Adding, editing, and copying workflow rules

SECURITY  Security level with Admin permission to configure Workflow Rules. For Service Desk workflow rules only, Admin permission to configure Service Desk (Tickets). Refer to Admin security settings.

NAVIGATION   > Admin > Automation > Workflow Rules > Workflow Rules

BEFORE YOU BEGIN  Before you add your first workflow rule, read the following topic: Autotask workflow rules.

Best practice approach to setting up workflow rules

Workflow rules are intended to model and describe your local organization Your Autotask instance may be configured to use one of the following terms instead: Account, Business Unit, Client Company, Customer, Site.'s processes. As is the case with all automation, they will improve good workflows and make bad ones worse.

Before you create any workflow rules, you should do the following:

  • Create a flowchart of the workflow your workflow rule is going to automate. You can link this document to the workflow rule. Refer to Documentation URL.
  • Save the flowchart, and if you make changes, update the flowchart and then update the workflow rule.
  • Save the name and file location of the flowchart in the Description field of the workflow rule. This preserves the connection between the two, and makes it clear which workflow rules must be updated as your processes change.

Here is an example:

The corresponding workflow rule that automates the processes (shown above in blue) looks like this:

Workflow Rule Name Entity Events Conditions Actions
Critical Ticket Premium Customer Ticket When a Ticket is Created, Edited And the following conditions are met:
Issue in list "Server OR Network Device Your Autotask instance may be configured to use one of the following terms instead: Asset, Configuration Item, Installed Asset, Installed Product."
Organization Classification equal to "Premium"		 Then execute the following actions:
Assign To Queue "Level I"
Set Priority To "Critical"
Set Service Level Agreement As "Premium SLA"
Send notification e-mail (Ticket - Created or Edited) to Primary Organization Contact

NOTE  Avoid creating workflow rules only for notification purposes, especially if you are notifying internal resources. Dashboard widgets are a much better alternative. Refer to Introduction to the Autotask dashboard.

Adding, editing, or copying a workflow rule

To add, edit, or copy a workflow rule, do the following:

  1. To open the page, use the path(s) in the Security and navigation section above.
  2. Select the tab that corresponds to the entity the workflow rule will act on.
Workflow Rule Tab Available Entities
CRM Opportunity
Sales Order
Quote
Device
Contract Contract
Projects Project
Task
Service Desk Ticket
  1. To create a new workflow rule, click New.
  2. To edit or copy an existing workflow rule, hover over the context menu, and select Edit Workflow Rule or Copy Workflow Rule.

The Workflow Rule page opens.

  1. Complete or edit the General and Notification tabs.
  2. Click Save & Close.

IMPORTANT  Workflow rules are not constrained by ticket category settings. They can update a field to a value that is specifically excluded by the ticket category.

General tab

On the General tab, you enter or edit basic information and configure the following:

  • The entity the workflow rule will act on
  • The events and conditions that will trigger the rule
  • The timeframe for any time-sensitive behavior
  • The updates to the entity and any actions that will be performed when it is triggered
  • Any to-dos that will be created
  • Any ticket notes that will be created
  • Any tickets that will be created

Field Description
Workflow Rule Name
 Enter a unique workflow rule name.
Active The Active check box is selected by default, and the workflow rule will go into effect as soon as you save it. Inactive rules will not fire.
Description Describe in some detail what the workflow rule will do. This field can be added to the workflow rules table from the column chooser.
Documentation URL Enter a link to a document with text or diagrams that explain how this workflow rule works in your local organization The database record of your own organization in Autotask. It has the organization ID "0", and is used as the sender address on quotes, invoices, etc. Previous versions of the help referred to this database record as: 0 Account, Zero Company, Your Own Company.'s process. Click the icon to open the link. This field can be added to the workflow rules table from the column chooser. If you have access to the Autotask Knowledge Base feature, you can create a Knowledge Base article and link it here. Refer to Adding and editing Knowledge Base articles.

The Events section lists the events, by category, that you can trigger and/or update on. The ticket entity options are shown in the screenshot below. These events also appear as a column on the workflow rules page to indicate the event category to which the rule pertains. Since you can sort these columns, you'll be able to see all of your rules that affect a certain event like creating and editing, for example.

