Email Templates
Audience: This article is for church administrators.
The Email Templates page lets you preview, test, and toggle the system-generated emails that TimelyChurch sends on your behalf — invitation emails, follow-up reminders, schedule notifications, donation receipts, etc. You can review wording, send a test email to yourself, and turn off optional templates that don't apply to your church.
Email Templates differ from Email Campaigns (broadcast emails to a list) and Email Automations (event-driven multi-step flows). For those, see the Communication category.
Plan Requirement
Email Templates is a Pro plan feature.
Accessing Email Templates
Go to Settings → Email Templates.
What You Can Do
| Action | Notes |
|---|---|
| List all templates | Shows template name, category, active status |
| View a template | Shows the subject + body preview |
| Send a test email | Sends to your own email address using sample data |
| Toggle active/inactive | Disabled templates are skipped at send time |
Common Templates
While the exact list varies by plan, you'll typically see:
- Team invitation — sent when you invite a new team member
- Schedule assignment — sent when a volunteer is scheduled to serve
- Schedule reminder — sent before an upcoming serving slot
- Follow-up reminder — daily reminder to assignees about pending follow-ups
- Donation receipt — sent after a successful online donation
- Giving statement ready — sent when an annual statement is generated
- Forms submission — confirmation to the submitter
Sending a Test
- Open a template.
- Click Send Test Email.
- The test is sent to your logged-in user's email address using realistic sample data (so merge tags render correctly).
- Check your inbox to verify subject, body, and links.
Disabling a Template
If a template doesn't apply to your church (e.g., you don't use online giving, so you don't want donation receipts), click Toggle Active to disable it. Disabled templates are skipped at the moment they would otherwise be sent.
Caution: Some templates are required for normal operation (e.g., team invitations). Disabling those will silently break the corresponding workflow. When in doubt, leave a template active and customize its content instead.
See Also
- Communication category — campaigns, automations, announcements, messaging
- Notifications & Preferences — control which notifications are sent