Add Workiva notifications to Slack

You can bring Workiva notification content directly to your Slack workspace. Once enabled, you’ll start receiving notifications for items such as: directed comments, tasks, reminders, requests, and more.

Slack notifications can be enabled at the organization level through an Organization Admin, which enables notifications for all workspaces within that organization. Each user can choose to opt out of receiving Slack notifications in their Workiva User Profile.

Overview of Slack notifications

Before enabling Slack notifications, it's recommended that you review the installation requirements and feature expectations. 

Installation and configuration requirements

In order to participate in the beta program, manual installation and configuration is needed. The setup process will require: 

• A Slack Admin to create a Workiva bot in your Slack workspace.
• A bearer token to be generated and added to the Workiva Organization Admin page where it will be stored securely. If the token is changed, you will need to replace the token.

Feature expectations

Slack notifications for Workiva are currently a beta feature. The available functionality and feature expectations are listed below:

• All notifications are sent one-way, from Workiva to Slack.
• Users will need to log into Workiva to take action on any Workiva tasks; no action can be taken directly from Slack.
• Notifications will be similar to email notifications, but they will be delivered to the Slack workspace in addition to being delivered via email.
• Users can specify an alternate email if their Slack email is different from their work email.
• At this time, no configuration will be available in Workiva to disable emails in favor of Slack messages. If needed, the user can opt out of receiving Slack notifications by navigating to My Profile, selecting Preferences, and unchecking the box next to Enable Slack notifications.

Step 1: Install the Workiva bot

To begin the installation process, a Slack Admin will need to add the Workiva bot to your Slack workspace. 

To add the Workiva bot: 

1. Navigate to https://api.slack.com/.
2. Click on Your apps and select Manage your Apps.
   
3. Choose Create New App. You may see more than one workspace.
   
4. Click From an app manifest.
   
5. If you have more than one workspace, select the appropriate workspace and click Next.
   
6. Enter the JSON app manifest that the Workiva team has provided below.
   
7. Click Next. 
8. Review the information and click Create.
   
9. After this, you will be taken to the Basic Information page where you'll select Install to Workspace.
   
10. Approve this action by clicking Allow.
    

App manifest

Enter the app manifest into the JSON field in step 6 listed above. 

Step 2: Update Slack display information

To update the Slack display information for the Workiva app: 

1. On the Slack settings page, select the Basic Information section on the left-hand panel and scroll down to Display Information. 
2. Add the information and icon provided by Workiva to the fields. 
   

   Note: Most of the fields may already be populated based on the App Manifest that was previously entered. In this case, you will only need to add the icon.

   
   

   Field name	Information
   App name	Workiva
   Short description	Get your Workiva notifications in Slack!
   App icon & Preview	Right-click the image below, select Download/Save image, and choose “Add App Icon” to upload the image.
   Background color	#232323
   Long description	Workiva for Slack brings actionable content right to your Slack workspace. Here are the types of notifications you may receive: Requests  Reminders Tasks Comments

3. Once all fields are filled out, click Save Changes at the bottom of the page. If you only added the icon, your changes will save automatically. 
4. To ensure these updates are installed, navigate back to the Install your app section, expand it, and click Reinstall to Workspace. It will take you through the same authorization steps again.
   
5. Your Workiva bot should now be installed and available for users.

Step 3: Add token to Workiva

An Organization Admin can add the Bot User OAuth Token to Workiva. 

To add this token to a Workiva organization: 

1. On the Slack settings page, select the Install App section on the left-hand panel.
2. Locate the Bot User OAuth Token and click Copy.
   
3. In Workiva, navigate to the Org Admin page. 
4. In the Overview tab, select Configuration and choose Notifications.
5. Check the box to Enable slack notifications and paste the token in the text box.
   
6. Click Save changes. 
   

   Note: Slack notifications can also be enabled for specific workspaces in Workiva.

Manage notifications

If you receive a Slack notification from Workiva, the Workiva app will automatically be added to your apps list. Otherwise you can select Add apps under the Apps section in Slack, and choose Workiva to add to your list of installed apps.

To stop receiving notifications in Slack, navigate to your User Profile in Workiva, and uncheck Enable slack notifications within your Preferences.

What's next? 

• View organization activities