  1. If you are creating a CRM or Projects workflow rule, select the Entity to which the workflow rule should be applied.
  2. Then, select and define the events that will trigger the workflow rule. You can select one or multiple events, but Autotask will treat your selections as this OR that (... when a ticket is created OR when a ticket is edited...) rather than this AND that. The events you can select for triggering the rule are entity-specific, but there are three types:
Event Type Description Examples
Regular Event (immediate event) Regular events only have a check box, and there is nothing else to select. Service Call Scheduled
Created
Events where you are able to specify a type of resource (immediate event) With this type of event, you can further define the type of actor who will trigger the event. You will see the following:
• Anyone (default)
• Autotask Resource
• External Contact (everyone who is not an Autotask Resource, for example an Organization Contact)
• Client Portal User
• Client Portal or Taskfire User
• Co-managing User
• Taskfire User
• Datto RMM (Device workflow rules only)
Not all options are available for all entities.
 Created by
Note Added by
Time-based events

Time-based events are followed by a time frame selector. You enter a time value and select a time frame.

The workflow rule is triggered when the event is the specified amount of time in the future (Due in, Expiring SSL Certificate In, or in the past Overdue by, Past Warranty Expiration by. Also refer to Events where the time component is based on business days.

These fields only accept integers; any decimals will be rounded up or down.
Events with a time component can be further refined in the Time-Sensitive section, and you will also be able to configure recurring notifications on the Notification tab. Refer to Time-Sensitive section and Notification Recurrence section.

 Due in
SLA: Resolution Overdue by
Idle for

Service Level Agreement (SLA) events

SLA events are similar to time-based events, but they have two additional time frame selections, SLA Minutes, and SLA Hours. The difference between Hours and SLA Hours when configuring a workflow rule is that SLA hours can be customized. For more on configuring custom hours for your Service Level Agreements, refer toDefine SLA objectives and Configure custom hours for the SLA.

SLA Minutes
SLA Hours

NOTE  SLA and Change Approval events will only trigger a workflow rule if those features are enabled. Refer to Introduction to service level management and Change management for more information.

Events where the time component is based on business days

Business days are associated with locations. On a ticket, both resources and queues are associated with locations, so the question is which location should be used by the workflow rule.

For tickets, if the time frame of an event with a time component is Business Days, the workflow rule logic for tickets works like this:

  1. If the entity has a primary resource, business days will be calculated based on the primary location of the primary resource. The primary location is a setting on the New Resource and Edit Resource pages. Refer to Adding, editing, or copying a resource.
  2. If the entity has no primary resource but has a queue, business days will be calculated based on the queue's internal location. The internal location of the queue is a setting on the New Queue and Edit Queue pages. Refer to Add or edit a queue.
  3. If the entity has neither a primary resource nor a queue, business days will be calculated based on your organization's default internal location. Refer to Internal locations.

For all other workflow entities (projects, task, contracts, etc), the time component is based solely on the business hours of the default location.

About events that can trigger other events

Regular events and events where you select a dynamic recipient (immediate events) can cause an entire workflow cascade. If the workflow rule is processed and results in a change to the entity that makes it match the conditions for another workflow rule, that workflow rule is also triggered. This process can repeat up to five times. Refer to What triggers a workflow rule?.

Conditions allow you to fine-tune the circumstances that will trigger the workflow rule. You don't have to select a condition. If you don't, the workflow rule will fire every time the event occurs. Conditions are organized in the drop-down lists by entity:

NOTE  You can create up to five conditions. There is an AND relationship between conditions, so your workflow rule will only be triggered when all the conditions you create are met.

To create conditions, do the following:

  1. Select an Attribute. Attributes are fields of the selected entity or a related entity. You can select them from a drop-down menu.

NOTE  The Conditions list of attributes includes your local organization's user-defined fields. Refer to User-Defined Fields (UDFs) in workflow rules.

  1. Select an Operator from the drop-down menu. Operators are specific to the Attribute you selected in the previous step.
  2. For most conditions, you must also enter a Value or select one or multiple values. Multiple values can only be selected for specific operators, such as In List.

