This article explains how RIFT's chase engine turns leak items into emails, when those emails can actually be sent, how to work the Outbox and the Update menu, and how patients opt out.
Which RIFT items can become emails
RIFT drafts emails for three kinds of item only:
- Invoice chase - an overdue invoice (from the Chase overdue invoices group).
- Cancellation fee - an uncharged no-show or late-cancellation fee (from Cancellation fees to charge).
- Booking prompt - a client partway through an active funded plan with sessions left and nothing booked (from Funded sessions to book).
Everything else on the Leaks and Follow-ups tabs is worked by hand. Medicare claims and payer-funded invoices are never emailed to patients: RIFT chases the payer, not the person.
How the RIFT chase engine works
After every sync and on a regular background pass (about every half hour), RIFT looks at each open item of an emailable kind and decides what, if anything, to draft:
- Every email is built from your templates with the item's real figures merged in (amount, invoice number, session count). Nothing is written freehand, so an amount can never be mistyped.
- A client with several overdue invoices gets one email covering all of them, not one per invoice.
- Each item has a sequence: a first email, then reminders every N days while it stays unpaid, up to the maximum you set. By default every kind sends one email per item. When the sequence is exhausted and the money still has not come in, the item is marked needs a call and appears on the Home view and in the Outbox for reception to phone.
- An item that RIFT decides not to email gets a "not emailed" row in the Outbox with the reason (see below). RIFT clears its own skips when the blocker goes away, for example once an email address is added in your practice software.
- If you move an item to a different group with Update > Wrong group, RIFT stops emailing about it and cancels anything queued for it.
- An item that is resolved before its email goes out has the email cancelled automatically.
Drafts versus sending: when RIFT is allowed to send
Patient emails only ever leave RIFT when your clinic's data comes from a live API connection to Zanda or Cliniko, and the most recent sync came through that connection. A CSV export is a snapshot: it cannot know who paid yesterday, and chasing on stale data risks dunning a patient who has already settled.
- Zanda export only: everything still queues in the Outbox as drafts. You can open each draft with Review, read the wording with the real figures filled in, and use it yourself - but RIFT will not send it. The Outbox shows a notice that sending is locked until a live connection exists, and the Home view's Chase pipeline says "Sending unlocks once live Zanda data is connected".
- Zanda API or Cliniko connected: sending unlocks automatically after the first API sync, subject to the modes and guardrails below.
Even with sending unlocked, no email leaves until either a person approves it or you have switched that kind to Automatic.
Sending modes in RIFT: Approve each send, Automatic or Off
Open Outbox > Setup (also reachable from the Patient emails card in Settings). Each email type has a three-way switch:
- Approve each send - every email waits in the Outbox queue until a person approves it. This is the default for everything.
- Automatic - new items email themselves. The existing backlog still needs one-time approval: only items first seen after you switched to Automatic send on their own, and reminders of a sequence that has already started are also sent automatically. Automatically sent emails carry a line saying they are an automated reminder and inviting the patient to reply if they have already paid.
- Off - never email this type.
Overdue invoice emails are switched per cover type under Overdue invoice emails - by cover type: self-funded, Medicare / MHCP, WorkCover, TAC, NDIS, DVA, cancellation-fee invoices and other third parties each have their own switch, so you can put private invoices on Automatic while an insurer stays on Approve each send. Under it, Chase cadence sets the days between emails and the maximum emails per item. Other emails holds the switches and cadence for Uncharged cancellation fees and Booking prompts (funded sessions). Click Save email settings to apply.
Items carrying a "check first" warning are never sent automatically, whatever the switch says - they drop into the approval queue for a person to look at.
Guardrails on RIFT sending
In Outbox > Setup under Guardrails:
- Daily send cap - at most this many patient emails per day, however long the queue is (default 25). When the cap is reached, the most important money goes first: overdue invoices, then cancellation fees, then booking prompts, largest amount first within each.
- Send window (clinic time) - emails only go out between these hours in your clinic's time zone (default 9am to 5pm).
- Pause all sending - the kill switch. Everything queues as normal but nothing is delivered until you untick it.
The RIFT Outbox: Queue tab
Outbox > Queue shows every email RIFT has drafted, in sections. The header figure is the number awaiting approval, and the sidebar shows the same count. Sort with Most important first, Largest amount or Newest first.
- Awaiting your approval - drafts waiting for a person. For each row: Review opens the email; Approve and send approves it as drafted; the x cancels it and stops the sequence for that item for good. Tick several rows (or Select all) and click Approve and send N to approve in bulk. A row flagged "reception noted a payment for this client" should be checked against your records before sending.
- Needs a phone call - items whose email sequence has finished with the money still outstanding. The item stays on the Leaks list; click After the call to record how the call went (Paid in full, Part paid, Promised to pay, Called / no answer or Dismiss).
- Approved - sending soon - approved emails waiting for the send window, the daily cap or the next sending pass. The x cancels one.
- Failed to send - emails the email service rejected after three tries, with the error (often a bad address). Fix the cause, then Retry, or give up with the x.
- Not emailed - needs something first - items RIFT decided not to email, with the reason: no email address on file for the client, the invoice is payable by a third party, the patient's share is paid and the remainder is the payer's, the invoice is billed to another person whose contact details are not on file, the recipient asked not to receive these emails, or the template failed to render. Fix the blocker and the next sync clears it.
