Troubleshooting Notifications

If notifications are not being sent as expected, there are several areas that can be examined to determine that the appropriate parameters have been set up to allow notifications to be sent. This section discusses general, system-wide setup parameters that can cause any type of notification to fail if not properly set up. For more information about these parameters, see the linked pages.

• Set Up Email Contents – If the subject or body of an notification email has no content, the notification will not be sent. Email content can be set on an installation wide basis on the Installation Options page or on a per-property basis on the Installation Options by Property page. Additional email parameters may be set up on the super administrator's Installation Configuration page. For more information, contact your super administrator.

• Set Up User Email Addresses – A valid email address for each user requiring notification must be stored in the system. If a particular user is not receiving notifications as expected, check the Edit User page for that user to ensure that the correct email address is stored as part of that user's profile.

• Super Administrator Configuration – On the super administrator's installation configuration page, there are several parameters that affect notifications. If, after checking all other parameters, notifications are still not working as expected, contact your super administrator about the following.

  • Close Notif Enabled – This flag must be set to Yes for notifications of when a work order has been closed to be sent.

  • Followup Msg Prefix/Mobile Prefix – A value must be specified in these fields for escalation/ follow-up notifications to be sent.

There are many features where parameters must be properly set up for request email notifications to be sent out.

• Logbook Configuration – On the Logbook Configuration Options page, you can check any of the following parameters:

  • Email CC Show/Hide – This setting controls whether the CC field which allows additional users to be notified is displayed.

  • Notify Requestor Show/Hide – This setting controls whether the Notify Requestor check box is displayed on the Create Request page. If this check box is not displayed, users cannot elect to notify the requestor when a request is created.

  • CC/BCC Notifications for Repeat Requests – This setting controls whether notifications are sent to CC'd or BCC'd users when a new request is created using the repeat function.

• User Account - On the Edit User page, the Email WO Confirmation setting should be set to Yes for work order confirmation emails to be sent to a user.

• Property Configuration – There are several parameters on the Edit Property page in the Work Order Options pane that affect notifications. These parameters need to be set on a per-property basis.

  • Send Close Notifications Reactive/Scheduled – These settings control whether notifications are sent out when a work order is closed. There is a separate setting for both reactive and scheduled work orders.

  • Auto Notify – This setting controls whether a notification email is sent to the default property contact and if so, how long after request creation it is sent.

  • Property Spaces – Click the Property Space link to view the Property Spaces/Floors page. For each space/floor defined, you can set the Close Notif value to specify whether or not notifications should be sent out when work requests are closed.

• Property/Region Notifications – The Property and Regions Notifications pages allow you to specify the user who should be notified when work requests of a particular type/subType are created at a specific property or in a specific region.

• Escalations and Follow Up Alerts – Escalations and follow up alerts are notifications that are sent out if a request doesn't get responded to in an appropriate time frame. These type of notifications can be sent out based on the priority of the request or based on the request type or subType.

  • Priority – On the Priority Type SLA settings page, you can set the Follow Up Alert time based on the combination of priority and work type (and optional subType).

  • Request Type – On the Property Request Types page, you can set a Follow Up Alert based on request type and specify the Escalate To Person.

  • Request SubType – On the Property Request Sub Types page, you can select an Escalate To user.

• Origination Code – The Origination Code page defines codes that indicate where a work request originated (for example, Phone, Internet, Help Desk). One of the parameters you can set for an origination code is Requestor Notifications. This value allows you to enable or disable the ability to send request notifications to the person who made the request, based on the origination code specified.

• Create a Request – There are several places where you can set up notifications when you create a request. These settings affect only the request that you are creating.

  • Notify Requestor – Select this check box to notify the requestor that the work request has been entered. This is particularly useful if the person requesting the work and the person entering the work request are not the same person.

  • Email CC – You can enter additional, comma-separated email addresses of people to notify when a work request is created. Notification emails will only be sent to the recipients listed in the Email CC field if the Notify Requestor check box is selected. CC users do not receive request completion emails.

  • Send Notifications – Select Yes to have notifications sent when the request is created/closed to the Assigned To user and to the users that are designated on the Property and Regions Notifications.

• Update Request Details/Reclassify Request - On both the Request Details page and the Reclassify Work Order page there are notifications check boxes that must be selected to send notifications of changes made to the request. Select the Notify Assigned To check box to notify the user the request is assigned to as well as the Property and Regions Notifications. Select the Notify Requestor check box to notify the user who made the request as well as the users listed in the Email CC field.

When creating company documents, the Auto Email Setup pane allows you to establish settings that cause automatic email notifications to be sent indicating that the document is about to expire or has expired. To ensure that these notifications are properly sent, you can check the following settings:

• Email Document Service Intervals – When establishing document expiration notifications, you must select the time interval on which you want the notification sent (10 days before expiration, 3 days after expiration). Check the system administrator's Email Document Service Intervals page to determine whether the intervals are properly set up.

• Document Print Formats – When establishing document expiration notifications, the format (contents) of the email notification message must be selected. To verify that the selected format has an appropriate email format, open the Document Print Formats page. Click the Edit this Format link, and scroll down to the Email Format pane. The appropriate values must be specified for document type, subject, and body. If any of these fields are empty, notifications will not be sent.

