Scheduling queued notifications

Overview

The Schedule Queued Notifications feature allows users to automate the delivery of email notifications for Author and Reviewer in response projects. Instead of manually triggering each queued notification, you can now configure a recurring schedule daily, weekly, or monthly for sending these notifications automatically. This helps streamline the review and response process, reduce manual effort, and ensure consistent, timely communication with stakeholders.

Schedules can be set at both the organization and project levels, with project-level settings optionally overriding the organization-level defaults. The scheduled time automatically aligns with each user's time zone preference, ensuring notifications are sent at the correct local time across all regions. Each scheduled notification is clearly indicated in the UI, and users can still manually send notifications if needed.

This feature is especially useful for admins, project program coordinators (PPCs), and contributors managing large volumes of assignments who want to maintain control while improving efficiency and reducing communication delays.

Key Features

• Configure and schedule notifications: Set the date, time, and recurrence (once, weekly, or monthly) for queued notifications.
• Time zone support: The time zone is auto-populated based on your time zone preference set in My Account. It is view-only and cannot be changed while scheduling.
• Override options: Project-level settings can override the organization-level schedule.
• Visual indication: The scheduled date and time will be clearly displayed in the Queued Notifications popup.
• Activity tracking: Changes to scheduled notifications are captured in the Activities Report for tracking and auditing.

Scheduling queued notifications

Scheduling at the organization level

1. Go to Organization Settings > Response Projects > Preferences > Schedule Queued Notifications.
   
2. Set your notification preferences:
   • Frequency:
     • Once: Choose a specific date and time.
     • Daily: Select to send notifications once every day at the specified time.
     • Weekly: Select the days of the week.
     • Monthly: Choose specific dates or the last day of the month.
   • Time Zone: The time zone is auto-populated based on the time zone preference set in My Account.
   • Effective From: Set the date for the schedule.

Scheduling at the project level

Once enabled at the organization level you can set scheduling preferences at the project level.

1. Go to Response Projects > Project Settings > Schedule Queued Notifications.
   
2. The schedule inherited from the organization level is shown. Customize it as needed for the specific project.
   Note: If the project-level schedule is different from the organization level, the changes are reflected only for that project.
   • When scheduling or viewing notifications, the scheduled date and time are displayed in the Queued Notification pop-up.
   • The time zone displayed reflects your individual time zone if it overrides the organization-level setting.

Managing scheduled notifications

• View and Trigger: All scheduled notifications are listed in the Queued Notifications popup. You can manually trigger a scheduled notification at any time using the paper plane icon.
• Edit or Disable: You can edit or disable the scheduled time for both organization and project-level settings.
• Activity Report: Any changes to the scheduled notifications (e.g., enabling, editing, or disabling) are logged in the Activities Report, including details of the old and new configurations.

Examples

1. Scenario 1: Time zone adjustment
   • Suppose your organization’s time zone is set to Pacific Time (US & Canada), but a user prefers IST (India Standard Time).
   • A user schedules a notification for 7 PM IST. For users in the Pacific Time zone, the notification will be triggered at 6:30 AM PT, which is the equivalent of 7 PM IST.
2. Scenario 2: Modifying the schedule
   • If a scheduled notification is set for 7 PM, and a user changes it to 8 PM, both existing and new notifications will be triggered at 8 PM.
3. Scenario 3: User time zone override
   • If a user has a preferred time zone of Pacific Time and the scheduled time is 7 PM IST, the time will be adjusted to 6:30 AM PT. If the user changes the schedule, the new time will reflect their preferred time zone.