Overview
Ad Hoc Emails are designed to be used when you want to send an email to a contact and be able to have it automatically populate with information about them, or an appointment or a proposal. You can create as many as you like and they can be used in several different ways.
1. You can send an email as a one-off. From a Contact or Appointment detail page, you can click the Email button, then select a template which will then pre-populate. You will then have the opportunity to edit the content before it's actually sent.
2. You can attach an ad hoc email to a Service. For instance, you have a sales or estimate service that doesn't need to get the standard appointment complete email. Create an ad-hoc specifically about the service and attach it via Control Panel > Service > Edit the service. 
3. Use ad hoc emails in Drip Campaigns based on Drip Triggers or more general marketing campaigns.
Settings and Navigation
Go to Control Panel > Ad Hoc Emails.
Creating and Editing Ad Hoc Emails
The easiest way to start a new Ad hoc email is to duplicate an existing one.
You can also Add a brand new one. Then choose between preloaded themes or create your own.
First step after creating the email is filling out any field with an * (asterisk). That would include the Name of the email, the Type, and the email Subject.
For Type, you have to make sure it matches the purpose of the email. Is this an Appointment confirmation? Then you need to make sure the type is appointment.
Then you can add or edit text within the email. You can include images, links, and Shortcodes.
You can also edit in the HTML view, but we do not recommend this unless you are comfortable.
Texting Templates
You can also create a text template along with the email template. If you have a trigger to send an email, you can also send out this text at the same time. You will need to have two-way texting feature in serviceminder to use this functionality.
If you only want a text message, just leave the email box blank. And if you use a Drip Trigger, select Send Text.
Adding Attachments to Ad Hoc Emails
If you would like to add attachments to email templates, they need to be a URL link within the email. To do this, first add your document to the collateral library. (Control Panel > Collateral Library)
Once it's been added hover over the image with your mouse, there is an icon that is "Copy URL", click that and then insert that copied URL link into the Ad Hoc email template where you want the attachment to be.
When the email is received the person can click on that link to access the attachment.
FAQs
How do I know which type to use?
Are you sending this to a Contact and want to use Contact shortcodes? Is this message based on an Invoice and getting final payment, then you will need to use Invoice shortcodes. Make sure the type of the email matches the topic of the email, the shortcodes, the Drip Triggers, and/or the Drip Campaigns.
You may not be using triggers or campaigns. But use the mindset of everything in the system connects and should align on Type.
Troubleshooting
My shortcodes aren't working.
Make sure you are copying and pasting them from our shortcodes page. Or, if you manually typed them, that they are not square brackets [ ]. Those shortcodes will not work, they must be curly brackets { } and match what our system was built to search for.
For instance, [appointment.find] will not work.
Find correct Shortcodes here.
