What It Controls
A payment receipt template controls three parts of the receipt experience:
- Basic information. The template name, its permanent identifier, and whether it is active or inactive.
- The receipt layout. This HTML page includes merge fields, such as the payment number or amount, that Rhythm fills in when it creates a receipt for a specific payment. The layout also supports conditional blocks that show or hide content, a loop that repeats a section for each payment line item, and formatting helpers for dates, currency amounts, and text capitalization.
- The email. The email includes a subject and body, uses the same merge fields, and sends with a link to the rendered receipt. You can also set the sender name, reply-to address, and copy or blind-copy addresses.
Each business unit chooses its own payment receipt template on its setup page. This article covers the templates themselves.
Tip
This template controls the receipt itself. Some payment notifications are separate from the receipt and depend on alert settings inside your Rhythm Payments account, so check there if an expected payment alert is not arriving.
Where to Find It
Go to Finance & Billing › Setup › Templates › Payment Receipts. Rhythm opens Manage Payment Receipt Templates, where you can review every payment receipt template in your Rhythm account, including its name, last changed date, and active status.
- Create Payment Receipt Template opens a blank form with Rhythm's built-in receipt layout and email, so you start from a working example.
- The Clone icon on a row opens a new template based on that template, but leaves the identifier blank.
- The Edit icon, or the template's name, opens the template so you can change it.
- The Delete icon removes the template after you confirm.
Prerequisites
You need the permission your administrator grants for payment receipt template setup. Without it, you cannot open this page or use its actions.
The Settings
| Setting | Options | Default | Effect |
|---|---|---|---|
| Name: | Any text | Empty | Required. Appears in the template list and anywhere a business unit selects a receipt template |
| ID: | Letters, digits, and a few punctuation marks | Suggested from the name | Required. This is the template's permanent identifier, and you cannot change it after the first save |
| Status: | Active, Inactive | Active | Controls whether the template is offered as active in lists. A business unit that already uses an inactive template keeps using it, because Rhythm does not check the status when it renders a receipt |
| Deletion Protection: | On, off | Off | Only Rhythm staff see this setting. It prevents the template from being deleted while it is on |
| Receipt layout (in the Payment Receipt Template card) | Rich-text HTML with merge fields | Rhythm's built-in receipt for a new template | Required and cannot be empty. This is the page a payer sees and can print |
| Email sender, reply-to, and copy addresses | Text and drop-down | Empty | Optional. Controls who the receipt email appears to come from and who else receives a copy |
| Email Subject: | Text | Payment [payment number] is attached (the payment number is a merge field) for a new template | Required |
| Email body | Rich-text HTML with merge fields | Rhythm's built-in receipt email | Required |
Use the merge-field bar above the layout, and the second one above the email, to search for placeholders such as the payment method, currency, or the payer's contact and organization fields. Copy the placeholder you need, then paste it into the text as a double-brace merge token.
The bar groups fields by category. For example, payment-related fields such as the payment ID, memo, and line items are under Payment, so browse by category if you are not sure where a field is. The payment method field returns Credit Card, Electronic Check, or None for a payment that has no payment method value, such as a manual credit or write-off. It does not return more specific labels such as Check or ACH. A payment or transaction date field is also available in the merge-field bar, separate from the invoice date. Merge fields depend on the document, so a field that works in an invoice template is not guaranteed to work, or return a value, in a payment or refund receipt template.
Custom address fields, such as a specific address type's line 1, are supported. Always copy the exact token from the merge-field bar's dropdown instead of reusing one from an older template. The token for a custom address includes the address type and the specific component you want, and an older or hand-typed token that looks similar can fail to render even when the field itself is supported.
Warning
A few fields are not available on payment receipt templates. There is no separate description field, so use the built-in Item field instead. There is no Invoice # field, no field for a line item's ship-to contact, and no field for the cardholder's name printed on the card, so use a contact or organization field to show the payer instead. The parent organization field returns only its ID, not its name. You also cannot add a custom field to a payment receipt template; you can only use fields already defined on the payment, its contact, or its organization. Card type and last-four-digit fields show a value only when your payment processor captured and stored that masked detail for the payment. If it did not, the field renders blank even though the merge field is valid.
