Modifying the Default Tax Receipt Emails

When issuing and re-issuing DMS-issued tax receipts, if you've chosen email as the delivery method, your tax receipts will include a thank-you email message in the body of the email with the donor's tax receipt attached.

This article will cover how to modify the default message on the body of the Tax Receipt Email.

Considerations

• You can only set one single “From Email” when issuing, re-issuing and cancelling Tax Receipts. 
• Be sure to set your default emails for both English and French receipt, so the default emails correspond to the issued tax receipt's language. 
• If you wish to customize your receipt emails further, consider reading our Issuing Tax Receipts guide here to learn how to build multiple Thank You Email Messages and override the Default Tax Receipt Email when issuing receipts.
• You can only have one single Template when issuing, re-issuing and cancelling Tax Receipts.

Default Tax Receipt Emails

The default Tax Receipt emails sent through the DMS look something like this:

Example of a Tax Receipt Email seen by donors

Although you can continue to use the default email message, we highly suggest modifying this email message for that added personalization which can go a long way when stewarding your donors.

Modifying the Default Tax Receipt Emails

1. Visit your administrative Settings.

2. Under Communications, select Message Templates

Settings > Message Templates

3. On the next page, select System Workflow Messages

System Workflow Messages

4. Then, you will see a list of all Default Messages in the DMS. The only Default Messages related to Tax Receipts are the four with:

• CDN Tax Receipts – Email Annual/Aggregate Receipt: Email used when issuing, re-issuing and cancelling Combined Receipts with Total Contributed.
• CDN Tax Receipts – Email Single Receipt: Email used when issuing, re-issuing and cancelling Separate Receipt for Each Contribution.

5. Select Edit on either one of these default messages (Top two for French / Bottom two for English):

6. You will then be able to edit the default Tax Receipt email:

• Message Title: internal name to help you manage your Default Templates. This name won’t show up to Contacts.
• Message Subject: Email Subject title that will appear to your Contacts.
• HTML Format: edit this Default Email within the dotted line.
• Plain-Text Format: edit this Default Email using basic text formatting for Contact emails that don’t support rich text.  We recommend having the same message here as in HTML Format.
• Merge Fields: cycle through a list of merge fields to help you when sending emails / merging letters (e.g. “Hi contact.first.name“) on Message Subject, HMTL Format & Plain-Text Format.
• PDF Page Format: leave default selected for better PDF merge.

7. When ready, select Save to finish or Save and Done to finish and go back to the Message Templates page.

What's Next?

Now that you've completed all 3 steps to configure your DMS tax receipts, you can preview your receipts, or go ahead and start issuing tax receipts.