question Timesheet Approval Notification in CSM forum

Timesheet Approval Notification

Jason116 — Thu, 01 May 2025 02:31:01 GMT

I'm trying to configure the following requirement and would appreciate some guidance.

When a user submits a time card against a project task, an email notification should be sent to the PM of the related project, notifying them that a new time card is awaiting approval.

I'm just not sure how to configure the logic so that the notification is sent specifically to the Project Manager of the related Project

Re: Timesheet Approval Notification

Ankur Bawiskar — Thu, 01 May 2025 03:26:23 GMT

@Jason116

Is this not happening OOTB?

check this

Time Card Approval : OOTB approval notifications ?

If my response helped please mark it correct and close the thread so that it benefits future readers.

Re: Timesheet Approval Notification

Jason116 — Thu, 01 May 2025 04:30:05 GMT

Yes, the approval is being routed correctly; however, we also want a notification to be sent so the Project Manager is aware that timesheets are awaiting their approval

Re: Timesheet Approval Notification

Ankur Bawiskar — Thu, 01 May 2025 04:57:33 GMT

@Jason116

then did you configure that? what's not working as expected?

If my response helped please mark it correct and close the thread so that it benefits future readers.

Re: Timesheet Approval Notification

Jason116 — Thu, 01 May 2025 05:46:23 GMT

The policy is working as expected, and we’ve configured it correctly—however, this is separate from the email notification.

What we’re trying to do, as outlined in my original post, is create an email notification. The policy simply assigns the approval action to the Project Manager so they can approve or reject it, but it doesn’t alert them directly. Unless they manually check ‘My Approvals’, they won’t know that a time card is awaiting their attention. That’s why we want to trigger an email notification—to ensure they’re aware that a time card has been submitted and is pending their approval

Re: Timesheet Approval Notification

Ankur Bawiskar — Thu, 01 May 2025 06:33:04 GMT

@Jason116

so what's not working in email notification?

Is that email not being sent?

Sorry I didn't get your complete requirement.

Project managers are able to see the approvals in My Approvals in widget but not getting email?

If my response helped please mark it correct and close the thread so that it benefits future readers.

Re: Timesheet Approval Notification

Robert H — Thu, 01 May 2025 06:38:59 GMT

Hello @Jason116 ,

The basic steps for setting up a Notification about an Approval for a Time Card would look like this:

The subject and message are of course up to you. The example above demonstrates how you can include the Time Card's User name and a Link to the approval.

Result:

Regards,

Robert

Re: Timesheet Approval Notification

Jason116 — Fri, 02 May 2025 00:53:27 GMT

I think there may be some confusion here. Currently, no email is being sent because there is no out-of-the-box notification configured for this scenario. The purpose of my post is to request assistance in creating a notification that triggers when a user submits a time card against a project task—specifically, I want an email to be sent to the Project Manager of the related project, notifying them that a new time card is awaiting approval.

This is unrelated to the timesheet policy, which doesn't have any associated out-of-the-box email notifications for this purpose

Re: Timesheet Approval Notification

Ankur Bawiskar — Fri, 02 May 2025 02:43:43 GMT

@Jason116

Configuring notification is an easy task which you can check docs or some blogs

Simply define the table, condition, operation (insert/update), email body, recipient etc

Create an email notification

where are you stuck?

If my response helped please mark it correct and close the thread so that it benefits future readers.

Re: Timesheet Approval Notification

Jason116 — Fri, 02 May 2025 05:32:02 GMT

I’m familiar with how to configure email notifications in general, but I’m having trouble setting up this specific one to meet my requirements—specifically, I want the notification to be sent to the Project Manager of the related project whenever a user submits a time card against a project task

Re: Timesheet Approval Notification

Ankur Bawiskar — Fri, 02 May 2025 05:40:50 GMT

@Jason116

If your approvals are generated in sysapproval_approver table then approach shared by @Robert H will work for you

There is an OOTB approval email which goes to approval

If my response helped please mark it correct and close the thread so that it benefits future readers.

Re: Timesheet Approval Notification

Robert H — Fri, 02 May 2025 06:17:19 GMT

Hello @Jason116 ,

Have you looked into the answer I provided? It assumes that you trigger Approval [sysapproval_approver] requests to the Project Manager. If that is not the case and the approval happens directly on the Time Card itself then use the following configuration:

Regards,

Robert

Re: Timesheet Approval Notification

Jason116 — Tue, 06 May 2025 05:29:30 GMT

I’ve configured this exactly as you have it set up, but nothing is triggering. Here are the steps I followed:

Opened the project.
Opened a project task under that project.
Under the project task, entered "Time Worked" via the Time Cards related list.
Submitted the time card.

However, the notification did not trigger.

Re: Timesheet Approval Notification

Robert H — Tue, 06 May 2025 05:46:52 GMT

Hello @Jason116 ,

The notification works fine on my end when doing the same steps. Please check the following:

In the Notification configuration record, click Preview Notification and select the Time Card you just submitted as the Preview Record. Does the preview look as intended and show the intended recipient in the Users section (not in red color or crossed out)?

Please also check the sysevent table. When you submitted the Time Card, was there an notification_engine.process event with Table = Time Card and Instance = sys_id of the Time Card?

Regards,

Robert

Re: Timesheet Approval Notification

Jason116 — Tue, 06 May 2025 06:11:42 GMT

yes the preview looks ok however can't see anything in the sysevent table

Re: Timesheet Approval Notification

Robert H — Tue, 06 May 2025 06:18:12 GMT

Hello @Jason116 ,

Thanks for the feedback. In this case either the Notification conditions are not configured correctly, or the Time Card does not match the configuration.

Can you please double check that the Time Card really has the Submitted state and that its Top task is a Project?

Regards,

Robert

Re: Timesheet Approval Notification

Jason116 — Tue, 06 May 2025 06:23:43 GMT

Looks ok from what I can see?

Re: Timesheet Approval Notification

Robert H — Tue, 06 May 2025 06:31:40 GMT

Hello @Jason116 ,

Yes, indeed that looks fine. Would you mind sharing a screen shot of your Notification configuration as well (need only to see the "When to send" section)?

Regards,

Robert

Re: Timesheet Approval Notification

Jason116 — Tue, 06 May 2025 09:34:59 GMT

Ok just figured it out!! silly mistake on my behalf!! only had 'interted' ticked and not 'updated' so this has resolved it however would also like some help in just getting the content of the email please, just need something simple like:

User xxx has just submitted a time card against project task xxx for project xxx. Please click here [this should be link to the time card so they can action it] to approve or reject

Re: Timesheet Approval Notification

Robert H — Tue, 06 May 2025 10:02:49 GMT

Hello @Jason116 ,

There you go:

User ${user} has just submitted a time card against project task ${task} for project ${top_task}. Please click here ${URI} to approve or reject

Please note that you can select the Time Card fields on the right of the editor to insert them into the text.

Regards,

Robert