Who is this article for?

Administrators configuring automated email reminders.

Administration permissions are required.

Ideagen Quality Management Core uses colour-coded indicators in the Inbox to help users prioritise workflow items:

• Green - Newly added
• Amber/Yellow - Approaching due date
• Red - Late

These indicators rely on email reminder settings and scheduled tasks. If 'approaching due date' never shows but reminder emails are sent, the issue is usually with the reminder offset values.

This article explains why this happens and how to configure reminders correctly.

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1. Indicator behaviour

Inbox logic compares two reminders:

• Late reminder - Establishes the due date baseline.
• Approaching due date reminder - Creates a warning window before the item becomes late.

If the Late reminder offset is smaller than or equal to the Approaching offset, the item will always qualify as Late first.

For example, if:

• Current date - 18 Nov
• Custom date field - 19 Nov
• Late reminder offset - 0 days → Due date = 19 Nov
• Approaching reminder offset - +5 days → Date = 24 Nov

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2. Changing behaviour

To ensure approaching due date appears before late, approaching offset must be smaller than late offset when evaluated against the same reference date.

2.1. Offset

To change the offset:

1. Go to Administration.
2. Select Email Reminders.
3. Edit the Late reminder.
4. Set offset to a larger value (e.g., +6 days).
5. Keep Late Determined By as Custom Date and select the same custom date field.
6. Edit the Approaching Due Date reminder.
7. Set offset to a smaller value (e.g., +5 days).
8. Use the same custom date field.
9. Save changes.

Example timeline (illustrative)

• Reference date = 19 Nov
• Approaching Due Date (+5 days) = 24 Nov → Amber
• Late (+6 days) = 25 Nov → Red

2.2. Scheduled tasks

To change scheduled tasks:

1. Ensure the expiration checker runs before the email reminder.
2. Ensure the email reminder runs daily.
3. Enure the workflow indexer runs daily to refresh inbox data.

After changes, either wait for the next scheduled run or manually trigger tasks if permitted.

3. Testing behaviour

Once you've made the changes, we recommend that you test the behaviour in a separate instance.

To test the behaviour:

The inbox colour logic depends on reminder offsets. If Late is set to 0 days and Approaching is +5 days, the item will skip Approaching and go straight to Late. Adjust offsets so Approaching occurs earlier than Late to display the correct status.

Further reading

• Understanding the status icon legend 
• Creating and managing email actions