Configure workflow notifications

Workflow notifications can be used by most applications in the suite. A workflow notification is delivered within 180 seconds to appropriate recipients by any of the following methods:

Each workflow notification is triggered by a specific event. For navigator and mobile destinations, many alerts can be configured to open a specific widget automatically. See Recommended widgets receiving alerts for the tested combinations of alerts and widgets.

Key features used by workflow notifications include the following:

When configuring certain alerts, you can include a URL to a navigator widget within an email notification.

If you use this option, be aware of the following:

When configuring an alert, the Message area enables you to customize the Subject, Long Message, and Short Message text boxes.

Note : By default, UKG Workforce Central uses Twilio, a third-party cloud communications service, to provide SMS messaging services. To configure a different provider, see Configure SMS alerts.

You can configure either the Long Message or Short Message for delivery to a social network.

Many notifications include custom tags that can be used to pass data from the system to the recipient of the notification. These include data types such as manager name, pay period, start time, start date and many more. Custom tags are data placeholders in the body or subject line of a notification. Values are assigned to tags by the system and travel through the notification process, where they replace the tags in the content of the message.

Custom tags allow you to create notifications that contain specific information about the event that triggered the notification. For example, notifications can include the name of the manager who signed off on a timecard or the name of the event that was completed.

You can include custom tags in either the subject or message of a notification and there is no limit to the number of custom tags that you can include.

Before a notification that contains a custom tag is delivered, the custom tag is evaluated and replaced by the specific information represented by the tag.

Different notification types make use of different custom tags—each representing a different piece of information about the event—and not all notification types use custom tags. For information about notification types and their specific use of custom tags, refer to Step 2: Create workflow notifications and click the link for the notification type that you are configuring.

When a workflow notification is created, you:

To configure a workflow notification, complete the following steps. After the workflow notifications are created, you can add them to the Alerts widget or view them in a mobile app as as described in Configure alert destinations.

Notification Profiles define how workflow notifications are delivered: email, Inbox, navigator, mobile, a social network, or SMS text message. If you change a user's Notification Profile, the delivery methods for that user changes.

To work with Notification Profiles, log on as an administrator and select Setup > System Configuration > Notification Profile . In the Notification Profile workspace, you can:

If you click New , Duplicate , or Edit , the Notifications Profile Editor opens.

  1. Enter or modify the profile name and description.
  2. For each priority level listed (High Priority, Medium Priority, and Low Priority), move one or more destinations from the Available column to the Selected column.
  3. The following destinations are available:
  1. Each of these destinations require additional configuration. See Configure alert destinations for more information.

For time and attendance products, you assign a Notification Profile in the People Editor. If you are using Workforce HR, notifications are email only and can only be sent to the HR Administrator, Payroll Administrator , or Benefit Administrator . These notifications are added with Default "Recipient list will be provided at run time.". You assign the Notification Profile to the position default so employees who are hired or change position will be assigned the appropriate Notification Profile.

  1. Log on as an administrator and select QuickFind .
  2. Select the applicable people, then click Go To and select People Editor .
  3. In the People Editor, select the Job Assignment tab and click Access Profiles .
  4. In the Notification Profile field, select a Notification Profile and click Save .

If you are using Workforce HR, you identify the Notification Profile as part of the Default Position Suite Setup so that new hires or employees changing positions are assigned a Notification Profile automatically.

To add a Notification Profile as part of the default position setup:

  1. Log on as an administrator and select Setup > HR/Payroll Setup > Setup > Position Management > Default Position Suite Setup .
  2. Click the Roles tab.
  3. Select a Notification Profile for the default position.

Screen shot of Default Position Suite Setup

When you hire an employee, you then use the Default Position definition to streamline the process.

  1. Select Human Resources > Hire an Employee .
  2. In the Position Information section on the first form, enter the applicable position. When finished with the fields, click Save & Next to advance to the next form.
  3. Complete each form, clicking Save & Next to advance to the next form.
  4. The last step is to review the entries in the People Editor. The Notification Profile defined in the Default Position is automatically listed.

Screen shot showing Notification Profile selection in People Editor

Although the mechanism for triggering workflow notifications alerts varies with each UKG Workforce Central application, the starting point is to create a workflow notification .

To create a workflow notification, log on as an administrator and select Setup > System Configuration > Workflow Notifications . Then, click New and select a notification type. The fields that appear vary depending on the type of notification you are configuring.

Note : Workforce HR/Payroll notifications can only be sent to the HR Administrator, Payroll Administrator, or Benefit Administrator. For more information, refer to Workforce HR/Payroll Self service System Administrator Guide .

