Domain (SMTP) Configuration
Tight uses SMTP to send emails from your domain. Here’s what Tight needs from you:- SMTP Username
- SMTP Password
- SMTP Host URL (e.g., smtp.mandrillapp.com for Mandrill)
- SMTP Port (generally 465 for SSL or 587 for TLS)
- Preferred “From” Address for specific email types:
- Reports: e.g., reports@yourcompany.com
- Invoices: e.g., invoices@yourcompany.com
Email Design Customization
Tight can customize two email categories: report emails and invoice emails. Report emails can be split into emails with an attachment and emails with a link to a download. For each of these report email types, there can be a separate email for PDF reports and for XLS reports, for a total of four different report-related emails:- Report Emails
- Emails with report attachments
- XLS
- Emails with links to reports
- XLS
- Emails with report attachments
- Invoice Emails
Dynamic Content in Templates
Templates can include both dynamic and static content:- Dynamic Content: Use double braces with a descriptive name (e.g.,
{{ companyName }}) to denote fields Tight will populate automatically. - Static Content: Include any fixed elements as plain HTML, such as a recurring message or footer.
Templates
- Invoice Email HTML Template
An HTML document with the following elements:
- Inline CSS styles
- Static content as needed
- Optional
<img>tags linking to remote images - Dynamic Placeholders:
- Company Information:
{{ companyName }},{{ companyLogo }},{{ brandColor }} - Invoice Information:
{{ invoiceName }},{{ dueDate }},{{ balanceDue }},{{ clientName }},{{ discount }}, and{{ notes }}, - Line items:
{{ unitPrice }},{{ quantity }},{{ totalAmount }}- Tight can handle line items in a loop, so you only need to indicate line item fields once in your template
- Company Information:
- A button linking to the invoice (Tight will handle the link insertion).
- Messaging - Tight uses the same email template for a variety of invoice-related updates. You can provide messaging for these as desired, otherwise you can use Tight’s default messaging in your email template (e.g., Invoice Sent, Reminder, Paid, Refunded, Cancelled)
- Report Email HTML Template with the report attached
- Inline CSS styles
- Static content as needed
- Optional
<img>tags linking to remote images - Optional alternate static content between attached XLS and PDF reports
- Report Email HTML Template with a link to download the report
- Inline CSS styles
- Static content as needed
- Optional
<img>tags linking to remote images - A download button (Tight will add the link)
- Optional alternate static content between XLS and PDF linked reports
Best practices
- Many email clients do not support certain common CSS properties, notably
box-shadow,justify-content, andflex. Tight recommends using a table (<table>) for your email layout.- For a comprehensive list of supported CSS properties by email client, see Campaign Monitor’s CSS Guide.
- To test your HTML email, there are various online tools available. Check out this list of email preview tools.
- Web fonts are often unsupported by email clients, so using a web-safe font as a backup is recommended. For a list of web-safe fonts and their support by operating system, see CSS Font Stack’s Guide.
- For any static images, consider publicly hosting them and providing Tight with a link to embed in your template. Email clients may encounter issues rendering images, leading to potential resolution drops, slower load times, or blocking the image altogether. If you decide to use images, make sure your design still stands without them.
- Embedded CSS using the
<style>tag is allowed, but inline styling renders more consistently in email clients.- Consider using the Premailer tool to convert CSS stylesheets to inline CSS
- Checking emails on mobile devices is becoming increasingly common, so make sure your template renders correctly for mobile email clients as well.
Example Templates
- invoice.html
- reportLinkPDF.html
- reportLinkXLSX.html
- reportAttachmentPDF.html
- reportAttachmentXLSX.html