Notification templates

About notification templates

Notification templates are like form letters that determine the content and layout of the notification email that is sent out. They contain information that is pertinent to the type of event that triggered the notification. Most templates contain not only the text that makes up the body of the email, but variables that pull data right out of Autotask.

Autotask contains basic notification templates that can be used when a notification email is sent manually or configured for a workflow rule. You can create additional notification templates, or copy and modify existing ones.

The use of notification emails (and templates to generate them) is optional. Other Autotask tools, such as dashboard widgets, may make your internal workflow more efficient. Refer to When workflow rules are not the best option. They do have their place, however, when you are communicating with your customers, especially customers who do not have access to the Client Portal. You should analyze your customer communication strategy, determine which events should result in a notification email, and then review and modify the existing templates.

IMPORTANT  Whether you want to use notification templates or not, be aware that at least one active notification template must be associated with each event. To prevent a notification email from being triggered on a workflow rule, it must be removed on the workflow rule.

About the Notification Templates page

Notification templates are created and managed on the tabs of the Notification Templates page. Each tab represents an area in Autotask. On each tab, the templates are grouped by the events that can trigger notification emails. To open the page, use the path(s) in the Security and navigation section above.

Users with Admin permissions can edit these basic templates, or, if you have HTML programming skills, create new customized ones.

NOTE  The email messages that are sent with published quotes or invoices are managed separately from notification templates. Refer to Adding or editing email message templates for invoices or quotes.

The Service Desk and Projects tabs will additionally list the notification templates that are used in conjunction with Incoming Email Processing, even though they are not associated with any entity events. Refer to Failure and Success Notifications (to internal resources and/or other email addresses) sections.

Managing notification templates

Option Description

New

Click to create a new notification template or paste HTML code in from an external source. Refer to Adding or editing notification templates for details.

NOTE  Sample HTML templates for all events can be downloaded as a .zip file and used out of the box or modified by a team member with HTML programming skills: Sample Notification Templates.

Enable/Disable Notifications (Inventory tab only)

On the Inventory tab, you can open a dialog window that allows you to select the inventory events for which notification emails should be sent.

You cannot specify which recipients will automatically receive notification for inventory events. Refer to Enable/Disable Inventory Notifications.

Right-click menu (hover over the edit icon to access)

Edit Notification Template

Clicking the edit icon or Refer to Adding or editing notification templates for details.

Activate/Inactivate Notification Template

The default template for an event cannot be inactivated.

Associate with...

A fly-out menu lets you select the events to associate the template with. A template can be associated with multiple events, and multiple templates can be associated with a single event.

Copy Notification Template

Creates an exact copy of the selected notification template.

Set as Default

This will make the selected notification template the default for the desired event.

Disassociate Notification Template

Breaks the association between a template and an event. If the one template is not associated with other events, it will appear in the Not Associated section of the tab.

Delete Notification Template

You cannot delete a notification template if the template is associated with a workflow rule, or if it is the only notification template associated with an event.

Notification templates and workflow rules

In addition to events, notification templates can also be directly assigned to workflow rules.

It is possible that the default notification template for the event that triggers the firing of the workflow rule is different from the notification template associated with the workflow rule itself. In this case, the workflow rule setting overrides the event default, unless the Use event's default notification template if there is a corresponding notification template event check box is selected.

With manual notifications, the user's selection overrides the default.