Documentation forService Desk

Notifications

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Introduction

Service Desk notifications are very helpful in managing your day-to-day workload. This feature can ensure no incidents, tasks, or approvals are forgotten or left unresolved.

Real-time notifications help you ensure all relevant team members stay informed by complete visibility into all updates throughout the service lifecycle. If someone receives too many notifications, they can get overwhelmed and sometimes things get overlooked.

You can see and set up notifications related to specific actions that occur in Service Desk. For example, you can establish who should receive notifications when a new incident is requested, or when an approval task is created.

Navigation

Setup > Service Desk > Notifications.

Notifications index page

The Notifications index page identifies each notification already set up. Each notification has a name, recipients, scope, and event (trigger). You can also see the last time the notification criteria was updated and who performed the update.

On the index page you can also add and edit notifications, and filter the list by modules (scope).

The SEND TO field lets you select Assignee or Requester, CC.

You can:

  • Turn off notifications for specific groups.
  • Set task reminders for Ad-Hoc Tasks.
  • Use a variety of formatting options in email templates (like adding a URL).
  • Create new notifications.
  • Send task notifications, for example, task completed.
  • Use solution mention notifications.
  • Get a daily list of your assigned items and due tasks via email.

You can customize the All Notifications index page to a view that best meets your needs. See List view for more information.

When a stakeholder makes a request for a new asset or any other change, they:

  • Want to know what the process is after a request is submitted.
  • Want to receive updates throughout the process.
  • Want to understand how long the process may take.

To make the transition as smooth and time efficient as possible, Service Desk provides information on Change Management to help in automating processes your organization may encounter when a change is necessary or request is made.

For more information click on the links below:

The Send Notification option is one of the many features of Service Desk that aids in visibility of processes for all stakeholders via an email notification within a change request or service request workflow.

These notifications can be sent either through an ad-hoc email or a generic email template. Both of these notification types can reference variables.

Attachment size limits in email notifications

When your account has enabled the option to allow attachments to be attached to emails, attachments are physically embedded in outgoing email notifications, subject to the following limits:

  • Per-email attachment quota: 9 MB total

    Files are attached in order from smallest to largest. Once the cumulative size of attached files reaches 9 MB, any remaining files are automatically converted to download links in the email body instead of being physically attached.

  • Pre-flight limit: 19 MB total

    If the combined size of all attachments on the record exceeds 19 MB, no files will be physically attached — all attachments will appear as download links.

A single file larger than 9 MB will always be sent as a link, even if it is the only attachment.

Email protection compatibility

Service Desk email notifications can prevent malware scanners from prematurely expiring single-use links contained within an email. Because some email security and malware protection services redirect links to a scanning service, the scanning service can cause the link to expire as soon as it is accessed. The Email Protection Compatibility feature prevents users from receiving a Token Expired message when they click a link from a Service Desk notification email.

Service Desk notifications are compatible with email malware protection services such as Microsoft Defender’s Safe Links and Barracuda’s Link Protection.

An administrator can change whether or not notifications contain in-email action buttons, which make it easier to respond, but potentially less compatible with some email protection tools, for example, SafeLink. For more information, see In-Notification Direct Actions

Create a new custom email template

  1. From the Notifications index page, click Add in the upper right.

  2. Note the Email Variables list that displays on the right. You can use email variables in sections of the email notification. See Email variables for more information.

  3. In the New Custom Email Template, select an existing template as the foundation for your new template, or select General Email template to start from scratch.

  4. Use the tabs in the Email Layout field to select an area for customizing your new email template.
    • Main Layout defines the main layout of the email. You can add, move, edit, and delete sections by using email section variables (details below). It is also possible to add custom text and use regular variables in the email sections.
    • Email Body is the main content of the email. It includes the email title, email body, and the text on the call-to-action button. It is represented by the {{main}} variable in the email structure. You can choose to use {{main_wo_action}} if you would prefer to exclude the call to action button.
    • Header is added to the top part of the email when it is sent. It is represented by the {{header}} variable in the main layout. This header is fully customizable. Some customers like to add their service desk logo to the header.
    • Signature is fully customizable. The corporate signature, represented by the {{signature}} variable in the main layout, is added to the email by default.
    • Footer is fully customizable. The corporate footer, represented by the {{footer}} variable in the main layout, is added to the email by default.
    Directly below the Email Layout field, you can click Guide to email section variables for an explanation of each of the email sections.
  5. Click Save.

Sample notification template

Email variables

System variables can be used in any email. When you select a tab a list of the system variables displays on the right. From there you can copy any variable by hovering over the variable name and then clicking Copy to the right of the variable.

System email variables can be used in email notification templates. They cannot be modified.

The following system variables are available:

  • {{assignee_full_name}}
  • {{attachments}}
  • {{change_number}}
  • {{change_title}}
  • {{change_type}}
  • {{department}}
  • {{event_initiator}}
  • {{event_initiator_email}}
  • {{event_initiator_phone_number}}
  • {{event_initiator_title}}
  • {{hardware_asset_status}}
  • {{hardware_category}}
  • {{hardware_name}}
  • {{hardware_owner}}
  • {{hardware_tag}}
  • {{hardware_technical_contact}}
  • {{hardware_warranty_status}}
  • {{incident_category}}
  • {{incident_description}}
  • {{incident_number}}
  • {{incident_number_link_to_incident}}
  • {{incident_origin}}
  • {{incident_priority}}
  • {{incident_title}}
  • {{integration_info}} *
  • {{last_updated}}
  • {{main}}
  • {{main_event}}
  • {{main_wo_action}}
  • {{process_integration_validation_error}}
  • {{received_at}}
  • {{requester_email}}
  • {{requester_full_name}}
  • {{requester_last_name}}
  • {{requester_phonenumber}}
  • {{samanage_link}}
  • {{service_desk_logo}}
  • {{servicedesk_name}}
  • {{site}}
  • {{solution_number}}
  • {{solution_title}}
  • {{state}}

* The integration_info system variable includes:

  • The integration URL
  • The HTTP return code
  • The sequential number of the automated workflow step from which the integration was called
  • The integration complete response (up to 32K), typically the JSON response

Approval reminders

Approval reminders are sent for all approvals. Approvers automatically receive a reminder when an approval is not completed. An administrator can modify the interval between reminders, or set the interval to zero to eliminate all reminders. See Approval Reminders.

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