How do I get bill changes by email?

An email digest sends you the bill changes from the Notifications page, grouped by Issue Portfolio, on a schedule you choose. Each digest is yours alone. Nobody else on your staff sees it or gets it, and every role (Owner, Editor, Analyst and Viewer) can set one up.

When nothing changed in the period, nothing is sent.

Where to find it

• Open Notifications under Bill Tracking in the left navigation and choose the Email digests tab, or
• Open the menu under your name at the top right and choose My email digests.

Set up a digest

Choose Set up a digest (or Add a digest if you already have one). The form starts with a suggestion: a Daily digest at 7:00 AM in your state capital's time zone, covering every Issue Portfolio you can see. Change anything you like:

• Name: what you call it, for example "Weekly committee roundup".
• When to send: Every day, Once a week or On chosen days, at a time on the quarter hour, in the time zone you pick. The line under the choices says the schedule in words.
• Which bills: tick All tracked bills for every bill on the tracked list, and tick any Issue Portfolios you want. A bill in several portfolios is listed once, under the first.
• Which changes: the same types of change as the Notifications page (Progress, Committees, Hearings, Amendments, Sponsors, Documents, Companion bills, Search and packet matches, Every action). Every action is off to start with because it can be a lot.
• List hearings in the next 7 days: adds upcoming hearings for these bills. It is only added to a digest that already has changes to report.
• Attach a bill status report: None, PDF or Word. If you attach one, pick which status report to use. The standard choice is Weekly status. The report covers the same period as the digest. A report too large to attach is linked instead.

Choose Create digest to save it.

You need at least one of: a portfolio, All tracked bills, or Search and packet matches. You also need at least one type of change and a name.

You can keep up to 10 digests.

What the email contains

The subject names your organization, how many changes and how many bills, and the date. Inside, bills are grouped by Issue Portfolio (shared ones first, then your private ones), then "Other tracked bills", then search and packet matches. A digest never includes anything your own Notifications page would not show you.

Saved search matches go into a digest only when you chose Digest as the way to receive that saved search. Saved searches are covered in their own article.

Manage your digests

Each digest on the Email digests tab shows its schedule, what it covers, when it last ran and when it runs next. The buttons are:

• Turn off or Turn on.
• Edit to change anything, then Save.
• Preview to see the email for the last period in a window. If nothing changed, the preview says so.
• Send me a test to send that email to your own address now. You can do this about once a minute.
• Delete to remove it for good.

Stopping a digest from the email

Every digest email has two links at the bottom:

• Manage digests opens the Email digests tab.
• Stop this digest opens a page that asks Stop this digest? Choose Stop this digest to turn off that one digest. Your other digests and your notifications stay as they are.

Many email programs also show their own unsubscribe button, which does the same thing. To get the digest again, open the Email digests tab and choose Turn on.

Why a digest turned itself off

If a digest stops, the Email digests tab says why under its name:

• Turned off from the link in the email.
• Turned off because you were no longer on this organization's staff.
• Turned off because your account has no email address.
• Turned off because the mail server refused your address. Check your email address, then turn the digest back on.
• Turned off after five failed sends in a row. When a send fails, it is tried again after about 15 minutes, then an hour, then four hours. After the fifth failure in a row the digest is turned off. Turn it back on to try again.

If your organization's account is not active, digests are skipped but stay on.

If this does not solve it, email support@conservativestates.app and tell us your organization's name.