Overview

Required plan

This feature or setting is available to all customers on any Recurly subscription plan.

Important callout

In order to be compliant with regulations and standards such as PCI-DSS, HIPAA, may we suggest not include any sensitive information (e.g. protected health information, credit card numbers) when using Recurly’s email templates.

Definition

Email templates in Recurly refer to predefined layouts and formats which businesses can use to send automated or scheduled emails to their customers. These templates are designed to maintain brand consistency, enhance communication efficiency, and ensure relevant information is communicated in a structured manner.

Key benefits

• Consistent branding: Ensure every email resonates with your brand's identity and ethos.
• Enhanced efficiency: Streamline your communication process, reducing the effort and time spent on repetitive tasks.
• Personalized communication: Use parameters to tailor emails for each recipient, making your messages feel more personalized and relevant.
• Reduced errors: Predefined formats mean there's less chance for human error in communications.
• Improved engagement: Professionally designed templates can lead to better customer engagement and interaction.

Email communications with Recurly

Recurly provides a robust suite of email templates for various account and subscription actions. These templates not only maintain communication with your subscribers but can also be tailored to mirror your brand's image. Furthermore, the granularity in our settings ensures you have the utmost control over which notifications are relayed to your subscribers throughout their subscription journey.

Email notification templates

Recurly offers email notifications for various actions. Please note that notifications are only sent to valid email addresses; addresses ending with "@test.com" or "@example.com" are deemed invalid. In the absence of a valid email linked to an account, notifications will be sent to the site's billing contact. By default, all email templates are in English, unless modified.

Debt Collection Email notifications

The federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) provides key protections to consumers. These include rules for how debt collectors can communicate with debtors and third parties.
To support FDCPA, merchants will have the opportunity to choose whether or not they wish to opt into sending their emails that are payment-related between the hours of 2-4 PM ET daily to adhere to the federal law about not communicating with customers about money owed to their business between the hours of 9 pm and 8 am.

This new option resides on the Site Settings page and once enabled, will send ALL appropriate emails between 2-4 PM ET daily. Emails intended to send after that time frame will be held and sent the following day between 2-4 PM ET.

• New Invoice
• New Subscription
• Trial Ending
• Bill Date Reminder
• Term Renewal Reminder
• Mastercard Reminder
• SEPA Renewal Reminder
• BACS Renewal Reminder
• Credit Card Expired
• Ramp Price Change
• Gift Card Balance Low
• Payment Declined
• Payment Declined Due to 3D Secure 2
• Invoice Past Due
• Expired for Non Payment

Header and footer templates

• Email Header: This is an optional section that can be included at the beginning of all email templates.
• Email Footer: Similarly, this is an optional section that can be featured at the end of all email templates.

Account templates

• Activate Account: Sent when a customer creates an account using their subscription email address on your account management portal.
• Password Reset: Sent automatically when someone requests a password reset on your platform.
• Password Has Been Reset: Informs customers of a change in their password, helping to maintain account security.

Invoice templates

• New Invoice: Specifically for manual payments, this email notifies users of manually generated invoices or the initiation of new subscriptions with manual collection.
• New Credit invoice: This is sent to the customer whenever a credit invoice is generated and posted manually.
• Payment Confirmation: Confirms successful payment transactions, excluding $0 invoices and new subscriptions. Options are available to send this to everyone or only to Mastercard users, be sure to include any necessary cancellation guidelines for Mastercard subscribers.
• Payment Refunded: Alerts subscribers to a refund on a transaction.

Subscription templates

• New Subscription: Sends a notice to the customer after successful sign up or a subscription with a future start date is activated. .
• Subscription Change: Informs subscribers of any changes made to their existing subscription.
• Subscription Canceled: Sends a notification upon subscription cancellation.
• Subscription Expired: Communicates the termination of a subscription, either immediate or at the end of a post-cancellation billing cycle.
• Trial Ending: Sent prior to the trial period ending, advising of the impending transition to a paid subscription as required by law in many regions. This template can only be enabled if a plan’s trial length is greater than 3 days.

Subscription renewal templates

• Bill Date Reminder: Dispatched before the upcoming billing date.
• Term Renewal Reminder: Reminders sent before the renewal or billing date, helping subscribers stay informed.
• Annual Reminder: Sent yearly from the subscription start date, in compliance with specific regional regulations.
• Mastercard Reminder: Sent before the billing date to Mastercard users, including necessary subscription cancellation instructions in line with Mastercard policies.
• SEPA Renewal Reminder: Tailored for users utilizing the SEPA payment method.
• BACS Renewal Reminder: Tailored for users utilizing the BACS payment method.
• Credit Card Expired: Alerts users with an expired credit card before the next bill date.
• Ramp Price Change: Notifies users of an upcoming price change in their ramp pricing model subscription.

