Email task in a work template

Hi, I’m looking at this now in a Work item, but can’t figure out how to create an email template?

same @Joanne McIntosh I have set up template emails, so expected to see a secondary option to chose from templates...

That option is currently missing for me too @Joanne McIntosh & @Laura Davies  I only have the AI prompt option

Is that a bug @Amelia Freeman?

We are still on the AI Beta waitlist.  So from what I understand if we don’t want to use a template we can’t just compose an email from scratch with this.  We will have to wait for the AI option.

Perhaps an option to just write an email from scratch would be nice, especially for now while many of us don’t have the AI functionality.

I’ve learned that the features described by @Amelia Freeman are only visible when I log out and log back into Karbon. After doing so, I see the option to add an Email Task.

What I’m struggling with (or confused by) is…

1. You can’t draft a message for an Email Task within a Work Template. Rather you can only assign an Email Template. The option to draft a message is only available in a Work Item.
2. Using the Email Task feature within a Work Item requires that the user choose an Email Template before you can start drafting a message. Why not allow the user to draft a message without an Email Template?
3. After drafting a message, the user can’t save and return to it later within the Work Item. You are either forced to send the email or abandon the process. If you abandon it, the email is saved in your Drafts, but not in the Work Item.

I’m unsure if these are bugs or just the limitation of the initial roll-out.

LOVE this idea.

Hi Smitty 

Thank you for the feedback. 

1. A work template doesn’t have a concept of a timeline or somewhere to store the draft email, so this isn’t possible at the moment. The intention is for you to be able to set up the email task and then when ready, hit create draft and send the email to the right contact (as a template could be for many different clients). 
2. Can you tell me a bit more about this? Are you looking to be able to customise an email task per work item, rather than set it on a template level? 
3. If you don’t want to send it yet, if you click out, the draft email should be on the timeline for you to revisit later. If this is not working for you, please send to support@karbonhq.com and we will look into it further. 

@Joanne McIntosh @SamG @Laura Davies are you able to see the functionality now? If you are unable to, a refresh should make it appear. 

Yes thanks Amelia

Just tested this out

It appears that we will have to change all the settings of clients as it addressed the email as Dear XYZ Company Pty Ltd, rather than the contact of the work/client.

How can we have a real persons name draw through rather than the company/business name as the addressee?

-- Fiona

Hi Fiona 

To confirm, are you looking to have placeholders when sending an email via an email template? 

@Amelia Freeman 

I utilised the AI drafting of an email and it didn’t give that option… it just pulled through the company name, not the associated person/s.

Perhaps this isn’t a function yet when using AI?

Thanks Fiona. I will pass this onto the AI team to confirm. 

When I did a test it signed off the AI generated email with the clients name

Is there a way to set up an Automator to trigger drafting/sending of an email? I tried experimenting with it but it doesn’t seem to work.

Hey Fiona, No, this is not an option yet but its on our list of improvements. Thank you :)

Hi Elena 

Not at the moment but this is a great feature request to add in community! 

Responding to #2 above, we have recurring work items for our several of our clients (e.g. month-end close). It would be great to be able to customize all aspects of an email task (i.e. recipient, subject, message, etc.) so that the only thing we have to do is attach financial reports, add any ancillary comments, and press send.

I thought this was so we didn’t have to leave the task tab to send the client an email but that isn’t correct.  You can add a task to the client list to send an email using a Template or the AI feature if you are in Beta. It is not just to send a random email about missing documents etc.  I was hoping to just compose an email (not from a Template) to the client without having to leave the Task tab.  This is sill a cool idea, just not what I thought it was.

@DianeK I’m going to set up a blank template - so we can use this to email whatever needs to be said

Good Afternoon, 

Here are a few things we have noticed - we have incorporated the email task in one of our templates:

• when sending the email task it is not marking the task as complete and therefore not triggering the Automator's for the next section.
•  It would also be useful if a message similar to what occurs on a client request appears to display that the email was sent.
• we are using the AI generator to create the email and have noticed that the emails are signed by myself ( I build the templates)  rather than the works assignee.

Aside from these minor items we are enjoying both the email template option as well as the AI generator. 

Regards, 

Pauline. 

Yes. We are aware of this Fiona and considering when we can improve this. Thank You :)

Circling back to this @Amelia Freeman, we’ve found a bug related to the use of email templates in email tasks. We’ve created a work template that has an email task that uses an email template. When the work template is used to create a work item, it appears that the email template is assigned correctly. However, when “create draft” is clicked in the work item, the email template does not appear to be connected. Rather, it simply inserts “null” into the email draft. In order to get it to work correctly, one has to click the edit button and re-select the email template (that is already selected). Please let me know if more information is needed to resolve this error.

Hi @Smitty. Can you please let support know? Either through the chat bot or by emailing support@karbonhq.com. This will ensure we have the information needed and can direct it to the correct team. Thank you

fyi, it appears this issue was resolved by Karbon support yesterday.