Approval workflow notifications

Updated on 05 Jul 2023
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Managing workflow notifications

There are a number of notifications that can be triggered for each workflow. These notifications are part of Totara's centralised notification system, meaning they can be configured at the site level (via Quick-access menu > Notifications) or for an individual workflow.

To access the notifications for a specific workflow, follow these steps:

Navigate to the workflow dashboard.
Select the workflow for which you wish to add approvers.
In the left-hand panel, select Notifications.
Click a notification trigger to see the notifications related to that event.

You can disable notifications individually using the toggle buttons, or you can disable the whole trigger. However, note that if you disable the trigger on the system level, it won't ever be shown in lower contexts.

On this page you can see the following information for each trigger event and its related notifications.

Notifiable events
Notification triggers	The notifiable event that triggers the notification being sent.
Delivery channels	Indicates how the notification will be sent. The available delivery channels are: Site notifications Mobile app notifications Tasks Alerts Email Microsoft Teams
Notifications
Recipient	The user(s) who will receive the notification.
Schedule	When the notification will be sent relative to the trigger event. This can be either when the trigger occurs or a number of days after the event. In some cases it is possible to send the notification before the trigger event.
Forced delivery	Some notifications are mandatory, and will be sent via the specified channels regardless of whether the notification is enabled or not by a recipient user. Even if a user disables notifications in their Notification preferences, they will still receive notifications via the channels listed here. For example, if a notification has Email listed in the Forced delivery column then the recipients will always be notified by email.
Status	Indicates whether the notification is enabled or disabled.
Type	There are three types of notification: Factory: Shows that the notification is a built-in system-level notification. Built-in notifications cannot be deleted. Custom: Indicates that the notification has been created at the given context level and can only be deleted in this context. Inherited: Indicates that the notification is inherited from a built-in or custom notification from a higher context level. These notifications can only be disabled in this context. Additionally they can only be deleted if they inherit from a custom notification, and only in the original context where that custom notification was created.

Creating a new notification

To create a new notification for a trigger event, follow these steps:

Click the icon of three dots () next to the event for which you want to add a notification, then click Create notification.
Give the notification a Name.
Select all users you want to receive the notification using the Recipient checkboxes.
For the Schedule setting, decide if you want the notification to be sent when the trigger happens, a number of days after it happens, or for some events (e.g. due dates), a number of days before it happens.
Tick the Forced checkboxes for any Delivery channels which users should not be able to disable.
Enter the Subject line and the Body notification content.
Use the Status checkbox to determine whether your new notification is enabled or not.
Click Save.

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Table of contents

Managing workflow notifications
Creating a new notification