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Email Settings allow you to control the email types and frequency, as well as add information to the notification emails sent to task contributors. This is accessed by going to the "Email Settings" tab, and it is customizable for each step of the schedule. The Email Settings tab provides a summary of the selections.
To begin customizing the notifications for each step, click the "Configure Email Settings" hyperlink within the step.
Configure Emails
The email configuration page for a step is divided into multiple parts. Each type of notification available for the step may have the frequency modified and custom text inserted. For notifications which are one time only, such as Invitation Email, instead of frequency they may be turned on or off.
There are four notification emails which may be configured for any type of step.
- Invitation Email: A one-time notification when a participant has a new task awaiting their review and response.
- Reminder Emails: A recurring notification based on the length of time a task has been awaiting a response from a participant.
- Final Reminder Email: A one-time notification sent one day prior to the task’s due date.
- Overdue Emails: A recurring notification based on the number of days past due a task is.
Both of the recurring email types and the final reminder email will be sent at the selected email send time for the schedule. Invitation emails are sent as soon as the task becomes available.
Email Frequency
Each of the email notifications referenced above have a Send drop-down menu which allows for customization of frequency or disabling of the notification altogether. For emails which send once, the drop-down will display Yes/No. Recurring emails may be disabled, or configured to a variety of different options.
Custom Email Notification Text
The types of custom messaging that can be inserted to an email are a body message and a closing message. Rich text areas are available to write up a custom message that will be inserted in the emails. The character limit for both the body and closing custom message is 5,000. If no custom messaging is entered, or the None option is chosen, then the email will only contain the default system messaging. While the drop-down is set as None the rich text editor will be disabled, but you are still able to review any text that was added before it was disabled.
If a Body Message is used, it will be inserted between the system generated information regarding the schedule. The Closing Message, if created, will be located right after the call to action button Open Now.
Both message types may be populated from a custom snippet created within System Settings. All available custom snippets will appear in the Custom Message drop-down menu for each type. When a custom snippet is used, it will populate in the preview but will not be editable. Edits to a snippet must be made through System Settings prior to the launch of the Schedule.
Enable Digest Emails for Reviewers
Within the Email Settings tab, each schedule includes the option to configure Digest Emails for all reviewer steps. Digest Emails are not enabled by default. To enable them, select the Configure Digest Emails hyperlink, and then set the Enable Digest Email toggle to Yes, as shown in the image below.
When Digest Emails are enabled, reviewers receive a summary of the tasks awaiting their review according to the frequency selected for the schedule. The email displays the number of tasks in the reviewer’s inbox and organizes them by the statuses described in Email Notification Overview.
A reviewer can receive Digest Emails after at least one task from the schedule has reached their inbox. However, the reviewer does not receive an immediate email notification when that first task becomes available. Instead, the date the reviewer receives their first task establishes their individual Digest Email schedule.
For example, if the Digest Email frequency is set to Weekly and a reviewer receives their first task on a Wednesday, they will not receive an email that day. Their first Digest Email will be scheduled for the following Wednesday. It will include that task and any other tasks from the schedule that are awaiting their review at the time the email is generated.
After the first Digest Email, emails will continue according to the selected frequency and the schedule established when the reviewer received their first task.
Note: If the reviewer completes all of their assigned tasks before the scheduled Digest Email and has no other tasks awaiting review when the email is generated, the reviewer will not receive a Digest Email at that time. Their Digest Email schedule will remain established for future tasks associated with the schedule.
Since Digest Emails provide reviewers with a combined summary of their tasks, individual email settings cannot also be configured at reviewer steps. A schedule may use Digest Emails for all its reviewer steps or individual reviewer-step email settings, but it cannot use both.
Note: Digest Emails cannot be enabled after a schedule is launched nor can the scheduled frequency be modified. Digest Emails may be cancelled after launch, but this cancellation cannot be reversed. For more information, see the section Revisions to an Active Schedule within this article.
Preview Emails in Browser
You may preview an email from the schedule by selecting the Preview button that appears next to the Send Test Email button. When this is selected a new modal will open with a sample of the email that will be generated along with the subject line and sender information. You can preview the email for each of the four notification emails.
Send Test Email
A test email may be sent in order to review the custom email text, which is especially useful if you choose to add custom text to the base message. Once the desired formatting of the body and closing message are set up, each email notification type has a Send Test option. This option will only be available if notifications for the step are enabled, otherwise it will appear grayed out.
The Send Test option will present a message requesting up to ten email addresses where the test email should be sent. The entered email addresses should be comma delimited or each on their own line. Click Validate to proceed to the next step.
The validation modal will indicate if any issues were discovered with the list of emails provided. Once the email addresses are confirmed, click Send Test. For more information on how these parts of the email are placed, please reference our Email Notification Overview article.
When all the configuration options for a step have been confirmed, click Apply to save the changes and return to edit schedule. The step will now have an updated summary indicating the email settings which were selected. To change any of the settings for a pending schedule, return to the Email Settings page.
Revisions to an Active Schedule
Once a schedule is confirmed (open), individual email settings and Digest Emails cannot be modified further. However, if you need to cancel emails for a step or Digest Emails, this is possible. Cancelling emails is an action that cannot be undone and will stop all future scheduled reminders, final reminders and overdue alert emails from being sent. Invitation emails, however, will continue to be sent to participants for steps that have invitation emails enabled.
To cancel emails for a step, follow these steps:
- Login to Faculty Success as a Workflow Administrator.
- Navigate to the Schedule for which you wish to cancel reminder, final reminder and overdue email alters for.
- Open the schedule and go to it's "Email Settings" tab.
- From the email settings tab, locate the step for which you wish to cancel emails and click on the "Configure Email Settings" hyperlink for the step.
- At the bottom of the step's email settings, find the "Cancel All Pending Emails for this Step" area. Then toggle the "Cancel Emails" to "Yes" to cancel the emails for the step. Keep in mind that this action cannot be undone and invitation emails will continue to be sent, if enabled for the step.
- After cancelling the emails, the email settings for the step will update to display "Cancelled" for reminder, final reminder and overdue email alters, indicating that these emails will not be sent to participants going forward.