Messaging overview

#Before you begin

• Confirm that your login group is allowed to manage templates and send messages. Instructor access is normally more limited than administrator or office access.
• For the current prepare-and-send screen, SMTP must be enabled and complete. The page disables test and bulk email controls when SMTP is unusable.
• Verify recipient contact data and the intended audience before loading the queue.
• Use only approved attachments and merge tags. Preview the final content with a fictional or internal recipient before sending to clients.
• SMS, TTS, and client-message templates appear in the template library, but provider setup and delivery behavior vary. The current bulk-send screen is email/SMTP-oriented; verify each non-email channel in a controlled test before relying on it.
• Follow the consent, sender-identification, and opt-out requirements that apply to the message and channel.

Warning: Start Sending begins an outbound send to the loaded recipients. Loading or viewing recipients is not the same as sending. Check the recipient total and sample, template, merge tags, attachments, sender, and provider state before selecting Start Sending.

#Messaging sections

Important: Messaging > Scheduled messages is not a working scheduling workflow. It is also not the same feature as Settings > Scheduled Triggers. Scheduled Triggers has its own configuration and requires a working scheduler, queue, provider, and safety settings before execution can be trusted.

#Create a message template

1. Open Messaging. The page opens Message Templates by default.
2. Select New Email, New SMS, New TTS Message, or New Message for the content type you intend to build.
3. For an email, enter the required Subject. Enter the Message for every type.
4. Insert merge tags where family, student, class, or studio data should appear.
5. Select a Category when categories are used to organize templates.
6. For email, select a Signature when an active signature should be appended.
7. For email, add only approved files in Attachments and keep within the displayed provider limits.
8. Review the content, then select Save Template.

After saving, use the template table's Edit, Archive or Delete, or Restore actions as needed. Use the Send Message action only when you are ready to prepare a recipient list.

#Prepare an email send

1. In Message Templates, find the approved email template.
2. Select its Send Message action.
3. On Prepare to Send, read the SMTP notice. Stop if it says SMTP is disabled or incomplete.
4. In Recipients, select the intended segment. Current choices can include All Students (Guardians), Currently Enrolled, Instructors, Member Categories, Member Classes, and Per Location.
5. Select any category, class, or location filters required by that segment.
6. Select Send copy to Email 2 or Positive balance only only when the communication plan requires it.
7. Select Load to build the recipient queue.
8. Select View and inspect the queued-recipient sample, then compare it with the displayed Total.
9. In Review, confirm the template type, subject, body, merge tags, and attachments.
10. Enter a controlled test address under Send Test Email and select Send Test.
11. Confirm the test message's content, sender, links, merge-tag behavior, attachment safety, and mobile presentation outside DSM.

Important: The steps above describe the current controls, but the test-send happy path has not yet been exercised for this manual. Do not treat an on-screen success message alone as proof of inbox placement.

#Send to the loaded recipients

1. Reopen or refresh the recipient sample if any template or audience setting changed after the test.
2. Confirm the total one final time.
3. Select Start Sending.
4. Watch the progress, sent count, and result message.
5. Use Pause if the process must stop temporarily. Use Cancel only when the remaining queue should be abandoned.
6. Open History and confirm the recorded results before attempting another send.

Warning: Pausing or canceling cannot recall messages that were already submitted. If the screen is interrupted or the result is unclear, check History and provider records before selecting Start Sending again.

#Review history and delivery

Open History to filter by message type, template, family/member ID, recipient, subject, or service ID. Select View for the stored message body and available details.

The local history status records what DSM knows about the send. When Email Delivery is available, provider events add more detail.

Important: A delivered status means the destination mail server accepted the message. It does not prove inbox placement, opening, reading, or a client's response.

#What happens next

• Saving creates or updates a reusable template; it does not send the message by itself.
• Load builds the working recipient queue for that template and audience.
• Send Test attempts one email to the controlled address when SMTP and safety settings allow it.
• Start Sending processes the loaded queue and records results where message-history storage is available.
• Email Delivery can add provider-level status only for studios with the required verified integration.
• Scheduled messages does not currently create or manage a schedule.

#Confirm it worked

For a template, return to Message Templates and confirm its subject, preview, type, category, and author.

For an outbound email, use all available evidence:

1. the progress result completed without an unresolved error;
2. History contains the expected recipient, type, subject, and status;
3. the controlled test inbox received the intended content;
4. attachments and links are correct; and
5. provider delivery details agree with the local result when those details are available.

#Troubleshooting

#Template or send controls are missing

Your login group may have Messaging history access without template-write or send access. Ask an administrator to review Settings > Group Permissions and the studio's permission configuration.

#SMTP is disabled or incomplete

Do not retry the send. Have an administrator complete and test the studio's emailer settings, sender address, authentication, and provider requirements. Return to Prepare to Send only after the SMTP notice reports a usable configuration.

#The recipient total is unexpected

Check the selected segment, multi-select filters, Send copy to Email 2, Positive balance only, and the underlying family, student, class, category, or location data. Select Load again after making a correction, then inspect View.

#Merge tags look wrong in the test

Return to Edit Template. Confirm that every tag is supported and that the test recipient has the source data needed by that tag. Do not begin the bulk send until the rendered test is correct.

#Scheduled messages has no data or disabled buttons

That screen is currently reserved for a remote API integration. It cannot create a schedule. Do not substitute Settings > Scheduled Triggers without separately configuring and verifying that automation workflow.

#History says sent, but the client did not receive it

Check the address, spam or quarantine folders, sender-domain authentication, suppression or bounce state, and provider delivery events. A local sent status is not proof of inbox placement.

#Related articles

• Manage message templates, history, and email delivery
• Create and manage email signatures
• Record calls and manage client follow-up
• Choose message recipients and send safely
• Scheduled Triggers
• Announcements
• Dashboard and navigation
• DSM feature availability