What Triggers the Email
The confirmation email depends on the report’s type, specifically the reporting process assigned to that type. The reporting process controls whether Rhythm sends confirmations. When confirmations are switched on and a template exists, submitting a report of a type linked to that process sends the confirmation to the person who submitted the report. Rhythm sends the email to one recipient, the submitter, unless the template’s own copy fields send copies to others.
Only submitting a report triggers this email. If you create or update a report directly, outside the normal submission flow, Rhythm does not send the confirmation, no matter which type or reporting process the report uses.
What the Email Contains
An administrator writes the confirmation email template for the reporting process once. The template can use merge fields from the report and related records, including the report’s accreditation, the school’s organization record, the school’s membership, the visit for a visit report, the report type, the accreditation’s current phase, and the program. When Rhythm sends the email, it fills those merge fields with details from the submitted report, so the confirmation matches that report.
Tip
The accreditation’s number_of_unsubmitted_reports merge field is a plain number, not a list of reports. Insert it directly where you want the count of owed reports to appear in the template; it is not a field you loop over.
For general background on how Rhythm builds and sends templated email, and how to check whether a specific email was delivered, see Platform’s documentation on sending and tracking email.
When No Confirmation Goes Out
Two situations prevent Rhythm from sending the confirmation email, and neither one counts as an error:
- The report's type has no confirmation email set up. If confirmations are switched off for the reporting process linked to the report’s type, or if the report’s type does not name a reporting process, Rhythm does not send an email. The report submission still succeeds normally.
- The submitter has no email address on file. Even when confirmations are switched on for the report’s process, Rhythm checks the submitting contact’s record for an email address before sending. If the contact does not have one, Rhythm skips the email without showing an error. The submission still succeeds, and nothing appears for the submitter beyond the ordinary request log.
Tip
If a school contact says they did not receive a confirmation for a report they submitted, check both possible causes. Confirm that the report’s type has a confirmation email configured on its reporting process, and confirm that the contact’s record has an email address on file. Rhythm has no option to resend a confirmation email after the fact, so these two checks are your best options when a contact says they never received one.
What "Submission Failed" Actually Means
Rhythm sends the confirmation email during the same request that submits the report. If confirmations are switched on for the report’s process and Rhythm cannot send the email, the whole submission is reported as failed. That can happen if Rhythm cannot read the email’s personalization data or if the email itself fails to go out, even though the report record was already saved.
A failed report submission does not always mean nothing was recorded. If you or a Portal member submits a report, sees a failure, and later finds that the report already exists, an email failure after the report was saved is one likely explanation. Submitting the report again in that situation can create a duplicate report instead of fixing the first one.
Warning
Because Rhythm sends the confirmation email inside the submission itself, and a failed email reports the whole submission as failed, do not assume a failure message always means no report was saved. Check whether the report already exists before submitting it again.
Related
The reporting process that controls this email, and the report type that links to it, are set up administratively in their own configuration screens. This confirmation email is separate from deciding which reports a school or contact still owes. For that, see How Report Requirements and Owed Reports Work.