How to: Specify When and How to Receive Notifications

When you set up users in approval workflows, you must specify in the Notification Setup and Notification Schedule windows how and when each user receives notifications about approval workflow steps. Individual users can also change their notification setup by choosing the Change Notification Settings button on any notification.

Before you can set up an approval user’s notification preferences, you must set the user up as an approval user. For more information, How to: Set Up Approval Users.

You define the layout and content of notifications by setting up notification templates. For more information, see How to: Manage Notification Templates.

Many approval workflow steps are about notifying users that an event has occurred that they must act on. For example, on one workflow step, the event can be that User 1 requests approval of a new record. The related response is that a notification is sent to User 2, the approver. On the next workflow step, the event can be that User 2 approves the record. The related response is that a notification is sent to User 3 to start a process with the approved record. For workflow steps that are about approval, each notification is tied to an approval entry. For more information, see Workflow.

Specify when and how users receive notifications

1. In the Search box, enter Approval User Setup, and then choose the related link.

2. Select the line for the user that you want to set up notification preferences for, and then, on the Home tab, in the Process group, choose Notification Setup.

3. In the Notification Setup window, fill the fields as described in the following table.

   Field	Description
   Notification Type	Specify what type of event the notification is about. Select one of the following options: New Record specifies that the notification is about a new record, such as a document, that the user must act on. Approval specifies that the notification is about one or more approval requests. Overdue specifies that the notification is to remind users that they are late in acting on an event.
   Notification Template Code	Specify the code of the notification template that is used to create notifications for the user.
   Non-Aggregated Notifications	Specify if the user receives one notification for each event or aggregated notifications. If the Non-Aggregated Notifications check box is not selected, then the user receives notifications that aggregate information about events that occur within the same recurrence pattern in the notification schedule.

   You have now specified how the user receives notifications. Proceed to specify when the user receives notifications.

4. On the Home tab, in the Process group, choose Notification Schedule.

5. In the Notification Schedule window, fill the fields as described in the following table.

   Field	Description
   Recurrence	Specify the recurrence pattern in which the user receives notifications.
   Time	Specify what time of the day the user receives notifications when the value in the Recurrence field is different from Instantly.
   Daily Frequency	Specify on which type of days the user receives notifications when the value in the Recurrence field is Daily. Select Weekday to receive notifications every work day of the week. Select Daily to receive notifications every day of the week, including weekends.
   Monday through Sunday	Specify on which days the user receives notifications when the value in the Recurrence field is Weekly.
   Date of Month	Specify if the user receives notifications on the first, last, or a specific date of the month.
   Monthly Notification Date	Specify the date of the month on which the user receives notifications when the value in the Date of Month field is Custom.

Change when and how you receive notifications

1. On one of the notifications that you have received, either as e-mail or note, choose the Change Notification Settings button.

2. In the Notification Setup window, change your notification preferences as described in the previous procedure.

See Also

Tasks

How to: Set Up Approval Users
How to: Manage Notification Templates

Concepts

Setting Up Workflow Notifications
Set Up Workflows
Use Workflows

Other Resources

Notification Setup
Notification Schedule
Notification Templates
Workflow