Skip to main content

Customise email templates

Oho sends emails on your behalf — a credential is expiring, a worker was onboarded, an applicant needs to complete their screening. The email template editor lets you shape how those emails look and read: the subject line, the wording, your own logo and colours, and dynamic details like the worker's name and the expiry date. You edit each type of email in a visual editor, block by block, with a live preview.

You'll find it under Settings → Customize → Email Templates.

What you'll end up with

Notification and request emails that sound like your organisation — right wording, right branding — going to the right people, with the worker, credential, and dates filled in automatically on every send.

Who can do this

Editing email templates is an Admin task, and the feature is available on plans that include it. If you don't see Email Templates in Settings, you're either not an Admin or your plan doesn't include it — talk to whoever manages your Oho account.

How Oho's emails work​

Two ideas make the editor easy to reason about: which email you're editing, and who it goes to.

The emails you can edit​

Each email is tied to an event — the thing that happened. They fall into two families:

Credential status — sent as a credential's standing changes:

  • Expiring, Expiring Soon, Expired, Revoked, Suspended
  • Worker Onboarded
  • Missing Credential (a worker is short a required check)

Requests — sent when you ask someone to provide credentials:

  • Recruitment Check Request and its Reminder (to an applicant)
  • Fetch Request and its Reminder (to an existing worker)

You pick the event at the top of the editor and edit that email on its own; each has its own subject, body, and styling.

Who each email goes to​

The same event can reach more than one audience, and Oho sends each the version that makes sense for them. The editor shows a Sent to: line so you always know who you're writing for:

AudienceWho they are
AdminsPeople who can sign in to Oho.
ManagersThe manager email on the worker's profile — they can't sign in.
WorkersThe worker the credential belongs to — they can't sign in.
ApplicantsThe candidate a screening request was sent to.

Which audiences a given event reaches is set by the event and your notification settings — for example, the two Expiring emails go to Admins, Managers, and (when worker notifications are on) Workers, while Revoked, Suspended, and Onboarded go to Admins only, and the request emails go to the Worker or Applicant they're addressed to. This matters because a couple of blocks are audience-specific (see Audience-specific buttons).

Step 1: Open the editor​

Open Settings (the gear icon), then go to Customize → Email Templates.

Expected outcome: the editor is open, showing an event, its subject, and a live preview.

Step 2: Pick the email and its subject​

  1. Choose the Event you want to edit from the selector at the top. The Sent to: chips update to show who that email reaches.
  2. Edit the Subject line. You can drop in variables here too — for example, Action needed — {{credentialName}} ({{workerName}}) expires soon.

Expected outcome: you're editing the right email, with a subject that reads the way you want.

Step 3: Build the body with blocks​

The email body is a stack of blocks you add, reorder, and style. The building blocks are:

  • Header — your logo and a banner bar at the top.
  • Alert Bar — a coloured status strip, e.g. CREDENTIAL EXPIRING SOON.
  • Text — a paragraph. This is where most of your wording goes, and where you insert variables.
  • Details Table — labelled rows (Credential, Type, Expiry Date, Worker) for the key facts at a glance.
  • Button — a call to action linking wherever you set, such as {{entityUrl}}.
  • Divider, Spacer — visual breathing room.
  • Image — an inline image, optionally linked.
  • Footer — the small print at the bottom.

Select any block to edit its text and styling (colours, alignment, padding, font size) in the panel beside the preview.

Expected outcome: the email body says what you want, in the order you want.

Step 4: Insert variables​

Variables are placeholders that Oho fills in on each send — {{workerName}} becomes the actual worker's name. Inside a Text block (or the Subject), click Insert Variable and pick from the list. The picker only shows the variables that apply to the event you're editing, so you can't accidentally use one that won't resolve.

See the Variable reference for the full set and where each one is available.

Variables are per-event

A variable that exists on one email may not exist on another — screeningPackageName makes sense on a recruitment request but not on an expiry alert. If a variable isn't in the picker for the event you're editing, it isn't available there.

Expected outcome: the dynamic details fill in automatically — you can confirm in the preview, which substitutes sample values.

