Sending Bulk Messages from the Contract Report
Sending Bulk Messages from the Contract Report
Overview
Member Manager lets you send bulk emails and text messages to members directly from the Contract Report. This is useful when you want to message a specific contract group — for example, all members on a Frozen contract, all members in a specific program, or all members with contracts ending this month.
The feature uses the same email and SMS infrastructure as the Members tab, so opt-out preferences, communication settings, and personalization tokens all behave the same way.
Before You Start
Make sure your members have:
- Email addresses on file with the TCPA email opt-in checked (for emails)
- Mobile phone numbers on file with the TCPA text opt-in checked (for texts)
- Reminders preference set to a value that allows the channel you're sending on:
- Nothing → receives neither email nor text
- Email Only → receives email only
- Text Only → receives text only
- Both → receives both
Members who don't meet these requirements will be filtered out automatically and excluded from the send. The recipient count shown before send already reflects this filtering.
Step-by-Step
1. Run a Contract Report Query
Navigate to Reports → Contract Report. Set your filters (status, program, location, contract dates, etc.) and run the query.
2. Switch to the Detail View
The bulk messaging buttons only appear on the Detail view, not the Summary view.
3. Choose Your Action
Four buttons appear at the top of the report:
| Button | What It Does | |
|---|---|---|
| Email All Found | Sends an email to every member in the current result set | |
| Email Selected | Sends an email to only the members you've checked in the table | |
| Text All Found | Sends a text to every member in the current result set | |
| Text Selected | Sends a text to only the members you've checked in the table |
4. Compose Your Message
For emails:
- (Optional) Pick an existing template from the dropdown to pre-fill the subject and body.
- Enter a subject line.
- Edit the body in the rich text editor. You can use bold, italics, lists, links, and images the same way you would when emailing from a member profile.
- Use personalization tokens to customize each message:
- #FIRST NAME# — member's first name
- #LAST NAME# — member's last name
- #LOGIN# — member's portal login
For texts:
- Enter your message as plain text.
- A character counter shows you how long the message is. Stay under 160 characters for a single SMS segment — longer messages will be sent as multiple segments and may cost more.
- Personalization tokens (#FIRST NAME#, etc.) work in texts too.
5. Preview the Recipient Count
The dialog shows you how many members will actually receive the message after TCPA and reminders filtering is applied. This is your final send count — use it to sanity-check the audience size before you click Send.
6. Send
Click Send. The message dispatches through MSI's normal email (SendGrid) and SMS (Mobiery) infrastructure. You'll see a confirmation when the send is complete, including the final recipient count.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why is my recipient count lower than my report results?
The count shown before send is after TCPA and reminders filtering. Members without opt-in or with reminders set to Nothing (or to a channel that doesn't match what you're sending) are automatically excluded.
Can I save a draft and come back to it later?
No. The compose dialog resets when you close it. Compose and send in one session.
Where do bulk sends show up afterwards?
Each send is logged to the system's message log with the recipient count, channel (email or SMS), and source = contract_report. They are not currently distinguished from member-tab messages in the standard message reports — that's a planned enhancement.
Can a member be messaged twice if they have multiple contracts?
No. The system deduplicates by member ID before sending. If a member has 3 matching contracts, they receive 1 message.
What happens if a member's phone number or email is invalid?
Bad addresses fail per-recipient — the rest of the send continues normally. The send count returned reflects only successful dispatches.
Can I use this on other reports?
Not yet. The Contract Report is the first report wired up to bulk messaging. The backend supports any report; additional reports can be added as a future enhancement.
Why don't I see the buttons?
- You may be on the Summary view — switch to Detail.
- You may not have permission for messaging on this report — check with your account administrator.
- You may have switched views without re-running the query — re-run it on Detail.
What This Feature Does NOT Do (Yet)
These items were in the original feature plan but are not in this release:
- Pre-send breakdown by contract status — you don't currently see a breakdown by Active, Frozen, Cancelled, etc. before confirming.
- Multi-contract transparency — no expandable list showing which members have multiple contracts.
- Reporting differentiation — message reports don't currently separate contract-based sends from member-based sends.
If any of these are important to your workflow, please let your CSM know.
Need Help?
If you run into trouble, contact MSI Support and reference Member Manager Sprint 33 / Bulk Messaging from Contract Report.