CLIF keeps people moving with emails at each step of the approval process. Every email is logged, and the text of each one comes from an editable template. CLIF can also show your own Outlook mailbox.
Approval emails#
| Sent to | When | |
|---|---|---|
| Submission Assigned | The assigned Level 1 user | A Level 2 user assigns a box to them. |
| Submission Waiting Approval | The department's Level 2 users | The Level 1 user marks the box Ready. |
| Submission Approved (next tier) | Level 2 users of the next tier | Every box in a tier is approved. |
| Submission meeting date selected | Level 2 users of the submitting department | The submission is scheduled for a meeting. |
| Submission meeting date modified | Level 2 users of the submitting department | The submission is moved to another meeting. |
| Submission Approved (creator) | The person who created the submission | The Confirmation tier approves and the submission is finalized. |
Emails include a link to the submission. No email is sent:
- to the person who took the action;
- to inactive users;
- to users with Exclude from approval emails ticked on their user record.
When approval details are enabled, each email ends with the reason you received it, for example "… is level 2 user in following department(s): Finance".
Notification history#
On a submission's Approvals tab, Notification history lists every email sent about that submission. Administrators see all emails in Logs → Email Logs, with date, subject, sender, recipients, content and the reason it was sent.
How emails are sent#
CLIF sends email through Microsoft 365 from the mailbox of the person who took the action, so replies go to a real colleague. Emails are written to the log first and then sent. Two parameters control delivery:
| Parameter | Effect |
|---|---|
ExecuteEmails | Y sends emails; N only logs them (useful in test environments). |
FromEmailSource | S uses the acting user's address as sender; T uses the template's Email From. |
Emails that are not sent immediately are delivered by the Send emails system task.
Email templates#
Settings → Email Templates holds the subject and HTML content of every email. Each template is identified by its Access Name, which CLIF uses to find it, so do not rename them:
submission-assignedsubmission-waiting-approvalsubmission-approved-notify-next-tiersubmission-approved-notify-creatorsubmission-meeting-date-selectedsubmission-meeting-date-modifiednew-submission-waiting-assignment
Other fields are Email Subject, Email From, SMTP server, Sending priority and Is Active.
Placeholders#
Placeholders are written between hash signs and are replaced when the email is created. They work in the subject and the content and are not case-sensitive. Click a placeholder button under the content box to insert it at the cursor.
| Placeholder | Replaced with |
|---|---|
#SubmissionUrl# | Link that opens the submission in CLIF. |
#SubmissionSubject# | The submission's subject. |
#MeetingDate# | Meeting date and cutoff (meeting-date templates only). |
Add a format after a colon to format dates, for example #MeetingDate:MM/dd/yyyy#.
My Emails#
My Emails → Emails in the left menu shows your Microsoft 365 / Outlook mailbox inside CLIF, so you can handle submission mail without switching applications. It is your normal mailbox: messages read, sent or deleted here are read, sent or deleted in Outlook too.
- Folders: Inbox, Sent, Drafts. Click New Email to write a message.
- Find: search box, period (7 / 30 / 90 days or all), senders (all or colleagues only) and filter (all, unread, has files).
- Sort: by date, size, sender, subject or importance.
- Read: select a message to read it, then Reply, Reply All or Delete.
- Write: To, CC, BCC, subject, body and attachments; Send, Save Draft or Delete Draft.