Recipients lists

Release version: Australia

Updated March 12, 2026

2 minutes to read

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Summary of Recipients Lists

Recipients lists are essential for targeted communications within the ServiceNow platform, allowing you to include internal users, customers, accounts, contacts, and consumers. These lists can be generated using user import, dynamic lists, or scripting methods. When articles are published, recipients can view them on the Customer or Consumer Service Portal and receive optional email notifications.

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Key Features

User Import: Import contact information from xls or csv files, with the system ensuring that only existing accounts and contacts are included, avoiding duplicates.
Dynamic Lists: Create recipient lists based on selected conditions, which can be dynamically generated or manually added.
Scripting: Generate recipient lists using scripts that can output arrays of sysids for various entities like contacts, accounts, consumers, and internal users.
Scheduled Job Management: System administrators can manage a scheduled job called "Targeted Communications Refresh recipient list" to update recipient lists automatically for active published articles.

Key Outcomes

By utilizing recipients lists effectively, ServiceNow customers can streamline their communication processes, ensuring that the right audience is informed and engaged. The system provides feedback on record imports, allowing for efficient management of the recipient data. Ultimately, this functionality enhances the communication strategy and ensures recipients are promptly notified of relevant updates.

Create the recipients list for a targeted communications that can include internal users, customer, accounts, contacts, and consumers. You can create the recipient list using the methods of user import, dynamic lists, or scripting.

When an article is published, the recipients on this list can view the article on the Customer or Consumer Service Portal. Recipients can also receive optional email notifications.

Recipients lists are also used by the Major Issue Management application to create child cases for a major case.

Recipients lists are created in the following ways:

By creating a list of imported users.
By creating a dynamic list based on selected conditions.
By creating a script.

Recipients lists can have both dynamically generated and manually added records of the same type.

The system administrator can manage a scheduled job to refresh recipient lists. This scheduled job, Targeted Communications Refresh recipient list, adds new recipients to each of the active published articles. The new recipients receive email notification of the article and are granted access to view the article on the portal.

Create a recipient list by importing contact information

Create a recipient list by importing contact information. For contacts, supported file types include xls and csv.

Multiple files can be imported into the same recipient list, with new recipients appended to the recipient list file. The system checks that the accounts and contacts exist in the system and only imports those that exist. Duplicate entries are not created. At the end of the import process, the system displays a status with the number of records imported and rejected.

The system uses the sys_id and the email address attributes to match contacts. It first looks for a matching sys_id match. If not found, it then looks for a matching email address. If neither are found, the record is rejected.

Create a recipient list by importing account, consumer, or internal user information

Create a recipient list by importing account, consumer, or internal user information. The supported file type is xls.

The system uses the following attributes to match the imported records:

Account: Uses the sys_id and the account number. Attempts to match the sys_id. If not found, then attempts to match using the account number. If neither are found, the record is rejected.
Consumer and User: Uses the sys_id or the email address. Attempts to match the sys_id. If not found, then attempts to match the email address. If neither are found, the record is rejected.

Note:

Column names are case sensitive. For example, use sys_id and number for accounts and email for consumers and users.

Create a recipient list using a script

Create a recipient list using a script with these supported entities: contact, company/account, consumer, and internal user. The output of the script is an array of sys_ids of the corresponding entity. After creating the recipient list, the system shows the total number of records identified, added to the list, and rejected.

To create a recipient list using a script, select Dynamic Condition in the Method field on the Recipients List form and enable the Show Script check box. Then create your script in the Script field.