Automated emails and notifications
Admin notifications
As an admin, you receive notifications when things change across your camp - new applications, profile updates, form submissions, billing activity, and more. You can choose how you receive each type of notification.
Choosing your frequency
Head to your notification preferences (click the account menu in the lower-left corner of the sidebar, then Notifications) to configure notifications. For each category, you can choose between three frequencies:
Instant sends an email shortly after the event happens. Campfront batches instant notifications with a short delay so that a flurry of related changes arrives as one email rather than a dozen.
Daily digest rolls up all activity from the previous day into a single summary email, delivered at 8am in your timezone. That timezone comes from the Time zone field on your profile.
Off turns off email notifications for that category entirely. You can still see the activity in the activity feed - it just won't trigger an email.
Notification categories
Notifications are grouped into two sections, Campers and Staff, each with its own set of categories so you can set a frequency for each one on its own.
Campers: Leads, Enrollments, Profile updates, Family updates, Medical, Transport, Bunking, Form submissions, Form updates, Files, Billing, Notes, Tags, Communications, Assignment, and Tasks.
Staff: Applications, Profile updates, Medical, Transport, Bunking, Form submissions, Form updates, Files, Visa, Offer, Contract, Notes, Tags, Communications, Assignment, and Tasks.
Leads and Enrollments cover new camper lead captures and enrollment submissions, and Applications covers new staff applications. Profile updates covers name, contact info, and basic details, while Family updates covers changes to family members. Medical covers health info, allergies, and medications. Billing (campers only) covers payments, invoices, and balances. Assignment notifies you when you're assigned to or unassigned from a profile, and Tasks covers tasks assigned to or created by you. Visa, Offer, and Contract are staff-only.
Scoping notifications to your assignments
For most notification categories, you can choose between receiving notifications for all records or only records assigned to you via responsibility centers. This is especially useful for larger teams where each admin manages a specific group of campers or staff. See Responsibility centers for more on how assignment works.
Categories like new prospects, new applicants, and task assignments always notify all eligible admins regardless of scope.
Parent notifications
Campfront automatically sends parents several types of email throughout the enrollment lifecycle.
Enrollment confirmation is sent immediately after a family completes their enrollment, with a summary of their selections and payment.
Outstanding action reminders alert parents when they have incomplete items - forms that need filling out, missing medical information, or other pending tasks.
Upcoming payment emails are sent one week before a scheduled payment is due, giving families time to ensure their payment method is up to date.
Invoices are sent automatically before scheduled payments if you've enabled Auto-send invoices in your season payment settings. You control how many days before the due date invoices go out.
Payment reminders are sent a configurable number of days before a payment is due, and automatically 1, 3, and 7 days after it's overdue. You set the lead time in your payment settings.
Payment status emails confirm when a payment is successfully processed, notify parents if a payment fails or requires additional action, and confirm refunds.
Staff notifications
Staff members receive automated emails at key points in their journey.
Offer and contract emails are sent when you create an offer or contract, containing a secure link for the staff member to review and respond.
Outstanding action reminders work the same as for parents - alerting staff when they have forms, medical information, or other items to complete.
Account invitations are sent when a staff member needs to create their Campfront login.
Reference requests are sent to referees on behalf of the staff member, containing a link to submit their reference.
Configuring payment emails
Payment-related email timing is controlled in your season payment settings under Invoices and reminders. You can enable or disable auto-send invoices and set how many days before the due date they go out. Similarly, enable payment reminders and configure the lead time. See Setting your season payment options for the full setup.
Email delivery tracking
Campfront tracks email delivery for every message sent through the platform - both system emails and broadcasts. This tracking happens automatically via the Postmark email service and requires no configuration on your part.
How delivery status works
Each email goes through a lifecycle: sent, then delivered (successfully reached the recipient's inbox), opened, and clicked (if the recipient interacts with it). If something goes wrong, the email may be marked as bounced or spam complained.
For broadcasts, you can see aggregate delivery stats on the broadcast detail page - sent, delivered, opened, clicked, bounced, and failed counts with percentages.
Bounce and spam handling
When an email bounces or is reported as spam, Campfront records the issue against the recipient's email address. A status badge appears next to the email address on their profile so your team can spot problems at a glance.
Hard bounces (red badge) mean the email address is permanently undeliverable - typically because it doesn't exist or the account has been closed. Soft bounces don't show a badge, but they indicate a temporary issue like a full mailbox or a server that's temporarily down. Soft bounces clear automatically if a later email to that address is delivered successfully. Spam complaints (red badge) mean the recipient marked your email as spam.
Reactivating a suppressed address
When an email address has a hard or soft bounce, a Reactivate email action becomes available from the address's actions menu. Choosing it sends a reactivation request to the email provider. If the address is now valid (for example, the recipient fixed their mailbox), the status clears and future emails will be delivered normally.
Spam complaints cannot be reactivated through the admin interface - the recipient needs to mark future emails as "not spam" on their end, or you'll need to contact support for assistance.