This notification is sent at a specified interval of time before or after the end of a pay period. A HyperFind query determines the recipients.

For example, you can use a query that returns all employees whose timecards contain missed punches. The message in the notification could notify employees of the missing punches, remind them of the importance of punching in and out for the day, or both.

To create a pay-period based employee notification:

  1. Enter a name and description.
  2. Select a priority (Low, Medium, or High) for the notification. The priority is used to drive Notification Profiles and delivery methods.
  3. (Optional) Select One-click navigation in E-mail to include a URL to the appropriate navigator widget that the user will use to address the alert. For more information, see One-click navigation in email .
  4. (Optional) Select Challenge-only Notification if the notification is only used for Leaderboard scoring and is not sent to users.
  5. Select a HyperFind query in the Recipients box.
  6. Select a fixed rule in the Pay Period box
  7. Important : For the notification to reach its intended recipients, the selected fixed rule must belong to all of the employees selected in the Recipients box.
  8. The reason for this is that fixed rules are a key component of the pay rule assigned to each employee. They define the pay period frequency (number of days in a weekly or biweekly pay period, semi-monthly, or monthly), reference day, day divide, and more.
  9. In the Send area, select when the notification is sent.
  10. In the Message area, customize the Subject, Long Message, and Short Message text boxes. For more information, see Message area .
  11. Click Save.

This notification is sent at a specified interval of time based on the number of days or hours before or after the end of a pay period. HyperFind queries determine the recipients and content.

To create a pay-period based manager notification:

  1. Enter a name and description.
  2. Select a priority (Low, Medium, or High) for the notification. The priority is used to drive Notification Profiles and delivery methods.
  3. (Optional) Select One-click navigation in E-mail to include a URL to the appropriate navigator widget that the user will use to address the alert. For more information, see One-click navigation in email .
  4. (Optional) Select Challenge-only Notification if the notification is only used for Leaderboard scoring and is not sent to users.
  5. Select a HyperFind query in the Recipients box. The Recipients query determines the managers who should receive the notification.
  6. Select a HyperFind query in the Employees box. The Employees query can include a list of employees who meet certain criteria in the body of the notification. For example, a query that returns all employees whose timecards contain missed punches. Managers could receive a notification before the end of each pay period that lists all employees in their group who have missing punches. If there are no employees that meet that criteria for a particular manager, that manager would not receive the notification at all.
  7. Select a fixed rule in the Pay Period box.
  8. Important : The notification will only reach its indented recipients when:
  9. In the Send area, select when the notification is sent.
  10. In the Message area, customize the Subject, Long Message, and Short Message text boxes by using the custom tags. To include the list of employees in the notification, insert the Employee List custom tag in either the Subject or Message of the notification. For more information, see Message area .
  11. Click Save.

Employee List — A list of the employees returned by the selected Employees HyperFind query who are associated with the manager receiving the notification.

You can create notifications for three timecard actions by managers:

Select one of these notifications and enter the following:

  1. Enter a name and description.
  2. Select a priority (Low, Medium, or High) for the notification. The priority is used to drive Notification Profiles and delivery methods.
  3. (Optional) Although you can select One-click navigation in E-mail to include a URL to the appropriate navigator widget to address the alert, the need for this is unlikely. For more information, see One-click navigation in email .
  4. (Optional) Select Challenge-only Notification if the notification is only used for Leaderboard scoring and is not sent to users.
  5. In the Message area, customize the Subject, Long Message, and Short Message text boxes by using the custom tags. To include the manager’s name in the notification, insert the Manager Name custom tag in either the Subject or Message of the notification. For more information, see Message area .
  6. Click Save .

Manager Name — Notifications that use the Manager Name custom tag are only sent to employees who are associated with a manager. To associate an employee with a manager, edit the employee’s access profile in the People Editor.

These notifications are sent when a Group Edit has completed or failed. The notification is automatically sent to the manager who initiated the edit.

To create a Group Edit Completed or Failed notification:

  1. Enter a name and description.
  2. Select a priority (Low, Medium, or High) for the notification. The priority is used to drive Notification Profiles and delivery methods.
  3. (Optional) Select One-click navigation in E-mail to include a URL to the appropriate navigator widget that the user will use to address the alert. For more information, see One-click navigation in email .
  4. (Optional) Select Challenge-only Notification if the notification is only used for Leaderboard scoring and is not sent to users.
  5. If configuring Group Edit Failed, enter one or more recipients.
  6. In the Message area, customize the Subject, Long Message, and Short Message text boxes by using the custom tags. To include the list of employees in the notification, insert the Employee List custom tag in either the Subject or Message of the notification. For more information, see Message area .
  7. Click Save .

