Contents

• Enable Group Email
• Reply and Reply All
• Action Item New Message
• Board Example
• Scenario
• Group Email Feature Guide for Daily Users

Enable Group Email

To enable the Group Email feature have your System Administrator (or whoever is responsible for action item configuration) complete the following steps:

1. Send the Group Email Feature Guide for Daily Users (in the following section) to anyone who uses action items so they are prepared for the changes to the action item New Message screen.
2. Navigate to Settings > Action Types/Steps.
3. In the Default Followers column, search for Board to filter the list to action types that interact with board members.  
4. For each action type that you want to enable the feature, click the caret next to it to open it and display the Steps table.
   
   
   
   
5. Review the Send To column, and for each step that includes Board, Committee, or another applicable role that would benefit from this feature, click Rules (1).
   
   
   
   
6. Deselect Send Options Bcc (1) (enabled by default), and click Update.
   By deselecting this option you are enabling the Group Email feature. Do this on any step that sends an email to a group of people, such as the Board or ARC Committee.
   
   
   
   
7. Ensure that the roles in the Send To and Reply To columns are not the same. If the same role is in both columns, users who click Reply All can cause an email loop (for which automated protections exist to stop the loop reactively). 
8. Review the Portal Reply column to ensure that the roles listed are the roles that you want to appear as reply to options when replying from the portal instead of from the email.

When you click:

• Reply: A new message opens with the Send To field prepopulated with the author of the selected action item message (Cc and Bcc remain blank).
• Reply All: A new message opens with the Send To field prepopulated with the author of the selected action item message, and the Cc and Bcc fields include the email addresses and roles that were in the same last action item message.

Action Item New Message

When you select Msg from the hamburger menu of an action item, the New Message screen opens. When the Group Email feature is enabled, this screen includes the Cc and Bcc fields.

You can enter roles and/or email addresses in the Send To field, as well as in the Cc and Bcc fields. When you add a role or email address in any of these fields:

• Internal Roles will receive a message within Vantaca in their My Messages section. Management company roles are an example of an internal role.
• External Roles will receive an outbound message such as an email or letter. Homeowners, Service Providers, and Board members are examples of external roles.

Notes:

• When a new message is sent to (including Cc and Bcc) a Homeowner, Service Provider, or Board role the system always sends an external email. 
• Management company roles receive an in-app message (My Messages) only and do not receive an external email if their communication preference for Email is not enabled. If they do enable the Email communication preference, they will receive both an in-app message and an external email.
• Action item step notifications follow the Step Rule Notification/Mail Format.

Board Email Example 

For the Board Email action item, the manager wants to send an email to the entire board and make it feel like a regular email.

They follow the steps in the Enable Group Email procedure to find the Board Email action item and drill down to the steps.

• Message step: Click Rules and deselect the Bcc Send Option to enable the Group Email feature on this step. This allows all Board member email addresses to display in the message so that they can see that everyone in the Board role was included and that they can Reply All. There is no need for Reply To or Portal Reply in this step because it automatically moves to the next step - Closed.
• Closed step: There is no Send To or Reply To because if an email is replied to and returns to Vantaca, it will reopen the Board Response step (the Next Step if Yes as is normal for closing steps). Both the Manager and Board roles are in the Portal Reply column so if someone replies through the portal, they can select one or both to receive the reply.
• Board Response step: In this step the Manger role is in the Send To column because they want this item to open up and sit in the Manager's My Action Items. The Board is not included in the Send To column because Board members will either use Reply All and everyone will get the reply or they will use Reply to answer the Manager only and not the rest of the Board. The Manager is also in the Reply To column for this same reason. Both roles are in the Portal Reply column so if someone replies through the portal instead of through email they can select one or both to receive the reply.

Scenario

• The Manager sends the Board Email message and the action item rolls to closed. All Board members receive the email which has all Board members listed, just like a regular email.
• Board member John clicks Reply All from his email Inbox and sends a message to everyone.
• All of the Board members receive John's email and the action item reopens in the Manager queue in the Board Response step.
• The Manager leaves the action item open, but clicks Repy All to keep the conversation going through a message instead of a step. Any Reply All from the board will go to the Manger and other Board members as an email.
• When the conversation is done, the Manager can step to Closed or can step to Message to send a final message that will automatically roll to Closed. 

Homeowner-facing communications will still include the Bcc option when sending to multiple owners. In this case, the configuration remains the same in terms of Reply To.

The Portal Reply column allows you to add roles that can be replied to through the portal (these roles display as options in the reply to drop-down) so you can pick them, but that don't need to receive email replies for every email of this type if they were added by default. For example if you added your AR team to a general question step so they could see the question but they don't need an email reply.