How do I email a report on a schedule?

Any status report or hearing calendar can run on a schedule and be emailed to people on your staff, with the files attached. Curated reports cannot be scheduled.

Set up a schedule

1. Open Reports under Bill Tracking, choose the Status reports tab and open the template.
2. Scroll to Email this report and choose Email this report on a schedule (or Add another schedule).
3. Fill in the form:
   • When: Every day, Once a week or On chosen days, at a time on the quarter hour, in the time zone you pick. A status report starts at 7:00 AM every day; a hearing calendar starts at Thursday 3:00 PM, both in your state capital's time zone.
   • Files to attach: PDF, Word, CSV, or any mix. A file too large for email is left off and the email links to the report instead.
   • Send even when there are no bills: off to start with, so an empty report sends nothing.
   • Subject line (optional): leave it blank for the standard subject, or write your own. You can use {{name}} for the report name, {{period}} for its dates and {{count}} for the number of bills.
   • Who gets it: tick people on your staff. Only current staff members can be chosen.
4. Choose Add schedule.

A template can have up to 10 schedules, your organization up to 25 in all, and each schedule up to 50 people.

What the email looks like

The email lists the first 25 bills (for a hearing calendar, the days and meetings), with the files attached. It has an Open in the portal button that opens the saved report, plus Manage this schedule and Stop these emails links at the bottom.

Each scheduled run is saved like any other run, so it also appears under Recent reports. Its page says who it was sent to.

Manage a schedule

Each schedule on the template shows when it runs, which files it attaches, who gets it, when it last ran and when it runs next. The buttons are:

• Turn off or Turn on.
• Edit, then Save schedule.
• Send to me too or Stop sending to me: add or remove yourself.
• Send me a copy now: run the report now and email it to you alone. You can do this about once a minute.
• Delete.

Who can do what

• A private template: its owner, in any role, manages its schedules, and is the only person who can receive them.
• A shared template: Owners and Editors add, change and delete schedules and choose who gets them. Anyone who can see the template can add or remove themselves.

If a shared template is made private, its schedules go to the template's owner alone. Turning it back to shared does not bring the other recipients back.

Stop getting a report

Choose Stop these emails at the bottom of the email. A page asks Stop these emails? Choose Stop these emails to confirm. Only you are taken off; everyone else on the schedule still gets it. Many email programs also show their own unsubscribe button, which does the same thing.

To get it again, open the template and choose Send to me too on that schedule.

When sending fails

The schedule card says what happened last time, in plain words, for example The mail server refused every email. or More than 1,000 bills match. Narrow the report.

• If the report could not be built, or the mail server refused it, it is tried again after about 15 minutes, then 1 hour, then 4 hours.
• If sending may have gone through but we could not confirm it, it is not resent, to avoid sending twice. It runs again at the next scheduled time.
• After five failed runs in a row, the schedule turns itself off and says Turned off after five failed runs in a row. Turn it back on to try again. Fix the cause, then choose Turn on.

Other reasons a run is not sent:

• Nobody on the list can get it. For example, everyone left the staff or stopped the emails.
• Your organization's account is not active. The schedule stays on and sends again once the account is active.
• The report was deleted. Deleting a template turns its schedules off.

A person who has left your staff, can no longer see the report, or has no email address is skipped, and the schedule card names them with the reason.

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