One-Off Email
Send a custom, one-time email to specific customers or groups — outside your automated reminder and summary flows.
What is a one-off email template?
A one-off email template is a reusable message you write once and then send to a specific audience on demand or at a scheduled date and time. It is separate from your automated invoice reminder and invoice summary rules, which run on a recurring schedule for your full customer base.
Use one-off emails when you need to communicate something that falls outside your normal billing cadence — for example, a service announcement, a payment plan update, or a follow-up for a specific group of customers.
Trigger
You choose when to send it
Fires automatically based on invoice due date or creation date
Audience
You pick specific customers or tags each time you send
Applies to all customers (with optional exclusions)
Recurrence
Single send (or scheduled once)
Repeats on the cadence you configure
Found in
Email notifications → One-off emails tab
Email notifications → Invoice reminders or Invoice summaries tab
Required permission
The One-off emails tab is only visible to users with the InvoiceRemind permission. If you do not see the tab, contact your account administrator to confirm your user role has this permission enabled.
How to create a one-off email template
In the Partner Dashboard, go to Automations → Email notifications.
Click the One-off emails tab. If the tab is not visible, see the permission note above.
Click New email (the button with the mail icon in the top-right of the One-off emails section).
On the template picker screen, you can either:
Select a ready-made model template and click Use to pre-populate the form, or
Click Create a one-off template on the blank card to start from scratch.
Fill in the template fields:
Template name — an internal label for this template (e.g.,
"Important update about your account").Subject — the email subject line your customers will see (up to 100 characters). You can insert dynamic variables such as customer name using the mention picker.
Email content — the body of the email (up to 3,000 characters), written in the rich-text editor.
A live preview panel on the right updates as you type so you can see how the email will look to recipients.
When you are satisfied, click one of the two action buttons at the bottom of the page:
Save template — saves the template and returns you to the One-off emails tab without sending.
Choose audience — saves the template and immediately moves you to the audience step so you can send or schedule the email right away.
Where to find a template after saving
After you click Save template, you are returned to Email notifications → One-off emails tab. Your saved template is not stored as a standalone library entry on this page — instead, it is available as a selectable template the next time you click New email and reach the template picker. Previously saved one-off templates appear as cards alongside the model templates and the blank "Create a one-off template" card.
Tip: If you saved a template and do not see it on the picker screen, try logging out and logging back in. A propagation delay of up to 10–15 minutes can affect newly saved templates in some cases (see Troubleshooting below).
How to send or schedule a one-off email
Whether you clicked Choose audience during template creation or you are starting from the New email button and selecting an existing template, the sending flow has three steps:
Step 1 — Pick a template
From Email notifications → One-off emails, click New email. Select the template you want to use and click Use.
Step 2 — Select audience and send time
On the Select audience screen, choose who receives the email:
By tag — select one or more customer tags to target a group.
By customer — select individual customers from the list.
You can also add CC and BCC recipients for additional visibility.
Under Select send time, choose when the email goes out:
Send immediately — the email is dispatched as soon as you confirm on the review screen.
Schedule for later — pick a date, hour, and timezone. The email is queued and appears in the Scheduled emails table on the One-off emails tab until it is sent.
Click Review when your audience and send time are set.
Step 3 — Review and confirm
The review screen shows a summary of the template, audience, and send time. Confirm to send or schedule the email.
If you chose Send immediately, the email is sent and you are returned to the One-off emails tab.
If you chose Schedule for later, the email appears in the Scheduled emails table with columns for Created on, Template name, Send time, and Applies to.
Managing scheduled emails
Scheduled one-off emails that have not yet been sent appear in the Scheduled emails table on the One-off emails tab. Use the actions menu (⋮) on any row to:
Send now
Sends the email immediately and removes it from the schedule. You will be asked to confirm before the email is dispatched.
Preview
Opens a preview of the email template without sending.
Edit
Opens the template and audience editor so you can change the content, audience, or send time before it goes out.
Delete
Permanently deletes the scheduled email. This action cannot be undone.
Editing and deleting one-off templates
Editing a template before sending
If you have not yet sent or scheduled an email, click New email, find your template card on the picker screen, and click Use to open it in the editor. Make your changes and click Save template or Choose audience.
Editing a scheduled email
To change the content, audience, or send time of an email that is already scheduled, find it in the Scheduled emails table and select Edit from the actions menu (⋮). This opens the full template and audience editor. Save your changes to update the scheduled email.
Deleting a scheduled email
To remove a scheduled email before it sends, select Delete from the actions menu (⋮) in the Scheduled emails table. Confirm the deletion in the dialog. This permanently removes the scheduled email and it cannot be recovered.
Note: Deleting a scheduled email does not delete the underlying template. The template remains available on the picker screen for future use.
Troubleshooting
Template not appearing after creation
After saving a new one-off template, it may take up to 10–15 minutes for the template to appear on the picker screen. This is a known propagation delay.
A hard refresh does not resolve this delay. Pressing Ctrl+F5 (Windows) or Cmd+Shift+R (Mac) will not make the template appear sooner.
Workaround:
Log out of the Alternative Payments Dashboard.
Wait a few minutes.
Log back in — your template should now appear on the picker screen.
If the template still does not appear after logging back in, contact customersuccess@alternativepayments.io.
One-off emails tab not visible
The One-off emails tab only appears for users with the InvoiceRemind permission. If you cannot see the tab, ask your account administrator to review your user permissions.
Scheduled email not in the table
If you scheduled an email but it does not appear in the Scheduled emails table, try refreshing the page. If it still does not appear, log out and log back in. If the problem persists, contact customersuccess@alternativepayments.io.
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