There is a really powerful feature in OpenCRM which enables you to set up rules which will cause an email or an SMS to be sent automatically to the record assigned user, or the related contact. With some additional configuration you can add further users to an email template and thus send an automated email to anyone in your system, when those specific criteria are fulfilled.

Here are a couple of real-world examples to illustrate what this feature is capable of.

• Send an automatic notification to an assigned user via SMS when a Sales Order is eSigned. This means you are notified of this significant development in the sales process there and then and receive this message on your phone wherever you are and without needing to be logged into your OpenCRM.
   
• Send an automated email to the Assigned User and CC an email to a Project Manager when a new project is started.
   
• Send an automated email to the Finance and Accounts department that lets them know when a new customer has been signed up.

How to set up the Email/ SMS rules.

Go to Settings and select the Auto Email/ SMS Checking Rules label in the Configuration section

This takes you to the screen where you are able to add new auto-email and SMS rules. If you already have some of these set up you can view and modify them from this screen too. The panel you need to configurate looks like this:

Let's create an example which will send an Automatic Email to a Company and their assigned OpenCRM User when the Type field on the Company is set to being Reseller or Partner.

Module: Use the drop-down selector here to choose which module you would like to run the rule on.

Run on Edit: This means that the rule will be triggered when you are editing an existing record in OpenCRM, if you leave this unticked it will run the rule on the creation of a new record.

Field Rules: This is where you add details of the factors you want to trigger an email or SMS. You can use simple or more advanced rules - in our example we are using the word "Reseller" or "Partner" in the "Type" field to trigger the required auto-email. You will also find further explanation of some of these rules on the Settings page. You can set the rule by entereing the OpenCRM system field name, followed by ="Your Match Value Here". To find our match - creating an email based on two possible field entries, separate these values by a comma. Using Enter instead of a comma and setting these rules on two lines would create an AND search instead of an OR search, so this would require you to fulfil all criteria instead of just one of them.

Furthermore, you are likely to only want to receive a notification when you have edited this field - otherwise you will trigger the notification every time you are in this record in Edit mode. You can achieve this by stating that the value must be changed from either a specific value, or using "*" which encompasses any previous value and then >> "enter new value here" .

If you are using a custom field to trigger the email, then you need to use the custom field name, for example "cf_382".

How to find an OpenCRM field name: http://opencrm.co.uk/crm-knowledgebase/kb1784119/How-can-I-find-the-name-of-a-field-%28Chrome-browser%29-within-OpenCRM.html

You are able to use comparison operators to trigger auto emails and SMS, example:

!= is Not Equal To

>, >=, <, <= for Greater Than and Less Than values

"today" to check against today's date

Email/ SMS Template ID: Use this field to specify the template you wish to send. You are able to pre-populate a template with other recipients. So for example, if you want all the members of the Sales Team to receive the email notification, then you need to pre-populate the template with their contact details in the Email "To", "CC" or "BCC" field.

This FAQ explains how you can find an Email Template ID: http://opencrm.co.uk/crm-knowledgebase/kb657223/How-do-I-find-the-ID-of-a-Template-to-use-within-the-SETTINGS-options-in-OpenCRM.html

Send options: Using the tick box options you can select whether to send the message as an email or SMS, and whether to send to the related contact (eg the customer themselves) and/ or the assigned user.

To add or remove any of the rules you have created then click on the Add/ Remove button as appropriate

Notes

• If you start to set up an auto-email rule for example setting the module, but do not add any rules, then this will trigger a notification which will be sent to the User if that box is ticked, whatever is entered when a record in that module is created (or edited).
   
• Entering no Template ID will send a blank message.

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