How to Send Automatic Deal Status Emails to Customers
Automatic deal status emails to customers come down to one button in Planfix and one conditional block in the email template. Instead of writing a separate message every time a deal moves on, you keep all the variants in a single template and let the ELSEIF construct choose the one that matches the current status; the syntax for variables and conditions in text is described in the Help Center article on variables in text. The video below is under two minutes long and shows the whole setup, from the button to the email the customer receives.
What you’ll learn: deal status emails driven by variables
- Create a button on the Deal object and choose who can see and click it.
- Pick the send email action and attach an email template to the button.
- Write one message body with IF, ELSEIF and ELSE branches, one branch per status.
- Set the recipient, the sender and the comment the button leaves in the task.
- Press the button in a real deal and check the email in the customer’s inbox.
How to set up the email button in Planfix, step by step
Step 1. Create a button on the Deal object
Open Account management → Objects, select the object your deals live in — in the video it is Deal — and open its Buttons section to create a new button. Enter a name for it, leave the process and display conditions at their default values, and add the employees who should be able to see and click it. Then set the appearance: a color and the text shown on the button. The settings for buttons in Planfix objects also let you say which other objects the same button works in, under which conditions it appears, who can click it and which operations it performs. Deals, orders and requests are all Planfix objects you can extend this way.
Step 2. Choose the send email action and build the template
In the action block of the button, select the option to send an email and add a template for the messages that go to customers. In the template, enter a title and then the subject of the email; a time variable can be inserted into the subject when the customer should see when the update was made. Correspondence sent this way stays attached to the deal instead of living in a personal mailbox, which is how Planfix works with email in general.
Step 3. Write the body with IF, ELSEIF and ELSE
In the body of the email, list one message per status using the conditional block from the Help Center. It has four parts:
- %%$IF(Logical formula)$%% — the first condition, followed by the text for it;
- %%$ELSEIF(Logical formula)$%% — the next condition and its text, repeated as many times as you have statuses;
- %%$ELSE$%% — an optional branch for everything the conditions above did not catch;
- %%$ENDBLOCK$%% — the end of the block.
Planfix reads the conditions from top to bottom and uses the text of the first one that is true, skipping the rest, so the order of the branches is the order in which they are checked. When the body is ready, activate the settings, add a signature to the template and save it.
Step 4. Set the recipient, sender and comment
Go back to the button settings and finish the action: the recipient is the counterparty of the deal, and the sender is the script initiator — the employee who pressed the button. Add a comment about the email that was sent, so the update is visible to colleagues in the task itself, and save the button settings.
Step 5. Test the button in a deal
Open a deal you are the assignee of and press the new button. Planfix sends the email about the status of the deal to the customer’s inbox and adds the comment to the task, so you can see at a glance that the customer has been informed. Two limits are worth knowing in advance: the same button can be pressed in the same task once a minute, and buttons are available on the Plan B and Plan X plans.
ELSEIF in an email template: one message per deal status
ELSEIF is what turns one template into several letters. The Help Center example checks three task fields one after another and shows only the message for the first field that is empty; in the video the same chain runs over the statuses of a deal, and the customer receives exactly one update instead of a list of possibilities. The closing ELSE is optional, and it is a good place for a neutral message that fits any status you have not described yet.
The same variables and conditions are not limited to email. They also work in task names and descriptions, in task templates, in comments and text fields, and in script and button actions such as sending an SMS, writing to a messenger or sending an HTTP request.
Who it’s for
- Sales: customers learn that a deal has moved on without anyone composing the message by hand.
- Support and service teams: one button for a status update instead of a template copied from a personal mailbox.
- Operations: the same button covers every stage of an order, because the template holds a branch for each one.
- Administrators: when the wording changes, you edit one template instead of asking the whole team to retype their letters.
FAQ
What does ELSEIF do in a Planfix email template?
It adds further conditions to an IF block. Planfix checks them from top to bottom and inserts the text of the first condition that is true, so a single template can hold a separate message for every deal status.
Can one button send a different email for each deal status?
Yes. The button runs a single send email action with one template, and the IF and ELSEIF chain inside the template picks the message that matches the status the deal is in when the button is pressed.
Who is the sender of an email sent by a button?
In the setup shown in the video, the recipient is the counterparty of the deal and the sender is the script initiator, meaning the employee who pressed the button. Planfix also adds a comment about the sent email to the task.
Start with one button and one email template
Pick the status update your team retypes most often, write its variants into one template and put a button on the deal card for it. From there it becomes part of business process automation in Planfix, next to the scripts that run the same actions without anyone pressing anything, as shown in CRM workflow automation with automated scripts. New to Planfix? Sign up to try it.
