HappenBoard emails your attendees at each step of their sign-up: a confirmation, a reminder before their date, and a message when their date or their sign-up changes. You choose the reminder time and the sender in HappenBoard → Settings → Email.
The emails attendees receive
| When it is sent | Can be turned off | |
|---|---|---|
| Confirmation | Right after a sign-up through the RSVP form, and after a ticket purchase with HappenBoard Pro. | Yes |
| Off the waitlist | When you move someone from Waitlist to Going. It is the confirmation, opening with “a place has opened up”. | Yes, with the confirmation |
| Reminder | A set number of hours before their date starts. | Yes |
| New date | When you move them to another date, or when you change the date or time they signed up for. | No, but you can skip it when you move someone |
| Date cancelled | When their date is cancelled or removed from the series. | No |
| RSVP cancelled | When they cancel with their link, or when you cancel their sign-up. | No |
Only people with the status Going get the confirmation, the reminder and the date emails. The reminder, date and cancellation emails are not sent for a date that has already started.
What each email contains
The confirmation and the reminder greet the person by name and give:
- When: the date and time of their date, in your site’s time zone. The zone is named after the time (for example “Paris time, UTC+2”), so someone reading from another country knows which time you mean.
- Where: the venue name and address, when the event has a venue.
- A View event details button that opens the event page on their date.
- A personal link to cancel their sign-up.
The confirmation also carries a calendar file (.ics) for their date, which adds it to their calendar app. With HappenBoard Pro, it carries a check-in QR code and a PDF ticket too.
The new-date email gives the new date, the one it replaces, a calendar file and the cancellation link. The date-cancelled email says the date will not take place, that the organizer will be in touch, and links to the other dates when there are some.
Turn emails on or off and set the reminder
- Go to HappenBoard → Settings → Email.
- In the Notifications card, set the options below.
- Click Save.
| Setting | What it does | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Send confirmation email on RSVP / ticket purchase | Sends the confirmation and the off-the-waitlist email. | On |
| Send reminder email before each event | Sends the reminder. Turning it off also stops reminders not sent yet. | On |
| Send reminder hours before start | How long before their date the reminder goes out, from 1 to 168 hours (one week). Shown when reminders are on. | 24 |
Keep confirmations on: they carry the cancellation link, and without them people only get it with the reminder.
How reminders are sent
HappenBoard looks for reminders that are due every 15 minutes, and sends each one once.
- A person who signs up after the reminder time (two hours before the event with a 24-hour setting, say) gets the confirmation only.
- If their date moves, the reminder follows the new time. If they cancel, or their date is removed, no reminder goes out.
- A new reminder time applies to the reminders not sent yet.
These checks run on WordPress scheduled tasks, which need visits to your site to run. On a quiet site, reminders can go out late. HappenBoard → Settings → Health tells you whether scheduled tasks run on time, as explained in health and maintenance.
Choose who the email comes from
The Sender identity card has three optional fields:
| Setting | What it does | If left empty |
|---|---|---|
| From name | The name shown in the inbox. Used only when From email is set. | Your site title |
| From email | The address the email comes from. | WordPress or your mail plugin decides |
| Reply-To | Where replies go. | The email of the event’s organizer, if there is one |
Use a From email on your own domain, or a mail plugin (SMTP). Many hosts refuse to send mail that claims to come from a domain they do not handle, and it often lands in spam.
The language of the emails
On a site translated with WPML or Polylang, each email is written in the language of the event page the person signed up on, provided HappenBoard is translated into that language. See multilingual sites. HappenBoard Pro can also use a language chosen by each attendee.
What is not sent
- You are not emailed when someone signs up or cancels. Check the Attendees screen, or use HappenBoard Pro’s Slack notifications.
- Nothing is sent when you set someone to Waitlist or Declined.
- Appointment bookings have their own emails, described in the appointment booking overview. Their host and admin alerts have their own switch on this screen, Email the host and the site admin about bookings.
The look of every email (color, logo, footer) is set once in email branding.
Next steps
- Customizing email branding: add your logo and colors, and preview each email.
- Managing attendees: the status changes that send emails.
- Attendee self-cancellation: what happens when someone uses their link.
- Emails in the attendee’s language: one language per attendee with Pro.