Alerts & reminders
Know what needs attention without checking everything yourself.
Use known dates and business conditions to alert the right person or create an internal task, while routine work stays quiet.
One condition became true.One person was told, with a reason.
Example condition
Stock below reorder level
- Item
- AX-40
- Available
- 18
- Reorder level
- 20
Attention forPurchase team
Next actionCheck requirement
Needs attention
Example condition
Payment due in 3 days
- Invoice
- INV-774
- Due
- 25 Oct
- Reminder set
- 3 days before
Attention forAccounts
Next actionConfirm the payment plan
Needs attention
Example condition
Captured field needs review
- Document
- INV-883
- Field
- Purchase reference
- Captured as
- PO-1042?
Attention forPerson reviewing the document
Next actionCheck the reference
Needs attention
Example condition
Monday morning summary
- When
- Every Monday, 9am
- Contains
- Last week’s figures
- Sent to
- The owner
Attention forThe owner
Next actionRead and decide
Scheduled
Your team should not have to monitor every screen all day.
Without attention rules
- Check the stock list
- Check the overdue list
- Check the document queue
- Check pending requests
- Ask whether anything changed
With attention rules
- Routine work stays quiet.
- Exceptions become visible.
The goal is not more notifications.The goal is fewer things people have to remember to check manually.
Start with a condition somebody can explain.
- Date
- Payment due in 3 days.
- Threshold
- Stock falls below the level your business set.
- Status
- A document is still waiting for review.
- Missing information
- A required field is still empty.
Which triggers are available depends on the process, the data available and the software in use. Not every system can tell you that something has stopped being true.
Tell the person who can actually act.
- Stock below levelPurchase team
- Payment due soonAccounts
- Captured field unclearThe person reviewing the document
- Purchase exceptionThe relevant owner
An alert is only useful if somebody knows it is theirs.
Not every condition deserves an alert.
Raise attention
- Stock below the configured level
- A payment reaching the reminder date
- A required document field still unresolved
- An exception waiting beyond the point your business chose
Stay quiet
- Normal stock movement
- A payment not yet at its reminder date
- A document completed normally
- A routine status change nobody needs to act on
Good automation should reduce checking — not replace it with notification noise.
An alert and a task are not always the same thing.
- Alert
- Tells somebody that something needs attention.
- Task
- Creates a piece of work somebody is expected to complete.
- Both
- Some processes notify the person and create the work.
What the system creates depends on the process and the configuration. There is no universal behaviour here, and a business that only wants to be told something is perfectly entitled to stop at the alert.
Reminders can be based on time — not just events.
- Three days before a payment due date
- On the date a document review is due
- After an internal task has waited until a chosen review point
- Every Monday morning, an internal summary
A summary delivered on a schedule is one example of a time-based reminder, not a separate thing — and it goes to somebody inside the business. Nothing on this page sends a customer a reminder campaign.
Keep the reason attached to the alert.
Needs attention
- Reason
- Stock below reorder level
- Source
- AX-40
- Current value
- 18
- Configured level
- 20
- Owner
- Purchase team
- Next action
- Check requirement
Open item
“Something happened” is not enough.The person should be able to see why they were alerted, and where it came from.
When the source is connected, keep a reference back to the record that raised the alert. Whether that reference opens the record depends on the systems involved.
Choose the channel after you choose the rule.
- In-app
- Can be native where the process runs in the business system.
- Can be native for supported notifications.
- Requires a WhatsApp Business integration.
Channel is not the rule.
The condition, the owner and the next action should be clear before anybody decides how the person gets notified. A message sent faster to somebody who cannot act on it has not helped.
What should stay human?
- Deciding what deserves an alert
- Choosing the thresholds
- Choosing who owns an exception
- Changing the rule when the business changes
- Deciding what to do about the exception
- Handling the unusual cases
Automation can surface the condition.A person still owns the business decision.
Alerts & Reminders are not Sales Follow-up Automation.
Alerts & reminders — this page
- Starts from a business condition or a date
- Used across operations, accounts, purchasing and documents
- Routes internal attention
- Can create an alert or an internal task
Sales follow-up automation
- Starts from a sales next action
- Used by the sales team
- Manages follow-up timing
- Keeps sales work visible
Both help people remember work.They start from different business problems.
Sales Follow-up AutomationAn alert can sit inside a workflow. It is not the workflow.
- An alert
- One condition asks for attention.
- A workflow
- A full process moves through multiple stages, people or departments.
A purchase exception alert may sit inside Procure to Pay — one moment inside a longer process that this page does not describe.
Procure to PayWhere business attention comes from
- Document Data CaptureAn uncertain captured field can ask for review.
- Data Entry AutomationA failed match or a missing required value can become an exception.
- Sales Follow-up AutomationSales next actions use their own follow-up process.
- Order Approval WorkflowAn order rule may route a specific order for a decision.
What does your team still have to remember to check every day?
Show us the lists, dates and conditions people keep checking manually. We’ll help identify which ones can raise attention automatically and which should stay quiet.