Introduction
Templates help enormously when creating documents and e-mails. They ensure that you and your colleagues can quickly and uniformly compose a document or e-mail containing the right corporate identity. In addition to text and layout, you can merge data you have recorded in Tribe into the document. For example, address details of the relation, an offer number, the name of the salesperson or the products that are registered with a sales opportunity. By creating a template once, you can generate your document or e-mail next time in one click. You can create a template per type of document or e-mail, this way you can generate e-mails, quotations, work orders, invoices and other documents super fast.
Where do you find the settings for templates?
The structure of a document template
Setting up an offer template
Creating a general e-mail template
Categorising e-mail templates
How to add blocks in a template?
How to change the general settings of a block?
Layout: different types of blocks
1 Where do you find the settings for templates?
First navigate to configuration (1). The next step (2) depends on the type of template you are going to create.
Please note that the options below are only available if the corresponding module is activated.
Quotation: For sending a quotation via the Sales Opportunity activity. To do this, click Sales in the menu.
Invoice: For invoicing by using the Invoice activity. To do so, click Invoicing.
Work order: Allows a mechanic to have his work order signed by the customer using the Work order activity. To do so, click Work orders.
Document: Allows general documents to be merged with a relation or another activity. To do this, click Sales.
We distinguish different types of templates, such as, document and offer templates and e-mail and part templates.Templates: These are the 'normal' documents such as an offer or invoice.
Offer templates: These are the accompanying e-mails you use to offer a document to your customer.
Part templates: These are small parts of a template that are fixed and recurrent in a template or offer template, such as an employee's personal signature, or a piece of standard text.
E-mail: For creating individual e-mail templates the can be merged with a relation. For this, click on E-mails & Campaigns.
For all activities, we already have an example ready for you as standard. You can easily customise these by adding your own text, layout or merge fields. You can also choose to create a new template.
2 The structure of a document template
You can choose to adapt the sample template from Tribe CRM or create a completely new template yourself. When you create a document template, you will see the following screen structure.
In the first block you can customise the name for the template, specify the margins and the font.
A template consists of several tabs. The tab you see first is the content. You can also add a Header with, for example, a logo and a Footer. If you click preview, you can see what the template will eventually look like.
Tip: The preview of your template is created based on an existing activity. So make sure you create at least one activity to use the preview.
Each template is composed of several blocks. You can add a new block yourself by clicking + (the plus is above and below each block to add the block at that location). You can find more information about the different types of blocks in section 6 of this article.
Additional options are always displayed on the right-hand side of the screen. Which options are available here depends on the type of block you have chosen.
It is possible to create a new template based on an existing one. You do this by copying the existing template to your clipboard, creating a new template and pasting the data here. This way, you quickly add new templates that you can then modify, if necessary.
3 The structure of an offer template
The structure of an offer template is more or less the same as that of a document template, with a few exceptions. For example, you don't have a distinction between tabs such as header and footer, but you do have the option to enter a default subject for the e-mail. You also have the option to attach standard documents to the offer template, such as terms and conditions or directions, for example.
4 Creating a general e-mail template
A general e-mail template can be used when adding e-mails in all areas of Tribe CRM. For example, you can use it for support tickets, relations, sales opportunities and projects.
It is possible to give an email template a Template category and even sub-template categories to make it easy to find the right one for multiple templates.
Once you click on Emails and Campaigns in Configuration, you get the following screen:
Add an email template
Click + Add in General Email Templates, fill in the details and click Save and Open. The general e-mail template can be set up just like the offer template.
The general settings of the template can be entered or changed here. If Standard sender is turned on, every e-mail will contain this template by default.
The email's standard subject can be entered here.
Tip: Do you use ticketing? Then it is recommended to leave the subject of the e-mail blank. In the case of ticketing, the subject of an e-mail is always automatically prefilled with the unique ID of the activity. As a result, incoming e-mails are immediately linked to the correct activity.
Under Document layout, the document width and background colour can be set for the entire template.
The settings of the selected block are displayed here. It depends on the block type which settings are shown.
With the + in the screen, a block can be added. These are explained in more detail below.
It is possible to link standard files to an e-mail template. Think, for example, of delivery conditions or directions.
5 Categorising e-mail templates
The number of e-mail templates can be quite large. It is then useful to categorise them so you can easily filter by category and find your choice. When creating a template, you can select the category or create a new one.
6 How do you add blocks in a template?
Once a document or e-mail template is open, it is possible to add blocks in the layout of a template. To do this, click + (1) and find the type of block you want to add. Blocks are divided into Common Elements (2) and Layout Elements (3). If you use a particular block type a lot, it can be found in Most Used (4).
7 How do you change the general settings of a block?
Every block has some general settings that appear in every block:
You can change this block's setting on the right-hand side once a block is selected.
By clicking on the 3 dots above the block, you have the option to duplicate or delete a block.
The arrows on the left-hand side allow you to change the order of the blocks.
The left button above a block allows you to group the contents of the block so that nothing can move.
8 Layout: different types of blocks
A template consists of several blocks. Each type of block has its own unique properties. Below we briefly explain the different blocks. Especially click through if you are looking for a more detailed description of each block type.
Text: In this block, you add your text and fields.
Image: You now get a bar to add images.
Logo: If you have put your company logo in Tribe CRM, it will be added immediately when you choose logo.
Image from field: If you have fields in Tribe CRM with images in them, you can display them with this block.
Products: If you create a template for an activity in which products are added (quotation, invoice or work order), you can make them visible with this block. After adding this block, you determine on the right-hand side, what you want to see of the products.
Hours records: When you create a template for an activity in which hours are registered, you can make them visible with this block. Once you have added this block, you determine on the right-hand side what you want to see of the time registration on the template.
Columns: this block divides the page into columns. For each column you can add a new block with, for example, an image or text.
Groups: If you select several blocks, you will see a button at the top left (in the blocks) that you can click to group the blocks. The blocks then stay together with your chosen layout. And you can continue formatting them as a separate group.
Separator: Adds a horizontal line.
Spacer: use the spacer if you want a blank line. After adding it, you can make it bigger or smaller by dragging it at the bottom edge.
Page break: use this block to add a page break in your template.
Sub template: Use this block to add a previously created sub template.
HTML: HTML stands for Hyper Text Markup Language, A programming language used for writing web pages. This language is found in several programmes. It is possible to copy the HTML code of an external programme or an HTML editor into Tribe CRM.