4.7 Notifications

The notifications module is an optional functionality to the Share Control IFRS 16 add-in. It provides a way to be notified by email about upcoming options and other important dates regarding your leases. Share Control Notifications uses Power Automate to send notifications.

What is Power Automate?

Power Automate is a tool created by Microsoft to make it easy to automate tasks using flows. It is part of the Power Platform together with Power Apps and Power BI. Our notifications module uses Power Automate to read lease data from SharePoint and to send notifications based on this data.

4.7.1 Notification responsible

If you want to receive notifications as email for a lease, you have to select a primary responsible for this lease. If no primary is selected, no email notifications will be sent even if the notification dates are included. You can also select multiple primaries if you want to. If you do, then all the primaries will receive the notification, however, only one of them needs to stop the notification in order to stop it for everyone.

It’s also possible to select a secondary responsible who will receive the notification if the primary does not act on it, as well as the number of days until secondary is notified. If you do not set the days until secondary is notified, the default value of 14 days will be used. If the notification is not stopped within this number of days, a reminder will be sent to the secondary. Please note that a secondary cannot comment on or stop the notification.

4.7.2 Notification fields

Notifications for IFRS 16 leases use the same notification dates as the dashboard on the frontpage does. These are not located in the Power Automate Notifications section, instead they are located where they fit in as part of the lease registration view.

However, a primary responsible in the Power Automate Notifications section is still necessary if any notifications are to be sent.

In the Information about lease liability section, you can set the Option notification date. If set, an option notification will be sent to the primary responsible on this date.

In the Termination, purchase rights and guarantees section, you can set the Notification date for termination. If set, a termination notification will be sent to the primary responsible on this date.

In the Termination, purchase rights and guarantees section, you can set the Notification date for purchase option. If set, a purchase notification will be sent to the primary responsible on this date.

In the Subsequent measurement of lease liability section, you can set the Date of next lease adjustment. If set, an index regulation notification will be sent to the primary responsible on this date.

Expiry notifications work a bit differently from the other types. It is related to the Lease payments field in the Information about lease liability section. An expiry notification is sent 30 days before the end date of the latest used period. In the example below, the second period is the latest used period, and thus 31. Dec 2023 is the effective end date for this lease. Therefore, an expiry notification for this lease will be sent to the primary responsible on 01. Dec 2023.

It’s also possible to register notifications using the fields in the Power Automate Notifications section. At the bottom of this section, it’s possible to register up to three different notifications. How many are available can be configured in the settings.

If you select Yes to one of these questions, the fields for the notification date, description, and repetition will appear. The notification date is the exact date when the notification will be sent. Therefore, it’s a good idea to set it before the relevant deadline for what you want to be notified about. The description you write will be visible in the notification you receive. Describing the purpose of the notification is necessary for the receiver to know what they are supposed to do.

Finally, it’s possible to define how often the notification should repeat. This is most commonly used when you need to be notified each year for the renewal of an ongoing agreement. Bear in mind that this should not be used for reminders as this will send a brand new notification each time. If you want to be reminded, it’s possible to define how often in the settings.

When repetition is used, the date you set will be the first time a notification is sent. For example, for the notification shown below a notification will first be sent on September 1st, 2022 and then each year on the same date (September 1st, 2023, September 1st, 2024, etc.). Notifications are no longer sent if the lease expired over a year ago.

4.7.3 Notification email

Notifications are sent as emails and uses Power Automate Approvals. Approvals are interactive emails where you can give an answer within the email as if it was a website. An example of a notification is shown below.

The notification includes some key information such as the lease name, the library it is in, a description of the notification and a list of the primary responsibles. There is also a direct link to the lease in question.

At the bottom of the notification, there is a comments field and a Submit button. By clicking the submit button, you stop any further reminders to be sent to either the primary or secondary responsible. The comment you write will also be added to the notification log. It’s a good practice to stop the notification when you have done the task the notification instructs you of.

If a notification is not stopped, reminders will be sent as frequent as defined in the settings. A notification will automatically be stopped after 30 days.