E-mail confirmations with transaction detail

DISCLAIMER: This article involves Advanced Customizations, which can be technically challenging to get working and is not part of standard support.  This is programming and must be done precisely or the results can be unpredictable.  This information is provided as a service for those who have the technical skills to work through it -- we cannot help you solve any issues with getting it working.  For more information about Advanced Customizations, see the full documentation:

https://campgroundmaster.com/help/overview32.html

Many wonder why transaction details can't be added to the E-mailed confirmation, like they are on the printed confirmation. The reason is that since the E-mails are sent in plain text, you have no control over what font the recipient uses when viewing the E-mail.  If they don't use a fixed-pitch font like Courier, then there's no way to get columns to line up right-justified so the amounts will appear in a neat column.  Rather than include a standard feature that doesn't look very good, we have not included this option in the program.  There are a couple "workarounds for the desperate and technically inclined", which we generally leave up to the user to figure out since we can't officially support them.  But since it's asked so often, I've decided to include a couple options here.

Note that this assumes that you already have the SMTP setup done in Campground Master so you can send E-mails directly.  If not, see the documentation here:

http://campgroundmaster.com/help/smtpsendmailsetup.html

Option 1 -- PDF attachment.  The new version (7.0) allows attachments to E-mail.  So you can use a PDF printer to print it to a file, then you can send it via Campground Master (before version 7, some people still used a PDF printer but had to E-mail it outside of Campground Master).

You first need to install a "PDF printer driver" (look for one on Google), so you can print the standard letter with transactions to a PDF file. Then use the new "Attach" option when E-mailing to attach the PDF file.

Option 2 -- Advanced Customizations.  We did create a sample E-mail form with transactions.  It uses the same formatting as 3" receipts with the amount on a separate line from the description.  This is not ideal, but at least allows the dollar signs in the numbers column to line up with each other no matter which font is used.  So all you need to do is import the sample form:

1. Go to Maintenance / Advanced Customizations / Forms

2. Click the Import Form(s) button, and you'll get a typical Windows file-open dialog labeled "Import Forms".

3. You need to locate the sample Forms folder, which is typically C:\Program Files (x86)\Campground Master\Samples (most likely you just need to double-click the "Samples" folder to get there, but you may have to navigate to the C: drive first using the "Look In" drop down at the top").

4. Now select the appropriate file, "Sample Forms - Custom versions of Confirmations", and click Open.   Note that this will import several new forms.  You might get some warnings about renaming some items, just click OK.

Now the forms will be added to the bottom of the list, and will appear as form selections when you send an E-mail.  The one with transactions, in case it's not obvious, is "Custom E-mail confirmation w/transactions".  You can change the order and delete ones you don't need if preferred.

Important:  If you've previously created customized confirmations, this imported sample will not include those customizations.  You would need to modify your customized ones to include the transactions as the sample does.

Note that when you click the "E-mail Confirmation" button now, you will get a list of forms to choose from.  It will remember the last one used as the default for next time, but if you prefer to have only one form and thus skip the selection dialog, then delete all other E-mail forms or make them Inactive.