Overview
This article helps you manage email notifications in Access Volcanic. You'll learn to ensure candidates, team members, and stakeholders receive the right messages at the right time. Email notifications send automatically for key user journeys. These include candidate registration, job applications, form submissions, and job alerts. You configure who receives these emails, customise their content, and test them to ensure they work correctly.
Key benefits
Automate communication for common user journeys such as candidate registration and job applications.
Route emails to the right recipients using multiple addresses and conditional logic.
Customise email content and branding to match your organisation's style.
Test notifications before they go live to ensure they work as expected.
Centralise notification management in one convenient location.
Support dynamic forms with custom submission emails for internal teams.
Before you start
Before managing email notifications, make sure you have:
Admin access to your Access Volcanic website.
Understanding of which notifications you want to enable or customise.
Email addresses for recipients who should receive notifications.
Knowledge of any conditional routing requirements based on candidate responses.
Accessing the Notification Centre
All email notifications are managed in the Notification Centre within your admin area.
Log in to your Access Volcanic admin area as an admin user.
Click Settings in the top navigation.
Under the Site heading, select Notification Centre.
From the Notification Centre you view active and inactive notifications, edit notification content and recipients, activate or deactivate notifications, and send test emails for supported notifications.
Activating and deactivating notifications
Activating a notification
Go to the Notification Centre.
Click the Inactive notifications tab.
Find the notification you want to enable and click the edit icon.
Complete the required fields such as To, Subject, Body, and any conditional settings.
Click Submit to activate the notification.
Deactivating a notification
Go to the Notification Centre.
In the Active notifications tab, click the edit icon for the relevant notification.
Toggle the Active setting to off.
Click Save or Submit to apply your changes.
Editing notification content
Most notifications include several fields you customise:
Active lets you enable or disable the notification.
To sets the recipient email addresses. For multiple recipients, separate addresses with commas and a space.
Subject defines the email subject line. Consider including merge tags or key context such as job title or site name.
Body contains the email message content for branded email types. Use the merge tags provided in the editor to personalise content.
Conditional rules allow you to define routing logic where available, such as sending to different teams based on candidate location.
🤓 Tip: Always send a test email when editing live notifications to confirm layout, personalisation, and routing work correctly before publishing changes.
Sending test emails
Testing notifications helps you verify they work correctly before candidates or team members receive them.
Go to the Notification Centre.
Click the edit icon on an Active notification.
Locate the Send Test section.
Enter your own email address or a safe test inbox.
Click Send to receive a preview email.
You should receive a preview shortly. Check the branding, merge tags, links, and any conditional routing to ensure everything works as expected.
Understanding notification types
Notifications are organised into two groups in the Notification Centre.
Active notifications are currently enabled and sending emails on your website.
Inactive notifications are available but not yet enabled.
Each notification follows a specific delivery pattern that determines what you customise:
Branded emails use your website's custom styling and allow you to edit the subject and body content. Personalise these using merge tags like {{site.name}}.
Volcanic emails are platform-generated messages where you typically edit only the recipient and subject fields.
User-targeted emails are sent to the person who triggered the action, such as a candidate who submitted a form.
Custom address emails go to specific addresses you define. Enter multiple recipients separated by commas and a space.
Data Representative emails are sent to your designated site Data Representative for compliance-related events.
Job application emails go to the address specified in each job's Application email field.
Job alert emails are automated messages sent to candidates who have subscribed to job alerts.
📌 Note: To change the branded email template such as logos and colours, you'll need to raise a change request. Contact the Support team to discuss further.
Setting up conditional emails
Some notifications support conditional rules that route emails to different recipients based on candidate answers to submitted forms.
Go to the Notification Centre.
Locate a notification that has the conditional icon.
Click Edit to open the notification settings.
In the Conditional rules section, click Add condition.
Choose a question field to base the rule on, such as Location or Practice Area.
Select the operator from the dropdown menu.
Enter the value to match, for example London.
In the Send To field, enter the recipient email address for notifications meeting this condition.
Repeat for additional rules if needed.
Save your changes and use Send Test to confirm each route works correctly.
