Using placeholders in emails
Placeholders let you write a single email template that personalises itself for each document and customer. They look like words starting with a colon — Sliptree replaces them with the right value when the email is sent.
For example, instead of writing a generic "Hello, customer!", you can write "Hello, :customer.name!" and the customer's name appears automatically. Placeholders work in the subject line as well as the message body.
All amounts and dates are formatted according to the document's language (locale), so an invoice issued in German will use German number and date formatting in the email.
Here's an example of an email with several placeholders used and what it would look like for the recipient:
Customer placeholders
| Placeholder | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
:customer.name |
Customer's full name | Mati Maasikas |
:customer.address |
Customer's address, line 1 | Pikk 142 |
:customer.address_2 |
Customer's address, line 2 | Apt 44 |
:customer.city |
Customer's city | Kuressaare |
:customer.state |
Customer's state | Saaremaa |
:customer.postal_code |
Customer's postal code | 93810 |
:customer.country |
Customer's country | Estonia |
:customer.reg_nr |
Customer's company registration number | 12082167 |
:customer.vat_id |
Customer's VAT ID | EE101447821 |
:customer.email |
Customer's email address | mati.maasikas@meil.ee |
:customer.phone |
Customer's phone number | +372 58362305 |
:customer.website |
Customer's website | http://neti.ee/ |
Document placeholders
| Placeholder | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
:title |
Document title | Invoice |
:number |
Document number | 19482 |
:title_with_number |
Title and number combined | Invoice No. 19482 |
:reference_number |
Reference number (invoice only) | 2004924 |
:currency |
Document currency | EUR |
:notes |
Free-text notes from the document | Here's an example of a note. |
:public_url |
Shareable link to the document | https://app.sliptree.com/sales-documents/01j… |
Date placeholders
| Placeholder | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
:issued_at |
Issue date, YYYY-MM-DD |
2026-05-15 |
:issued_at_for_humans |
Issue date in document locale | 05/15/2026 |
:due_at |
Due date, YYYY-MM-DD (invoice only) |
2026-06-25 |
:due_at_for_humans |
Due date in document locale (invoice only) | 06/25/2026 |
:due_at_diff_for_humans |
Due date relative to today (invoice only) | in 14 days / 1 month ago |
Amount placeholders
Each amount has three variants — raw (no formatting, useful for further processing), _for_humans (formatted per document locale), and _formatted (formatted with the currency symbol).
| Placeholder | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
:subtotal / :subtotal_for_humans / :subtotal_formatted |
Subtotal (before tax and discount) | 35975 / 35,975.00 / €35,975.00 |
:total_discount / :total_discount_for_humans / :total_discount_formatted |
Discount total | 6247.17 / 6,247.17 / €6,247.17 |
:total_net / :total_net_for_humans / :total_net_formatted |
Net total (after discount, before tax) | 29727.83 / 29,727.83 / €29,727.83 |
:total_tax / :total_tax_for_humans / :total_tax_formatted |
Tax total | 2779.76 / 2,779.76 / €2,779.76 |
:total / :total_for_humans / :total_formatted |
Grand total | 32507.59 / 32,507.59 / €32,507.59 |
:total_paid / :total_paid_for_humans / :total_paid_formatted (invoice only) |
Amount paid so far | 0 / 0.00 / €0.00 |
:total_unpaid / :total_unpaid_for_humans / :total_unpaid_for_humans_with_currency (invoice only) |
Amount still due | 32507.59 / 32,507.59 / €32,507.59 |
Sender placeholders
| Placeholder | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
:user.name |
The team member who created this document | Anna Saar |
Useful when a Sales Representative or salesperson should be named in the email signature. See Sales Representatives: scope and customer assignment for context on who's tracked as the document's creator.