Email Logs
TimelyChurch records every email sent through the platform in an email log. This lets the platform monitor email delivery, verify that notifications are reaching recipients, and troubleshoot delivery failures.
As a church admin, you don't manage the raw email log directly. Instead, the Email Templates page gives you an at-a-glance health summary of your church's email delivery (how many sent and how many failed today). The detailed, per-message log is retained behind the scenes for support purposes.
Where to Check Email Delivery Health
- Log in to the Admin panel.
- Open the Email Templates page. From the admin sidebar, go to Settings → Email Templates. (Email Templates is part of the Communications feature set; if your plan does not include it, the page is not available.)
- At the top of the page you'll see four summary cards, including Sent Today and Failed Today, which reflect your church's email activity for the current day.
Note: The Email Templates page no longer displays a scrolling table of individual email log entries. It now shows the delivery summary cards plus your notification templates. If you need a detailed, message-by-message log to investigate a specific delivery problem, contact TimelyChurch support — staff can review the full email log on your behalf.
What the Email Log Records
Behind the scenes, each email log entry captures the following details. Church admins don't see these per-entry fields in the app, but they are what support uses when investigating a delivery issue:
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Recipient Email | The email address the message was sent to |
| Recipient Name | The name of the recipient (if available) |
| Subject | The email subject line |
| Template | Which email template was used (for example, a schedule reminder or a sign-in link) |
| Notification Type | The type of notification that triggered the email |
| Status | The delivery status: Sent, Pending, or Failed |
| Sent At | The date and time the email was successfully sent |
| Error Message | If the status is Failed, the error message describing what went wrong |
| Additional Context | Extra details about the email (for example, which church it belonged to, or whether it was a test) |
Email Statuses
Each email log entry has one of three statuses:
Sent
The email was successfully handed off to the email service for delivery.
Note: A "Sent" status means the email was accepted by the email service provider. It does not guarantee that the email arrived in the recipient's inbox -- it may have been filtered by their spam filter or bounced by their mail server.
Pending
The email has been queued for sending but has not yet been processed. This is a temporary state.
Failed
The email could not be sent. The error message field records details about what went wrong.
Common failure reasons include:
- Invalid recipient email address
- Email service provider connection issues
- SMTP authentication failures
- Rate limiting by the email provider
- Recipient's mail server rejecting the message
Daily Statistics
The Email Templates page displays daily counters at the top, including:
- Sent Today -- The number of emails successfully sent today
- Failed Today -- The number of emails that failed to send today
These counters cover the current day and provide a quick health check on your email delivery. They are scoped to your church, so you only see your own church's activity.
Understanding Log Entries
Test Emails
When you send a test email from a template's Preview page (Email Templates > Preview > send test), it is recorded with:
- A subject prefixed with "[TEST]"
- A notification type marked as a test
- A note flagging it as a test, along with the church it belonged to
Automated Notification Emails
System-generated emails are recorded with:
- The template that was used (for example, a schedule reminder)
- The notification type matching the event that occurred
- A link back to the related notification
Troubleshooting Email Delivery
Expected Emails Not Being Sent
If recipients aren't getting emails you expect:
- Confirm that the specific email template is Active on the Email Templates page (a disabled template stops that notification from being sent to anyone).
- Check that the triggering event actually occurred (e.g., a schedule was created, a substitute was requested).
- Glance at the Failed Today counter on the Email Templates page to see whether messages are failing rather than simply not being triggered.
High Failure Rate
If your Failed Today count is unexpectedly high:
- Reach out to TimelyChurch support, who can review the underlying error messages for a common pattern.
- Verify that your recipients' email addresses are correct and current.
- If you use a custom sending domain, ensure it has proper DNS records (SPF, DKIM, DMARC).
Emails Sent but Not Received
If the counters show emails were sent but recipients report not receiving them:
- Ask recipients to check their spam/junk folder.
- Verify the recipient email address is correct.
- Confirm your sending domain has proper email authentication records.