Note: These templates can be configured the days prior.

Gift card templates

• Gift Card Delivery: Delivered to the recipient either immediately post-purchase or on a predetermined delivery date.
• Gift Card Purchase Confirmation: Confirms the purchase to the customer after buying a gift card.
• Gift Card Balance Low: Alerts the customer to the nearing end of their gift subscription, prompting them to update their billing info seven days before renewal. (This is not configurable for the days prior).
• Gift Card Redemption Reminder: Reminds the recipient to redeem their gift card one month after the delivery date if it remains unused.

Dunning management templates

In this section, you can create various email templates to efficiently manage failed payment scenarios. You have the flexibility to set different intervals for these emails, choose the number of messages sent, select which specific email to send, and determine the final status of a subscription and invoice if the payment isn't successfully collected. Tailoring multiple templates here allows you to maintain clear communication with your customers throughout the dunning process, adapting to their needs and response times. These emails will help notify a customer that an invoice failed, and take action to update their payment method information to try to collect the invoice.

• Post-Trial Payment Declined: Forms part of the trial dunning cycle, alerting subscribers to unsuccessful payment post-trial.
• Payment Declined: This is an automatic alert that lets customers know when a payment didn't go through during the usual billing cycle. You can set up several different messages to send out at various points if you have a series of reminders planned. This way, you can keep customers informed step by step.
• Payment Declined Due to 3D Secure 2: Alerts to payment declines resulting from the need for 3D Secure 2 authentication, replacing standard payment declined emails and following the settings set for the automatic invoice dunning cycle. Please note, this email only functions for gateways that return 3DS-specific decline messages. Those gateways are: Adyen, Worldpay, First Data, Payeezy, and SagePay/Opayo.
• Invoice Past Due: Informs users of past-due manual invoices as part of the manual invoice dunning cycle.
• Expired for Non-Payment: Sent during any dunning cycle to notify subscribers of subscription expiration due to non-payment.

Customization

With Recurly, you can easily personalize your emails by adding images and inserting dynamic parameters. Below are some options for customization. There are many parameters you can include in your emails. For a full list of parameters you can include in emails, see this section below.

Adding CC or BCC addresses

Want to keep an eye on your customer's actions like when they cancel a subscription or face a payment decline? Recurly lets you add CC/BCC email addresses to all automated emails sent to your customers. Here’s how you set it up:

1. Go to your Email Templates page.
2. Find the email template you want to change and click Customize.
3. Hit the Edit button.
4. In the CC Email Address field, add the email addresses you want to notify (separate multiple addresses with a comma).
5. Click Update Email Template to save your settings.

To use BCC instead, find the 'Send email copies as BCC' option in Advanced Settings > Email Settings and check the box.

Changing the from address

Your company's default email address is used to send emails. Each type of email can have its own sender address and name. Format it like this: "Recurly Support" <[email protected]>.

Configuring HTML emails

Recurly automatically sends out plain text and HTML versions of your emails. Users will see the HTML version if their mail client supports it; otherwise, they’ll see the plain text version. Feel free to customize both versions to match your style. If you prefer, you can disable the HTML version for each email type.

Adjusting header and footer

Your emails come with default headers and footers. Remove the {{{header}}} and {{{footer}}} tags if you don't want them in your emails.

Displaying foreign currencies correctly

To show non-US currency symbols correctly, use three curly braces ({{{) instead of two ({{). This keeps the actual text and displays the correct symbols.

Using boolean sections for custom messages

Personalize your new subscription emails based on whether a trial period is offered. Use code blocks like the ones below to display different messages for trial and non-trial subscriptions:
In the new subscription email, it might be helpful to customize the email depending on the presence of a trial. If the subscription has a trial, the email should read "Your credit card will be charged at XXX." Whereas a subscription without a trial might say, "Your credit card was charged." Here is an example:

  {{#subscription_has_trial?}}
  Your card will be billed {{{subscription_total_amount}}}
  when your trial ends on {{subscription_trial_ends_at}}.
  {{/subscription_has_trial?}}
and/or
  {{^subscription_has_trial?}}
  Your card was charged {{{invoice_total_paid}}}.
  {{/subscription_has_trial?}}

In the above example, the ^ character tests that the variable is false. The second code block is executed if the customer is not in a trial period.
You can also hide information when it's not relevant using a similar method. This technique also works for testing if a variable has a value. You might not want to display a Next payment date if there is no next payment. This works as follows:

  {{#subscription_next_payment_date}}
  Next Payment Date: {{subscription_next_payment_date}}
  {{/subscription_next_payment_date}}

You can also customize your subscription renewal reminders for Direct Debit customers based on whether a mandate ID is present. Use code blocks like the ones below to display different messages for customers who have or do not have a mandate ID available in their billing information.

