Chippy Business - Invoicing: How to Message Your Organization Contacts

Organization contacts are the people you work with at each organization: the primary contact, the billing contact, and branch contacts. You can now message them directly, without being inside a store. Look for Message Contacts in five places. Each one opens the same Message Contacts drawer. The only difference is which organizations are already filled in for you.

Who has this?This feature is a part of Chipply One. If you aren't using Chipply One, you won't have this feature.

Pick the right starting point

Before you start: check your contacts

Messages go to the contacts saved on each organization, so make sure the right people are there. Open the organization, go to the Contacts tab, and check that each contact's email is correct. To mark someone as a billing contact, click the edit pencil next to their name and turn on the billing contact toggle. Do this for everyone who pays you. For more on billing contacts, see The Organization Portal.

Option 1: From Assets → Messages

This is home base for messages that repeat, since you can see them all on the Scheduled tab.

1. Go to Assets → Messages and click the + button in the top right.
2. Under Organizations, check All Organizations or just the ones you want.
3. Pull in a template if you'd like, pick a trigger, choose your recipients, and write your message.
4. Click Send Now or Schedule. Recurring and scheduled messages appear on the Scheduled tab.

For the full rundown on triggers, the open-balance rule, templates, and every merge field, see The Messages Page Add link once live.

Option 2: From the Organizations page

Messages from here don't have to be about invoicing. They're handy for news that matters to a group of customers, like spring ordering opening up for all of your schools.

1. Go to Organizations in the top navigation.
2. Search or filter to find the organizations you want. For example, filter by location or branch type, or search for a name they share.
3. Check the box next to each organization you want to message.
4. Click the three dots in the bottom left corner of the page and choose Message Contacts.
5. The drawer opens with your organizations already filled in. Choose your recipients, pick a template or write your message, and send.

Need to change who's included?

You can't add or remove organizations once the drawer is open. Click Cancel, update the boxes you've checked, and open Message Contacts again.

Option 3: From inside an organization

1. Go to Organizations and click into the organization.
2. Click Share in the top right. It sits above the tabs, so you can reach it from any tab.
3. Click Message Contacts.
4. The drawer opens with that organization already filled in. Choose your recipients, write your message or pull in a template, and send.

Because you're only messaging one organization, you can send an invoicing message even if they don't have an open balance right now. For example, you might send the portal link so they can look up a past payment. 

Option 4: From the Accounts Receivable dashboard

This is the quickest way to follow up with everyone who owes you, without setting up anything that repeats. For more on the dashboard, see Collecting Payment and Tracking What's Owed.

1. Go to Accounting → Accounts Receivable.
2. Find the organizations you want. The aging columns (1-30 Days, 31-60 Days, and so on) make it easy to spot balances that have been open the longest.
3. Check the box next to each organization.
4. Click the three dots in the bottom left corner and choose Message Contacts.
5. Choose your recipients, write your message or pull in a template, and send.

Option 5: From a store's Sales Order Summary

After you invoice a store, you can send the invoice to that store's organization without leaving the page. Open the store, go to its Sales Order Summary, click Share, then Message Contacts. For the full walkthrough, see How to Invoice a Store.

Who receives the message

In the To field, check any mix of:

• Organization Branch Contact(s)
• Organization Billing Contact(s)
• Primary Organization Contact(s)

You can also type in any other email address. If an organization has more than one contact of a type you selected, each person gets their own copy, addressed to them.

Store salespeople and store contacts aren't options, since these messages are about the organization, not a store. To message a store's shoppers or contacts, use the Messages page inside that store.

A few things to know

• Every message is saved in one place. No matter where you sent it from, you'll find it in Assets → Messages → History. That includes invoices you send from a store's Sales Order Summary. They won't appear in the store's own History tab.
• You can pick a trigger from anywhere. The drawer is the same everywhere you open it, so you can choose a one-time send or a recurring trigger no matter where you start.
• Invoicing reminders skip paid-up organizations. When you set a message to repeat (Monthly on X day, X days after invoice date, or Every X days after invoice date), it only goes to organizations with an open balance. A blue banner in the drawer reminds you of this.
• One-time messages go to everyone you selected. Messages sent once (Static Date) don't check balances. That's what you want for an announcement. Before you send an invoicing message to a big group, check your list one more time.
• Templates save time. Chipply includes Individual Invoice Notification, Account Statement, and Deposit Request templates, and you can create your own. See How to Create and Use a Message Template.

FAQ

• I sent an invoice from a store. Why isn't it in the store's History?

  • Invoices and statements are organization messages, so they're saved in Assets → Messages → History instead.

• What about the automated "run your store again" email that goes out a year later?

  • That one is still a store message. It's about a specific store, so it stays with the store's automated messages.

• Can I send a message that has nothing to do with invoices?

  • Yes. From the Organizations page or from inside an organization, you can send anything: a new catalog, a holiday schedule, a reminder that ordering opens soon.

• Where do I see or stop a recurring message I set up from the Organizations page?

  • On Assets → Messages → Scheduled. Every scheduled and recurring message lives there, wherever you created it. Confirm