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Three places to set up text your company shows or sends: Announcements and
Messages are tabs of Administration and Setup → Company Preferences (Messages is also under
Administration and Setup → OJ Setup → REPORTS → Messages & Documents), and automatic
emails and alerts are built in Administration and Setup → Notifications.

What, where, who, when, why

What Three text surfaces in one chapter: Announcements
(sign-in newsletters and order-time info/warning/error stops), Messages &
Documents
(the printed message blocks per document type), and the Notification
Manager
(automatic emails, popups and alerts fired by events).
Where Company Preferences → Announcements and
Messages tabs (Messages also under OJ Setup → REPORTS → Messages &
Documents); Administration and Setup → Notifications for the wizard.
Who Announcements need the create/edit-announcement right and are
usually owned by sales/production management (they can stop orders!); messages by whoever
owns the printed documents; notifications by an administrator.
When Announcements for time-boxed campaigns and policy stops
(untick Active when over); messages once per document layout; notifications when a
repeated manual email becomes a chore.
Why it matters An Error announcement is the only
configuration-driven hard stop on order placement — it enforces itself every time a
matching item is configured until its Due Date passes or Active is unticked. Messages and
notifications, by contrast, only say things; they never block.

Announcements tab

Creating or editing needs the user right to create/edit company announcements. Fields: Type
(required), Module, Series, Title (required), Scheduled On and Due Date
(both required; Due Date cannot be before Scheduled On), Active, a picture and the message text
(required).

Type Where it shows
Newsletter After you sign in, a Newsletter window lists every active newsletter whose
Due Date is today or later.
Information / Warning / Error Checked when an order is placed or confirmed. When your
company is set up as a supplier (manufacturer), for each configured item the active announcements of the Customer module for that item’s series (Due Date today
or later) are shown in the scheduling messages. Information and Warning are shown as messages; an
Error stops the order unless the user has the right to overrule announcement rules, in which case
it is shown as a warning. When your company is set up as a dealer, the supplier’s announcements
for the order are checked instead.
Scheduled On does not delayAn active announcement is shown
from the day it is saved until its Due Date; Scheduled On is stored but does not hold it back. Untick Active
to hide it.

Worked example — an Error announcement that stops orders on a discontinued glass

The supplier discontinues a Low-E glass on the first of next month. Production wants no
order to slip through with that glass after the cut-over — not a memo, a hard
stop:

Field Value Why
Type Error Information and Warning only message; Error
stops the order unless the user holds the overrule right (then it degrades to a
warning).
Module / Series Customer / the affected series Scopes the check
to configured items of that series at order placement or confirmation.
Title / message text “Low-E discontinued — use Low-E
Plus”
Tells the user exactly what to do instead of just saying
no.
Scheduled On / Due Date the 1st / end of the quarter Required
pair; Due Date gates visibility (today or later). Remember the quirk above: it shows
from the day it is saved, not from Scheduled On.
Active ticked now, unticked when the glass is swapped out of the
rules
Unticking Active is the off switch once every product rule has moved to
the replacement glass.

Messages (Messages & Documents)

One message set per document type. Fields: Type Document and Description (required),
Show Option, Show Glass, Show NFRC, five messages (Message Title 1–5, each
with a picture and formatted text; Message 1’s title and text are required) and Terms of Condition
(Term Condition Title, Term Condition Acceptance Title, text).

  • Quote, invoice and similar document layouts look up the set whose Type Document matches the document’s
    type and print its message titles and texts. Keep one set per document type.
  • Show NFRC is passed to the item sections of those layouts; Show Option, Show Glass and the Terms of
    Condition are stored but not printed by the standard layouts.

Notifications

The Notification Manager builds automatic messages. The left rail (Notifications) lists them
with a search box and filters (All, Email, GUI, Printable, Scheduled); New notification starts a five-step
wizard:

Step What you set
Purpose What fires it: a Task Type, a Communication type, an Action or
event
(module + module action), or a Condition (scheduled) with a threshold and a
Repeat guard (once per record, daily, weekly). Then a name and the use: Email, On-screen (GUI) or
Printable. A notification with no event “cannot be reached at runtime”.
Channels & recipients Email (To / CC / BCC from the record’s address fields, people, or a
fixed address), Popup (to signed-in users, optionally leaving an alert if they are not signed in) and
Alert (the bell inbox; expiry, link to the record, severity). At least one channel and one To
recipient are needed.
Message Subject and body with merge fields from the record, a live preview, and a company-logo
button.
Attachments A generated document (a report) or a fixed uploaded file.
Review & test All checks, a Send test to your own address, then Save &
activate
or Save as draft (drafts are not offered anywhere).
  • Events wired today include an order being confirmed by scheduling and a production batch being created,
    released, finalized or completed.
  • Scheduled conditions are checked every hour (at 7 minutes past) for every company database. A popup alone
    only reaches whoever is signed in, so the wizard asks you to add Alert.
  • Advanced search → Notification coverage lists each module action and whether a notification
    covers it.