Reminders and expiry

Clients get busy, and a request that goes unanswered for a week usually just needs a nudge. Cartenda can remind a client for you, on a schedule you choose, and it names exactly what is still missing. Every link also has an end date, so an old email cannot be used to reach the form forever.

Turn on automatic reminders#

Reminders are set when you send.

• When you send, to one client or many, Remind them every 3 days, up to 3 times is on. Sending to one client, it is under Reminders and dates, which sums up what is set in one line. Turn it off before you send if you do not want reminders.
• On a schedule, set Remind anyone who has not replied every this many days (0 for never). It starts at 3, and you can choose from 1 to 30 days.

How reminders behave#

• A client is reminded at most three times per request. After the third, Cartenda stops, Remind now is no longer offered, and the request's page says the three are used. A phone call is the next step.
• Reminders go out only between 10am and 4pm on your workspace clock. A reminder due overnight goes out the next morning.
• Each reminder goes by the same route as the original request, whether email, text or both.
• A reminder lists what is still needed by name. The email thanks the client for anything they have already sent. The text names up to two items and counts the rest.
• A reminder lists what is still to come. Questions the client is free to leave out are marked optional, and ones that depend on an earlier answer say they may not apply.
• Reminders stop by themselves once there is nothing left to ask for, when the link has expired, when the form is closed to clients, or when the request is canceled or completed.
• Nothing is sent while your firm's subscription has lapsed. Reminders pick up again once billing is active.
• If a client opts out of texts or their email bounces, that route is dropped. If it was the only one you chose under Send by, reminders go the other way instead.
• Somebody asked to sign a reply that is otherwise all in is reminded too: three days after they were asked, and again on the seventh, then not again. Reminders stop the moment they sign. To remind them sooner, press Remind beside them under People on the request's page. If the ask to sign never reached them, Remind sends it.

Remind a client now#

Open the request from The Requests list, or use the reminder on your dashboard, and press Remind now. A dialog shows exactly what will happen before anything goes out:

• where it will go, and the email subject;
• which items it will ask for;
• which reminder this uses. Reminders you send and automatic ones share the same three, and one that cannot be delivered does not count;
• when the next automatic reminder would go out. Sending one now pushes it back.

Press Send reminder to send it, or Close to leave without sending. If a client cannot be reminded, the dialog says why instead.

When a link expires#

Every link has an expiry date. It is 90 days after sending unless you choose another number, from 1 to 365, when you send. The date appears in the email your client receives.

After that date, the link opens on a page saying it has closed. Your client cannot send anything, and reminders stop because they would point at a dead page. The request shows Link expired in the Requests list, and its own page says when the link ran out, whether your client opened it anyway, and whether they asked for a new one.

When a client asks for a new link#

The closed page offers Ask for a new link. Pressing it tells you, on the request's page and in its record, and then:

• If the link simply ran out, a new one is emailed or texted to the address you already have for them, with 14 days to use it. The old link stops working. This happens by itself, up to three times per request.
• If the request was canceled, the form is closed to clients, there is no address left to write to, or three new links have already gone, nothing is sent and the people who hear about this client's messages are emailed instead, so somebody can decide.

Your client is told the same thing either way: that you know they need a new link, and that one is on its way if it can be sent.

If the new link is sent but does not reach them, the request's page says so, and Remind now sends it again.

On a request several people answer, each person's link is their own. When somebody besides your client asks, the new link goes to that person alone, at the address you have for them, and stays open for 14 days even if the request's own date passes first. Nobody else's link changes, and the request's record says who asked. They can ask up to three times, as your client can. If you later set the request's date with Give them more time, that date applies to their link as well.

Give a client more time#

1. Open the request.
2. Press Give them more time.
3. Enter the number of Days from today. It starts at 14.
4. Leave Also remind them now ticked to send the reminder in the same step, or untick it if you have already spoken to them.
5. Press Save.

The same link works again, with its checklist and history intact. If you asked the client to reply by a date, the link has to stay open at least until then; change that date first if you want the link to close sooner. The reminder is the ordinary one: it uses one of the client's three, and the box is off, with the reason, when a reminder could not go. Unticked, your client is not told; press Remind now later if they need to hear it. Give them more time appears only once a link has expired, and only while the request is still open and the form is open to clients.

If you send a submission back for changes after its link has expired, you set a new expiry in the same step. See Sending back for changes. Sending it back also gives the client a fresh set of three reminders.

For ways to get replies without reminding at all, see Writing requests clients finish.