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Stage Information Request Reminders

When an approver needs something from the requester, they can send the request back with a question instead of deciding. The request then waits on the requester, and the platform can chase them with reminders of their own, separate from the reminders that chase approvers.

Where to find it

Architect Panel → Forms:

  • User Input Views — the Request More Information button on a stage, the request-for-more-information e-mail, and the stage's reminders while waiting for information
  • Process Inspector — the Asking for more panel and each stage's Timing panel

Architect Panel → Automation:

  • Tasks — User Input View - Info Request Reminders, which must be enabled

How asking for information works

  1. The approver presses Request More Information (or whatever you named the button) and writes what they need. If you allowed it, they can attach files.
  2. The requester is e-mailed the question and a link to answer it, using the view's request-for-more-information e-mail.
  3. The request waits. Its status becomes Waiting For Information, and the approver's own link now answers You have already submitted a request for more information.
  4. The requester answers through the link. The stage does not move: the approver is e-mailed that the information has been provided, with a fresh link, and makes the decision.

Setting it up

  1. Switch on the request-for-more-information e-mail under Standard E-mails/Notifications on the builder. If it is off, the approver's request fails with a message that the feature has not been configured, although the request for information is still recorded.
  2. Enable the button on the stage's Form Stage Actions screen: switch on Request More Information, set the Button Text, and choose File Attachments: Off, Request Only (the approver can attach) or Both Request and Response (the requester can attach to their answer too).
  3. Add reminders on the stage's reminders-while-waiting-for-information setting. Each entry has a unit (seconds to years), a number and an optional template.
  4. Enable the task User Input View - Info Request Reminders. It ships switched off, and until it runs no reminder is ever sent however the stage is set.

How the reminders behave

  • The clock starts when the information was requested.
  • They go to the requester, at the address the view's E-mail Address setting finds, from the account the stage sends from. The stage must use the Send E-mail action.
  • Each entry is sent once per request and stage, so three entries give three reminders.
  • Files the approver attached are attached again to each reminder.
  • The automatic wording repeats the question and the link. In your own template use ##AMDATA/AUTHURL## for the answer link.

A stage time-out also covers this wait. If the stage times out, a request still waiting on its requester is declined or moved like one waiting on an approver. See Stage Time-outs and the Complete Request Action.

When the answer arrives another way

If the requester replies by phone or e-mail, or the information is no longer needed, open the request's progress page and use Close Information Request. Record what was received, or why the request is being closed, and leave E-mail the approver ticked to send them a fresh link. The note is stamped with your name, the stage stays where it is, and the decision stays with the approver. You need Edit Existing on the datastore. See Managing Requests.

Worked example

A supplier onboarding form asks Procurement to approve at stage 3. Procurement often needs a missing insurance certificate, so the stage's Request More Information is on with File Attachments set to Both Request and Response. The stage has two information reminders, at three and seven days, and a fourteen-day time-out that declines. When a supplier e-mails the certificate to a buyer instead of using the link, the buyer uploads it to the record, closes the information request with a note, and Procurement receives a fresh link to approve.

Recommendations

  • Configure the e-mail before the button. Otherwise the approver's request fails.
  • Chase requesters sooner than approvers. They submitted and moved on.
  • Pair reminders with a time-out so silent requests do not stay open for ever.
  • Use Close Information Request rather than rolling the stage back when an answer arrives outside the form.