Here is an example:

  {{#subscription_has_trial?}}
  Your account will be billed {{{subscription_total_amount}}} in 10 days.
  {{/billing_has_active_mandate?}}
  {{^subscription_has_trial?}}
  Your mandate ID is: {{{direct_debit_mandate_id}}}.
  {{/billing_has_active_mandate?}}

With this addition, the email can display this sentence dynamically instead of ending up with a sentence with a missing piece.

Invoice line items

In emails like New Subscription, Payment Confirmation, Declined Payment, New Invoice, and Invoice Past Due , you can detail the invoice line items for your customers. Here's how to list all items in an invoice:

{{#invoice_line_items}}
{{{line_amount}}} -- {{line_description}}
{{{line_date}}}
{{/invoice_line_items}}

This template part shows the amount, description, and date for each line item in the invoice.

Subscription add-ons

Want to display the add-ons a customer has subscribed to? Use this simple structure to list all add-ons with their names and prices:

{{#subscription_add_ons}}
{{add_on_name}}
{{add_on_price}}
{{/subscription_add_ons}}

Coupons and discounts

If you offer discounts through coupons, showcase them clearly in your invoices using the template below. It displays the coupon details and the discount amount only if a discount has been applied:

{{#invoice_has_discount?}}
  {{#invoice_discounts}}
  Coupon: {{coupon_code}} // Good For {{coupon_lifetime}}
  {{/invoice_discounts}}
  Discount: {{{invoice_discount_amount}}}
{{/invoice_has_discount?}}

To share active coupon redemptions on a customer's account, use this:

{{#account_has_coupon?}}
 {{#coupons}}Coupon: {{coupon_code}} // Good For {{coupon_lifetime}}{{/coupons}}
{{/account_has_coupon?}}

Remember, this won't show single-use coupons that have already been used; for that, refer back to the invoice discount template mentioned earlier.

Images in emails

Brighten up your emails by adding images like your company logo. Insert this HTML code in your email header file:

<body>
<div style="border-bottom:1px solid #E8E8E8; margin:0px 14px;">
<img style="padding:0px 0px 6px 0px;" src="http://mycompanylogo.gif"/>
</div>

Ensuring email reach with Recurly

Recurly helps you reach your subscribers through emails. It's a priority for both of us to make sure these emails reach the right inboxes. With Recurly, you can expect top-notch email deliverability.

Utilizing SPF and DKIM for secure email sending

Recurly uses SPF and DKIM mechanisms to secure the emails you send. Here’s what happens when you set up your email templates and sending address:

• Emails will automatically be signed using DKIM, ensuring their authenticity.
• Depending on your environment, the emails will be signed as recurly.com (in production) or recurlysandbox.com (in sandbox sites).

Good news: You no longer need to create an SPF record for Recurly emails, simplifying the setup process!

DMARC Policy: Setting up for successful email delivery

To make sure Recurly’s emails get delivered seamlessly, it's vital to have the correct DMARC policy in place for your domain. The policy needs to be “p=none.” Policies set to “p=quarantine” or “p=reject” won’t work here.

If your requirements dictate the use of “p=quarantine” or “p=reject” policies, we have got you covered:

• Learn how to integrate with SendGrid through our documentation.
• Reach out to our Support team for detailed guidance and to explore our professional services.

Customizing email preferences

Recurly offers two customization levels: for your entire site or for individual plans.

For Site-Level Customization:

1. Access the Email Templates page.
2. Select enabled templates.
3. Click Edit next to Settings.
4. Toggle the status to your desired setting.

Disabling a site-level email also deactivates it for all plans.

For Plan-Level Customization:

1. Ensure the email template is active on the site-level.
2. Go to Customization > Plans.
3. Identify the plan to alter.
4. Uncheck the email template box to disable.

Advanced email templates management guide

1. Live Email Preview

While modifying an email template, the Preview button becomes accessible. By clicking on it, you can get a real-time view of the changes you've applied to the template.

2. Sending test emails

To get a comprehensive understanding of how Recurly emails appear to your clients, there's an option to send a test version to your email account.
To do this:

1. Access the email template editing page.
2. Locate and click on the Send Test Email button, adjacent to the Preview button.

After initiating the test email send, wait for its arrival in your inbox. If it doesn't appear shortly, check your spam or junk folders.

