Notification Settings
Choose what Work Planner notifies you about, set quiet hours, and turn on notifications for your phone or browser.
Work Planner can tell you when something needs you, even when the app is closed. You choose what you are told about, and when, from the Notifications section on your Profile page.
What You Can Be Notified About
Each one can be switched off on its own. Everything except the daily summary and card payments that aren't approved also waits in the notifications bell in the app header until you deal with it.
- Customer replies: when a customer texts you back. The notification says who it's from, as your Record Labels setting names your customers, or their number if they aren't one.
- Messages that failed to send: when a text or email could not be delivered, for example because the number was wrong or you have run out of SMS credits.
- Automations needing approval: when an automation is waiting for you to approve it before it sends or charges.
- Texts to send from my device: when an automation has queued text messages for you to send from your own phone.
- My daily summary: what is on each morning, and how the day went each evening.
- Time off requests: when someone asks for time off, says they're off sick, or cancels their time off. Shown if your role can manage time off. Turning it off stops the notification, but requests still wait in the bell until someone answers them. See Time Off Requests.
- My time off and working days: when your time off is approved or declined, someone else books, changes or cancels it for you, or your working days are changed. Shown when your business has a team.
- Billing and automatic top-ups: when automatic credit top-ups stop, so you hear before your texts do, and when a Business Mobile Number is ready or couldn't be set up. Only reaches whoever the account is billed to. Turning this off also keeps the numbers out of the bell. See Automatic Credit Top-Ups.
- Customer payments, Direct Debits and quotes: when a customer pays you online, sets up a Direct Debit through a link you sent, saves a card through a set-up link, cancels their Direct Debit at their bank, disputes a card payment, or accepts or declines a quote through its link. Only reaches people who can see payments. Turning this off takes these out of the bell as well, as they are only there to keep you informed.
- Direct Debit sign-ups from your website: when someone sets up a Direct Debit through your GoCardless sign-up link and Work Planner links it to their customer, or adds them as a new customer, and when one needs you to choose who it's for. Shown where your business can collect Direct Debits, and only reaches people who can see payments. Turning this off takes these out of the bell as well. See Direct Debit Sign-ups From Your Website.
- Card payments that aren't approved: when a card payment you took on your phone isn't approved after you've left the app, for example because you closed Work Planner while a Stripe payment was being checked. About a minute after the card is declined you are told, for example, Jane Smith's card payment of £35.00 wasn't approved, so no money was taken. Open Work Planner to try again or send them a payment link. Tapping it opens the customer. Nothing is sent if the payment popup showed you the decline, or if another card then went through. Only reaches the person who took the payment. See Taking a Card Payment on Your Phone.
- Vehicles: when a vehicle's MOT, road tax, insurance, service or breakdown cover is due, a daily check finds a problem or says a van isn't safe to drive, or the DVLA or DVSA reports a change to its tax or MOT. The reminders for a date come at 8am, a month before, a week before, the day before, on the day, and once when it's gone by. Shown if your role can see vehicles, and whoever did a check isn't told about what they found. Turning this off takes these out of the bell as well. See Vehicle Reminders.
- Tax reminders: when a VAT return, Income Tax update or final declaration is coming up or overdue, and when your HMRC connection needs renewing or has stopped working. The reminders for a deadline come at 8am, a fortnight before it's due, three days before, and once if it's overdue, such as VAT return due in 3 days. They come by email as well. They stop while your Work Planner plan has run out, and start again once you choose a plan. Shown if your role can send your business's tax, with Submit under HMRC, which owners and admins have. Turning this off stops the emails too, and takes these out of the bell. See VAT Returns and Income Tax.
- Xero: when Xero stops accepting your connection, or keeps refusing records Work Planner sends it, such as Some records couldn’t be sent to Xero. They come by email as well. Shown if your role looks after Xero, with Xero under Integrations, which owners and admins have. Turning this off stops the emails too, and takes these out of the bell. See Xero Integration.
- Downloads for your accountant: when a download you asked for on For your accountant is ready, or couldn't be made. Shown if your role can export reports.
- Expenses added for you: when SMS credits you buy are added to your expenses, or, for a business that uses euros, when you need to add them yourself. Shown if your role can add expenses. See Expenses List.
These Settings Cover All Your Businesses
Notification settings belong to you rather than to one business, so they apply everywhere you work, whichever businesses you currently have selected.
That is why the count on your phone's app icon can be higher than the number in the notifications bell. The bell lists the businesses you have selected; the icon counts everything waiting for you. When the two differ, the bell tells you how many notifications are waiting in your other businesses, and opening a notification switches you to the right business automatically.
Choosing Which Businesses Notify You
If you work in more than one business, Businesses to notify me about lists them with a switch each. Every business notifies you until you say otherwise.
Turn a business off and it stops lighting the bell and your app icon, and stops sending you notifications on your phone and tax reminders by email. Nothing is hidden: switch to that business and its replies, failed messages and approvals are all still there, waiting. This is the setting to use when someone else looks after one of your businesses and you would rather not be told about it.
At least one business must stay switched on. If you want to stop notifications altogether, turn off the individual notification types above instead.
Quiet Hours
Turn on Quiet hours and pick a start and end time to stop notifications overnight. A window that ends earlier than it starts, such as 22:00 to 07:00, runs through the night.
Quiet hours stop the alert, not the message. Nothing is lost: the count still updates, and everything that arrived while you were undisturbed is waiting in the bell when you next open the app. They don't hold back emails, so a tax reminder's email still arrives.
Turning Notifications On For A Device
- On your phone: tap Enable under Notifications on this device and allow notifications when your phone asks. You only need to do this once per device.
- In your browser: click Enable under Notifications in this browser and allow notifications when the browser asks.
If you refuse the request, your phone or browser will not ask again. You can still allow it afterwards from your phone's app settings, or from the padlock icon in your browser's address bar.
The Count On Your App Icon
Your phone shows the number of notifications waiting on the Work Planner icon, and it clears as you deal with them. Some Android home screens show a small dot instead of a number, which is a choice made by the home screen rather than by Work Planner.
Related articles
- Profile: where these settings live, alongside your name and appearance settings.
- Unread Replies Badge: the notifications bell in the app header that these settings control.
- Communications: the full message history a notification links into.
- Daily Summary: what the morning and evening summaries contain, and when they arrive.
- VAT Returns: the VAT returns that tax reminders are about, and what each reminder says.
- Income Tax: the quarterly updates and final declarations that tax reminders are about.
- Accounts and Tax Settings: connecting HMRC again when the tax reminders say the connection needs renewing.