Past-due reminder emails

PinPortal can email bowlers who have fallen behind on their dues, so chasing people is not a job you have to remember.

Before you switch it on

This is the one feature where your DNS matters more than your settings. Gmail and Outlook discard unauthenticated mail without bouncing it. There is no error and no warning: the reminder simply never arrives, the bowler believes they are square, and you believe they were told.

So PinPortal will not let you switch reminders on while your domain publishes no SPF record. The Dues page tells you the state of it, and the dashboard’s Server Environment card shows the same check. If it says SPF is missing, fix that first; your host’s support team can usually add it in minutes.

Switching it on

Open Season settings on the Dues page and tick Email bowlers who are behind. Two numbers control the pace:

• Wait N days after a week is bowled. Nobody is chased on Tuesday morning for Monday’s money. A week is a sensible default.
• Re-send at most every N days. One reminder, not a nightly drip.

What a bowler receives

One email per bowler, never one per unpaid week. It shows what is owed now, what they have paid, and the season total, and it links to your payment page if you have set one. It ends by noting that if they have already paid, the note may simply have crossed with their payment.

Who is contacted

Only bowlers who have claimed their profile and confirmed an email address. PinPortal will not guess an address to send somebody a bill. Bowlers who have not claimed a profile simply do not get reminders; you collect from them on league night as you always have.

Balances under a dollar are left alone. Chasing loose change costs more goodwill than the change is worth.

Pacing

A limited number of reminders go out per day. On a big league the first run may not cover everybody at once, worst debts first; the rest follow the next day. This keeps your site from looking like a spam source to your own host.