• Auto Email Setup – On the Edit Document Details page, scroll down to the Auto Email Setup pane and verify that the following settings are properly defined:

  • Interval – Select a value to establish when the notification should be sent.

  • Notify Contact – This check box must be selected for notifications to be sent.

  • Email Format – Select a value to indicate the format for the email that will be sent out. The format you select must have an email format defined. For more information, see the Document Print Formats section, above.

  • Email Addresses – Enter one or more comma-separated email addresses of the people to notify when a the document is expiring. These email addresses can be for people who are not system users.

Notifications can be sent out when an inspection or survey is completed to a set of users that are defined as part of the inspection/survey. To ensure that these notifications are properly sent, you can check the following settings:

• Property/Region Notifications – The Inspection Notifications - Property and Inspection Notifications - Region pages allow you to specify the user who should be notified when inspections of a particular class/type are created at a specific property or in a specific region.
• Set Up Email Contents – If the subject or body of an inspection notification email has no content, the notification will not be sent. Email content can be set on an installation wide basis on the Inspection Configuration Options page.
• Include a Link to a Survey In Close Notifications – To include a link to the survey in close notification emails, the body of the standard close notification email must be edited to include a survey token. For more information, see Edit the Close Notification Email.

Notifications can be sent out when particular types of incidents occur to a defined set of users. To ensure that these notifications are properly sent, you can check the following settings:

• Property/Region Notifications – The Incident Notifications - Property and Incident Notifications – Region pages allow you to specify the user who should be notified when incidents of a particular type/subType are created at a specific property or in a specific region.
• Set Up Email Contents – If the subject or body of an incident notification email has no content, the notification will not be sent. Email content can be set on an installation wide basis on the Incident Configuration Options page.

Notifications can be sent out when a reservation is created or updated to both the user who requested the reservation and the reservation manager (the person who is responsible for managing the requested resources/services). To ensure that these notifications are properly sent, you can check the following settings:

• Property/Region Notifications – The Property and Regions Notifications pages allow you to specify who is the manager that should be notified when reservations are created at a specific property or in a specific region. To set these notifications, select Reservation as the Request Type and then select the user to notify.
• Set Up Email Contents – If the subject or body of a reservation notification email has no content, the notification will not be sent. Email contents can be set on the Reservation Configuration page for the following types of notifications:
  • Confirmation – This notification is sent to the person requesting the reservation when the reservation is created. This notification is sent automatically when the reservation is created and does not require any further configuration at the property/region.
  • Notify Requestor – This notification is sent to the requestor whenever the reservation manager makes a change to the reservation. This notification is sent automatically when the reservation is updated and does not require any further configuration at the property/region.
  • Approval – This notification has not been implemented.
  • Notify Manager Create – This notification is sent to the reservation manager when the reservation is created to indicate the types of resources and services required. The user to notify must be set up on the Property/Region Notifications page.
  • Notify Manager Update – This notification is sent to the reservation manager if the requestor makes a change to the reservation. The user to notify must be set up on the Property/Region Notifications page.

Notifications are sent out to the person being visited when the visitor checks in. To ensure that these notifications are properly sent, you can check the following settings:

• Visitor Configuration Options – On the Visitor Configuration Options page, check the following settings

  • Person Visiting Notification – Selecting Yes will turn on the display of the Notify Person Visiting check box on the Add Visit page. This allows the person who is being visited to receive an email notification of a visit.
  • Person Visiting Notification Default – This drop-down menu works in conjunction with the Person Visiting Notification drop-down menu. Selecting Checked will cause the Notify Person Visiting check box, if displayed, to be selected by default.
  • CC Email – Selecting Yes will turn on the display of the Email CC field on the Add Visit page. This allows an additional person to receive an email notification of a visit.
  • Set Up Email Contents – If the subject or body of the notification email has no content, the notification will not be sent.

• Add Visit – There are two places where you can set up notifications when you create a visit. These settings affect only the visit that you are creating.

  • Notify Person Visiting – Select this check box to notify the person who is being visited when the visitor has checked in.

  • Email CC – You can enter additional, comma-separated email addresses of people to notify when a visitor has checked in. Notification email will only be sent to the recipients listed in the Email CC field if the Notify Person Visiting check box is selected.

Since schedules are recurring work orders, they follow the same parameters that are set up for request notifications. However, when defining the schedule, you can override the default request notification behavior and define how far in advanced of each scheduled work order users are notified.

• Schedule Details – On the Schedule details page you can set the following parameters.

  • Notify Assigned To – Select Yes to indicate that individual work order notifications should be sent for each work order in the schedule.

  • Method – Select a value to indicate whether the notification should go to the user's regular email address, mobile email address, or all email addresses.

  • Notification Rule – Enter a value to indicate the number of hours or number of days before each work order's start date to send out the notification.

• Schedule Override Records – You can also define specific notification parameters for schedule override records which account for different work that may need to be done on a periodic basis.

  • Notify Assigned To – Select Yes to indicate that notifications should be sent for the work orders associated with the override records.

  • Notification Rule – Enter a value to indicate the number of hours or number of days before each work order's start date to send out the notification.

The subject and body for an approval notification must be defined or the notification will not be sent. Email contents can be set on the Approval Configuration Options page for work order, purchase order, purchase requisition, and project approval notifications.