Escalations

An Escalation Setting is set to perform a certain action depending on a specific Date field value of a specific Form/Subform. Escalation Setting can be configured based on a Form and view, so the evaluated Date in all documents of the specified Form and retrieved under the specified view will be escalated the determined action will be triggered. For instance, all Due Date fields are evaluated by Escalation Settings and send reminder emails will be sent to assigned users about their assignments.

An Escalation Setting can be configured to:

1. Send a Notification Email.
2. Route documents to a specific phase.
3. The Route documents to a specific phase action is used to configure routing documents automatically based on a specific date, where the phase to which documents are routed must be defined in the phase at which documents are escalated.

Each Escalation Setting can perform its intended task on three levels: Level 1, Level 2, and Level 3.

Escalation Settings are triggered using one of the following ways:

1. When the default Escalation Task Profile, saved under the Administration Center, is run according to its set frequency.
2. When the Run Now action is clicked in an Escalation Setting.

The Escalation Task run start and end times are logged into a Reliance Log Dialog in addition to any errors that might occur during the Run Process. 

All scripting fields are of script editor type. They support the code intelligence autocomplete. They format your script in standard syntax as you type.

At any time,  you can validate your code against the supported ETQScript and Pythonscript syntax to avoid formulas runtime errors by clicking Validate on your script field editor.

How Escalations Work?

If the Escalation Setting is enabled, the system checks the enabled escalation levels backward, i.e., starts with level 3, then level 2, and ends with level 1.

The Escalation Formula checked: (Date field’s value + days specified in the Start field within the escalation level) <= the Current Date).

For each of the evaluated documents:

# Start with level 3:

If level 3 is enabled and the Escalation Formula is true, apply the escalation action and check the next document. Otherwise: Move to level 2.

# Level 2:

If level 2 is enabled and the Escalation Formula is true, apply the escalation action and check the next document. Otherwise: Move to level 1.

# Level 1:

If level 1 is enabled and the Escalation Formula is true, apply the escalation action and check the next document. Otherwise: Move to next document.

Remember! Escalation Levels run based on the Time Zone that is specified in System Preferences > Regional Preferences > System Time Zone field.

Editing an Escalation Setting

Clicking an existing Escalation Setting in the Application Builder opens the related Escalation Setting at the bottom of the Application Builder page and allows you to customize the Escalation Setting according to your needs.

Creating an Escalation Setting

1. Open the intended Application Builder, click on the New Component menu, and select Escalation Setting. A dialog pops up.
2. Within the displayed dialog:

Type a New Escalation Display Name.

Select the Parent Application.

Select the form that contains the evaluated field from the Form field, this lists all the forms that exist in this application.

If the evaluated field exists in a subform, then select the subform from the Subform field, this lists all the subforms available on the selected form.

Select the evaluated field from the Field Evaluated field. This lists all date fields that are available in the selected form/subform.

In the Evaluation Formula field, set an extra constraint using EtQScript formula; the formula can include any field (regardless of its type) within the form.

In the Active Tab field, select the tab that you want to bring into focus when the user opens the escalated document using the attached link within the escalation email, all tabs in the related Form are listed.

 Typically, this is set to the tab that contains the field selected in Field Evaluated.

Select the source of the escalated document.

Data Source: If Data Source is selected, then select the intended data source from the displayed Data Source field.

SQL: If the SQL option is selected, then fill in the displayed Selection SQL (SQL) field specify the escalation SQL Query.

To prevent harmful queries, the system will prompt you with an error message upon applying a setting with a SQL statement that queries a restricted database table or includes one of the following reserved words: Update, Delete, Insert, Drop, and With.

View: If the View option is selected, then select the View that lists the documents to be escalated from the View field, this lists the views that show the selected Form.

Click OK. An Escalation Setting is created with all the specified information filled in the Basic tab.

1. Select the Enable option.
2. Save and close the Escalation Setting. The Escalation Settings that are created from within a specific Application Builder are shown within the Escalation section.

Configure Level 1, Level 2, or Level 3 of the Escalation Setting

The Level 1, Level 2, and Level 3 tabs are used to configure the options that control how the escalation is performed on the escalated documents.

To set an escalation Level.

1. Open the intended Application Builder and move to the Escalations section at the bottom, then click on the intended Escalation icon. The related Escalation Setting opens.
2. Open the tab of the intended level. For instance, open Level 1 tab.
3. Select the Enable Level checkbox to enable this level when the escalation is run.
4. In the Start field, enter the number of days before the document is escalated using this level. The entered number is added to the current date and compared with the evaluated field date to trigger the escalation action, where:
5. To trigger the escalation action before the date of the evaluated field is reached, specify a negative value in the Start field.

