Email Queue

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  • The Email Queue is roughly the equivalent of your standard email outbox.
  • It is used to control the emailing of landlord and supplier statements and emails created via the Mail Merge menu functions.
  • It is not used when single emails are produced using either of the four main screen [Mail] buttons or the Ace Viewer [Email Report] button.  In those cases the email is sent immediately without using the Email Queue.

    Skip to the description of the screen elements


    How the Email Queue works
    An entry is made in the Email Queue every time a statement is created if the landlord or supplier is set up to receive email statements, whether the intention is to email the statement or not.  So, displaying a landlord or supplier statement on the screen may result in an Email Queue entry.  If the statement is not to be emailed it will need to be deleted.

    In the case of mail merge, entries will be made when the [Email] button is pressed on the Mail Merge Letter screen.

    When any email is sent from your computer it is only transferred from your computer to your ISP's outbound mail computer, most commonly called the "smtp server".  

    For emails to be sent from your computer it must be connected to the Internet and the Aspect Property Manager must be able to connect to the ISP's smtp server and may need any firewall or other security software to allow the Aspect Property Manager program (apm.exe) to allow this to happen.

    When you first enter the Email Queue you will notice the Navigator bar buttons are inactive (greyed out text).  Once the program knows there is a connection to the internet and some brief "talking" takes place between the program and the smtp server the buttons will become active (the button text turns black) after which the emails may be sent using either of the [Send ...] buttons.

    New entries in the Email Queue will have "No" in the Sent column which will change to "Yes" after the sending action is successful.  Just like normal emails having it sent successfully only means it reached your ISP's smtp server.  It does not mean the recipient actually received it.

    If anything causes the "talking" between the Aspect Property Manager and the smtp server to breakdown, or get out of step, the Sent column will contain "Failed" on all unsent entries starting with the first failed email.  When the problem has been resolved press [Send All Unsent] to send the remaining "Failed" emails plus any new ones added since the problem occurred.

    Pressing [Hide Q] while the sending is taking place will allow you to do other things. See the Caution below.

    Once all the emails have been sent you can remove them the Email Queue according to your policy.

    [Close] / [Cancel] is a "toggle" button.
      4 When the Queue is first entered it will display [Close].
      4 Once sending commences it will change to [Cancel].
      4 Pressing [Cancel] will stop the sending after the current send has completed and the button reverts to [Close]


    Resolving Problems
    Failed on "Connect" with the mail server
    This is likely to be the first error message you get and will probably be caused by not having completed the Email Set Up steps or there is a firewall or other security software blocking the Aspect Property Manager program (apm.exe) from accessing the Internet.

    If this message occurs when the Email Queue has previously been working the Internet connection may have failed or your ISP is off the air temporarily.
      4 Try using Internet Explorer to access and move to several web pages, preferably those which have not been accessed today.
      4 Check your normal email is working.
      4 If these tests work try re-starting the Aspect Property Manager and finally your computer.

    Emails marked Failed
    This is the most common Email Queue failure we get calls about and the problem is usually caused by a bad Email or EmailCC address entered in the landlord, tenant or supplier master records.
      4 The problem will be in the first record marked "Failed" so that needs to be looked at carefully.
      4 You can see the Email address directly in the Email Queue grid
      4 If there is an icon  in the EmailCC column click it to examine those addressees too.
      4 Bad Queue entries can be fixed by editing the record using the Navigator Bar [Edit] button and / or clicking the EmailCC icon.  
      4 Try sending individual emails below the first "Failed" record using [Send Selected].  If that works the problem is in that first "Failed" record.

    If you can't spot the problem and are absolutely sure the address is valid try deleting and re-keying the address as it is possible to have non-displayable characters hiding in the address.  If that fails delete the record entirely and try [Send All Unsent] again.

    If all the above fail, try re-starting the Aspect Property Manager and finally your computer.

    Any errors also need to be fixed (later) in the master record(s).  



    Description of the Email Queue screen

    Refer to the Glossary for information about the Title bar, Menu bar and Navigator bar.

    Menu Bar > Connection
    This provides a direct link to the Setup menu > Preferences > Email tab and the ability to try a reconnect if the internet connection fails.

    Navigator Bar buttons
    In addition to the usual record movement, [Add], [Edit] and [Delete] buttons the following buttons control the Email Queue:-
      4 [Send All Unsent] will send all emails which have "No" or "Failed" in the Sent column
      4 [Send Selected] will send only the email currently selected regardless of the Sent column content
      4 [Delete Sent] will delete only the emails with "Yes" in the Sent column
      4 [Delete All] will delete all emails regardless of the Sent column content
      4 [Hide Q] will minimise the Email Queue and allow you to do other tasks in the Aspect Property Manager
    Caution  Do not create any new emails either by creating statements or through the Mail Merge menu as they will get sent as part of any current sending action.
    Similarly do not perform tasks which perform major database activity such as End of Period
      4 [Close] / [Cancel] When the Email Queue is first entered this button will display [Close].  Once sending commences it will change to [Cancel].  Pressing [Cancel] will stop the sending after the current send has completed and the button reverts to [Close]

    The Grid Columns
    Most of the column usage is self evident by the headings.  The following may require a little further explanation.
      4 Sent  Will only display "No", "Failed" or "Yes"
      4 Email  Displays the primary email address for the recipient
      4 EmailCC  Displays a memo containing other email addresses which are also to receive the email.  When landlord statements are emailed the content will come from the Landlord > Payments > "Statement email copies to" entries.  All other emails use the ... > Name and Address > EmailCC addresses.
      4 Attachment  This column shows a memo icon when landlord and supplier statements are produced.  Clicking the icon will display the statement in your pdf reader.
      4 File Attachments  Displays a memo containing a list of any attachment(s) added to statement emails or mail merge emails via the "Add File Attachments to ...." screen.
      
    The Logging Panel
    The unnamed panel across the bottom of the grid shows the state of the sending process. You will notice among other things the email address(es) being processed and an Error code.  An Error code of zero means a successful send.  This information is also saved in a log file for problem solving purposes and any error code / message is also displayed in the grid record.