An automator's Email step sends from a template your team maintains at Settings → Email Templates. This is where you create and edit them; see Automator step types for how a template gets used inside an automator. The same templates show up in the Template picker when anyone composes an email from a deal or a contact (see Emailing from a deal). Saved text messages live next door — select Text templates at the top of the page (see Text templates).
The template list
Templates are grouped by category, split into Active and Archived tabs. Admins see a New template button to create one; anyone can open an existing template to view it.
Editing a template
A template is plain text with merge fields. Select Insert merge field to pick a merge field (things like a contact's name or a deal's address) that fills in with real data whenever the template actually sends. Select Preview with deal… to see it rendered against a real deal before you rely on it.
To describe the house, use the property details fields under Property: Bedrooms, Bathrooms, Square Feet, Year Built, Lot Size, Property Type, ARV, and Repair Estimate. They fill in from the deal's property details, so "{{property.beds}}/{{property.baths}}, {{property.sqft}} sqft, built {{property.year_built}}" sends as "3/2, 1,200 sqft, built 1978". Property Type shows its name (Single Family, Condo, and so on), and ARV and Repair Estimate show as dollar amounts. A Square Feet or Year Built of 0 counts as missing (it's a placeholder, never a real value), so the run stops and names the field instead of sending "0 sqft" or "built 0". A 0 for Bedrooms sends as 0, and a $0 Repair Estimate sends as $0.00. The same fields work in an automator's text messages and in emails to a buyer list.
Under Contract, Closing Date ({{contract.closing_date}}) is the
date the deal is expected to close: the extended closing date when one is
set, otherwise the original. Extend a deal and the next email or text
carries the new date. Actual Closing Date
({{contract.actual_closing_date}}) is the day the deal really closed —
it counts as missing until the deal closes, and it's never sent in emails
to a buyer list. EMD Due Date ({{contract.emd_due_date}}) is the day
the earnest money is due and EMD Received Date
({{contract.emd_received_date}}) the day it arrived; each counts as
missing until it's filled in, and neither is sent to a buyer list.
The Buyer Contract group fills in from the deal's active buyer contract (the one that hasn't fallen through): Buyer Contract Amount, the sent, signed, due diligence end and projected close dates, the buyer's earnest money (amount, received date, and who holds it), Buyer Contract Status, Exit Type, Seller Concessions, Appraisal Value, Buyer Financing Type (shown by name, like Conventional or Hard Money), Buyer Lender, Buyer Agent Name, and Buyer Brokerage. Amounts show as dollar amounts and dates as full dates. They work in automator emails and text messages. When the deal has no active buyer contract, they count as missing. They're never sent in emails to a buyer list — the picker shows them as "Not sent to buyer lists".
Your team's own custom deal fields are in Insert merge field too,
under Custom fields, listed by their names (for example Occupancy
Now or Access Notes). Each one inserts a field like
{{custom.occupancy_now}} and fills in with that deal's value: a
multi-select shows its choices separated by commas, a currency field
shows as a dollar amount, a date as a full date (March 5, 2026), and a
checkbox as Yes or No. They work in automator emails, text messages,
and emails to a buyer list. A field that's hidden on a deal (it only
shows for some deal types, or only when another field has a certain
answer) counts as empty on that deal. Buyer-side fields are listed here too
and fill in from the deal's active buyer contract — empty when there isn't
one — and they aren't sent in emails to a buyer list (a buyer-list email
step whose template uses one can't publish until you remove it). If your team has no custom fields,
the group doesn't appear. Custom fields aren't offered in the library
templates TED provides, since they belong to your team.
The Contact group ({{contact.first_name}}, {{contact.owner_first_name}},
{{contact.tier_name}} and the rest) fills in only for an automator that
runs on a contact
— the picker notes "Only fills in for automations that run on a contact." An
automator that runs on a deal can't publish with a template that uses one,
and a contact automator can't use deal fields like {{seller.first_name}} —
publishing names the fields to change.
A field that's empty on the deal counts as missing. If a deal has no bedrooms recorded, an email set to send on its own doesn't go out — the run stops and names the field so you can fill it in on the deal and retry.
The seller and buyer fields — first name, last name, full name, email, and phone — fill in on a real send exactly as they do in the preview. A seller or buyer with no email on file still fills in their name and phone; only their email field counts as missing. Sending the email to that person still needs an email address on their contact.
Drafting with Ask TED
Admins can select Draft with Ask TED, either when creating a new template or while editing an existing one, and describe the email in plain language — for example, "email to the seller confirming we deposited EMD with the title company." Ask TED writes a subject and body using your team's merge fields in place of specific facts it can't know (names, prices, dates, addresses) and fills them into the form. Nothing saves automatically — review the draft, then save it the same way you'd save any other edit.
If Ask TED's draft uses a merge field your team doesn't have, you'll see the same "unrecognized merge field" warning you'd get from typing one by hand — check the draft against Insert merge field and fix it before you rely on it.
Each successful draft uses 1 AI credit from your org's monthly allowance (see "AI credits and usage meters" in Choosing a plan and billing). If your org is out of credits, Draft with Ask TED shows an error instead of a draft — write the subject and body by hand, or buy more credits from Settings > Billing.
You don't have to come here first, either — while chatting with Ask TED to build or edit an automator, you can ask it to write an Email step's content directly in that conversation. It first checks whether an existing template looks like a match and offers to reuse it before creating a new one. Asking it to change an email it already wrote for a step updates that same template instead of adding another copy, and it never edits a template you picked or wrote yourself. See Using Ask TED to build or edit an automator.
Admins can select History to see past versions of a template, and Archive (or Restore, for an archived one) to retire a template without deleting it — an archived template stays available to any automator already using it but won't show up when setting up a new one.
Common issues
- Can't create or edit a template — creating and editing templates is admin-only; ask a team admin.