What is a token?
A token is a placeholder. It is replaced with a value, like an employee's name, when a Pyn gets delivered.
For example, let's say you want to send a message reminding everyone of an upcoming open enrollment seminar.
You could just say something like:
Hi everyone, our open enrollment seminar is at 10AM on Tuesday.
But this might not get their attention. Instead, you can create a message that looks like:
Hi @recipient.name, our open enrollment seminar is at 10AM on Tuesday.
When you send this out to employees Maria, John, and Fred, they would each receive this Pyn with the token replaced with their own name. So for Fred, it would read:
Hi Fred, our open enrollment seminar is at 10AM on Tuesday.
Where can I use tokens?
You can use tokens anywhere in your Pyn message.
How do I add a token?
Press the @ symbol when editing title or content of a message. You'll see a dropdown that offers you choices (e.g., @recipient.name, @manager.name or any of the other supported tokens).
This is how tokens appear in a Pyn.
Note about using the Manager and Principal tokens
Manager name token
When a recipient does not have a manager, the @manager.name token is replaced with Your manager. This requires you to think about the way you use this token!
So for example if the below message was sent to a recipient without a manager:
Your manager @manager.name would like you to attend the monthly All Hands meeting.
The recipient would see:
Your manager Your manager would like you to attend the monthly All Hands meeting.
To fix this, write your message in this way instead:
@manager.name would like you to attend the monthly All Hands meeting.
Principal tokens
The @principal.name token is for use primarily in messages that are a part of
Automations
Automations are triggered by events that happen to an employee record in your HRIS system. Therefore, "Principal" refers to that employee that triggered the automation to happen.
If there is no principal present, as in the case of any non-automated message, such as a one-off message or campaign message:
@principal.namegets replaced with the recipient name.@principal.startDategets replaced with the recipient start date.
Which tokens do you support?
For a list of all the tokens you can use in your Pyn and what each of the tokens means, please see our list of supported tokens.
What are aliases?
If you select email as the delivery method for your message, it will come from Pyn via notifications@pynhq.com.
You can also choose to personalize your message by using an alias. This means your message will appear to come from an internal email address (e.g., onboarding@yourcompany.com or Bill.Smythe@yourcompany.com), even though it will not actually be sent from that email address.
How does this work?
We use a 'Reply-To:' header with the email address you provide, e.g., Bill.Smythe@yourcompany.com
We create the name for the sender so it appears to come from Bill Smythe.
How do I add email Senders and create an email alias?
All Pyns sent via email will come from notifications@pynhq.com.
However, you can personalize your messages by adding additional Sender options and Reply-to Email addresses.
To create an email alias:
Log into Pyn.
Select Settings and click Senders.
Click Add.
Type the name and email address of the new Sender and click Save.
Your newly added Sender will now appear in the Senders list. You will also see the User who added the alias. This User is the owner of the alias shown in the Email Alias Owner column.
Users can view only their personal Slack account and the email Sender options they create. The Pyn email and Pyn bot are visible to all users.
To make edits or delete an alias, simply click on
...and make your changes.