This article guides System Administrators on how to modify per-record and report email reminders. You will learn how to customise the set recipients, frequency, subject, and content of these notifications.
Prerequisites
The system sends different email reminder messages to VendorPanel - a Unimarket Company users regarding records such as contracts, procurement plans, evaluations, and approvals.
Event-based reminders are pre-programmed into the system and cannot be modified by System Administrators.
Per-Record and Report Reminders can be modified by System Administrators.
Steps
Follow these steps to access and manage an email reminder:
1. Access the Email Reminder Settings
Navigate to the Home page.
Click Email Reminder Settings in the bottom-right corner of the page.
In this section, you'll find a report of all the email reminders available for management.
Filter the notifications for forms relevant to you using the Context Form field.
Notifications for all of modules will be displayed, even if you haven't purchased them.
The reminders are sorted and categorised into Recurring and Once-Off reminders under the 'Timing' section.
Filter the list using the textbox under the Name field, or scroll through the list.
To open the settings of the reminder, click on the View button.
2. Configure the Reminder Details
Open the Details tab.
The internal name and description of the reminder are defined here. These do not surface in the message that gets delivered.
On this tab, you can decide whether to enable or disable the reminder so that it doesn’t get sent out.
This section also specifies the Context form or record related to the notification and whether this is a reminder for a 'report' or generated 'per-record'.
Example: For a contract expiry reminder, the name is set to 'Contract Expiring' and cannot be changed as it is a pre-defined reminder. The description remains at its default value, detailing when and how often notifications will be sent.
3. Manage the Reminder Timing
Open the Timing tab.
The Filter will be determined by VendorPanel - a Unimarket Company, and it's unlikely you'll need to change this. This determines what triggers this reminder to be sent. You can use the Tip (Writing filters) section for assistance with building out further filters.
Reminder Frequency is where you specify whether it should be a single reminder (once-off) or if multiple reminders are sent over a specific period of time.
Example: For the contract expiry reminder, the filter will specifically target contracts that are in a status of 'active'. Additionally, it is going to send out multiple reminders.
Start Date:
Here, we are determining when we want this reminder to start.
It can start on a specific date, or be based on a date listed on the record itself and determined from there.
Example: For the contract expiry reminder, we are basing this off the 'current end date' on the contract and we want the reminder to start 21 days before the end date.
Frequency:
Recurrence and End date type are only relevant if your reminder will be sent out multiple times.
Here, you will define how often the reminder will be sent and when they should stop sending.
Example: For the contract expiry reminder, notifications will be sent weekly, either indefinitely or until the contract is renewed or closed. This is due to the filter being configured to apply only to contracts with an 'active' status.
4. Define the Notification Recipients and Content
Open the Notification tab.
Reminder Recipients:
The 'Recipients' of the notifications can include users with accounts in the system, specific email addresses, or a role defined in the context record that triggers the notification.
Additionally, you optionally define CC, BCC and ReplyTo recipients here.
Example: For the contract expiry reminder, notifications will be sent to the user appointed as the Contract Manager for the contract.
Email Content:
This section will differ depending on whether you are working on a 'per record' or 'report' reminder.
1. Per Record Reminders:
You'll have the option to select whether you want the content of the email to use the Email Template or to define Custom content.
By default, all of these reminders use a default email template for the content body of the email notification that is defined in the system, which would be defined under the Email Template field.
Example: For the contract expiry reminder, we will use a pre-defined Contract Expiry email template for the content of the email notification.
If you choose to select the Custom option, then you'll be provided with fields to define the Subject of the email and the Email Content.
You can also use the Shortcodes section at the bottom to add in per-record details into both the Subject and Email Content. For example, you may want to include things like the Contract Number, Title and Current End Date. Under the Element column, select the field and then copy the shortcode in the field to the right.
Reports (Digest Emails):
In-system reports provide extensive visibility, but users must actively review them to access the information. To improve this visibility, we've developed a tool that sends a tabular report via email, offering a high degree of customisation for timing and content.
Setting up these reports requires a solid understanding of the system, making this tool primarily suitable for Admins and System Builders.
This tool can be used to create various types of email-based reports, including: Contracts due to expire in a specified period, Meetings held during the last period, All approvals completed in the last period.
Additionally, emails can be tailored to show information specific to the recipient, such as: My pending approvals, My upcoming contract milestones.
One limitation to be aware of is that the report must be referring to information stored on a single form.
Example (Active Contract Digest Email):
Start by selecting Custom email content as the 'Email Content' type on the 'Details' tab.
Then select Include a report of data from the system from the 'Email Content' section.
Just like custom email contents, you are given the option to define the subject line and content of the email.
You will notice that there is a read-only section where the 'Report content' should be appears. This will be populated with a table of data once the email notification is triggered.
You can specify the email sign-off in the Content after report section. If left unchanged, it will default to "Kind regards, VendorPanel.".
Targeted Report Data:
Here, you can customise the report data included in the email to show only what is relevant to the recipient.
You will specify which user from the context record to base the report on and whether they should receive these tailored digest emails.
Example: For the active contract digest email example, the report will be targeted towards active contracts where the user is assigned the contract manager role. They will receive a digest email containing a report of all of their active contracts.
5. Format the Report Data (For Report Reminders Only)
The Report tab is now available to you.
This section allows you to format the table to be included in the email notification.
You can specify which fields from the context form to include, choose headings to use instead of the field names, set the column widths, and determine how the values should be displayed.
You can also choose to include a link to the record related to the specific data. This will appear as a hyperlink labelled View on the first column of each row.
Finally, you can specify which column(s) to sort the data by and whether to sort them in ascending or descending order.
Once you are done, you can preview the report by clicking on the Apply Changes button.
Example: For the active contract digest email example, we will be including a report containing the status, contract title and number, vendor and total contract value of the contract. We will sort the data by the vendor's ABN in descending order. Additionally, we want to display the View link so the contract manager can easily access the active contract.
Results / Validation
The reminder is now saved and will be sent to the defined recipients at the specified time, containing your customised content. For a report reminder, you can confirm your report table formatting by using the preview feature.
Limits & Notes
Event-based reminders are pre-programmed into the system and cannot be modified.
Notifications for all VendorPanel - a Unimarket Company modules will be displayed, even if you have not purchased them.
The report for a Report Reminder must be referring to information stored on a single form.