Reviewing one email before sending
Review opens Review before sending showing the recipient, subject and item amount above the email text. You can edit the text for this one email only (the signature and unsubscribe footer are added automatically). Rephrase with AI rewrites the wording from your template - the AI only ever sees the template with placeholders, never the patient's details; the real figures are filled in afterwards. Approve and send sends it in the next pass, subject to the send window and daily cap.
The RIFT Outbox: Sent tab
Outbox > Sent is the send history: date, type, recipient, subject, step number, status (sent or cancelled) and who approved it (a person's email address, or "auto"). Click View on a sent row to read the email exactly as it went out - the first thing a patient asks about. Sent rows are kept for a retention period and then removed, because they carry patient email addresses.
RIFT email templates and merge fields
Outbox > Templates holds the wording for every email: invoice chase (first email, reminder, the several-invoices-in-one versions, and the cancellation-fee-invoice versions), uncharged cancellation fee (first and reminder), booking prompt (first and reminder), and the Signature (all emails). For each:
- Edit the Subject and Body. Write merge fields such as
{{first_name}}and{{amount}}where the details belong; the fields available for that template are listed under the box, and anything else is rejected when you save. - Save template applies it to future drafts (queued emails pick it up on the next refresh). Reset to default restores the built-in wording (save to apply). Send me a test emails the template to an address you type, with sample figures, never patient data.
- The signature has three modes: Simple text, Branded card (RIFT lays out a branded block from your details and logo) or Your image (an uploaded signature image under the text lines).
A notice above every template reminds you that patient emails must stay factual under the health advertising rules, and links to the in-app guidance.
Sender identity and your own domain in RIFT
In Outbox > Setup under Sender identity:
- Sender name - the name patients see in their inbox (defaults to your clinic name).
- Replies go to - your real inbox. Patients reply straight to the practice, never to RIFT.
- Copy the practice on every send (BCC) - emails go out through RIFT, not your mail program, so nothing appears in your Sent folder. Put an address here to receive a copy of every patient email.
- Your sending domain - until you verify your own domain, emails come from a shared Rapid Intelligence address with your clinic's name on them. To send from your own domain (for example accounts@yourclinic.com.au), type the domain, click Set up domain, add the DNS records shown at your domain host (or send them to whoever manages your website), then click Check verification. DNS can take a few hours.
The Waiting tab and the Update menu on a RIFT item
Every open item on the Leaks tab has an Update button that opens the What happened? strip. Each choice is a note against the item; none of them move money into Recovered, which is measured from your practice software at the next sync:
- Paid in full - marks the item Done. It shows as Recovered once the payment is in your practice software at the next sync.
- Part paid - record the amount that came in; the item stays open for the rest and shows how much is still owing. An amount that covers the whole balance must be recorded as Paid in full instead.
- Promised to pay - pick the date they gave you (tomorrow to 90 days ahead) and the item parks on the Waiting tab. It comes back into Open by itself on that day, so nobody has to remember it. Use Back to Open on a waiting item if the promise falls through early.
- Called / no answer - record the contact (for example "left a voicemail") so the next person at the desk can see it.
- Wrong group - move the item to the leak group it belongs in. A moved item shows "moved here from" its original group, and RIFT stops emailing about it.
- Dismiss - will not be chased; say why.
Each note has an optional free-text field. Follow-up items offer only Paid in full, Called / no answer and Dismiss.
Editing a RIFT item's history
Under each item the latest history line shows what was recorded, when and by whom; click history (N) to see the rest. On an open or done item each line has edit (change the note - what happened and when stays as recorded) and remove. Removing a part payment takes that amount off the part-paid total; removing a promise brings the item back into Open. Removing a "moved" entry leaves the item where it is - use Wrong group to move it back.
How patients opt out of RIFT emails
Every patient email ends with a line saying which practice sent it and a link to opt out ("let us know here"). Clicking it takes the patient to a page confirming they will not receive these emails from your practice any more. The opt-out is permanent for that address at your clinic: RIFT marks future drafts to it as "recipient asked not to receive these emails" and never sends them. If a patient opted out by mistake, they contact the practice; email support@rapidintelligence.com.au to have the address restored.
Health advertising rules (AHPRA) and RIFT patient emails
The regulator treats almost any communication that could attract someone to a health service, including recall emails to existing patients, as advertising. Invoice chases and cancellation-fee emails are account communications about services already provided, so the advertising rules do not apply to them, but accuracy and a working opt-out do, and RIFT enforces both. Booking prompts invite a future appointment, so they sit inside the advertising rules: RIFT only sends them to a patient with an active funded plan who is partway through it, has sessions remaining, has nothing booked and has been quiet for a while, with real figures merged from your records, a capped sequence and an opt-out link on every email.
Your practice is the advertiser and is responsible for the wording of any template you customise. Keep it factual - the account or plan facts and one calm invitation to book or pay - and avoid urgency, discounts, gifts or claims about benefit. The full guidance, with examples of wording that stays inside the rules and wording that breaches them, is inside RIFT: click Patient email rules in the sidebar footer, or Read the guidance on the Templates tab. It is general guidance, not legal advice.