Using Message Templates in the Inbox
Message templates let you reply to customers in seconds instead of typing the same thing over and over. From “Booking confirmation” to “Payment received”, your saved templates are always one click away inside the inbox.
Finding the Templates tab
Templates live inside the Messages section of Trade2Base. Open Messages from the left-hand sidebar, then click the Templates tab at the top of the panel. You'll see all saved templates grouped by category — Bookings, Payments, Follow-ups, and any custom categories you've created.
Every new Trade2Base account comes with a set of starter templates: “Booking confirmation”, “On my way”, “Payment received”, “Quote ready to review”, and “Job complete”. You can edit or delete any of these to suit your business.
Inserting a template into a reply
Click any message thread in the inbox to open it.
In the reply composer at the bottom, click the lightning bolt icon (⚡) or the "Templates" button to the right of the text field.
A panel slides open showing all your templates. Type in the search box to filter by keyword, or scroll through categories.
Click any template to insert its text into your reply composer. The template text appears in full — ready to edit before sending.
Make any last-minute changes, then hit Send. The customer receives your polished reply instantly.
Creating a new template
Click the "New template" button in the top-right of the Templates tab.
Give it a short internal name so you can find it quickly — e.g. "No-show follow-up" or "Annual service reminder".
Pick an existing category or type a new one. Categories help you group templates logically when your list grows.
Type your template text. Use {{customer_name}}, {{job_date}}, and {{job_address}} as dynamic placeholders — Trade2Base fills these in automatically at send time.
Click "Save template". It appears immediately in your template list for everyone on your team.
Organising templates by category
As your template library grows, categories keep things tidy. You can drag templates between categories from the Templates tab. To rename or delete a category, hover over the category heading and click the pencil icon.
Templates are shared across your whole team. Any engineer or admin can insert them from the inbox. Only admins can create or delete templates.
Dynamic placeholders only fill in when a conversation is linked to a customer or job record. If a conversation has no linked record, the placeholder text appears literally — so always check before sending.
Editing an existing template
Go to Messages → Templates, hover over the template you want to change, and click Edit. Make your changes and save. Updates apply immediately — the old version of the template is not preserved, so make sure everyone on your team is aware of the change.
Next steps
Once you're comfortable with templates, explore AI-assisted replies to generate one-off responses without building a template, or use bulk messages to send a template to a whole customer segment at once.
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