The type of workflow rule you're creating determines what options are available. For a full list of all available selections for each type of workflow rule (ticket, opportunity, sales order, device, contract, task, or project), refer to Workflow rule attributes, operators, and field types.

Important considerations:

IMPORTANT  Do not use the Changed, Changed to, and Changed from operators with future events; if you do, the workflow rule will not fire. Future Events include Idle for, Due in, Overdue by, and all of the SLA Events.

IMPORTANT  Changed, Changed to, and Changed from operators are not available for user-defined fields because UDF values are not tracked in the change-tracking history.

IMPORTANT  Also note that workflow rules will not restart the Idle clock. If a workflow rule changes the status to be complete01 when the ticket is idle for two business days, it will not change the Idle count back to zero. This means that if you have another workflow rule set to change the ticket from complete01 to complete if the ticket is idle for five minutes, this rule will not fire. You need to set the idle time to two days and five minutes instead.

IMPORTANT  The events Idle for, Due in, Overdue by, and Current Status for are not valid when the condition Status is equal to Complete.

The Time-Sensitive section allows you to limit when the workflow rule will be triggered. This is great for creating different workflow rules for business hours and after hours, or assigning a ticket to a team in another time zone if you have a follow-the-sun support model.

  1. Click the Time-Sensitive check box to expand this section.
  2. Use the radio buttons to select a timeframe from the following options:
Selected Timeframe Description
Inside Business Hours of [internal location]

If you select this radio button, the business hours of the selected internal location are displayed, and the workflow rule will fire during those hours only.

To change the internal location, select a different one from the drop-down menu. The current business hours will be refreshed with the new internal location's business hours.

Outside Business Hours of [internal location]

If you select this radio button, the hours outside of the business hours of the selected internal location are displayed, and the workflow rule will fire during those hours only.

Inside Custom Hours

If you select this radio button, you can freely define when the workflow rule should fire, regardless of whether the selected days are business days, weekend days, or holidays. You are not referring to a predefined work week.

  1. Click Edit to open the Time-sensitive: Edit Custom Hours window.

  2. Enter the Business Hours Start and Business Hours End times.

  3. Select the correct Time Zone for the location.

  4. If the workflow rule applies to holidays, use the Holiday Settings radio button to specify if normal business hours are going to apply, or the hours you entered into the table.

EXAMPLE  If you want to offer support hours on holidays no matter if they fall on a regular business day or on a weekend day, enter the Business Hours Start and Business Hours End times, and select the appropriate holiday set. If Christmas is a holiday, these hours will apply whether it falls on a Wednesday or a Sunday.
  1. Click OK.

In the Updates area, specify what changes the rule will make to the entity (opportunity, sales order, device, contract, ticket, task, or project) when the conditions are met and the workflow rule is triggered.

You can configure up to five updates.

IMPORTANT  Like conditions, updates have an and relationship. When the workflow rule is triggered, all the updates will be performed automatically. Updates are also categorized by entity in the drop-down lists.

  1. Select an Attribute, that is, an entity field you want to change.

NOTE  The Updates list of attributes includes your local organization's user-defined fields. Refer to User-Defined Fields (UDFs) in workflow rules.

  1. Then select or enter a value, or select a dynamic option.
Option Description
Select a value from a drop-down menu A drop-down menu will appear when the attribute field is associated with a list of options, and you must choose one of the values configured for the field. An example is the Priority field.
Enter a value You can enter a value for fields where you do not have to select from a list of pre-configured options. An example is the Estimated Hours field.
Dynamic option Some fields, like Queue Name or Primary Resource/Role, have one or more dynamic options. These are surrounded by square brackets and listed at the top of the list.
These options depend on designations you have made elsewhere in Autotask. They require that you select resources to fill the following roles everywhere in Autotask:
• Account Manager
• Account Team
• Department Lead
• Timesheet Approver
• Queue Owner
• Queue Resources
The Queue Name field can also be updated to the [Issue/Sub-Issue Type's Queue], an association that is created when you set up Issue Types. Refer to Adding issue types and sub-issue types.

