Email Templates and Task Templates are the building blocks that sit underneath your notifications. Without them, Yardi has nothing to send and nothing to assign. In this article we'll walk through both template types: what they do, where to find them, and how to set them up correctly.
To understand why templates matter, it helps to see the overall notification setup sequence. The recommended order is:
1. Roles
2. Contacts
3. Email Templates
4. Task Templates (if tasks are required)
5. Notifications
📍 Menu Path: Admin > Email Templates > Add Email Template
An Email Template is exactly what it sounds like: a reusable email structure that your notification sends out automatically. Instead of typing the same email over and over, you build it once, and Yardi populates it with live data from the system each time it's triggered.
When you create or edit an Email Template, you'll work with the following key fields:
Name: A descriptive name for your template — make it clear and specific (e.g. 'Lease Expiry – Tenant Reminder').
Object Type: Determines which type of record the template relates to (e.g. Property, Lease, Tenant, Vendor). This controls which tokens are available.
Subject: The subject line of the outgoing email. Tokens can be used here too.
Header / Body / Footer: The email content, broken into sections.
Tokens are the real power behind Email Templates. They act as placeholders that Yardi replaces with live data when the email is sent. For example, a token like #DESTINATIONFIRSTNAME# will pull in the recipient's first name automatically.
Tokens can be created for any data element associated with the Object Type you've selected. Common examples include:
• Property address, name, or code
• Tenant name or lease reference
• Critical date values
• Custom data fields from your configuration
To add a token into your email template, use the Replacement Item and Replacement Token fields on the template screen. To add additional tokens for email templates for your Object Type, click on the Edit hyperlink and buildout your list.
The Token Name column is so you can easily identify the correct Token, the Token column is what you populate into your email template (e.g.#PropertyAddress#), and the Table Field maps it to the actual database column.
Email Templates can be created in two modes:
• Plain Text (Text Edit): Simple, fast to build, and reliable across all email clients.
• HTML (Html Edit): Supports full styling: colours, fonts, images, and layout. Available in Voyager 7s and recommended if you want branded, professional-looking emails.
The HTML editor includes Header, Body, and Footer tabs, making it easy to keep your template structure consistent across communications.
⚠️ Note - If you want to use the Activities function to send emails in Elevate products, you will need a Plain Text email template as HTML templates aren't currently supported. This may change in future Yardi releases.
Clicking the Advanced link on the Email Template opens additional settings that are worth knowing about:
This field controls who the email appears to come from. You can set this to a specific role (e.g. Property – Accountant) so the email displays a relevant sender address rather than a generic system address.
This is one of the more useful and often overlooked sections on the Advanced screen. It allows you to add extra recipients to the email beyond the primary contact targeted by the notification.
Each additional recipient row lets you specify:
• Role: The contact role to include (e.g. Property– Property Manager, Commercial Lease – Tenant).
• Address Type: Whether to send To, CC, or BCC.
💡 Tip - The Originator role can sometimes be added here as a workaround. If a notification can't be configured to send back to the person who triggered it (the originator), adding the Originator as an Additional Recipient in the Email Template is a practical way to ensure they receive a copy.
You can also attach files to the email from the Advanced screen using the Additional Attachments section. This is useful for automatically including standard documents such as Terms and Conditions or a particular report/statement every time the notification fires.
For more complex scenarios, the Advanced screen also allows you to use a SQL select statement to pull dynamic data into the email body, rather than relying purely on tokens. The specific record returned by the notification is passed through to the template via the #hRecord# variable, which your select statement can reference.
This approach is particularly useful when you need to display a list of records (e.g. all unposted batches for a property) rather than a single value. The Example link on the Advanced screen provides guidance on the required format.
⚠️ Note - Before creating custom tokens, check what's already available by default. Most common fields (names, addresses, dates) have tokens out of the box. Custom tokens require SQL knowledge and testing, so are best handled with your system administrator, a Yardi consultant or 3rd party consultant.
The Test link on the Email Template screen is your best friend during setup. It lets you preview the email output against a real record without sending anything — so you can confirm tokens are resolving correctly (especially custom tokens) and the formatting looks right before you go live. You can also enter your own email address and physically send the email to see how the email will be received.
📍 Menu Path: Admin > Task > Add Task Template
Task Templates define the specific task that Yardi will automatically create and assign when a notification fires. If Email Templates are about sending information, Task Templates are about assigning action, e.g. giving a specific employee or role something they need to do and tracking it through completion.
Tasks appear directly on the assigned employee's dashboard, making them an effective way to ensure nothing slips through the cracks.
When creating a Task Template, you'll configure the following:
Subject: The name or title of the task as it will appear on the employee's dashboard.
Object Type: The record type the task relates to (e.g. Property, Lease). Needs to align with your notification's Object Type.
Days to Complete: Sets a due date relative to when the task is created. For example, entering 3 gives the assignee 3 days to complete the task.
Priority: Set to Normal, High, or Urgent. Higher priorities appear more prominently on the dashboard.
Instructions: Free-text field for describing what needs to be done. Be specific: this is what the employee sees when they open the task.
Notes Required: Tick this box if you want to force the employee to enter notes before they can mark the task as complete. Useful for compliance or audit purposes.
Once your Task Template is saved, it doesn't do anything on its own — it needs to be attached to a Notification. This is done from the Notification screen via the Attach Tasks tab.
On the Attach Tasks tab, you select:
• Task: The Task Template to use.
• Contact Role: The role of the employee who should be assigned the task (e.g. Property – Property Manager).
You can attach multiple Task Templates to a single notification if different actions are needed by different roles.
💡 Tip - Task Templates follow the same role-based logic as email recipients. The task goes to the employee assigned to that role on the relevant property, lease, or other record, not to a fixed individual. This makes them flexible and scalable across your portfolio.
It can help to see the relationship between these components laid out clearly:
Component Purpose Who Receives It
Email Template Defines email content and formatting Contacts or Employees (via roles)
Task Template Defines task instructions, priority, and deadline Employees (via roles)
Notification Triggers the send using the templates above Defined by template recipients/roles
• Wrong Object Type: If your Email Template's Object Type doesn't match the Notification's Object Type, tokens won't resolve and the email may error or send blank fields.
• No sender configured: Without a Sender set in the Advanced options, emails may arrive from an unrecognisable system address and end up in the recipients Junk folder. Always set a meaningful sender role.
• Skipping the Test: The Test link exists for a reason. Always test your Email Template against a real record before activating the notification in production.
• Task Template not attached: Saving the Task Template is only the first step. If you don't attach it to a notification via the Attach Tasks tab, no tasks will ever be created.
• Leaving the URL blank in Task Runner: When scheduling notifications to run via Task Runner, leaving the URL field blank means ALL notifications in the system will run, not just the ones you intend. Always specify the notification name in the URL parameter.
Email Templates and Task Templates are foundational to getting notifications working properly in Yardi Voyager. Invest the time to set them up carefully including clear naming conventions, the right Object Types, tested tokens, and properly configured recipients. Your notifications will run reliably with minimal ongoing maintenance.
