Email notifications can be used to monitor tasks, messages, inventory, maintenance based on operating hours, and contract price guarantees. Choose the notification type according to the event that requires the recipient's attention. Creating a notification alone does not enable monitoring: you must also link the notification to the information you want to monitor.

Permissions and creating a notification

Configure the notification in the browser. You need permission to manage email notifications, which is included in the administrator's permissions. To modify the task, warehouse or other information being monitored, you also need permissions for that function. Warehouse notification types are available only when the warehouse function is enabled, and the price guarantee notification is available only when the contract function is enabled.

  1. Open Manage tasks → Email notifications and select Create new email notification at the top of the view.
  2. Select the Type and enter a recognizable Name of the email notification. The maximum name length is 50 characters. The name helps you find the configuration; the email subject is defined separately.
  3. In the Language versions of the reminder section, enter the Email subject and Message to be sent with notice for the languages you want to use. Select one language version as the Default language of the notification. Finnish is selected by default in a new form. The notification's own message text can contain up to 500 characters.
  4. Fill in To addresses and, if needed, Cc address. In the form's Notification settings section, configure the links, content and any scheduling for the selected type as described below.
  5. Save using the form's Create new email notification button. A task or price guarantee notification must then also be selected in the task or contract details.

Recipients and email content

The addresses entered in To addresses are fixed recipients. Separate multiple addresses with a space, comma or semicolon. Cc address is a single address for a copy recipient. People outside Spotilla can also receive notifications.

For task notifications, Include responsible as recipient adds the users responsible for the task alongside the fixed recipients. If a role is responsible, the recipients are the users in that role. For message notifications, Add message author as recipient adds the message author as a copy recipient. For these two notification types, you can leave the fixed recipients empty if the corresponding option to add a recipient is enabled. In that case, make sure the task has someone responsible or the message has an author, and that they have a valid email address. Other types require a fixed recipient.

Content options do not add recipients. For example, Include responsible displays who is responsible in the message, and Include Message Author displays the author information. Adding someone as a recipient requires a separate option. The daily task reminder also uses the notification's recipient configuration, even though the option's Finnish name mentions the responsible performers.

The content fields for each type are preselected in a new form. Check which information the recipients need: a message notification can include the Spot's name, description, attributes and folder tree; a task notification can include the task's name, description, due date, status, responsible party and Spot name. Warehouse notifications can include product, stock balance and transaction information; notifications based on operating hours can include machine hours, the rule name and the Spot name; and price guarantee notifications can include the customer name.

Selecting a language version

A Spotilla user receives the version matching their user account language when their email address is recognized and that language version has been filled in for the notification. An external recipient receives the version in the notification's default language. If there is no version containing content in the user's language, they also receive the message in the default language. Entering only a subject for an additional language version without message text does not enable that version.

Write the subjects and message texts for each language yourself. Selecting a language version does not translate the text automatically. For message notifications, the actual message written by the user is also included in its original form.

Message notification

Select Type → Message. Link the notification to the desired message types in the form's Message types attached to this notice field. You can also configure the link using the message type's Email notification selection; see configuring a message type.

The notification is triggered when a new message of that type is saved. Editing an existing message does not trigger this notification, and sending is not based on a due date. The same condition also applies to new messages saved from the Android and iOS apps. Adding the author as a recipient and all message notification content options are enabled by default in a new form.

Task notification

Select Type → Task. Then open Manage tasks → Tasks and create the task you want to monitor or open it for editing. In the task's Select settings section, enable Send an email notification, select the notification you created in the selection field that appears, and save the task. Selecting the checkbox alone is not enough. Clearing the checkbox removes the task's notification link when you save the task.

The notification's Time of delivery is an integer between −100 and 100. The delivery date is calculated from the task's due date: a negative value means days before the due date, 0 means the due date, and a positive value means days after it.

If the due date is 15 October, −2 means 13 October, 0 means 15 October, and 2 means 17 October. Without daily repetition, the reminder applies only to the calculated day. A delivery date that has already passed is not compensated for with a later reminder.

Send a notification every day if task is late is preselected in a new form. It sends a reminder daily from the due date onwards while the task remains eligible for reminders. Daily repetition takes precedence over a positive day offset: with a value of 2 in the previous example, the first daily reminder arrives on 15 October, rather than waiting until 17 October. With a negative day offset, an advance reminder is sent first, and daily repetition starts on the due date.

Daily due date reminders are not sent for completed tasks, tasks on hold or tasks in the planning state.

Receipt sent on completion

Both Send an email receipt to the responsible when task is done and Send an email receipt to all notification receivers when task is done are selected in a new form. The receipt for recipients is triggered when the task's status changes to completed and uses the notification's usual recipients, copy recipient and any option to add the responsible party as a recipient.

There is an inconsistency in how the separate performer receipt works: the option does not guarantee that the address of the person who recorded the completion is passed on for sending. Do not rely on it to keep that person informed. If they need to receive a completion message, make sure they are included among the notification's usual recipients and use the receipt intended for recipients. Clear both receipt options if you do not want a completion message.