This area allows you to tell Autotask to automatically perform certain actions when the workflow rule is triggered. It is only available for ticket, task, and opportunity workflow rules. To include an action to the workflow rule, select a value and/or check box.

Action Description
Opportunity Workflow Rules
Then release product / inventory reservations If you have reserved inventory items in anticipation of winning an opportunity that you ended up losing, you can automatically release them using this setting.
Ticket Workflow Rules
Then send survey to ticket contact: Click the drop-down menu and select the survey that will automatically be sent to the Ticket Contact when the workflow rule fires.
Then transfer ticket to: Click the drop-down menu and select one of the following:
  • Taskfire (if client has Taskfire enabled). This option lets you automate the triage of tickets that clients who have Taskfire enabled will work on themselves.
    Refer to Workflow rules to send tickets to Taskfire.
  • Co-managing user (if client is configured for Co-management). This option will transfer the ticket to the organization's Primary Co-managing User.
Then Execute Extension Callout: Select the Extension Callout you want to execute.
Extension callouts provide data for automatic (round-trip) ticket closure for third-party Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM) application integrations. They store authentication and format information provided by the remote monitoring application service provider. The Autotask Web Services API uses that information to send data directly to the remote monitoring application.
Refer to Extension Callout (Tickets)
Then add items from the following checklist to the ticket’s checklist: Click the drop-down menu and select the checklist you would like to add to the ticket. The checklist will be appended to any checklist items that are already on the ticket's checklist.
If the addition of a library checklist would cause the ticket checklist to exceed 40 items, the checklist will not be added. Either way, a note will be added to the ticket to indicate that the addition was successful or unsuccessful.
If a ticket category change via workflow rule will cause checklist items to be added via the category AND a workflow action, the category items will be added first, followed by the items from the workflow action.

IMPORTANT  Workflow rules override ticket category settings and any restrictions imposed by the ticket creator's security level, so they can add a checklist to a category of ticket that the user normally might not be able to.
Add Ticket to Primary Resource’s Work List Adds the ticket to the Primary Resource's work list, unless the work list already contains the maximum number of tickets.

NOTE  If you've enabled the Ticket Added to Work List Event, you can check the Work List Owner box in the Recipients section of the Notification tab to alert the owner of the addition of the ticket to their Work List.
Task Workflow Rules
Then set status of successor tasks to (Complete tasks will not be updated): Select a Task Status from the drop-down menu.
This will update the status of all successor tasks to the selected status. Example: Change the successor task status from New to Ready to Schedule.
Add Task to Primary Resource’s Work List Adds the task to the Primary Resource's work list, unless the work list already contains the maximum number of tasks.

NOTE  If you've enabled the Ticket Added to Work List Event, you can check the Work List Owner box in the Recipients section of the Notification tab to alert the owner of the addition of the ticket to their Work List.

NOTE  Workflow rules cannot override business logic. Example: workflow rules cannot change the category of a domain or SSL certificate device. In cases where a workflow rule fires but the actions did not occur, a note will be added to the Activity feed.

All types of workflow rules allow you to create up to ten CRM to-dos and assign them to resources with CRM permissions. Some types allow you to assign to-dos to a variety of dynamic recipients:

Role-Based Recipient Opportunity Sales Order Project Task Ticket
Account Manager
Initiating Resource
Ticket Primary Resource      
Outsourced By        
Project Lead        
Opportunity Owner      
Sales Order Owner        

NOTE  For Ticket workflow rules: Not all tickets have a primary resource assigned (for example, tickets assigned to a queue). If you assign the to-dos to the primary resource and the workflow rule is triggered by a ticket that doesn't have a primary resource, the to-do will be assigned to the account manager of the ticket's account.

For information on creating a to-do, refer to Adding or editing To-dos.

NOTE  Device and Contract workflow rules do not feature dynamic recipients.

Workflow rules created on the Service Desk tab have an additional section which allows you to add a read-only note to tickets affected by the workflow rule. The creation of this note is not considered an activity by the workflow rule engine. It will not trigger the firing of additional workflow rules, and it will not update the Last Activity field for the ticket.

NOTE  Notes created in this way cannot be edited or deleted, but they are not considered System Notes when showing or hiding system notes on the Ticket page.

