Welcome Email Configuration

Overview

The following are some basic ideas to help you get started with your User Account related email templates. You can edit these as you see fit in Axiom on the System Homepage by clicking “Email Templates” under “System Configuration.” It is good to include an email address and phone number to your help desk in these emails.

The templates below are presented as HTML so you can copy them into Axiom, if desired. Remember to use the “Preview Template” feature to see a rendered version.

Welcome Emails

There are a variety of different welcome emails for specific roles. Additional welcome email templates can be created if the number of welcome email templates created by default are not sufficient. For example, it might be desirable to break out general staff from admissions and development, each role getting their own welcome message.

The main functional purpose of a Welcome Email in Veracross is to give users the ability to set up a password. Any other use for a welcome email (such as: explaining the system to the recipient; inviting them to use Veracross; inviting them to log in at an external resource, etc.) is up to the school to define in the welcome email. If your school is LDAP-integrated, staff and faculty won’t be able to select a Veracross password; but it may make sense to use welcome emails in order to introduce users to Veracross and provide instructions for where to log in.

The way that Welcome Emails accomplish their main function (select a password) is by sending a personalized “click here to select a password” link. The merge field value is {account_url}. That personalized link expires 72 hours after it is generated and/or if another welcome email is later sent to the same user, for security purposes. If the recipient of the email hasn’t yet set up a password and clicks on an expired {account_url} link, the system will send another, new welcome email to that person.

You may wish to welcome various types of users differently, but this is a general idea of what to include:

<p>Dear {first_name},</p> 
<p>Welcome to Veracross!</p> 
<p>Your username is: <strong>{username}</strong></p> 
<p> Before logging in, you must select a password. Please click <a href='{account_url}'>this link</a> to set up your account. After selecting a password, you will be logged in. </p> 
<p>If you cannot click the link above, please copy and paste this link in to a web browser: {account_url}.</p>

Additional Welcome Emails

Additional welcome email templates can be created if the number of welcome email templates that exist by default are not sufficient. For example, it might be desirable to have a specific welcome email for general staff that differs from the one used for admissions & development departments. Creating new welcome emails can be done on the System Homepage by adding one or more System Email Templates. Use the same formatting as described above. Once a new System Email Template has been inserted and setup, it can be associated with one or more security roles by opening the Security Roles query on the System Homepage and selecting the new email template from the Welcome Email Template dropdown.

Account Help

This is sent to users when they click “Forgot username or password?” at a login screen.

<h3>Veracross Account Help</h3> 
<p>Dear {first_name},</p> 
<p>We received a request to help you log into Veracross.</p> 
<p>Your username is: <strong>{username}</strong></p> 
<p>If you have forgotten your password, you can <a href='{account_url}'>click this link to reset it.</a></p> 
<p>If you did not request this email, you can safely ignore it.</p>

Forgot Password UNABLE

This template is sent to users who click “Forgot username or password?” at a login screen, but have LDAP synced accounts.

<h3>Veracross Account Help</h3> 
<p>Dear {first_name},</p> 
<p>We received a request to help you log into Veracross.</p> 
<p>Your username is: <strong>{username}</strong></p> 
<p>If you have forgotten your password, please contact our IT department for further assistance at 555-111-2222 or email us at helpdesk@ourschool.org</a></p> 
<p>If you did not request this email, you can safely ignore it.</p>

All Available Merge fields for Welcome Emails

The following list displays all available merge fields for Welcome emails. This list doesn’t apply to Account Help, just Welcome Emails:

name_prefix 
first_name 
last_name 
nick_name 
year_applying_for 
username 
account_url 
person_pk 
household 
household_pk