because without one their replies reach nobody at the club. Otherwise our standard small print points them to Contact us in the member portal. When you edit either email, the box starts from the wording that matches, and the preview shows it the same way. If you wrote your own small print, it goes out as you wrote it.

• The late fee's preview shows the late fee saved in Settings. If your club hasn't saved one, no late fee is added and this email isn't sent; the preview then shows an example amount and says so.

• The "Check didn't clear", "Payment reversed" and "Automatic payment turned down" emails ask members to reply only when your club has a reply-to address for member email in Settings. Otherwise they point them to Contact us in the member portal. That includes our own sentences these emails use when another payment still covers or holds the invoice.

• When you edit any email whose standard wording asks members to reply (the ones above, the renewal announcement, the extra-time-withdrawn email, the notice-to-leave and bond refund emails, the camp spot emails, the waitlist application email and the rental reminder), the box starts from the wording your members would get: with a reply only when your club has a reply-to address.

• The renewal announcement's preview shows the late fee saved in Settings. With none saved, the email has no late-fee line, and the preview says so.

• A dues reminder sent after the date it names says the dues "are now due" instead of "due by" that date. The date counts until the end of that day in your club's time zone, the same as for late fees. If you wrote your own wording with the due-by field, its backup words are used after the date.

• The "Registration open" email says members can join a waitlist if the program is full only for programs that keep one. Lessons have no waitlist, so a lesson's email leaves that out. It comes in two versions, one for each case.

• The "Registration open" email lists the facts a member needs, filled in from the program's own settings, between your opening words and the button: When (the program's dates, and its times when it has them), Schedule (the days and times it meets each week, when you set a weekly schedule), Price (for example "Free", "$450.00 per person" or "From $450.00 per person") and Registration closes (only when registration has a closing time). Each line is left out when there is nothing to say, and your wording can't change or remove them. For camp, the price is what a family can be charged for a week that is open now, worked out the way registration works it out: a price set for that week replaces the price for everyone for that week, and a price on a week that isn't open doesn't lower the "From" price. When none of your prices applies to an open week, the email has no price line. The Register button opens the program itself in the member portal (the program's own page, or the Camp, Lap swim or Lessons page that lists it).

• Our standard small print for the "Registration open" email starts "Spots may fill quickly." only when places are limited. For a program with no limit on places it just says "Sign in to register." If you wrote your own small print, it goes out as you wrote it, so check it doesn't promise something the program can't do.

• Every sentence about money after a cancel (camp, lessons, rentals, the shop and programs) is ours: it says what the cancel really did to the invoice and to anything already paid, so it can't promise a refund that isn't coming. Your own small print, if you add some, comes after it. The same goes for the program confirmation's line about paying the invoice, or that there is nothing to pay.

• The camp spot warning and release notice, the rental reminder, and our money lines in a camp cancellation ask members to reply only when your club has a reply-to address for member email in Settings. Otherwise they point them to Contact us in the member portal.

If your own wording already says the card-fee sentence, we leave our line out, so members never read it twice.

In the written parts you can use paragraphs, bold, italics, line breaks, and links of your own that start with https:// or mailto:. Pictures, buttons, headings and lists aren't available, and you can't put a link in a text, including one a fill-in field would make (a field followed by ".com", say). If a household's details would still turn your text into a web address, that household gets our standard text instead.

Fill-in fields and backup words

Select { } Fill-in field under a part to add something we fill in for each household, such as their first name or an amount. In the message it shows as a small label, like First name. In the subject line and the text message it shows as {{firstName}}, and the page lists what each one stands for just under the box.

If a fact might be missing for some households, you're asked for backup words, like "friend" for a missing first name. They're used only when the fact is missing, so the email never reads "Hi ,". To change backup words later in the message, select the label and edit them in the box that appears. In the subject line, heading and text, backup words are written inside the field: {{firstName|friend}} shows "friend" when the first name is missing.

Some facts have to stay. For example, a late fee email has to say the fee amount, and the automatic payment text has to keep the amount, the date and the last 4 digits of the account. If you take one out, the page tells you what to add back, and you can't save until you do.

Text messages

A text shows a counter, like "1 text message · 92 of 160 characters". Every text we send has our own link added after your words, so the counter includes the room the link takes. Emoji and curly quotes make each message shorter. A text that runs past two messages is flagged, because longer texts cost your club more.

Every text then ends with "Reply STOP to unsubscribe." so members can turn texts off. The preview shows it, and the counter includes it too, so the number of messages it shows is what members get. If your words already tell people to reply STOP, it isn't added again, and the counter leaves it out.

Every club's texts come from the same phone number, so every text also starts with your club's name. If your words already start with it, typed out or as the Club name fill-in field first, it isn't added again. The counter counts your club's own name, so the number it shows is the one your members get.

App notifications

Once Swim Ops has turned on your club's phone app, some of these emails also send a short notification to the phones of members who have the app: every waitlist offer, the day-before reminders for lap swim, rentals and programs, a lap swim booking the club or a closure cancelled, the club closed notice and its all-clear, and a reply from your team to a member's message. Until the app is on, none of this shows on these pages.

Once it is on, the email's page has a part called The app notification (the closed notice has one for when the club is closed and one for when it is open again). You change it the same way as the email: write it, select Preview, then Save. It has two short lines, the Notification title and the Notification text, each with a counter, and the preview shows them the way a phone's lock screen does. A long fill-in, such as a program's name, can be cut short on the phone. History, Use this version again and Back to standard wording work as they do for the email. The standard wording is the one Swim Ops wrote, and the list adds "app notification" to the email's line.

A notification shows on the member's phone even when it's locked, where anyone nearby can read it. So it can fill in only facts that are safe there, like the club's name, a day or a time; the { } Fill-in field menu offers only those. A name, an amount or anything personal can't go in, and neither can a web address: tapping the notification already opens the right page in the app. Some facts have to stay, such as when an offer runs out, and the page tells you what to add back. For the closed notice, the reason you give when you close is filled in; a reason that is a web address says "details are on the club's website" instead, as the text does. You can leave the reason out of the notification if you'd rather not show it on a lock screen; how long the club is closed has to stay. Until you save wording for the closed notice's notification, it uses your club's closure text message, without its link, if you changed that text; the page shows what members get now.

The email, its text and its notification are worded separately: changing one doesn't change the others. Turning an email off turns its notification off too. Members choose in the app which kinds of notification they get, separately from their email and text choices. A notification you add to a message on the Write tab is written with that message each time, not here.

Select Send me a test to mail the email you're writing to your own address and nobody else's. It sends one example email, with the wording as it stands in the box, so you can test before saving. The subject starts with [Test], nothing is saved, and buttons and links in a test go to example pages. Like the real email, it has a plain-text part and the reply-to address members' replies go to. Texts and app notifications can't be sent as a test, since the preview shows exactly what goes out.

Every time you save, the wording is kept in History, newest first, with when it was saved, who saved it and your note. The one being sent now is marked Being sent now.

• To bring back an earlier version, open Show the wording to check it, then select Use this version again. It starts going out right away, and the wording it replaces stays in the history.

• To drop your wording altogether, select Back to standard wording and confirm. Your version is saved in history if you want it later.

Both replace what's in the boxes, so if you've typed changes you haven't saved, you're warned first that they'll be lost.

Select Turn off on an email's page to stop sending it. The people it goes to won't get it until you turn it back on, and anything it used to tell them, they won't hear. The page shows when it was turned off and by whom, with a Turn on button. Each email skipped while it was off shows on the household's Activity tab, and isn't sent later.

A few emails can't be turned off, because every household needs them: payment receipts, the notice before an automatic payment (and its text), the notice before the club collects a one-off charge from a saved bank account, bank payments that didn't go through, automatic payments that were turned down, checks that didn't clear, payments that were reversed, the approval of a notice to leave (it is how the household learns of any penalty taken from the bond and the checks coming to them), and the email saying the extra time you gave a household to pay its dues was withdrawn (taking the time back can bring a late fee, so the household must know which date applies now; it also says what the household still owes on its dues bill, a line your club's wording can't remove).

Every email that goes with a change to a family's spot or place can't be turned off either: the warning that a camp spot hasn't been paid for, the notice that an unpaid camp spot was released, the camp lottery results, every waitlist offer (a membership offer and its text, a lap lane opening up and its text, and a spot opening up in a camp week or program), a membership offer that ran out, the reminder to pay the joining invoice, the joining invoice not paid in time, and a lap swim booking released after the hold time. The spot is still given out, released or lost whether or not the family hears about it, so the family must always be told. If your club turned one of these off before, it goes out again now. Their pages say so, and Turn on isn't needed. You can still change their wording. When you mark a check returned, you can skip its email for that one household by unticking the box on the form. If an email goes out with a text, turning it off stops both. The same goes for an app notification (below).

If you save new wording while an email is turned off, it's kept and used once you turn the email back on.

Sign-in links, sign-in codes, "confirm your email address", household invitations and similar emails are listed in a separate group. They can't be changed or turned off. They read the same for every club, which helps members tell a real one from a fake one.

Two screens link to a read-only preview of what an action will send, using the same builders the real send uses. On a leaving-the-club request, Preview emails shows the approval email (which names the penalty, if one is taken) and the treasurer's refund-check email. In the renewal reminder schedule on Renewals, Preview shows one reminder step for a real household. The preview page says "Nothing has been sent". People whose email address isn't confirmed yet, or who have stopped receiving email, are skipped when it really sends. See Leaving the club and How renewals and dues billing work.

• Newsletters and one-off messages are written on the Write tab.

• Extra emails you set up yourself, such as a follow-up a week after someone joins, are on the Workflows tab.

• Fees, deadlines and the name your club uses for residents come from Settings, and the emails pick them up automatically. Changing the wording of an email never changes an amount or a date. A link you add yourself goes wherever you point it, so check it with Preview.

The Email replies control chooses an inbox for every version of an automatic email. A program’s own inbox takes precedence, and an individual configured email action can override both. Choosing normal defaults continues to the club default. Changing wording, restoring an older version or turning an email off does not clear its reply choice. Sign-in email wording stays locked even when its reply inbox can be configured.