Product warehouse limit alarm

Select Type → Product warehouse limit alarm and link the notification to the warehouses you want to monitor in Warehouses attached to this notice. Also define alert limits for the products. The notification uses the configuration of the warehouse where the transaction that triggers the check takes place; a total quantity alert also requires the notification to be linked to that warehouse.

The limits are checked after an inventory transaction. An alert requires the stock balance to be strictly below the limit: a balance equal to the limit does not trigger an alert. The previous balance does not need to have been above the limit, so the next transaction checked may also send a notification while the balance remains low.

  • General warehouse alert limit compares the product's combined stock balance across the storage locations in the transaction warehouse against the same general limit.
  • Alternatively, a warehouse-specific limit applies to that warehouse's combined stock balance. If no limit has been defined for that warehouse, this check does not trigger an alert.
  • Total quantity alert compares the product's combined stock balance across warehouses against the total limit. The Projektilla warehouse is excluded from the sum.

The general limit cannot be used together with warehouse-specific limits or the total limit. A warehouse-specific limit and the total limit can be used together. If both are breached in the same check, one notification is sent, rather than two.

Include product amount left displays the balance of the transaction warehouse, even if the total limit caused the alert. It is therefore not the combined quantity across all warehouses. The email's stock balance list excludes the Projektilla warehouse and storage locations with a balance below 1. The alert limit check still uses the actual balances.

The notification reports the situation; it does not replenish stock or correct the balance. See product stock balances and alert limits.

Batch Expiry Notification

Select Type → Batch Expiry Notification and select the batches to monitor in Purchase batches where the alert is used. Each batch must have an expiry date saved. See checking purchase batch details.

Enter an integer between −100 and 100 in the scheduling field. The delivery date is the batch's expiry date plus the day offset: −7 sends the notification seven days before expiry, 0 on the expiry date, and 1 on the following day. The check applies only to the calculated day; the daily repetition available for task notifications is not available here. An empty batch is excluded. The notification itself does not remove the batch or change its balance.

Hourly maintenance

Select Type → Hourly maintenance and link the notification to suitable maintenance templates in Hourly maintenance templates attached to this notice. The maintenance template's action must be set to an email notification: task creation and an email notification cannot both be configured for the same template. The template must also be linked to the Spots being monitored, with the operating hours function enabled for those Spots. See configuring an hourly maintenance template.

The notification is based on the device's operating hours meter, rather than employees' time entries. Updating the meter reading triggers the check. The threshold is calculated as reading at the previous maintenance + maintenance interval − advance. If no advance is specified, its value is 0. When the new reading is at least the calculated threshold, the rule is satisfied. For example, with a previous maintenance reading of 1,000, a maintenance interval of 500 and an advance of 50, the notification threshold is 1,450 operating hours.

An unfinished maintenance task for the same rule prevents further processing unless automatic creation is enabled in the maintenance template. Sending an email alone does not update the reading at the previous maintenance. If the reading is increased again while above the threshold, the email notification may therefore be sent again. After maintenance, also check the template's device-specific Last value.

Expired Price Guarantee Notification

Select Type → Expired Price Guarantee Notification. Then open Customers → Contracts, open the contract for editing, and open its Billing settings. Select the notification you created in Price guarantee email notification and enter the end date in Price guarantee valid until. Create invoices related to the contract must be enabled; configure the billing information it requires before saving.

Enter an integer between −365 and 365 in the notification's scheduling field. A negative value sends the notification before the price guarantee end date, 0 on the end date, and a positive value after it. The check applies only to the calculated day, and this type has no daily repetition.

Sending requires all of the following: a notification selected for the contract, a price guarantee end date, invoice creation enabled, and a status of Waiting for start date, Active or Waiting for end date. Ended and archived contracts are excluded. The notification itself does not change the contract's prices. See contract billing and price changes.

Making changes and checking the result

Open a saved notification from the Email notifications list by clicking its name or the pencil icon on its row. Check the recipients, language versions, scheduling, content and target selections. Save changes using Save. You cannot change a saved notification's type in this form; if needed, create a new notification of the correct type.

The same notification can serve multiple targets. Changing its recipients, text or settings affects all targets linked to it. If the behavior needs to change for only one target, create a separate notification for it. Changing the link selections also changes which message types, warehouses, batches or maintenance templates use the notification. Check the links in the target's details as well.

Task dates, batch expiry dates and price guarantee dates are checked daily during processing at 8 a.m. in the customer account's time zone. The day offset determines the day, rather than a freely selectable time of day. Email delivery may be delayed by processing.

Verify the setup by opening both the saved notification and the information linked to it. Check that the correct event or date meets the conditions and that the recipient's address is included. After the event has occurred, check the email's subject, content and language. A successful save alone does not confirm email delivery.

If the email does not arrive, first check the notification link, recipients, target status and conditions for the notification type. For a notification based on a date, also check whether the link and required information had been saved by the time of that day's check. Android and iOS push notification settings apply to phone notifications; they do not replace or control the email notifications described here.