Email templates & drafts

You build templates to standardize client updates and vendor requests. A template formats the email and gathers the right files.

Email templates live in the dashboard's Email templates view. Open Email templates in the sidebar, under the workspace's mailboxes: it lists the workspace's templates, and you click one to see it. On a phone or a smaller screen, open the menu: its Email templates section lists the same templates. Click a mailbox or a view tab to go back to your cases. The view is for the workspace owner and workspace admins. Other teammates do not see the entry; they pick a template from the Template menu when they compose. Visible categories and fields are not stored on the template. You configure those in the baselines in Workspace settings (Team and Clients) or by clicking a person's avatar on a case.

Clicking a template shows it read only: its name, Edit and Compose email, then the email in full (To, Cc, Subject and the message) and its attachment rules, one row each: Attach or Link, the files it picks (a category shows as its colored chip), and the rename pattern when it has one. Fields such as {id} are highlighted in the subject and message, and the lines that repeat for each case are framed. With no template picked, the workspace's first template shows. While the templates load you see a placeholder, and a workspace without templates says so and offers New template.

Edit, or the + beside Email templates (New email template), opens the template in the view, laid out like the email it starts. Click Back at the top left of the template, Cancel, or press Escape to go back to the template without saving. After Save template you see the template you saved.

If the template has changes, the app asks "Discard changes to this email template?" before it drops them. That covers Back, Cancel and Escape, and also clicking another template in the sidebar, switching views, workspaces or mailboxes, opening a case, or leaving the dashboard. Reloading or closing the page shows the browser's "Leave site?" warning instead. Click Save template to keep them.

The name at the top is the label you pick in the email's Template menu. Click it to rename. Below it sits the same writing card as an email: To and Cc become the template's default recipients, and Subject and the message format the email. Insert field under the message adds a field at your cursor. Here it lists every field your workspace's templates can fill, since no case is open yet.

Attachments holds the rules that pick documents. Each rule has a files menu: All case files, one category, or Case uploads and note attachments (manual uploads and case note attachments). Click Add rule for another row, and the trash icon to remove one.

Choose Attach or Link to decide how the files travel. Attach adds the document to the draft, and Link writes a URL line in the body. A rule selects every file that matches it. A template with zero rules pre-checks every file on the case.

Use the Rename to… field on a rule to standardize attached filenames. Tokens include {case.identifier}, {case.<key>}, {file.category}, and {file.original}. An empty field keeps the original name.

The app adds a number suffix if rules produce duplicate names. Click Delete at the bottom of a saved template to remove it. The app asks first, and drafts you already composed from it are not affected. The workspace's first remaining template shows next.

In the read-only showroom on Free and Lite, you can open and read templates, but Save template and the delete confirmation show the upgrade prompt instead.

The token picker lists every data key your templates can produce. Click a chip to insert the token. You can also type dotted paths the picker omits, like {case.contact.company}. Double braces like {{id}} work exactly like single braces.

• {id} inserts the case identifier.
• {index} inserts the 1-based position of a case in a batch.
• {caseCount} and {displayIds} render once for the whole selection.
• Field tokens use the data key in the format {case.<key>}.

Extracted date fields offer a chip ending in (original). The {case.<key>__original} token inserts the verbatim text read from the document.

An email about several cases produces one combined draft. A paragraph containing a case token repeats once for each case, in the order you added the cases. The editor outlines those paragraphs with a Repeats for each case badge. In an email the badge appears once the email has two or more cases, with the count.

Paragraphs without case tokens render once in their original position. When you insert a field into a paragraph that does not repeat, the app puts it in its own paragraph, so your greeting never turns into a repeat. You can write an explicit {{#each cases}} and {{/each}} block instead. A message with such a block repeats only the block.

You need a Pro workspace to connect Gmail. Turn on the Gmail toggle in Settings > Account. Owners always have compose access. Teammates need an admin to enable Compose emails under Configure access on their card in Workspace settings > Team.

Click Compose email in a case's actions menu, in the batch bar after you select cases, or on a chat card that prepared cases for you. Owners and workspace admins can also click Compose email on a template in the Email templates view: the email starts from that template, over the cases checked in the list. With no cases checked, the email opens from the template with no cases yet, and you add them from the list. The email opens in place of the case details. On a phone it opens as its own screen.

