Introduction & Overview

What is Approval Reminder Manager?

Approval Reminder Manager is a free, open-source Frappe app that adds one thing native Frappe Workflows, Notifications, and ToDo assignments lack on their own: a centralised, rule-driven reminder and escalation engine that spans every workflow and DocType in your system.

Without it, approvals stall silently. An approver misses a notification email, a purchase order sits pending for two weeks, and no one is alerted. This app solves that by automatically chasing pending documents, escalating to managers when thresholds are crossed, and tracking SLA compliance — all without modifying your source documents.

How it Works

A daily scheduled task scans every enabled Approval Reminder Rule. For each rule, it:

1. Finds documents of the target DocType that have been pending longer than the configured threshold
2. Resolves the current approvers from the document’s workflow transitions and assignments
3. Checks whether a reminder was already sent within the frequency window (de-duplication)
4. Checks the send window — skips if outside business hours, on a holiday, or on a weekend
5. Sends Email and/or System notifications to the resolved approvers
6. Logs the reminder to the Reminder Log
7. Evaluates escalation steps — if pending too long, notifies the escalation user or role
8. Updates the SLA record for the document

Key Principles

• Non-invasive — The app only reads your workflow and assignment state. It never modifies your source documents (Purchase Orders, Leave Applications, etc.).
• Schema-agnostic — Works with any DocType that has a Frappe Workflow attached. ERPNext is optional — the core works on any Frappe installation.
• Idempotent — Running the scheduler job twice in a day never double-sends. De-duplication is built in per rule and per frequency window.
• Safe approver resolution — If no valid approver can be found for a document, the engine logs and skips rather than emailing the wrong person.

Components at a Glance