Setting Up a Heads Up Rule

In this article:

• Creating a Heads Up Rule
• Checking, Editing, and Managing your Heads Up Rules
• Deleting a Heads Up Rule

You can schedule important information contained in a list view to be emailed to you by creating a Heads Up rule. Heads Up rules can alert users to items that need their attention, such as tasks due today, matters with due dates next month, or appointments for the coming month. Any important insight you gain from a filter applied to your list view can be turned into a heads up rule so that information is sent to you daily, weekly, or monthly. You can also choose what time of day you want the email to be sent. 

There are many places throughout Actionstep where you can view a list, but here are a few specific examples: 

• Matters > Matters List
• Contacts > Contacts List
• Accounting > Supplier Invoices > Payments
• Timesheet > Expenses List
• Tasks > My Tasks > High Priority
• Etc.

This is an example of a list view: 

Creating a Heads Up Rule

To create a heads up rule:

1. In Actionstep, view a list. For example, go to Matters > Matters List.
2. Use the options in the Filter drop-down list to show exactly the information you are most interested in regularly reviewing.
3. Click the More drop-down list and choose Heads Up. The Add Heads Up Rule window appears.
4. Enter a Heads-up Rule Name.
5. Toggle Enabled to on to allow the rule to be processed going forward. (If you want to pause emails for this list, you can toggle this option to off.)
6. In the Schedule section, choose the Schedule frequency you would like receive the emails: Monthly or Daily/Weekly. Then provide the specifics based on the fields that appear.
   TIP:  If you choose Monthly and you want to ensure the email is sent at the end of the month, choose 31 as the Day of month. If the month does not have 31 days, the email will be sent on the last day of the month instead.
7. Click the Send email between drop-down list and choose the time of day you want to send the email. (Use the Timezone drop-down list to designate which time zone should be used.)
8. In the Message Content section, choose from the following options:
   • List: Choose this option if you want the email notification to simply list the information within the List View. Then select the columns you want included in the email. 
   • Calculation: Choose this option to set a rule based on simple mathematical calculations. (See "Using the Calculation Option for Message Content" below for an explanation of the available options.) 
9. Optionally, if you are generating a List-based rule, expand the Advanced Options section and choose from the following: 
   1. Specify how many No. of rows to show in message body .
   2. Select Attach list results if you want to include whether to attach a spreadsheet containing all the list results.

      Note that options in this section are only available if you've selected List-style message content. 

10. Click Save to save your changes and enable the heads up rule.

Using the Calculation Option for Message Content

Choosing to use the Calculation option for your email message content allows you to create rules based on mathematical calculations. Which type of calculation you perform depends on the type of list you're viewing (e.g., Sum calculations work best with financial lists.)

The following describes how these different calculation options work:

• Sum adds the numbers or monetary amounts in the Calculation column you select. To organize the results based on other data in the list view, select your preferred option from the Group results by drop-down list.
  
  For example, to receive an email with the total WIP value at that time for each of your matter types, in the Calculation column, set a column that shows the WIP on each matter. Then set the Group results by to a column that shows the type of matter.
  
  
• Count counts how many matters are in the list view. You can set the Group results by option to have the count grouped by other options available in the list
  
  For example, to receive an email that tells you the total number of matters with time assigned to each of your users, set the Calculation column to show the matter's name. Then Group results by to who the matter is assigned to.
  
  
• Average calculates the average of any number or monetary column in your list view. You can set the Group results by option to break the average down into different values.
  
  For example, to receive an email that tells you the average number of days that matters of a certain type have been on each of the steps, set the Calculation column to a column that shows the day a matter has been on a step. Then set Group results by to a column that shows what step the matter is on.

Checking, Editing, and Managing your Heads Up Rules

Once you set up a heads up rule, you may occasionally need to review it and make updates to it. 

To do this: 

1. In Actionstep, view your profile by clicking the Profile link (your name) in the global navigation bar.
2. In the Heads up section, review the existing heads up rules you have created. The Title displayed shows the name you assigned to the rule when you created it, and Description lists what type of view the rule was created from and the columns included in it.
3. Make any of the following changes:
   • Click the title or description to make changes to the rule.
   • Click Manage heads-up rules to view a list of your rules with options for editing, filtering, or testing the rules. (If you're an admin user, you can also click User Heads Up Lists to view rules created by other users.)
   • Toggle Aggregate rules into one email to on to combine information from your rules into a single email. This means all rules that are run on the same day will be combined. Rules from a different day will be combined in a different email and sent on that specific day.
4. When you're finished making changes, click Save. 

Deleting a Heads Up Rule

If you no longer want to receive a list in an email, you can delete its associated heads up rule. 

To do this:

1. In Actionstep, view your profile by clicking the Profile link (your name) in the global navigation bar.
2. In the Heads up section, click Manage heads-up rules. The My Heads Up Rules page appears.
3. Select the checkboxes for the rule you want to delete and click Delete.
   
4. Confirm the removal. 

TIP:  If you want to temporarily pause a heads up alert, you can Disable it instead of delete it. 

Related Articles:

• About List Views in Actionstep
• Getting to Know the List View Feature
• Customizing the Appearance of Custom List Views (Admin)
• Creating a Custom Matter List View (Admin)
• Creating a Custom Time Entry List View (Admin)
• Creating a Custom Task List View (Admin)
• Creating a Custom Disbursement List View (Admin)
• Creating a Custom Contact List View (Admin)
• Creating a Custom Appointment List View (Admin)