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Administrator Guide
Last Updated: 2026-05-01
Schedule Alert Notifications

Schedule Alert Notifications

Security:
Business Process Administration
 domain in the System functional area.
You can use alert notifications to remind recipients that they have a task or business process awaiting action. Business process alert notifications are related to an entire business process. Task alert notifications are related to business process steps, such as
Approval
 or
Action
 steps.
You can send notifications based on:
  • Due dates.
  • When you initiate a business process or assign a step.
You can send:
  • Multiple notifications for an incomplete task or overdue action. Example: Send a second notification when the task is 1 week overdue.
  • Notifications to other roles besides the initial recipient, such as the recipient's manager.
Because the alert background process can take a long time to run, Workday recommends that you use configurable alerts to schedule and send notifications.
Before migrating reports, consider the downstream impact to edited reports in lower level tenants so that you don't migrate potential issues. Workday recommends that you validate reports after migrating them and consider the downstream impact to alerts and other processes.
A data migration error might occur when you use Object Transporter or a web service to migrate alerts that reference a custom report. This can occur when you edit a custom report and remove a prompt or configure it as
Do not prompt at runtime
. If you encounter an error when migrating alerts, correct the impacted alerts before attempting to migrate them again. The Object Transporter migration error message provides details on how to resolve the issue.
For alerts with a status of
Expired
 or
Suspended
, you can edit and save the alert to resolve migration errors. You might need to update the alert's future end date. Example: An expired alert has a
Run Frequency
 of
Daily Recurrence
. In the
Range of Recurrence
 section of the alert, you update the
End Date
 to be in the future.
If you want to correct expired or suspended alerts, activate the alert first and then correct them.
If expired or suspended alerts become active after you edit and save it, make sure you set the alert to
Suspended
 before attempting the migration. After the alert successfully migrates to the target tenant, verify the alert is still in
Suspended
 status. If the alerts have an
Active
 status in the target tenant, set them to
Suspended
.
  1. Access 1 of these tasks:
    • Schedule Business Process Alert Notifications
    • Schedule Task Alert Notifications
  2. Select a run frequency.
    The run frequency controls the
    Schedule
     tab, where you can configure how often the recipient gets new notifications about the same outstanding task or business process.
  3. As you complete the task, consider:
    Option
    Description
    Compared to
    To calculate the dates for your task or business process alert notifications, use the date of the
    Compared to
     option you selected plus 1 day for notifications after the date or minus 1 day for notifications before the date.
    The
    Compared to
     options are:
    • Before or after a due date.
    • Before or after an effective date.
    • After an initiation date.
    • After an assignment date.
    • None of the above.
    Workday calculates the compared to date as day zero and adds or subtracts from that day according to the options you select. Example: You set up a task alert notification for 3 days before an April 15 due date. The alert notification date is April 11 because April 15 is day zero and the count starts on April 14.
    Alert Rules
    You can select a condition rule to provide additional controls for when Workday sends the alert notification.
    Use Default Text
    When you clear this check box, you can write a custom subject and message text for the alert email.
    Additional Security Groups to notify
    When you select security groups, Workday sends a separate email to members of those groups. Example: Notify an HR Partner or manager when Workday sends an alert notification to a worker.
    Track Messages Sent
    When you select this check box, Workday keeps a record of the alert notification that you can view on the
    Messages
     tab of the
    View Background Process Notifications
     report. Workday recommends that you use this option sparingly to reduce data generation.
  4. As you complete the
    Schedule
     tab, consider:
    Option
    Description
    Dependency
    Displays only when you select
    Dependent
     on the
    Run Frequency
     prompt. Select an active alert that this notification schedule is dependent on. The schedule or frequency of the alert notification depends on the alert you select in this
    Dependency
     prompt. Example: You want to schedule alert notifications for payroll tasks that are dependent on the
    Hire
     and
    Termination
     business processes.
    Trigger on Status
    Displays only when you select
    Dependent
     on the
    Run Frequency
     prompt.
    Select the status of the dependency that triggers publishing the alert notification, such as when the dependency has completed or failed.
    Catch Up Behavior
    Displays only when you select
    Custom Recurrence
     on the
    Run Frequency
     prompt.
    You can select whether to resend the notification after your tenant goes offline for maintenance issues. When you select:
    • None
      , Workday doesn't resend the notification outside of the current schedule.
    • Run Once
      , Workday resends the notification once to make up for the missed schedule.
    Custom Start Time
    Displays only when you select
    Custom Recurrence
     on the
    Run Frequency
     prompt.
    You can select the time of day when you want to send the alert notification.
When the addressee doesn’t have an email address, you receive an email indicating that the notification process completed with errors.