Example: If the Start field contains -3 and the evaluated field’s value is 9 Oct, then the escalation action will be triggered at 6 Oct (i.e., 9 + (-3) = 6 Oct).

To trigger the escalation action when the date of the evaluated field is reached, specify 0 in the Start field.

Example: If the Start field contains 0 and the evaluated field’s value is 9 Oct, then the escalation action will be triggered at 9 Oct (i.e., 9 +0 = 9 Oct).

To trigger the escalation action after the date of the evaluated field is reached, specify a positive value in the Start field.

Example: If the Start field contains 3 and the evaluated field’s value is 9 Oct, then the escalation action will be triggered at 12 Oct (i.e., 9 +3 = 12 Oct).

The number of days entered in the Delay field is always based on Calendar Days, not Business Days. With it being based on Calendar days, you could potentially miss some notifications if the Escalation Task is not running on weekends and notification frequency is anything other than every day. Intervals of the three levels must be meaningful, getting closer to the due date as escalation moves from the third level to the first level. For example, use the value –7 for level 1, -4 for level 2 and –1 for level 3 to notify 7 days, 4 days and one day before the due date, respectively. If you enter these levels in reverse order, a notification will be sent to notify seven days before the due date, the other two levels will be ignored because they indicate past dates.

From the Action field, select one of the following actions then configure it to be triggered when the Escalation is run:

Send to Phase: If you choose to have the document automatically routed to another phase, then the Phase Settings document that represents the Current phase of the document must have an Escalation Phase selected (see Phase Setting).

Since a user must be assigned to the document to move it to another phase, a system user who has the privileges to route documents must perform this action. A System User is defined. The ID of this user cannot be used by a real user (only by the back end), to perform this action.

Notify: The default action for any new Escalation document is ‘Notify’, which sends a notification email to the assigned users.

The following options must be set with the Notify action:

Notification Frequency: The Frequency options are shown to set how frequent the notification emails will be sent and for how long.

Select the Every Day option if you want the notification emails to be sent daily. If you want the notification emails to be sent every number of days for a specific period then deselect the Every Day option; accordingly, more fields are shown. Specify the number of days in Every field and specify For how long you wish the system to keep sending notifications. However, when the document is moved from the specified view, the system stops sending the notifications as the document is no longer contained in the view related to this Escalation Setting.

Example:

For example, enter 3 to send every 3 days, and 30 for the period within which notifications will be sent (for any level). Notifications will be sent every 3 days within the month (i.e., 10 notifications), or until the assignment exits the specified view.

You must enter valid values in the frequency fields, negative and decimal numbers are not allowed. In addition, Every value should be less than or equal the value in the 'for' fields. If these conditions are not considered, the system will display an error message when the document is saved. If you enter 0 or 1 in both X/Y fields. This means that Escalation will run once.

To Email Receivers: You have two options to specify the users that receive a direct notification email (assigned users for instance). Selecting a names field(s) from the To (Field Name) field and selecting users/groups directly from the To (Users/Groups) field.

To email Subject and Body: Use the Subject and Body field that are displayed underneath the To field to set the Subject and Body of the notification email that will be sent to the users set in the To fields.

There are two methods to set the Subject and Body contents: EtQScript or Expression Builder. See To Subject and To Body.        

CC Email Receivers: You have two options to specify the users that will be notified indirectly (Assigned users’ managers or leaders). Selecting a names field(s) from the CC (Field Name) field and selecting users/groups directly from the CC (Users/Groups) field.

CC email Subject and Body: Use the Subject and Body field that are displayed underneath the CC fields to set the Subject and Body of the notification email that will be send to the users set in the CC fields. You can use either the EtQScript or Expression Builder method. See CC Body and CC Subject.

Notify Reports To: This option is used to notify the Reports to Manager of the assigned individual for the escalation level being set up. Inactive user(s) selected in the 'Reports to' field of a document will not be notified.

There might be a need to notify the manager or the supervisor of the ‘Assigned to’. In large organizations, there is a possibility to expand notifying other levels of managers.

Number of Levels: This field is displayed when the "Notify Reports To" checkbox is checked. You are required to specify the number of levels in the Management Chain above the Notified person who will receive an Escalation message. The default value of this field is 1. You can enter any integer number between 1 and 10. A validation message is displayed.

The system checks the User Profile (within the Administration Center) of the ‘Assigned’ individuals to find their ‘Reports to’. It uses the same method to find the ‘Reports To’ for notifying the different levels of supervisors.

1. Save and close the Escalation Setting.

Escalation Setting Properties

The Properties tab of the Escalation Setting contains the following properties:

1. Setting ID: This is a computed value reserved for the ID of the Escalation setting. It is assigned after saving the Escalation Setting.
2. Design Name: The Design Name is set automatically based on the Display Name when the document is saved or refreshed.