This notification is sent when the application server is started or restarted. There is no automatic recipient. The notification is sent by e-mail to the specified users only. (This type of notification cannot be sent to the recipient’s Inbox, navigator, mobile device, as an SMS message, or via a social network.)

To create an Application Server Booted notification:

  1. Enter a name and description
  2. Although you can select a priority (Low, Medium, or High) for the notification, this field has no effect for this type of notification.
  3. Do not select the Challenge-only Notification check box. This is only relevant for Leaderboard scoring.
  4. Enter one or more recipients.
  5. In the Message area, customize the Subject, Long Message, and Short Message text boxes by using the custom tags. For more information, see Message area .
  6. By default, this notification includes the Startup Info log and the Startup Error log as attachments. To change these defaults, access System Settings, and then click the E-mail tab, and select either true or false for the following properties:
  7. site.email.includeStartupInfoLog
  8. site.email.includeStartupErrorLog
  9. Click Save

This notification is sent when the system determines that the database server is unavailable. There is no automatic recipient. The notification is sent by e-mail to the specified users only. (This type of notification cannot be sent to the recipient’s Inbox, navigator, mobile device, as an SMS message, or via a social network.)

To create a Database Server is Unavailable notification:

  1. Enter a name and description.
  2. Although you can select a priority (Low, Medium, or High) for the notification, this field has no effect for this type of notification.
  3. Do not select the Challenge-only Notification check box. This is only relevant for Leaderboard scoring.
  4. Enter one or more recipients
  5. In the Message area, customize the Subject, Long Message, and Short Message text boxes. For more information, see Message area .
  6. Click Save.

This workflow notification is only triggered when a scheduled event has failed . The notification is sent by e-mail only. (This type of notification cannot be sent to the recipient’s Inbox, navigator, mobile device, as an SMS message, or via a social network.)

The notification is not sent if the event fails to start or shuts down due to operating or hardware errors.

To create an Event Status notification:

  1. Enter a name and description.
  2. Although you can select a priority (Low, Medium, or High) for the notification, this field has no effect for this type of notification.
  3. Do not select the Challenge-only Notification check box. This is only relevant for Leaderboard scoring.
  4. Enter one or more recipients. These recipients receive a notification whenever the scheduled event fails . This notification is also sent to the event creator, provided that the following function access point is set to Allowed in the assigned function access profile.
  5. In the Message area, customize the Subject, Long Message, and Short Message text boxes by using the custom tags.
  6. Click Save.

The Event Status Notification:

This notification is sent when a user-selected event occurs on a user-selected service. There is no automatic recipient. Notification is sent by email to the specified users only. (This type of notification cannot be sent to the recipient’s Inbox, navigator, mobile device, as an SMS message, or via a social network.)

Only one Server Notification can be defined per system. After you create a Server Notification, the Server Notification type is no longer listed in the Select Notifications Types dialog box.

This notification type supports multiple subnotifications for different events. The text and distribution lists for the sub-notifications are configured separately.

To create a Server Notification:

  1. Enter a name and description.
  2. Although you can select a priority (Low, Medium, or High) for the notification, this field has no effect for this type of notification.
  3. Do not select the Challenge-only Notification check box. This is only relevant for Leaderboard scoring.
  4. Enter one or more recipients.
  5. Select a service and event and click Add Notifications .The following table describes the available service and event pairings for subnotification:

Occurs if an SQL statement generates a severe error. All SQL statements that return a SQL State class value not equal to 00, 01, or IM are treated as severe errors.

Occurs if the number of in-use licenses of a particular type reaches a threshold percentage value. The notification is resent with each subsequent license that is used as long as the number of licenses used is still above the threshold value.

To set the threshold value, select the E-mail tab in System Settings, and edit the value for site.e-mail.license.percent . The same threshold is used for all license types.

If you edit a server notification, you can add recipients and messages:

In the Additional Recipients text box, type or paste the e-mail addresses of additional people who should receive this subnotification. Separate multiple e-mail addresses with a comma.

Enter the message for the subnotification in the Message text box. To include custom tags in the message, place the cursor in the message text box, and the click Insert Custom Tag .

The following custom tags are available, depending on the service and event pairing:

Database Error Code — The ID number associated with the error that triggered the notification.

Database Error Message — The error message associated with the event that triggered the notification.

Generic notifications are an extensive category of alerts that are associated with a number of application-specific functions to send messages to users. Generic notifications are used to generate the following types of alerts: