Email Templates

HawkSoft enables you to create email templates for composing standardized emails to send to clients. All email templates use the layout and formatting of the Base Email Template.

This article describes how to create and modify email templates.

This task is typically performed by an Owner/Administrator or Manager.

Required Permissions:
In order to complete this task, user permissions must be set to include:

Agency Setup > Correspondence Templates

See User Permissions for more information.

To access the email templates

  1. Click the  Settings icon, and then select Correspondence Templates.

    The Correspondence Templates dialog opens.

  2. Select the Email side-tab.

  1. Click the Add button.

  2. Name the template, and then click OK.

    The Email Template Editor opens.

    Each new Email template contains the layout saved in your Email Base Template. See Base Templates to modify, if needed.

  3. Select the HTML or Plain Text option.

    HTMLClosed Hyper Text Markup Language. The standard markup language used to create web pages. Language allows format options such as different fonts, bold, italics, underlined print, bullet points, and inserting merge fields, images, and hyperlinks.

    Plain Text offers fewer formatting options, however, all CMS merge fields can be inserted into a plain text email template.

    MAPI (Messaging Application Programming Interface) is NOT compatible with HTML. When Email integration is set to use MAPI, and HTML-formatted email template (including the “No Template” option) is selected, the following message appears in a yellow bar at the bottom of the New Message window:

    “Your current email setting does not support HTML emails. All HTML formatting has been removed from the loaded template.”

    The recipient will receive a Plain Text email.

    Email integration settings are located on the Email side-tab in User Preferences. See User Email Integration for more information.

  4. Enter a subject for the email template.

  5. Optional: Check Request Read Receipt to receive confirmation when an email created from this template is sent and received.

    This option cannot be seen or changed when creating an email based on this template. If this option is selected, a confirmation email will be returned to the user from each email recipient including batch email, which could result in a large number of confirmations returned. You can create two identical email templates, one with this option selected and one without. Indicate "confirmation" in the template title.

  6. Delete <<Body of Letter>> and replace with the content of your message.

    Some agencies may want to include an email signature as part of email templates, to provide a consistent look while including the specific sender's contact information. You can do this by entering the desired signature at the bottom of each template, using merge fields where information such as the sender's name, phone number, or office would go. See To add merge fields for more information.

    If you are using Outlook to email from HawkSoft, this may replace the need to add your signature in Outlook.

  7. Modify and format the email template as needed.

    See Email Template - Formatting Options for information on inserting merge fields and images.

  8. When finished, click Save.

  9. Click the X in the upper right hand corner to close.

    When you have created several email templates, these templates can be sorted into categories, for example, "Personal Lines" or "Commercial", to enable quick retrieval of specific templates.

  10. Click Close to exit Correspondence Templates.

Select a template from the list, and then use the following buttons as needed:

Edit – Click to open the Email Template Editor and modify the template as needed.

Click Save, and then click the X in the upper right hand corner to close.

See Email Template - Formatting Options for more information.

Each correspondence template is created from a base template. See Base Templates to modify the default Email template, if needed.

Rename – Click to enter a new template description.

Duplicate – Click to copy the template and enter a new description for the copy.

Remove – Click to delete the template.

See Base Templates to modify the base template for your agency's email templates.

Create template categories to help organize your email templates. Once created, these categories are available for the entire agency.

Example: You may want to group together all emails pertaining to Personal Lines, Commercial Lines, etc.

To create a new category

  1. Click the Categories button.

    The Category Setup dialog opens.

  2. Click New.

  3. Enter a Category name, and then click OK.

Assign or remove templates

Each template is listed with a check box. Select each template to be included in the selected Category.

  1. Click the Categories button.

    The Category Setup dialog opens.

  2. Select a Category from the drop-down.

  3. Check each box next to the templates to be included in the selected category.

When creating an email using the Action menu, users can filter templates by category to quickly find the right template to use for the new letter.

HawkSoft includes the ability to import email templates into CMS from your local files, as well as export existing templates to your local files. This enables you to use templates from other sources, as well as send your agency's templates to other HawkSoft agencies.

See Importing and Exporting Correspondence Templates for detailed steps.

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