Configuring Email Notifications for Ready-to-Start Tasks

The Ready-to-Start indicator in Project Task and Salesforce Task tells you when the task is ready to be started based on the status of its Predecessors. For more information on this feature, please see related article here: Ready to Start.

If you would like an email notification to be sent to the assigned Resource when their task is ready to be started, you will need to configure a workflow. This help article will walk you through how to configure such workflow.

Create Custom Ready-to-Start Field

The Ready-to-Start field in Salesforce Tasks is a formula field that is designed to automatically reflect the value from the Project Task. Since it is a formula field that simply reflects the value from the Project Task, Salesforce does not consider it a field update when the checkbox is set to "true". Therefore, it cannot be used to trigger an email notification.

You will then need to create your own custom ready-to-start checkbox in the Activity object and then configure an email workflow that will fire off when this checkbox is "true".

1. Click on the Gear Icon at the top right corner and click on Setup.
   
   
    
2. Go to Object Manager.
   
   
    
3. Click on Activity.
   
   
    
4. Go to Fields & Relationships and click on New.
   
   
    
5. Select checkbox as the data type and click on Next.
   
   
    
6. Enter a field name. In the example below, we named the field "Send Ready to Start Email" but you can choose to use a different naming convention if preferred. 
   
   Set the default value to "unchecked". You can also choose to provide a description and help text. Click on Next when finished.
   
   
    
7. Set the field to be "Visible" for all user profiles and click on Next.
   
   
    
8. Select the task layout(s) you would like to add this field to, and then click on Save. 
   
   
    
9. After the field is created, copy the API name.
   
   
    

Populate Custom Settings

Now that you've created your own custom field in Activity object, you will need to populate the API name in Custom Settings.

1. Enter "Custom Settings" in the Quick Find box and click on Custom Settings.
   
   
    
2. Click on Manage beside Inspire Planner Config.
   
   
    
3. Click on Edit at the top of the page.
   
   
    
4. Paste the API Name of your custom field in Ready to Start Notification API Name. Then click on Save.
   
   By populating the API Name, then when Inspire Planner sets Ready to Start to TRUE for the Project Task, it will also set your custom field to TRUE.
   
   

Create an Email Template

The next step would be for you to create an email template. 

Please see: Create an Email Template in Lightning Experience or Email Templates in Salesforce Classic

Configure Email Alert Workflow

Once you've created an email template, you will then need to configure an email workflow.

1. Enter "Workflow" in the Quick Find box and click on Workflow Rules.
   
   
2. Click on New Rule.
   
   
    
3. Select Task as the object and click on Next.
   
   
    
4. Enter a Rule Name. You may also choose to enter a description.
   
   Then set the Evaluation Criteria as "Evaluate the rule when a record is created, any any time it's edited to subsequently meet the criteria".
   
   Then under Rule Criteria, choose your custom field under Field equals to True. Then click on Save & Next.
   
   
    
5. Click on Add Workflow Action and select Email Alert.
   
   
    
6. Populate the Description. When you click out of Description, it should automatically populate the Unique Name. Select Task as the Object and then in Email Template, select the email template you configured.
   
   For Recipient Type, select Owner and move the Assigned To field to Selected Recipients. 
   
   Then click on Save & Next.
   
   
    
7. Then click on Done.
   
   
    
8. Lastly, click on Activate to activate your workflow.