What is in the Inbox, and which alerts do I get?

For the office

The Inbox is where the office sees what needs a look: alerts, messages from techs and a To do list. Open it from Inbox in the menu.

What shows up. Late stops and stops a tech couldn’t do. A customer who asks something or rates a visit. A new lead. A tech running low. Bait station activity. Bonds and licenses ending. A visit a tech started on a day far from the day it was booked (Check the day on a visit). A termite report late to the state, or due within a week (see below). A stop that started more than a quarter hour after its window ended (started late, with the minutes). A termite report marked filed with no state number yet. A tech who did a visit you had moved to someone else (started or finished a visit you had moved). The end-of-day summary. New today at the top is one line of buttons that group the new ones, urgent first: a button with one alert opens it, and one with several takes you to the first of them in the list. Read alerts move down to Seen. Once the office has replied in a conversation, the starting replies go away until the tech writes again.

What the buttons do. On a stop that couldn’t be done: Put it back on the route (it asks which tech and when, then says where it went, with Undo) or Move to tomorrow. On a late stop: Move to tomorrow or Open the board. On a started late alert: Open the late stops (Reports, Late stops, for that tech and the day the alert is about) or Open the board. A termite report alert has Open it, which goes to Records, Termite reports. New today also has a button for shifts nobody closed, “1 clock-out missing”, which opens Team, Hours. Other alerts have a button to the page that handles them, like Open Team, See the renewals or Open Leads. The x (Dismiss) moves an alert to Seen. Mark all read clears the count. The bell at the top shows the newest alerts, with Open the Inbox at the bottom.

Termite reports. One alert a week says how many reports are late to the state and how long the oldest has been (“3 termite reports are late to the state, the oldest 9 days”). It is red. Each report due within 7 days has its own alert. The line in New today says how many termite reports are late or due within a week. That is the late and due-soon rows on Today and the two counts at the top of Records, added together, not the number of alerts. A report marked filed with Filed, number to come leaves one alert, Termite report filed, number missing, until you add the number on its row; then it goes to Seen. When you mark a report filed, its alert goes to Seen, and the weekly one says how many are still late, or goes to Seen when none is. Marking one Not filed again brings nothing back until the next weekly alert. The alert says to mark it filed under Termite reports. The owner’s phone tells the owner too, and opens the same page on the website. See termite reports.

Check the day on a visit. When a tech’s phone starts a visit and says a day that is more than 2 weeks away from both today and the booked day, the visit stays on the booked day and you get this alert. The time the phone gave is saved on the visit’s record. A started visit’s day can’t be changed, so if the booked day is wrong, add a new visit for the right day.

A visit you moved that someone else did. A tech’s phone with no signal can start or finish a visit before it hears you moved it to another tech. The work is kept, and the visit now shows the tech who did it, so the first-10-records alert, the Team page and the route name the right person. The alert says who did it and who you had moved it to. If the visit should show someone else, wait until it is finished, then correct the record on its page and say why.

Messages. New message lets you pick a tech and write to them. Message all techs sends one note with Send to everyone. A message reaches the phone when it has signal.

To do. Open the To do tab at the top of the Inbox, then New to-do. Say what needs doing, who does it (Me, another office login, a tech, or The office (anyone)), the due day (Today, Tomorrow, Next week or a date) and a note, then tap Add the to-do. A tech’s to-do goes to their phone. On any alert, the checklist button (Add to to-do) turns it into one. Under a tech’s message, Make it a to-do does the same. The line’s menu has Change it, Add to my calendar (a calendar file, once it has a due day) and Delete.

Choosing your alerts. Go to Settings, then Alerts. For each kind pick Alert, Inbox only or Off.

Alert puts it in your Inbox and pings you.
Inbox only puts it in your Inbox and stays quiet.
Off means that alert is never made for you, from then on. It is not in your Inbox either.

Under Quiet hours, set Quiet from and Until. In those hours only urgent alerts ping you. The rest wait in the Inbox. The phone app uses the same choices. On the phone, Alert also sets the phone’s own reminders: stops still open at the end of the day, tomorrow’s route, and work that hasn’t gone up. Those show even with the app closed. A banner when the office changes a tech’s route or writes to them needs a setup that isn’t on yet, so the phone’s Alerts page promises it only for a phone that has it (none yet).

Good to know

While the office website is open, a new alert set to Alert shows as a small note on the page, with an Open button. The page looks for new ones about every 30 seconds. Alerts that were already there when you opened the page don’t pop up.
In Settings, Alerts, the button Show notifications on this computer asks your browser to allow them. Once it does, an alert also shows as a notification when the tab is in the background. The website still has to be open in a tab.
A banner for a route change or a message on a phone whose app is closed is not switched on yet. Don’t count on one. The phone’s own end-of-day, tomorrow and work-not-sent reminders do show with the app closed. Everything is in the Inbox either way.

Alerts that follow the problem. A tech who starts several stops late in a day gets one alert for the day, not one for each stop. The first says which customer and how many minutes (“Marcus started Turner’s Grill 61 minutes late”); a second or later one the same day makes it “Marcus started 3 stops late today”. Its title and its first button, Open the late stops, open the late stops for that tech and that day, with the rule printed above them. The chip at the top counts the stops, not the alert.

An alert about a problem says so when the problem is fixed. After you put a stop that couldn’t be done back on the route, its alert reads “Ruben Kelly is back on Priya’s route” with the day and the window, and moves to Seen; its chip goes. After a termite report is filed, its alert reads “Filed Oct 15”, and when the last late one is filed the weekly line reads “Late termite reports are filed”. If you press Undo on a put-back, the alert says the stop couldn’t be done again (it stays in Seen; nobody is asked twice).

What is in the Inbox, and which alerts do I get?

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