Email Settings

Benefits

Emails notifying users of compliance assignments or questionnaire responses can be easily customized. Color schemes, logos, and text can be branded and personalized to support each organization according to its business needs. This gives recipients confidence that the email is coming from a familiar company and is not spam or a phishing attempt. In addition, a preview mode allows you to view the email customization as recipients would see it in their inbox.

Overview

Information that can be altered includes the following:

• Logos.
• Sender's name.
• Reply-To email.
• Header and footer information.
• Email content.
• Text and background color.
• Days of the week to be sent.
• Instant notifications to users next in line to take action on assignable items.
  
  

Accessing Email Settings

To access the email notification settings, complete the following:

1. Click Settings | Email Settings in the left-hand navigation.
   
   

Adding Sender Details

The contact information displaying in the user's email inbox can be modified to reflect your organization's information.

To modify the main display name, complete the following:

1. Enter the information in the Sender's Name text box.
   
   
   
   
2. The name displays in bold within the user's inbox as shown in the following email example.
   
   
   
   

3. Enter the email in the Reply-To email* text box.
   
   

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   Make certain the email added here is an address that is monitored. You may want to set up a separate account that can be checked by your ZenGRC administrators.

4. The email added to the Reply-To email displays next to the sender's name within the user's inbox as shown in the following email example.
   
   

Creating the Header and Footer

The header and footer allows for customization of text and background color and provides the option to display a logo. The color selector works the same for all color options.

To alter the color of text, headers, and footers, complete the following steps:

1. Click the color circle displaying beside the text box.
   
   
   
   
2. To select a shade in the same hue, click the selector within the gradient and move it to the desired shade.
   
   
   
   
3. To select a different color, click within the vertical color band and move up or down to the desired hue.
   
   
   
   
4. If the original color was white, or if the selector isn't displaying in the gradient, click in the upper, left corner (this is the default placement of the selector) and drag the selector to the desired color.
   
   
   
   
5. Alternately, enter the color's hexadecimal value preceded by the hashtag. If the code is incorrect or if the hashtag is missing, the color circle displays with a red x.
   
   

Displaying a Logo

Add your organization's logo by either uploading an image or adding a link to where it exists on another server.

To upload a logo, complete the following steps:

1. Click click to browse.
   
   
   
   
2. Select the file from your computer and click Open.
3. Alternatively, drag and drop a file from the desktop to within the dotted box.

4. The graphic displays under Logo preview.
   
   
   
   

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   If the logo is white on a transparent background, it will not display in the preview.

5. To add a link to an image without uploading the image itself, click Enter URL manually.
   
   
   
   

6. In the Logo URL* text box, add the link. Make certain it's an absolute link, which means it starts with https://. If that information is missing, the application places a red line around the box to show it's incorrect.

Removing a Logo

There is no delete button to remove a logo. However, there is a workaround.

To remove an uploaded image, complete the following steps:

1. Click Enter URL manually.
   
   
   
   
2. Enter a link and click Save.
3. Remove the link you just added and click Save again.

Enabling the Footer or Header

There are a couple of conditions to be aware of when displaying text or a logo in the header or footer.

The section under Logo position determines where the logo displays.

• If Footer is selected to show the logo, also ensure the Enable Footer check box is selected or else the footer section won't display.
  
  
  
  

• If Header is selected to show the logo, please note that the text in the Header title will not display.
  
  

Scheduling Notifications

Notifications about compliance action items can be easily enabled or disabled. However, this selection does not impact emails sent for responses to questionnaires. Even if the Summary email notifications enabled check box is deselected, questionnaire requests for information can still be sent.

Turning On and Off Notifications

To enable email notifications, complete the following steps:

1. Select the Summary email notifications enabled check box under Notifications.
   
   

   NOTE

   When the check box is selected, notifications are on. When the check box is deselected, notifications are off.

2. Click Save.

Determining Notification Days

To schedule email notifications for action items on specific days, complete the following steps:

1. Select the days to send notifications under Notifications.
   
   
   
   

   NOTE

   When the day is lined in blue, it is selected and email notifications will be sent that day.

2. Alternately, deselect days when notifications are not to be sent.
3. Click Save.

Changing the Assignment Types Sent

To include an assignment type in the notifications, complete the following steps:

1. Select or deselect the following assignments to be sent in the notification:
   1. Assessments
   2. Requests

   3. Tasks

   
   
   

   NOTE

   Selected items are included in the email notifications.

2. Click Save.

Instant Email Notifications

For many organizations, it's often imperative to send out immediate notifications for assignments due. Certain time-sensitive issues can not wait until the next day, especially for organizations that conduct business globally.

ZenGRC can instantly notify users when they need to take action on assignable items. When the instant notification toggle is on, emails are also sent when information is added to the Comments tab on assessments, requests and tasks.

This is separate from the daily emails that provide a summary of a user's assigned items.

How It Works

Assignable items in ZenGRC include requests, tasks and assessments. As these items progress through different statuses, the users next in line are immediately informed when action is required.

The following details the workflow for different use cases:

• If there are multiple users in the Assignee field (or in the Assessor field in assessments), only one person needs to complete the work to move the item to the next status. Other assignees are notified that the action is complete so they do not replicate the work.
• If there are reviewers, they are all notified that the item needs reviewing.
• Once all reviewers set the item status to Reviewed, the verifiers are notified.
• Reviewers and verfiers are not mandatory. If there are verifiers but no reviewers, the users in the Verifier field are notified when an assignee completes the work.
• When an additional reviewer is added to an item after other reviewers have approved it, the item's status is transitioned back to Submitted and the newly added reviewer is notified. Reviewers who have already approved the work are not notified.
• When a reviewer or verfier declines work submitted, the item transitions back to Open and all assignees are notified.
• If there are multiple users in the Verfier field, only one is needed to complete the item. When this occurs, the other verifiers are informed that no action is required. 

What Doesn't Trigger Instant Notifications?

• Any recurrence that generates items in an Open status.
• Any object created in an Open status during import.
• Assessment generation process does not trigger sending of instant notifications
• In case there are no reviewers or verifiers, no notification will be sent once the assignee/assessor submits the task.

Enabling Instant Notifications

To send instant emails to notify users when they have action to take and when notes are added to the Comments tab, complete the following:

1. Click Settings | Email Settings.
2. At the bottom of the page, make sure the check box next to Instant email notifications enabled is selected. 
   
   
   
   

3. Alternatively, deselect the check box to stop all instant notifications. This does not impact the daily digest.
   
   

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   Comment notifications are not emailed to the person adding the comment.

Setting Up Instant Notifications for a Newly Created Item

When creating assessments, complete the following:

1.  Select the box called Notify Assessor via email just below the Assessor field to send an instant notification when the item is created.
   
   
   
   
2. Alternatively, deselect it to wait for the user to be notified through daily notifications.

For requests and tasks, complete the following:

1.  Select the box called Notify Assignee via email just below the Assignee field to send an instant notification when the item is created.
   
   
   
   
2. Alternatively, deselect it to wait for the user to be notified through daily notifications.

Viewing an Example Email

To preview the email notification, complete the following steps:

1. Click Save.
2. Click Email preview.
   
   
   
   
3. The sample email displays.