Getting the information you need on time is crucial when working through a transaction. Without the right information at the right time, you can miss deadlines, potentially causing the entire transaction to fall apart.
Using the new Messages feature, you can help shorten the waiting time for someone to email you back. Now, you can send messages to any other team member, agent, or contact with a portal view or email address.
How To Get to Your Messages
There are a couple of different areas in your Open To Close account where you can go to access your Messages. If you're on the Dashboard, you can click on the @ symbol in the header to open up your global Messages board.
Another location to find this feature is in the transaction. Click on Messages which takes you to your Message board.
Depending on where you are sending the message from, the global Messages board versus the transaction, you will have different collaborators to choose from. If you are sending the message globally instead of from a specific transaction, and you don't associate it with an address, you will only be able to send the message to someone in your organization.
If you send it from a specific transaction, you can include any other team member on the transaction, any agent or contact(s) with a portal view, or any contact with an email address on file.
Composing a New Message
Go to the Messages tab and click on New Message.
This will open a side panel on the left where you can start building out the content of your message. Below is a breakdown of what each section represents.
Apply Template - Save yourself some time by applying any message template you have in your organization.
Address - You cannot edit the address when sending from a specific property. The only exception to this is if you are sending the message from the global Messages board.
Property - This will show the property, task, contact, document, or email that you are referencing in the message. For example, sending a message from a task on the Tasks tab will show the task details rather than the address.
Send To - You can select any user or contact with an account or portal view. If the contact does not have a portal view, they will receive an email to the email address on file. They can send a message back to you by clicking on the Send Reply button in the email.
If you accidentally clicked on the wrong name when selecting the recipient, you can click on their name again from the Select Message Contacts option to remove them.
Sending To - This shows who has been selected to send the message to.
Subject - Enter a brief description regarding the message in the subject line. If you prefer to leave it blank, the system will automatically fill it in with Open To Close New Message | Address.
Message - Enter the message you want to send to the recipient(s). Use the editing tools to help improve the body of the message. This includes emojis, smart blocks, and your basic editing tools.
If you paste text into the message spot, highlight it and click the Tx option to clear out any formatting. This will eliminate any weird formatting issues.
Upload Files - You can upload any file(s) relating to the message.
Send - Look over everything you've entered before sending the message.
Trash Icon - To delete the message before sending it, click the trash icon.
Adding Files From Messages to Your Documents Tab
When you receive a new message with a document attached to it, you can either click on the name of the document to see what it is, or you can click on the folder to assign it to a folder or file in the Documents tab of the transaction.
To move it to the Documents tab, choose which type you want it to be and then select the folder or file name from the drop-down. Once you've added the document to a folder or file, it will be removed from the message.
If you need to delete a previously sent document, you can go to the original message in the Sent tab to remove it. Removing the file is helpful if you accidentally attached and sent the wrong document to a recipient. Once it is deleted on your side, it will also remove access to it from the portal user's side.
Managing Collaborator(s)
You can change collaborators on the message by clicking Manage Collaborator(s) in the bottom right corner of a message.
If you see that someone isn't part of the message thread, you can add them as long as they are part of the original message. If they were not a part of the original message but should have been, you will need to add them to the original message. After that, you will be able to add them to any message that is part of the thread.
You also have the option to remove any collaborator currently on a message. When you are in the Manage Collaborator(s) side panel, there will be a trash icon on the right side of the collaborator to remove them from the message(s).
Viewing Logs
To see if or when a message was viewed, you can click on Logs. This will show you the Email Open Logs for any contact viewing the message through their email.
For portal users and other team members who are part of the message, you will be able to see if they have read the message under the Collaborators section. If you see that they haven't read the message, you can click on Ping to send them a reminder that you sent a message.
You can refresh the logs to check for any updates or close out of them once you are done.
