How to BCC on Email Templates

[CCSupport]

Hello all,

 

We are trying to find a way to BCC all 'Payment Confirmation' emails to clients. We currently have the 'Copy To' field populated within the email template, however this then shows it's been copied to the recipient, so it CC's the email. We want all emails BCC'd to our accounts person but do not want the client seeing the accounts persons email address.

 

Does anyone know how this can be accomplished?

 

Many thanks

[brian!]

if you wanted to bcc all emails, then it would be straightforward...

 

http://docs.whmcs.com/Mail_Tab#BCC_Messages

 

setup -> general settings -> mail -> BCC messages

 

but this would sent support tickets, reminders, new orders etc to your accounts person, so you may not want that... if so, you'll probably need to write an action hook to bcc the email - http://docs.whmcs.com/Hooks

 

alternatively, if you are already bcc all emails to yourself, you could setup a forwarder on your server to forward specific emails (i.e those with "Payment Confirmation" in the subject) to your accounts person.

[CCSupport]

Thanks Brian.

 

We have played with the full system BCC but it creates a vast amount of emails for no reason....Looks like I will be learning how to write a Hook action!

 

It does seem crazy that the Template Email CC field is just a copy and not Blind Carbon Copy....I say that as the only time I can think of that one would add an email address into the Template Emails would be one that isn't sent to the client and therefore to keep the client email clean and professional you wouldn't want them to see it being copied to another address.

 

I might pop an email through to WHMCS Support to see if this could be added or changed in future releases.

[brian!]

We have played with the full system BCC but it creates a vast amount of emails for no reason....Looks like I will be learning how to write a Hook action!

I tried thinking of a clever way to do it without using a hook, but nothing came to mind!

 

in fact, i'm not entirely sure if you can use the hook system to send an email to a third-party... I know you can use it to send to a client, or to an admin, but specifying a specific email address.. hmmm.

 

It does seem crazy that the Template Email CC field is just a copy and not Blind Carbon Copy....I say that as the only time I can think of that one would add an email address into the Template Emails would be one that isn't sent to the client and therefore to keep the client email clean and professional you wouldn't want them to see it being copied to another address.

i've just been running a few tests and there does appear to be a possible solution to this...

 

Setup -> General Settings -> Mail -> Mail Type

 

there are two settings available in this dropdown - PHP Mail() and SMTP.

 

if you select SMTP, then the email is sent with a CC in the header - I guess that this is what you're seeing and what you want to avoid...

 

however, if you choose PHP Mail(), the resulting email does not contain any mention of a CC (or any other email address) and so the client would be unaware that someone else has received a copy - effectively, it is a BCC.

 

if using PHP Mail() is a viable option for you, you might want to test it to see if it works the same in your WHMCS.

 

I might pop an email through to WHMCS Support to see if this could be added or changed in future releases.

it's probably not worth contacting support to suggest this - they'll just point you in the direction of the requests section... and there are already at least two requests for this...

 

https://requests.whmcs.com/responses/bcc-on-email-templates

https://requests.whmcs.com/responses/please-add-bcc-field-to-the-email-email-templates

[CCSupport]

Thanks Brian. All that info is very much appreciated.

 

You're right....I received a plain reply back from WHMCS Support saying:

 

We welcome suggestions for new features within our Feature Requests system at http://requests.whmcs.com . Feel free to search existing feature requests, comment, vote, and/or submit your own ideas.

 

In the meantime this may be something you, or a member of our community can complete, please refer to our development documentation at http://docs.whmcs.com/Developer_Resources

 

You may find that this is something which a member of our community has already developed. You can visit our App Store at https://www.whmcs.com/appstore .We have also created a Marketplace forum and an oDesk group to connect users and developers, feel free to request a quotation from our community by posting in our Marketplace forum or oDesk group: http://forum.whmcs.com/forumdisplay.php?f=49

 

I have looked at the links you also provided...seems I am indeed not the only one to ask for this, however as the initial request went in over a year ago I am guessing WHMCS don't see the need!

 

I have tested the PHP Mail config and it seems to have worked in sending a test email with a CC in it, however I need to look into any potential adverse effects of using PHP Mail compared to SMTP.

 

Thanks for all the help

Edited April 30, 2014 by CCSupport

[CCSupport]

Just been looking into the PHP Mail() issues....I have been advised to steer clear of it as some large ISPs are classing the emails sent by the Mail() function as spam due to inconsistent headers.....looks like we are back to looking for another way to get BCC emails