Message bank

|	Permissions required to access this module:
Section:
Contact management
Permission(s):
Access notices management screen
Allow access to contact management comment bank

PARS can be used to send SMS messages, emails or letters to parents, pupils, staff or external bodies. You may find that you are sending the same message over and over again. The contact management message banks allow you to create and save messages so that if you are sending the same message multiple times, you can select it from a message bank rather than retyping the message.

There are two message banks in PARS Connect, one for SMS messages and another for email messages.

These pages are accessed via:
PARS main menu > Contact management > Configure > Email message bank
PARS main menu > Contact management > Configure > Letter message bank
PARS main menu > Contact management > Configure > SMS message bank

The SMS message bank

The SMS message bank page will show you a list of all the SMS messages currently configured.

Composing or editing a message

To compose and save a new message, or edit an existing one, click the "Add" or "Edit" buttons from the top toolbar. This will open the window seen below

The Title that you give to your SMS message will not be seen by the recipient and is only used to help you organise your messages. the section below the title is where you should type your actual message. You can enter free text, and there are also a list of available mail merge fields on the right of the window - click any of these fields to insert them into your message.

Once you are happy with your message, click the "Accept" button. This will save the message to the message bank.

Deleting a message

You can delete a message from the message bank by clicking to select it, then clicking the "Delete" button from the top toolbar. This will delete the message from the message bank so that it cannot be selected when sending new SMS messages. This will not affect any SMS messages that have already been sent or pupils' contact histories.

The Email message bank

The email comment bank will show you a list of all of the email messages that have been configured. Email messages are stored as html and therefore can have different text sizes, fonts, colours, images and so on.

Composing a new message

To compose a new message or edit an existing one, click the "Add" or "Edit" buttons from the top toolbar. That will open the window seen below:

This text editor allows you to set different fonts, text sizes, colours, etc. There are various buttons that allow you to alter the text - hover over them for a description of what they do. There are also menu options at the top of the window - these are mostly self-explanatory.

If you click the "Insert" menu option at the top of the window, a drop-down will present you with more options. The most important here is the "Field" option, which gives you a list of mail merge fields that can be used within your email. Click on any of the merge fields to use them in your email.

Once you are happy with your message, click the "Accept" button at the bottom right of the window.

Deleting a message

You can delete a message from the message bank by clicking to select it, then clicking the "Delete" button from the top toolbar. This will delete the message from the message bank so that it cannot be selected when sending new Email messages. This will not affect any Email messages that have already been sent or pupils' contact histories.

The Letter message bank

Letters work in exactly the same way as emails; it is the same process to add, edit or delete them from the message bank. However when you are creating letters, there are additional mail merge fields that you can use to insert extra information about pupils.

To access the mail merge fields from the message composed, go to Insert > Field.

These are some of the most commonly used fields:

Merge field	Meaning
{S_CODEDATES_N}	This will show the dates where a pupil has N codes in their sessions (AM or PM)
{S_PRESENT_PER}	This is the pupil's percentage attendance to sessions
{S_LATES_MINUTES}	This is the total number of minutes late the pupil has arrived to their sessions