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Specify when and how to receive workflow notifications

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In workflows that require that someone approves changes, you must set up the approval users who approve or reject changes. For example, you might want someone to approve new records. An important part of the approval user setup is to specify how and when the user is notified of the change. For example, you can specify that an approval user immediately receives an email when someone creates a new customer. You can also schedule notifications to be delivered, for example, on a weekly or monthly basis.

People can also change their notification setup by choosing Change Notification Settings on any notification.

Note

Notifications are delivered according to the notification settings for the receiver, not the sender. That's an important distinction because it means that when someone requests an approval as part of a workflow, their request is not necessarily sent immediately. Instead, it's delivered according to the notification schedule specified in the approver's notification settings.

Before you can set up an approval user's notification preferences, you must set up the user as an approval user. Learn more at Set Up Approval Users.

Note

To use email as the notification method, you must set email up for both the sender and the receiver in Business Central. Learn more at Set up Email.

Steps in workflows

Many approval workflow steps are about notifying users of an event 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 involving approvals, each notification is tied to an approval entry. Learn more at Workflow.

Specify when and how approval users receive notifications

  1. Choose the Lightbulb that opens the Tell Me feature. icon, enter Approval User Setup, then choose the related link.

  2. Select the line for the user you want to set up notification preferences for, then choose the Notification Setup action.

  3. On the Workflow Notification Setup page, fill in the fields as described in the following table.

    Note

    If you open the Workflow Notification Setup page from the Approval User Setup page the notification setup is linked to the approval user. The approval user will always receive workflow notifications according to that notification setup. If you use the Tell Me feature to open the Workflow Notification Setup page, the notification setup applies to all users.

    Field Description
    Notification Type Specify the 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're late in acting on an event.
    Notification Method Specify if the notification is an email or an internal note.

    You can define the layout of email notifications by customizing Report 1320, Notification Email. Learn more at Create and Modify Custom Report Layouts.

    You specified how the user receives notifications. Now specify when the user receives notifications.

  4. Choose the Notification Schedule action.

  5. On the Notification Schedule page, fill in the fields as described in the following table.

    Field Description
    Recurrence Specify the recurring pattern in which notifications are sent to the user.
    Time Specify what time of day notifications are sent to the user when the value in the Recurrence field is anything other than 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 day of the work 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 you received, either as an email or a note, choose Change Notification Settings.
  2. On the Workflow Notification Setup page, change your notification preferences as described in steps 3-5 above.
    1. Confirm that the correct notification is chosen under the Notification Type field.
    2. Choose whether to receive an email or note notification under the Notification Method field.
    3. Select the Notification Schedule to change the frequency and recurrence in which notifications are sent.

See also

Set Up Approval Users
Create and Modify Custom Report Layouts
Setting Up Approval Workflow Notifications
Setting Up Approval Workflows
Use Approval Workflows

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