The Inbox

The BambooHR inbox feature aids in task management by allowing users to review and approve tasks assigned to them or the company. It organizes tasks and displays their statuses. Users can access their inbox from the top right corner of the home screen, where notifications indicate pending approvals. The guide covers inbox navigation, including summaries of assigned tasks, completed tasks, and sent requests. Additionally, it outlines email notifications related to approvals and task comments. Admin users can view company-wide tasks and send reminders for incomplete requests. Overall, this resource is designed to enhance user proficiency in managing tasks within BambooHR.

May 20, 2026
Knowledge

Title

The Inbox

Article Text

Purpose: The inbox in BambooHR helps you review tasks that you need to approve and view all tasks assigned to employees. Your inbox keeps all tasks organized in which you can review and distinguish the status of any requests. This guide will help you become an expert at using the inbox in BambooHR.

Table of Contents

Inbox
Email Notifications

Inbox

From Home, your inbox will be in the top right corner. If you have items pending your approval, a number will appear. Click the inbox icon to see a breakdown of the type of tasks that need your attention. If you click Inbox, it will take you to your inbox to view all pending items.

An inbox summary - Assigned to Me

A summary in the inbox shows you any assigned requests for you to approve. From here, you can click on a request and do the following:

Review the request.
Approve or deny the request.
Add a comment.
Add a file attachment.

Onboarding and offboarding tasks include an option for an employee to upload a file. If you enable the upload option in Settings for onboarding and offboarding tasks, the employee will see the Attach Files button within a task. When an employee uploads a file to a task, it will automatically upload to the Employee Uploads folder on the employee's Documents tab. If the employee uploads a file to a task's comment section, it will automatically upload to the associated employee's Tasklist Attachments folder.

An inbox summary - Assigned to Company

The Account Owner and Full Admin user(s) can view any tasks assigned to anyone in the company. Click the down arrow next to Assigned to Me and select Assigned to Company to change the view. You will then see a list of outstanding tasks awaiting completion. When you click on a specific task, you can see who the task is assigned to, when it is due, and any additional details. Additionally, you can also review any completed company-assigned tasks.

Full Admins will also have access to the Benefits section of the inbox. Click here for more information about the benefits inbox notifications.

How can I send a reminder on incomplete tasks?

Many items that show in your inbox have associated email alerts or ways to send a reminder to those who have not completed a task.

Timesheets: An approver will receive a notification 24 hours before the due date. There are no additional alerts that you can create to remind a designated employee to approve a timesheet. However, the Account Owner and Full Admin user(s) can bypass a pending approval through the Payroll Hours report.
Time Off Requests: Set up a Pending Time Off Request email alert to remind an employee to log in to their account and approve or deny a time off request if no one reviewed it within any number of days of the request.
Information Updates or Custom Approvals: There is no alert that you can create to remind an employee to complete a task. However, the Account Owner and Full Admin User(s) can bypass a pending approval to approve or deny the request if necessary.
Signatures: From Reports, select Signed Documents. Upon hovering, you will see a bell icon. Clicking the bell icon will send a reminder to an employee to sign a document.
Benefits Eligibility: Set up a Benefits Eligibility email reminder that an individual's benefits eligibility will be changing.
Onboarding/Offboarding: Set up a Task Reminder email alert to remind an employee to complete a task within any number of days of the request.

Completed tasks

All users can view any tasks that they have completed. The Account Owner and Full Admin user(s) can also view any completed tasks assigned to themselves and anyone in the company. Click on a task to review its details. You can filter the view based on the following criteria:

Completed
Approved
Denied

Sent requests

View any submitted requests and the status of a request under Sent Requests. This view will allow you to filter the results based on the following criteria:

Approved
Completed
Denied
Pending
Canceled
Signed

Email Notifications

Approvals: Anytime an approver or requester makes a comment on an approval, an email notification will be sent to the opposite person.
Onboarding & Offboarding: Anytime an assigner or assignee makes a comment on a task, an email notification will be sent to the opposite person.
Benefits: Anytime a new benefits inbox notification is not completed by the end of the day, Full Admins will receive an email the following day, reminding them of the incomplete notification.

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The Inbox

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Inbox

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