If you’re seeing blank spots or unresolved variables (e.g. [practitionerfirstname] actually shows up like that in the email), it usually comes down to one of two things.
You formatted the variable in the email template in a way that breaks it.
You’re using a variable that’s not compatible with the trigger type.
You're using a variable that's not compatible with the email type.
Let's work it out together.
✅ Use the right variable set for your email type
Some Peptalkr features use different variable sets depending on whether the email is a Transactional Email or a Marketing Campaign/Automation.
Email Type | Use This Variable Set |
Transactional emails (like appointment confirmations, follow-ups, etc.) | |
Marketing Campaigns or Marketing Automations |
So if you copy a variable from a Transactional email (e.g. [appointmentstart]) into a Marketing Campaign — it won’t work.
🧠 Tip: Use the links above to check you're working with the right variables for your email type. No sure which email type you're using? Check whether you created the email in the Campaigns, Automations or Transactional tab of the email manager.
✅ Use a variable that is compatible with your transactional email trigger type
If the variable outputs nothing at all (just a blank space), it’s likely because the variable isn’t compatible with the type of event that triggered the email.
Why?
Each variable is tied to a specific kind of data in Cliniko. If the event that triggered the email doesn’t include that data, the variable will output nothing.
⚠️ Example:
A Medical Alert email doesn’t relate to a specific appointment.
So if you include
[appointmentstart], it won’t work — because the system has no appointment info to pull from.
Compatibility guide:
Variable Type | Description | ✅ Compatible Triggers | ⚠️ Not Compatible With |
📍 Business variables | Info from your Cliniko business (e.g. address, name). | Appointment triggers | Medical Alerts, Invoices |
📆 Appointment variables | Data from the specific appointment (e.g. date, time). | Appointment triggers | Medical Alerts, Invoices |
🩺 Practitioner variables | Info about the practitioner assigned to the appointment. | Appointment triggers | Medical Alerts, Invoices |
💬 Patient variables | Info about the patient (name, contact info). | ✅ All trigger types | — |
Form variables | Links to forms | ✅ All trigger types | — |
🧾 Invoice variables | Info pulled from the invoice. | Invoice triggers | Appointment or Medical Alerts |
🛎️ Medical Alert variables | Info from the medical alert message. | Medical Alert triggers | Appointment or Invoice triggers |
🧠 Tip: Check your trigger for which event is causing it to fire. Is it 'When a medical alert is added to a patient file'? Then check above for what's incompatible.
✅ Check the formatting of your email template
If you can see the square brackets and variable name in the email, it’s not a problem with the variable itself — it means the formatting in the email builder has broken the variable behind the scenes.
The most common mistake:
Bolding (or styling) the variable in parts.
⚠️ Example:
You applied formatting (bold, italics, colour etc.) to the
practitionerfirstnamebut not the[and]You bold
[practitionerfirstnamethen later bold the]
Even though it looks fine visually, the code ends up looking like this:
<strong>[practitionerfirstname</strong><strong>]</strong>
That breaks it.
✅ How to fix it:
Remove all formatting from the entire variable — including the square brackets.
Re-highlight the full variable and reapply the formatting in one go.
That will generate correct code (behind the scenes):
<strong>[practitionerfirstname]</strong>
Now it will work as expected!