Audience-specific buttons​

Two buttons are handled specially, because they only make sense for one audience. Oho adds them to the right recipients' copies and strips them from everyone else's automatically — you don't manage that by hand:

  • Renewal Button — links a worker to their secure renewal page. It appears only in the worker's copy, never in an admin's or manager's. It's available on plans with worker renewal links, and only when renewal links are turned on for your organisation.
  • View in Oho Button — links an admin to the credential inside Oho. Because only admins can sign in, it appears only in admin copies, and only on credential-status emails that reach admins.
Give workers a way to act

If worker renewal links are on but a template has no Renewal Button, workers get the email with no way to renew — Oho warns you about this when you save. Add a Renewal Button to any worker-facing template so the email is actually actionable.

Expected outcome: each audience gets the right call to action, with nothing they can't use.

Show a block only when a rule matches​

Any block can be made conditional — shown only when a variable meets a rule you set. Give the block a condition made of a variable, an operator, and a value. The operators are equals, not equal, greater than, less than, at least, at most, and contains.

For example, a block conditioned on daysRemaining less than 7 shows an urgent message only in the final week before expiry; a block conditioned on workerOrganisation equals a site name shows wording just for that site. Blocks without a condition always show.

Expected outcome: the email adapts to the situation instead of reading the same way every time.

Style the whole email​

The Global styles panel sets the look across the whole email — the page background, the container background, and the font. Choose Outfit (Oho) to match Oho's brand, or a standard family like Arial or Georgia.

Fonts and email apps

Most email apps don't support web fonts, so Outfit renders in the editor and in apps that support it (like Apple Mail) but falls back to Arial elsewhere (such as Outlook). Pick a font that still reads well in its fallback.

Expected outcome: the email carries your branding consistently, top to bottom.

Preview, then save​

The Preview shows the finished email with sample values filled in. For emails that reach several audiences, use the audience toggle to check each version — so you can see that the worker's copy has the Renewal Button and the admin's has View in Oho. There's also a compiled-HTML view if you want to inspect the markup.

When you're happy, click Save. To undo your changes and return an email to how Oho ships it, click Reset to Default — this reverts the whole template for that event.

Expected outcome: your changes are live for future sends of that email.

Variable reference​

The picker shows the variables available for the event you're editing. Here's the full set and where each one applies:

VariableWhat Oho fills inAvailable on
{{workerName}}The worker's full nameEvery email
{{entityUrl}}Link to the credential or worker in OhoEvery email
{{orgName}}Your organisation's nameEvery email
{{alertLabel}}Human-readable status, e.g. Expiring SoonEvery email
{{statusBadge}}Status badge text, e.g. EXPIRING SOONEvery email
{{credentialName}}The credential's display nameCredential-status emails
{{credentialType}}The credential's type or categoryCredential-status emails
{{daysRemaining}}Whole days until the credential expiresCredential-status emails
{{workerOrganisation}}The worker's organisation (handy for conditions)Credential-status emails
{{expiryDate}}Expiry of the credential, or of a request linkCredential-status & request emails
{{roleLabel}}The worker's position or roleMissing Credential
{{packageLink}}Link the worker opens to complete missing checksMissing Credential
{{missingCount}}How many requirements the worker is missingMissing Credential
{{missingSummary}}Comma-separated list of the missing requirementsMissing Credential
{{dueDate}}Date the package link expiresMissing Credential
{{credentialList}}Bulleted list of credentials the recipient must provideRequest emails
{{adminName}}Name of the admin who sent the requestRequest emails
{{customMessage}}Optional personal note the admin addedRequest emails
{{screeningPackageName}}The screening package the applicant is checked againstRecruitment requests & reminders
{{daysSinceSent}}Days since the original request was sentRequest reminders

Common questions​

Do my changes affect when emails send? No. The editor only changes how an email looks and reads. When and why an email goes out is set in notifications.

Why isn't a variable I want in the list? It isn't available for that event. Variables are scoped to where they can actually resolve — the picker only shows the ones that apply to the email you're editing.

Can I go back to the original? Yes — Reset to Default restores Oho's shipped version of that email, undoing your edits.

Why does my font look different in Outlook? Outlook doesn't support the web font, so it falls back to Arial. This is normal for email; choose a font that reads well in its fallback.

Someone can't see Email Templates in Settings. They're either not an Admin, or your plan doesn't include custom email templates.