Alerts for Approval Workflows
You add alerts to approval workflow steps to notify employees that records are ready for them to approve, records have been rejected, records have been final approved, and so on.
The alerts keep the approval process moving from one step to the next and keep the employees who are involved in the process informed about an approval's progress.
Where You Set Up Alerts
You add alerts for approval workflow steps in the Step Actions grid on the Workflow tab in .
When Alerts Are Sent
- A step has started and a record requires their approval.
- Their approval of a record is due soon.
- Their approval of a record is past due.
- A record has been approved, edited, or rejected by another approver.
- The last step of an approval workflow has been approved (completed).
- The employee who submitted a record, either when the approval step starts or ends.
- The employee who requested a record, either when the approval step starts or ends.
- The approver's supervisors when an approver is late to responding to an approval request.
How Alerts Are Sent
You can choose to send the notification alerts by email, Notification Center, or both.
Grouping Email Alerts
When you have multiple records that need the same type of alert sent at the same time, the alerts are grouped into one email.
- Reminder alerts
- Supervisor escalation alerts
- Past Due Notification alerts for assignment (not the past due notification alerts for the approval workflow itself)
For example, if a project manager has five purchase orders that require a reminder alert, one reminder email alert will be sent that lists the five purchase orders.
Taking Action When You Receive an Alert
Notification Center Alerts
Notification Center alerts display as hyperlinks in the Notification Center. You can access the associated record using the hyperlink.
- The record that is associated with the alert opens directly in its application and the Notification Center closes. This occurs when an alert is configured to display the alert summary as an application link. This setting is a check box on the Notification Alert Configuration dialog box that you access when you add alerts to approval workflow steps in the Step Actions grid on the Workflow tab in Approval Workflows Configuration.
You have access to all the usual toolbar options for the application, including the Approvals option, and you can edit the record.
- The Alert Details dialog box displays if an alert is
not configured to display the alert summary as an application link. On the dialog box, you see the alert summary and contents. The
Open Record and
Navigate to Record buttons on the dialog box allow you to either:
- Open the record on a dialog box with limited access to only the Approvals option on the application toolbar. You can approve or reject the record or reassign the approval step.
- Open the application directly with full access to editing and all the application's toolbar options, including the Approvals option.
After you open a record from the Notification Center, the alert hyperlink is removed from the Notification Center. If you open a record and take no action that is required, such as approving the record, a reminder alert will be sent only if reminder alerts are added to the approval step in Approval Workflows Configuration.
If you are one of multiple people who can approve a record (but only one person is required to approve the record, not all), the alert is removed from your Notification Center when any one of the approvers approves the record.
Email Alerts With Hyperlinks
Email alerts can be configured to include a hyperlink that opens the record that requires an action or for which an action has been taken. When you configure an email alert in Approval Workflows Configuration, you insert [:RecordLink] into the email body to create the hyperlink for the record.