Field Description
Note Type The Note Type will be set to Workflow Rule Action Note, which can be used as a filter in the Global Notes Search. Refer to Note types and Running a global notes search.
Publish

The Publish type determines who can view notes or open attachments created by a resource (system notes visibility is determined by the viewer's security level). It is either inherited from the note type (but can be edited), or selected outright from the Publish To dropdown menu. The following options are available:

  • All Autotask Users: The note or attachment can be viewed by internal and co-managing resources, as well as customer contacts with Client Portal access to the parent entity. Refer to Adding or editing Client Portal security levels.
  • Internal Only: (not available to co-managed security levels when adding attachments) The note or attachment can be viewed by internal resources, except those who have a co-managed security level. Some entities where this is the only option have an Internal only check box.
  • Internal & Co-managing (tickets and ticket notes only): The note or attachment can be viewed by internal resources and resources who have a co-managed security level. Refer to Co-managed Help Desk (system). The following system note types default to this Publish To setting:
    • Absorbed Another Ticket
    • Copied to Project
    • Duplicate Ticket Note
    • Forward/Modify Note
    • Merged Into Ticket
    • If a co-managing user is sending an email and the mailbox configuration is set to Internal Only, it is published to Internal & Co-managed, regardless.
  • Project Team (project notes only): The note can be viewed by internal and client team members of the project.

Attachments without a Publish To selector inherit the visibility of the parent entity.

EXAMPLE  When you add an attachment while editing a ticket note, the ticket note's Publish To option is applied to the attachment.
Append to Resolution When you select this check box, the contents of the Description field are appended to the text in the Resolution field on the ticket page. This action is not considered an activity by the workflow rule engine and will not trigger the firing of additional workflow rules.
Title The title will be displayed in the Notes / Summary column of the Time Entry and Notes section on the Ticket page.
Description Enter the text of the note here.
Notes can have up to 32,000 characters.

Workflow rules created on the CRM, Contract, or Projects tab have an additional section which allows you to create a ticket when the workflow rule conditions are met. Tickets cannot be created from Service Desk workflow rules.

To apply this section:

  1. Select the Action: Create Ticket(s) check box.
  2. Select the appropriate Ticket Category. All active ticket categories will appear in the list. Ticket categories can supply default ticket titles, checklists, and more. You can add a new ticket category for use with this workflow rule or use an existing one. For more information, refer to Adding and editing categories.
  3. If you want the workflow rule to create an additional ticket, select Add Another. You can have up to three tickets created by a workflow rule.

When the ticket is created, the following will occur:

  • The ticket or tickets are created using the selected ticket category. If the ticket category does not supply a ticket title, the following title will be applied: "Ticket created from Workflow Rule: Workflow Rule name".
  • Where possible, the initiating entity is applied to the ticket (for example, if a contract triggered the contract workflow rule then that contract will appear in the ticket's contract field, if an opportunity triggered the workflow rule then that opportunity will appear in the ticket's opportunity field, etc.). This linking will occur even if the field is not visible on the selected ticket category.
  • A note is added to the ticket's Activity tab with the name of the workflow rule, what entity triggered it, and who was the initiating resource. You do not have to select Show System Notes to see this note.
  • The ticket is processed by the workflow rules engine and will trigger any additional workflow rules that are based on ticket creation.

NOTE  This feature can be used to replace the manual selection for ticket creation at the end of the New Contract Wizard and Won Opportunity Wizard.

The Autotask integration with Microsoft Teams provides users with an alternate method for receiving the notifications generated by ticket workflow rules. Instead of a mailbox, the notification is sent to a webhook URL and posted in a Teams channel. The workflow rules define the events and conditions and determine the Teams channel or channels the notification is posted to. For more on the Autotask integration with Microsoft Teams, refer to The Microsoft Teams integration.

In this section, you configure the specific channels that will receive the post. Do the following:

  1. Set up the connectors to the Microsoft Teams channels in Autotask. Refer to Creating and managing Teams channel connectors.
  2. Click the selector icon to the right of the channel list.
  3. Click on a channel to add it to your selection.
  4. Click Save. Notifications will be posted to all selected channels.