To check the cases first, open a template in Email templates and click Select cases under its name, or Select in the toolbar, then check rows in the list. The line under the template's name counts them, for example 3 cases checked. Compose email starts one email for all of them. The email opens with those cases, in the order you checked them. Compose email shows on a template only when you have the Compose emails capability.

On a phone, or when the dashboard is too narrow to show the list beside the view, tap Select in list in Email templates. The List tab opens with checkboxes. Check the cases, then open Email templates again: the line counts them, and Change takes you back to the list.

While the email is open, the case list picks its cases. Check a case, or click its row, to add it to the email. Click it again to take it out. The Regarding row at the top lists the email's cases as numbered chips, in the order you added them, and each number matches the badge on that case's row. Click the × on a chip to remove that case. Add cases points you to the list. On a phone it opens the list, and Back to email in the batch bar brings you back. Adding or removing cases keeps everything you wrote.

The email starts from your default email template, or your only template. If you created a draft in this workspace before, on this browser and since you last signed in, it starts from Last used instead, which brings back that email's subject, message, and recipients. An email you start from a template in Email templates starts from that template, even when there is a Last used email. Use the Template menu at the top to pick another saved template, Last used, or No template. Picking one replaces the email, so the app asks first when you have made changes.

The To and Cc fields autocomplete from past recipients in this workspace. Click Cc to show the Cc row. Under the message, Insert field adds a field at your cursor in the subject or the message, whichever you clicked last. It lists the fields that hold values on the email's cases, in dashboard column order.

Preview shows the email as it will reach Gmail: the recipients, the subject and message with every field filled in, and each file under the name it goes out with. On a narrow screen, switch between Write and Preview above the message.

Attachments lists every file on the email's cases, grouped by category. Check or uncheck a file, or a whole category, and switch each checked file between Attach and Link. Click a file name to rename it. Your name always wins over the template's Rename to pattern. With two or more cases, each row shows which case the file belongs to, and a file you did not rename goes out with the case identifier in front of its name, like E-1042 • Invoice.pdf. Two files with the same name get a number suffix.

The footer counts your files against the limit of 20. When your edits differ from the template, click Save changes to "{name}" to update it. To keep this email as a new template, click Save as template…, type a Template name, and click Save template. Its recipients become the template's default To and Cc. Click the × to close that row. Both save actions show only to owners and workspace admins; teammates compose from a template without changing it.

Click Open Gmail draft. A new tab opens Gmail with the draft filled in, and the email closes. A draft holds at most 50 To addresses, 50 Cc addresses, and 20 files. Composing creates no entry in the case activity history.

Click Cancel to close the email without a draft. The case or selection you had before comes back, and so does the view you started the email from, such as Email templates or Map. If the email has changes, the app asks before it discards them. The same question appears when you switch views, workspaces, or mailboxes, or leave the dashboard while an email has changes.

The app offers two ways to share a single file directly to your device share sheet. You bypass templates and Gmail drafts. Click Share in the file's preview menu. You can also use the Share action on a file row in the Documents console.

• There is no Email templates entry in the sidebar or the menu: It is for the workspace owner and workspace admins. Pick a saved template from the Template menu in the email instead.
• A template shows Edit but no Compose email: You lack the Compose emails capability. Ask your workspace admin to enable it in Workspace settings > Team.
• The email says "Ask your workspace admin to enable Compose emails for your account.": You lack the capability for at least one case in the email. You can open the email but not create a draft.
• The footer shows "Connect your Gmail to compose": You have permission but no connected account. Click the button to run the one-time authorization, which asks only for permission to create drafts. Connecting leaves the page, so the app asks first when your email has changes. After consent, the app returns to Settings, Account. Open the email again from the case.
• Open Gmail draft is off and the file count is red: The email has more than 20 files. Uncheck some files.
• Size error on composing: The app blocks drafts with over 22 MB of attachments to leave room for the 25 MB Gmail limit. Switch some attachments to Link or remove a file.
• Lost the draft: If your browser blocks the pop-up, the draft still builds and a toast appears. Open your Gmail Drafts folder to find it.

• Per-case collaborators
• How notifications work
• The collaborator portal