Email & templates

Outbound email issues are almost always either spam-filtering on the recipient’s side, a typo in the email address, or a template variable that doesn’t match the data Fola provides.

”Client didn’t receive the intake email”

What you saw: you sent an intake link via email but the client says nothing arrived.

What it means: the email landed in spam, the address has a typo, or your firm domain’s email reputation is fresh (new domains are spam-flagged by default).

What to do:

1. Ask the client to check Spam, Promotions, and All Mail folders.
2. Verify the email under Clients → [their row] → Identity tab → Email.
3. If your firm domain is new and emails keep going to spam, set up SPF and DKIM records at Settings → Organization → Email settings. Both records are required for ~80% of corporate inboxes to accept your firm’s email at all.

”Template variable showed as literal text in the email”

What you saw: the client received an email that said Hello {client_first_name} (with literal braces) instead of Hello Maria.

What it means: the variable name in the template doesn’t match what Fola passes in. The template uses one spelling and the data context provides a different one.

What to do:

1. Open Settings → Email templates → [the broken template].
2. Check the variable name exactly — the list of valid variables for each template is shown at the top of the editor (e.g. client_first_name, case_name, appointment_date).
3. Match the spelling and case exactly, save, and test by sending to yourself.

”Email shows wrong from-name”

What you saw: the email arrived from “Fola” or some default name instead of your firm.

What it means: the template’s From name field is set to a static value that doesn’t pull from your org’s display name.

What to do: open the template, set From name to the org_name variable (each template editor shows the exact syntax — typically Handlebars-style double braces). Save. Future sends pull your firm’s display name from Settings → Organization.

”Replies to Fola emails bounce”

What you saw: your client replied to the email Fola sent them and you got a bounce notification.

What it means: the template’s Reply-to address is set incorrectly — likely to a no-reply address or to an address that doesn’t exist.

What to do: open the template and set Reply-to to your actual incoming-mail address (probably your firm’s main inbox or your direct email).

”I edited a template but the client still saw the old version”

What you saw: you updated the template’s body but the client got the email with the old text.

What it means: Fola template-cached the previous version when it queued the send — most commonly when sends are scheduled or fire in a batch.

What to do:

1. Hard-refresh the template editor (Cmd-Shift-R / Ctrl-Shift-R) and confirm your edits are saved.
2. Send a fresh test to yourself to confirm the new body.
3. If the old body keeps going out on real sends, email support@folaform.com with the template name and approximate time of the bad send.

”Mass intake send timed out partway through”

What you saw: you used bulk-invite to send 50 intake links and only 20-30 went out before the screen froze.

What it means: the bulk-invite endpoint capped at the per-org rate limit mid-batch.

What to do:

1. Wait 5 minutes for the rate limit to reset.
2. Resend the remaining rows — Fola is idempotent on intake sends; clients who already got a link won’t get a duplicate.

For very large client lists, batch into 25-row chunks

Bulk-invite handles up to ~50 rows in one shot reliably. For hundreds of clients, break the CSV into chunks of 25 rows each and upload them with a few minutes between batches.

When to email vs when to handle in-app

• Spam-folder issue — set up SPF/DKIM in-app
• Template variable mismatch — fix in-app
• Persistent bad reply-to — fix the template; only escalate to support@folaform.com if changes don’t stick