NOTE  A workflow can only post to a maximum of 10 channels. Multiple workflow rules can post to the same Teams channel.

Notification tab

On the Notification tab, you determine the following:

  • Who receives an email notification
  • What the notification email looks like
  • If and how often it will be repeated
  • Who will appear as the sender of the email
  • Whether the notification content will be added to the entity as a note

In this section, you'll decide who will be notified when the workflow rule is triggered and who will appear as the sender. The options available in the top portion of the Recipients area depend on what type of workflow rule (ticket, project, opportunity, etc.) you are creating.

Recipient Type Description
Select All To select all dynamic recipients, click Select All.

NOTE  Caution: Consider carefully if all these recipients really need to receive a notification email. Also, you cannot clear them all at once; you must clear each box individually.
Recipients Select role-based recipients as appropriate. Role-based recipients can be internal resources or customer contacts.
When you select a role-based recipient, the system will figure out who the right resource is when the workflow rule is triggered. For definitions of role-based recipients, refer to Role-based notification recipients.

EXAMPLE  If you select Project Lead, the project lead for the specific project or task that causes the workflow rule to fire will receive a notification.

NOTE  The email addresses of all users who receive the notification are appended to the role name.
Dynamic Recipient Options Select Do not notify initiating resource to prevent the initiating resource from receiving a notification that they would otherwise receive based on the dynamic recipient selections for this workflow rule.

EXAMPLE  A workflow rule is set to fire when a ticket is edited and includes a notification to the primary resource. With this setting selected, if the primary resource is the resource who edits the ticket, they will not be notified by this workflow rule.
Contacts (option) With this option selected, when the workflow rule fires, all of the contacts at the associated organization will receive a notification.

Contacts (table)

If one of your Conditions section for the workflow rule is the customer organization, this table will populate with organization contacts you can add as notification recipients.
Resources To notify someone who is not a dynamic resource, you can also choose explicit recipients for notification from the list of your internal resources.
Other Emails Use the Other Email(s) box to enter email addresses that are not available for selection. Separate multiple addresses with a semi-colon or comma.
Other Email(s) (from User-Defined Fields) If you have configured organization UDFs of type Email, click the insertion icon to the right of Other Email(s) (from User-Defined Fields) and select one or more UDFs. Email addresses in the corresponding field(s) will be notified when the workflow rule fires.
If a workflow rule is configured to fire off of internal notes and reference any email in this field, it will never fire.

Send Email From

This field determines the email address that is used as the Sender address in the notification email.

Choose the email address you would like to use as the outgoing sender. Depending on the context, the following options are available:

IMPORTANT  Replies to notification emails will come to the selected email address. Make sure that the mailboxes are watched or the emails are properly redirected.

Option appears as: Available on: Use to select as the sender:

Initiating Resource

Notification Templates

The Primary Email Address of the individual user who initiated the event that triggered the notification.

IMPORTANT  Be aware that when clients reply to notifications, they are now the "initiating resource" but may not have authorized Autotask mail servers. This may cause bounce back issues. It is always safer to select the organization's support email address.

Initiating Resource (however, if the selected notification template has an "Other Email" option, that will be used)

Workflow Rules

No (this means: don't use your local organization's support email address)

Service Call Default Settings

Sender's Name <Sender's Email Address>

 

Entity notification default settings

The sender's Name and Primary Email Address.

This is the most personal option. When using it, keep in mind that any replies will be sent to that address.

Form Templates

Your organization's support email address

Notification Templates

Your organization's Support Email Address.

Refer to Configuring a support email address default.

Yes (this means: use support email address)

Service Call Default Settings

<Support Email Address>

Workflow Rules

Send email from <your organization's group email box>

Manual notifications using a Notifications tab or section

Send From (Name) <Support Email Address>

Entity notification default settings

The Send From (Name) configured for your organization's support email address in combination with the Support Email Address.

 

Form Templates

Sender's Name, followed by the support email address

Entity notification default settings

Your local organization's Support Email Address with the initiating user's Name.

This option appears personal but ensures that any replies will be sent to the support group inbox. Refer to Configuring a support email address default.

