COBBLESTONE SOFTWARE

Contract Insight — User Guide

Scheduled Jobs: Requests

Scheduled Request Task Alerts and Their Timers

Note: Each procedure in this guide begins at the Contract Insight homepage, so any section can be followed on its own. The scheduled request alert settings are held in the Requests configuration group, under its TASKS, TIMERS, and GENERAL subsection headings; the jobs that send the alerts are managed on the Scheduled Jobs screen, as described in Section 6.

1. Overview

The scheduled request alert settings control the request task alert email the system sends on a schedule. They define what those messages say, which links and information they include, what the recipient can act on from the message, who replies are directed to, and how often the alert and escalation jobs run.

These settings are found in the Requests configuration group. Of its 20 settings, 13 govern scheduled request alerts, spread across three subsection headings — TASKS (6), TIMERS (2), and the alert-related settings under GENERAL (5). The remaining settings in the group cover request record behavior generally and are documented in the Requests configuration group guide.

As with every configuration group, each setting is presented as a single row containing:

• The name of the application setting
• A description of what the setting does
• An editing control holding the current value — a toggle, a text box, or an Edit content button for the rich-text message settings
• A “Last changed” line recording when the setting was last modified and by whom

Because these settings are maintained from the Administration area, only Application Administrators — or other users specifically granted the appropriate permission — can view and change them.

2. Accessing the Request Alert Settings

1. From the Contract Insight homepage, click Administration at the bottom of the left navigation menu.
2. On the Administration page, under Configuration & Fields, select Application Settings.
3. In the CATEGORIES rail on the left, click Requests. The category is highlighted, and the count beside it shows the number of settings it contains.
4. Scroll the settings panel to the TASKS and TIMERS subsection headings for the alert content and frequency settings, and to GENERAL for the link and reply address settings.

A specific setting can also be reached without browsing the category, by typing part of its name or description into the Search box at the top of the Application Settings screen.

3. TASKS Settings

The TASKS subsection controls the content of request task email alerts, what the recipient can act on from the message, and how tasks are presented on the task grid.

The TASKS settings are:

• Email Body Beginning Text — The beginning text for the body of request-related task email alerts. Edited through the rich-text editor using Edit content.
• Email Body Ending Text — The ending text for the body of request task email alerts. Edited through the rich-text editor using Edit content.
• Email Subject Line — The text appended to the subject line of request task email alerts. Entered in a text box.
• Include Request Record Info — Displays request information on all request-related task email alerts. Toggle.
• Include task complete buttons in email — Adds buttons to the email that complete a task upon login authentication. Toggle.
• Hide Auto Complete Tasks — Hides auto-complete tasks on the task grid. Toggle.

The Email Body Beginning Text, Email Body Ending Text, and Email Subject Line settings together compose the request task alert message — the subject line text is appended to the subject the system generates, and the beginning and ending text surround the task details the system inserts, so none of them replaces the alert content itself.

Note: Unlike the equivalent Contracts and Solicitations groups, the two body-text settings here open the rich-text editor while Email Subject Line is a plain text box. There is also only one set of these three settings in this group — they apply to request task alerts.

4. GENERAL Settings for Request Alerts

Five settings under the GENERAL heading affect request alert email — which links the message contains, whether status-change emails are sent at all, and where replies are directed.

The alert-related GENERAL settings are:

• Display Link for Request Details — Displays a link to the request detail record in the email alert. Toggle.
• Display Link for Request Tasks — Displays a link to the request task record in the email alert. Toggle.
• Display Social Media Links for Request Tasks — Displays social media links for request tasks in the email alert. Toggle.
• Enable System Emails for Requests — Enables or disables the system emails associated with changing the status of a request. Toggle.
• Reply To Address for Request Tasks — The email address used as the Reply To on all scheduled request-related task email alerts. Entered in a text box.

Note: Enable System Emails for Requests governs the emails raised when a request status changes, which are separate from the scheduled task alerts driven by the timers in Section 5. Turning it off stops the status-change emails while leaving the scheduled task alerts running.

5. TIMERS Settings

The TIMERS subsection sets how often the request alert jobs run. Both values are expressed in minutes and entered in text boxes, and specifying 0 disables the job.

The TIMERS settings are:

• Request Tasks Email Timer — How often request task email alerts are sent, in minutes. Specify 0 to disable.
• Request Tasks Escalation Timer — How often escalations to request tasks are checked, in minutes. Specify 0 to disable.

Caution: Setting either timer to 0 stops that alert entirely, and it stops silently — no error is raised and nothing is queued for later. Where request task alerts or escalations are reported as missing, check these two values before investigating anything else.

6. Modifying a Request Alert Setting

Function: Changes the content or timing of request alerts for the entire system.

Steps:

1. From the Contract Insight homepage, click Administration at the bottom of the left navigation menu. On the Administration page, under Configuration & Fields, select Application Settings, then click Requests in the CATEGORIES rail.
2. Locate the setting by name under the TASKS, TIMERS, or GENERAL heading, and read its description to confirm what the value controls.
3. Change the value using the control on the right of the setting row — a toggle, a text box for the subject line, reply address, and two timers, or Edit content for the two body-text settings.
4. For a rich-text setting, a drawer slides out from the right headed REQUESTS and the setting name. Edit the content using the editor toolbar — Bold, Italic, and Underline, a Paragraph format dropdown, Blockquote and list controls, Insert Hyperlink and Insert Image, Code View for the underlying HTML, and Undo and Redo — then click Close.
5. The setting is marked with a CHANGED badge, an Undo link appears beneath it, a dot appears beside Requests in the CATEGORIES rail, and a banner at the top of the screen reports how many changes are ready to save.
6. Click Save changes in the upper right to commit the change, or Discard to put every changed setting back to its saved value. Undo on the setting row reverts that one setting only.

7. Related Request Alert Administration

These settings define what the request alerts contain and how often they are sent. The jobs that actually send them are managed on the Scheduled Jobs screen, reached from the Administration page under Automation & Data.

The corresponding jobs under the E-Mail Alerts Scheduler are:

• Request Task E-Mails — driven by the Request Tasks Email Timer
• Request Task Escalations — driven by the Request Tasks Escalation Timer
• Request Account Deletion Email — driven by the Request Account Deletion Email Timer in the Schedule Manager group

On that screen each job can be run immediately with Run now and its outcome reviewed in its History, which is the quickest way to confirm that a change to these settings has taken effect.

Related settings in other configuration groups are:

• Requests — the remaining settings in the group, covering request record behavior, line item entry, the items search help, and one-off emails
• Contracts — Default the Department Field on Request Records, under the CONTRACT heading
• Schedule Manager — the system-wide sweep frequencies that these jobs run alongside
• Scheduled Jobs - Contracts, Scheduled Jobs - Reports, and Scheduled Jobs - Solicitations — the equivalent alert settings for those areas

8. Quick Reference Summary