Item-description details on a payment receipt use the same table structure that also pulls invoice line-item details, and they render correctly only with that default structure. If you replace or restructure that table, the item description can stop appearing as expected.
Warning
Saving a template only checks that the layout, email subject, and email body are not empty. Rhythm does not check whether typed merge fields are written correctly, so a template with a broken merge field saves without warning and fails only when someone prints or emails a receipt from it. If the same kind of receipt problem happens across multiple payments over time, suspect the shared template rather than data on any one payment.
Warning
The built-in receipt table uses calculated fields that work together to total the payment correctly. Removing or restructuring a column with the visual editor's table tools, such as deleting a column that holds a calculated or merge-field cell, can break that logic and stop other merge fields from rendering. Making the same structural change directly in the layout's source code does not have that effect. To remove a column such as quantity, switch to source or HTML editing and delete both the column's header cell and its matching merge-field cell in every row, rather than using the table-editing controls.
Tip
If a style change to the layout does not save or show in preview, the editor may not recognize a CSS-only change as a modification. Make a small edit to the HTML content itself before saving, such as typing and then removing a character in the body, so the editor registers the template as changed and saves your style update with it.
A fix to how a payment card merge field renders applies only going forward, to newly created payments processed through the current, synchronous payment flow. It does not update how already-saved payments render, and accounts still waiting to move onto that newer payment flow may not see the correction yet.
Preview Before You Save
Two preview actions let you test an unsaved template with a real payment before you save it:
- The Preview button beside the receipt layout's merge-field bar asks for a Payment ID:, then renders your current unsaved layout for that payment in a new browser tab.
- The Preview button on the email editor asks for a Payment ID: and a Send Preview To: address, then sends a real receipt email to that address using your current unsaved email text.
Prerequisites
Both previews need the ID of an existing payment. Open that payment's Payment 360 page, select its options menu, and choose Copy ID to Clipboard, then paste the ID into the preview dialog.
Warning
Previewing a layout overwrites that payment's published receipt page. Anyone who already has that payment's receipt link, or opens it later, sees your draft until a real receipt is printed or emailed again. Use a payment that you do not mind temporarily showing a draft receipt for.
Both previews use the exact text currently in the editors, even if you have not saved. This lets you keep testing as you work, but a preview confirms the saved version only if you save before previewing. Because a broken or unsupported merge field can save without warning, send yourself a preview email before you rely on a template change. Confirm that the rendered email looks right and that every merge field you used actually fills in, not just the ones you expect.
Dependencies and Precedence
- A business unit's own setup names the payment receipt template its receipts use. This template page does not show which business units point to a specific template.
- Rhythm renders the payment receipt later, when someone prints or emails it.
Change Impact and How to Revert
- Editing a template's layout or email takes effect the next time Rhythm renders a receipt that uses it. Receipts already printed or emailed do not change retroactively.
- Rhythm occasionally updates its own built-in receipt layout and email. That update applies only to templates created after the change. Templates you already created keep their own saved copy and do not pick up the update automatically. Create a new template if you want to use the current built-in version.
- Deactivating a template does not stop it from being used. Rhythm does not read the Status: switch when it renders a receipt, so an inactive template keeps working exactly as before for any business unit that names it.
- Deleting a template is permanent.
Warning
Nothing prevents you from deleting a payment receipt template that a business unit still uses. If you delete it, that business unit can no longer print or email payment receipts, because Rhythm looks up the template and has no built-in fallback when it is missing. Before you delete a template, check every business unit's setup to make sure none of them still names it.
Permissions
You need the permission your administrator grants for payment receipt template setup to view, create, edit, clone, and delete templates. There is no separate permission for individual actions in that setup area.
Validation and Errors
If you try to save a template with an empty layout, subject, or body, the form stops you and shows which field needs a value. If you try to preview a template or send a preview email without a payment identifier or address, Rhythm asks you to fill in that field first. A preview fails with an error that names the problem when the payment identifier does not exist or the layout has broken merge-field syntax. Correct the issue, then try again.
If a copy or blind-copy address consistently does not receive a receipt while other addresses do, the cause is often that address being suppressed by your email system rather than a problem with the template. Check the address's delivery status before changing the template further.