Form Templates

<Support Email Address> with Initiating Resource's Name

Notification Templates

Use notification template's setting

Entity notification default settings

The sender selected on the notification template.

This option should be chosen to ensure consistent messages to go out.

Form Templates

Service Call Default Settings

Workflow Rules

Alternate Send From Email Address

Notification Templates

An Alternate Send From Email Address configured for the receiving organization.

If this workflow rule applies to a specific organization only and you have configured Alternate Send From Email Addresses for the organization, you can select one from the drop-down control. Refer to Alternate Send From Email Addresses.

Workflow Rules

Other

Notification Templates

Any email address.

This option can only be selected on the notification template. You can enter any email address and name. On a template that was selected on a workflow rule, it will override the Initiating Resource if one was selected on the workflow rule.

EXAMPLE  One way to use this option is to set up a group email for your sales team (such as sales@yourorganization.com) and use it on CRM notification templates, where your support email address would be inappropriate.

<Blank>

Form Templates

To make no selection and leave selecting the sender to the individual user.

The form template will not populate the Sender field on the Notification panel of the entity, and users will need to make a manual selection.

Additionally, you can select to send an SMS notification to internal resources that have an SMS address.  SMS addresses are listed as a type of email address on the resource setup page. Refer to Email Addresses.

Every workflow rule that has one or more notification recipients must be associated with a notification template. You have two options for the template to use, or you can use them in combination.

Field Description
Use event's default notification template... If you've selected an event (on the General tab) that is associated with a default notification template, and you want to use that template for that event, select the Use event's default notification template check box.
Notification Template To use a specific template when this workflow rule fires, select it in the Notification Template field. Click the edit icon to the right of your selection to edit the template, or click the plus sign icon to add a new template. Refer to Notification templates.

NOTE  If the check box above this field is also selected, and the workflow rule is triggered by an event that has a corresponding notification template event, the default template associated with that notification template event will be used for the notification.
If the workflow rule is triggered by an event that does not have a corresponding notification template event, the notification template associated with the workflow rule will be used.
Email Subject You also have the option of entering your own email subject line, which will override the one in the notification template you've selected.

If your workflow rule is configured to fire on one or more Events section that have a time component (minutes, hours, calendar days, etc.), you can configure recurring notifications. Recurring notifications will only fire on events with time components, and notifications will stop as soon as the workflow rule conditions are no longer met, so customers will not get notifications after they have responded.

This feature is great for closing tickets when you are waiting for a customer response. You can send a notification saying that you consider the ticket complete, and it will close it unless you hear from the customer.

Field Description
Repeat Notification every: Use the radio buttons and associated fields to set the frequency of notifications.
End after # Occurrences: (includes first notification) Select the number of occurrences from a maximum of 10.
After final Occurrence, perform the following Updates: After the last notification has been sent, you can optionally have the workflow rule perform a final set of updates. You will set these Updates section in exactly the same way as on the General tab.

NOTE  If the timeframe selected in the Events section is Business Days, recurring notifications will not be sent on non-business days but will resume on the next business day. The Business Hours selected in the Time-Sensitive section of the workflow rule will be applied.

When your workflow rule is triggered and a notification is sent, this option allows you to convert that notification into a note attached to the item. The note title will be Notification sent via Workflow Rule [name of workflow rule]. This will preserve the notification and its content in the entity record. This is particularly useful if you wish to create a permanent record of notifications sent to customers.

NOTE  Notes created in this way cannot be edited or deleted, but they are not considered System Notes when showing or hiding system notes on the Ticket page.

To populate all required Note fields, you must specify the following:

  • An Action Type for opportunity and sales order workflow rules
  • A Note Type for contract, ticket, project, and task workflow rules
  • A Publish option for ticket, project, and task workflow rules. Refer to Publish To - Notes.
  • For ticket workflow rules, you may also select the Append to Resolution check box to add the note to the ticket resolution

NOTE  This feature is not available for Device or Quote workflow rules.

IMPORTANT  Workflow rules are not applied retroactively. They will only fire on entities that are created or edited after the rule is in place. To force workflow rules to evaluate existing tickets, select Forward/Modify and then save without making any changes.