Patient Communications | Portal Invite and Password Reset Emails

Last updated: November 9, 2026

The Patient Communications plugin lets your practice write its own portal invite and password reset emails. Canvas sends these emails with a link the patient uses to set up or sign in to the patient portal. By default the subject reads "Access to your practice location Patient Portal", so a practice with several locations sends different wording depending on the patient's location. With this feature turned on, the subject and body come from Notifications Admin instead, and can name your organization.

Overview

Staff send invites and password resets the same way as before, from the Portal section of the patient's profile. Nothing changes in their workflow.
Admins set the wording in Notifications Admin, on the Campaigns tab, in the Portal Invite and Password Reset Emails card. Invites and password resets each have their own subject and body.
Patients receive your wording, with their login link included.
The card is off by default. While it is off, patients get Canvas's standard email.

Before you begin

Canvas version. This feature needs Canvas release 1.380.0 or later and Patient Communications 0.19.10 or later. Your Canvas team can confirm both.
Check your organization name. The prefilled wording uses {{organization_short_name}}, the short name on your organization in Canvas. Confirm it reads the way you want patients to see it.
Pick one plugin to write these emails. If more than one plugin on your instance sets the portal email wording, Canvas uses the last answer it receives. Ask your Canvas team if you are unsure.

When these emails are sent

Canvas sends a portal email, and uses your wording, when:

Staff click Send invite in the Portal section of a patient's profile. The patient gets the invite email.
Staff click Reset password in the same section for a patient who has already registered. The patient gets the password reset email.
A patient asks for a sign-in link from the patient portal. Patients who have registered get the password reset email, and patients who have not get the invite email.
Another plugin sends a portal invite, for example online booking.

The text message Canvas sends with the same link keeps Canvas's wording.

Set up the emails

From the provider menu, open Notifications Admin.
On the Campaigns tab, find Portal Invite and Password Reset Emails and click the arrow to open it.
Turn on the toggle on the right of the card.
Under Invite email and Password reset email, edit the Subject and Body. Both start with Canvas's wording, using your organization name in place of the location name.
Click Save at the top of the page.

To add a field, click + Insert Field above a body, or type / in the body, and pick from the list:

Field	What it shows
`{{patient_first_name}}`	The patient's first name
`{{patient_preferred_name}}`	The patient's preferred name, if one is set
`{{login_link}}`	The patient's portal login link (body only)
`{{organization_short_name}}`	Your organization's short name
`{{organization_full_name}}`	Your organization's full name
`{{organization_address}}`	Your organization's work address
`{{organization_phone}}`	Your organization's work phone number

Subjects accept the same fields except {{login_link}}. A subject stays on one line, so any line breaks are turned into spaces. Bodies are sent as HTML, so you can use tags such as <p> for paragraphs.

Keep {{login_link}} in each body. If a body leaves it out, Canvas adds the link at the end of the email so the patient can still sign in.

Check your wording

Open a test patient's profile and, in the Portal section, click Send invite. Use a patient who has not registered and has an email address you can read.
Open the email. Check the subject, the body, and that the link opens portal setup.
For a test patient who has registered, click Reset password and check the password reset email the same way.

Go back to Canvas's standard email

Turn off the toggle on the card and click Save. The wording you wrote stays in the card, so you can turn it back on later.

To use Canvas's wording for just one part, clear that Subject or Body and save. A blank field uses Canvas's wording for that part only.

Troubleshooting

What you see	What to check
Patients still get Canvas's standard email	Confirm the card's toggle is on and that you clicked Save. Reopen Notifications Admin to check the setting stuck. If it did, ask your Canvas team to confirm the Canvas and plugin versions above.
The subject changed but the body did not, or the other way around	The field that did not change is blank, so Canvas's wording is used for it.
The login link appears at the end of the email	The body does not include `{{login_link}}`, so Canvas added the link. Add `{{login_link}}` where you want it.
A field shows up as text, like `{{patient_name}}`	The field name is not on the list above. Use + Insert Field to pick it.
The patient's name is blank	The patient has no first name or preferred name on their profile.
The sender name is the practice location's name	The sender name comes from the practice location in Canvas. This feature sets the subject and body.
The text message has Canvas's wording	This feature sets the email only.
An email sent to a patient's representative has Canvas's subject	Emails to representatives with portal access use Canvas's wording.

Install the Plugin

Your Canvas team installs and configures this plugin. Ask them to turn it on for your practice. This feature has no plugin secrets of its own; everything is set in Notifications Admin.