📌 Notes:
Common operators include equals for exact matches, contains for partial matches, and is not to exclude specific values.
You can set multiple rules for the same notification. If multiple conditions are met, the email will be sent to all matching recipients.
⚠️ Important: Keep conditional rules simple to avoid overlapping conditions that may trigger duplicate emails.
Managing specific notification types
Candidate Registration Notifications
To enable email notifications for new candidate registrations, follow these steps:
Navigate to the Notification centre,
Click the Inactive notifications tab.
Search for the notification labelled When a candidate user registers...
Select the desired option:
Send a Branded email: Customize the notification content and recipient address.
Send the Volcanic email: Use the default system template with a custom recipient address.
Input the recipient's email address and activate the notification as required.
Dynamic form submissions
When you configure dynamic forms to send emails on submission, these notifications appear in the Notification Centre where you can manage them further, including adding conditional routing.
Look for notifications with labels like When a user provides an email answer and the [form title] form is submitted to find form-related notifications.
Job application notifications
When creating or editing a job post, enter the correct recipient address in the Application email field. This controls who receives the job application notification for that specific job.
Further customise the underlying notification through the Notification Centre.
Job alert emails
Job alert emails are sent automatically to candidates who have subscribed to alerts.
Configure the subject and body content in the Job alerts section and ensure any attribute tags display correctly in test emails.
Multiple recipients
For notifications that allow custom addresses, send to multiple recipients by listing email addresses separated by commas and a space.
Example: [email protected], [email protected]
Use this feature with conditional routing to send notifications to specific teams based on submission details.
Best practices
Use Send Test before making changes live to verify layout and functionality.
Review your active notifications regularly to avoid duplicates or outdated messages.
Include clear, relevant information in subject lines such as job titles or form names.
Use only the merge tags provided in the editor to avoid broken tokens.
Keep conditional rules simple to prevent overlapping conditions and duplicate sends.
Periodically audit inactive versus active notifications to retire obsolete ones and ensure new workflows are covered.
Separate multiple email addresses with commas and a space for proper delivery.
📌 Note: Some notifications allow editing the From or Reply-To address, while others inherit default site settings. To change default sender identity, follow your organisation's email policy or raise a change request if needed.
FAQs
Q1: Why can't I see certain notifications in my admin area?
Answer: Some notifications are only available with specific Access Volcanic website packages (such as Essential, Standard, or Premier plans). Check your current package details with your Account Manager, or contact them if you need access to additional notification types.
Q2: How do I send notifications to multiple people?
Answer: In the To field, enter multiple email addresses separated by commas and a space, such as
[email protected], [email protected].
Q3: What should I do if my test email doesn't arrive?
Answer: Check that the notification is active, your test email address is correct, and your email system isn't filtering the message. Also verify that all required fields are completed properly.
Q4: Can I personalise emails with candidate information?
Answer: Yes, use the merge tags provided in the editor such as
{{candidate.first_name}}or{{site.name}}to personalise email content.
Q5: Will conditional emails send to all matching recipients?
Answer: Yes, if multiple conditions are met, the email will be sent to all recipients you've defined in those matching conditional rules. Keep rules simple to avoid duplicate sends.
Q6: How do I change the email branding such as logos and colours?
Answer: Changes to the email shell require a scoped change request. Contact your Account Manager to discuss branding modifications.
Q7: Can I edit notifications for job applications?
Answer: Yes, set the recipient address in each job's Application email field, then customise the notification further in the Notification Centre.
Q8: What's the difference between active and inactive notifications?
Answer: Active notifications are currently enabled and sending emails, while inactive notifications are available but not yet configured or enabled.
Q9: How do I find notifications for dynamic forms?
Answer: Look for notifications with labels like "When a user provides an email answer and the [form title] form is submitted" in the Notification Centre.
Q10: What should I include in email subject lines?
Answer: Include relevant context such as job titles, form names, or company information to help recipients identify and prioritise the message quickly.
Q11: Why do I receive multiple notifications for CV uploads?
Answer: Each CV-related action, including multiple uploads, deletions, and re-uploads is considered an individual event in the notification system, triggering separate emails. This is expected system behavior.