Parameters

Email parameters replace certain text strings with personalized details for each recipient, enhancing the relevance of your communications.

Basic parameters

Advanced parameters

Further, Recurly avails a set of advanced placeholders that help in providing more context in your emails:

Leverage Recurly’s customization features to their fullest by using placeholders effectively:

1. Consistency: Maintain a uniform usage of placeholders across all email templates to avoid confusion.
2. Context: Utilize placeholders where they provide clear context to prevent misunderstanding.
3. Testing: After customizing templates, send test emails to ensure proper functionality and error-free output.

Template parameters

Email templates often use parameters—placeholders that automatically pull in specific details when an email is generated. Here's a breakdown of the available parameters-

Company Information

For merchants with Multiple Business Entities, the "Company" value merged into each email parameter field in a given email template will reflect the Business Entity applied to the invoice associated with the email, or the overriding Business Entity applied to the customer's account appropriately.

Subscription plan details

The plan's billing period interval, e.g. "per month" or "per 2 weeks."

{{plan_trial_interval}}

The plan's trial period, e.g. "1 month" or "2 weeks."

Shipping address parameters for subscriptions

The shipping address (street 1, street 2, city, state, postal code, country) in one string, separated by commas.

Subscription alteration parameters

Account details

Coupon parameters

Billing information

Invoice details

Line item details

Subscription & add-on information

Subscriptions

Gift card fields

Transaction fields

Direct debit fields

Custom fields

Recurly supports email parameters for the following custom fields:

• Custom fields on Accounts
• Custom fields on Plans
• Custom fields on Subscriptions
• Custom fields on Items
• Custom fields on Charges

Email parameters for custom fields allow a merchant to merge a custom field value into their email templates. This will ensure that a merchant’s customers receive the information required in communications sent via Recurly on behalf of the merchant.

Please note

The custom field NAMES may contain only alphanumeric characters and underscores. If any custom field names contain special characters, the special characters will be converted to underscores ( _ ) in the parameter conversion. Any sequences of underscores will then be reduced to a single underscore.

The formatting pattern for all custom field email parameters is as follows:

• Value of field: line_custom_field_<name> = <value>

Example: {{account_custom_field_has_professional_services_engagement}}
Merging the value for the custom field on the account object that is called "Has professional services engagement".

• Boolean value of fields (Yes/No): line_custom_field_<name>_<value?>

Example: {{account_custom_field_does_customer_have_professional_services_engagement}}
Is the custom field "Does customer have professional services engagement?" present/populated? Boolean= true/false or yes/no.

Resetting your templates

Occasionally, Recurly will update the email templates for all our subscribers. The updates will not affect your templates if you have any customizations. If your templates are not using the latest version of the templates, you may reset your templates back to the Recurly defaults. To reset your emails:

1. Click the Customize button associated with the appropriate email template
2. Click the Edit button in the “Plain-text Body” or “HTML Body” section
3. Scroll to the bottom of the page and look for a Reset Template button in bright red. The button is only visible if you have customized your template.
4. Click the button and agree to the reset.

Resetting your email template will not affect any customizations you have made to the HTML Enabled flag, TO, BCC, or subject line.

FAQs

Q: How does overriding the 'trial_ends_at' date via API affect emails?
A: If the trial end date is within 3 days, the email won't be dispatched.

Q: Does setting a future start date dispatch the Renewal Reminder?
A: Yes, if the date exceeds 2 days.

Q: What happens if there's no email on file?
The default site email will be utilized. Ensure you collect or pass the email to Recurly.

Q: Can API set Renewal Reminders and Trial Ending emails?
A: Currently, it's only possible through the admin console, but we're exploring API options.

Q: Will modifying the email templates affect existing subscribers?
A: Yes, provided their subscription fits the criteria for these emails.

Q: Can upcoming invoice or subscription details be included in Renewal Reminders or Trial Ending emails?
A: No, these emails reference available data when generated.

Q: If you have both the renewal reminder/term renewal reminder and the annual reminder emails enabled and the subscription is coming up for its renewal at the 12 month mark, which template gets sent out?

A: If both templates are configured to the same days prior, both templates will NOT be sent. One will be prioritized. In the case that the term renewal reminder and annual reminder emails are configured for the same day, then the term email will be prioritized.

Please note: If the merchant wishes both to be sent, then the days prior need to be set to different values.

Q: If a merchant enables the annual renewal reminder email, will it be sent to all subscriptions (new and existing)?
A: If a merchant enables the annual renewal reminder email, it will be sent out for all subscriptions (new and existing) for the plans that have that email template enabled.