I've worked with php based systems before. Given the default instructions to send, I should be able to prob the database for every transaction made and get the details for a transaction, generate some basic html/plaintext and automate mails using the php mail library and running it as a cron job.
Some relevant PHP systems I've worked on:
The Moodle based CMS as part of a GSoC in 2009. The facebook php api, at a facebook game development company, hash cube.