Notifications and alerts

PoultryDesk can tell you when something needs your attention - a mortality spike, an overdue invoice, or a missing daily entry - on the channel you prefer, at a volume you can live with. The goal is to be useful, not noisy.

Everything lives under Settings then Notifications, which is split into six tabs: Overview, Alert rules, Recipient groups, Templates, Channels, and Activity.

Alert rules

An alert rule decides what you get told about. A manager or owner sets rules under Settings then Notifications then Alert rules. Each source event, such as a mortality spike or a missing daily record, appears once in the list with all its configured channels.

Select the rule name or View details to open its Channel settings. Open a channel to review or change:

• Channel and template - where the alert arrives and what the message says.
• Recipient group - who is told through that channel.
• Severity - how urgent that delivery is.
• Cooldown (minutes) - the least time between repeats.
• Enabled - whether that delivery is on or paused.

Rule links use UUIDs rather than descriptive internal identifiers. Existing bookmarks still open the same alert and redirect to its current URL; channel settings and notification history are unchanged.

Select Save channel to save that channel's settings. Other channels keep their own settings. If two deliveries use the same channel with different recipients or templates, both remain available. The list shows mixed severities, partial enablement, and Varies by channel when cooldowns differ.

To correct what triggers a delivery, expand Alert trigger and enter its exact source identifier. Changing it moves only that delivery to the matching alert; it does not change the other channels.

Use + Add channel on the details page to add a delivery to the same alert. Use Remove channel to open its confirmation page; removing the last channel removes the alert from the list. Organization channels opens the workspace-wide delivery controls.

Use + Add rule in the list toolbar to open the creation page. Enter the Alert trigger source identifier, choose a channel, template, recipients, severity, cooldown and enabled state, then select Create rule. A new entry with an existing source identifier joins that alert in the list.

The toolbar's Filter button selects alerts that use a channel and sorts them by rule name, channel or highest severity. Each matching alert still shows its other channels. Download CSV exports the individual delivery entries, including their separate settings, narrowed to the selected channel and sort.

Subscription and billing alerts (payment failed, trial ending, invoice overdue, plan-limit warnings, and the account lifecycle notices) are set up and maintained by PoultryDesk. They do not appear in your Alert rules or Recipient groups lists and cannot be changed, disabled, or deleted from your workspace, so these important account notices always reach the right people. You still receive them normally.

The seeded Missing daily record rule checks Feed against completed days in your Organization timezone. A Broiler or Layer Lot with no effective Feed decision can alert its recipients; an explicit Not fed decision suppresses that alert. Feed uses its own cooldown identity while the existing egg cooldown remains unchanged, so one missing kind does not hide the other.

Recipient groups

A recipient group is the "who" of a rule. Under Settings then Notifications then Recipient groups you can build two kinds of group:

• By role - everyone who holds a given role receives the alert, so the group stays correct as people join or leave.
• Selected members - a fixed list of named members.

Use Edit, or View when you have read-only access, to open a group's settings. Groups stay separate even when they use the same role. The Label and Kind fields share a row on larger screens; help is available beside the labels. Group settings use UUID links, and existing bookmarks redirect automatically.

Groups you no longer need can be archived with Archive and Confirm archive, then restored from Archived. The groups that PoultryDesk uses to deliver subscription and billing notices are managed centrally and are not shown here.

Templates

The message a rule sends comes from a template. Under Settings then Notifications then Templates, each built-in alert appears once with its available channels. Custom templates that do not belong to a built-in family stay separate, even when their wording matches.

Select the template name or View details to open its Channel templates page. Expand a channel to review its channel, subject and body. Preview shows the message with sample values. Save updates only that template; other channel settings and unsaved drafts stay in place. Cancel discards that channel's draft.

Use Reset to default where it is available to restore that channel's original settings. Default in the list identifies a built-in template family, not a guarantee that its wording is unchanged. Existing SMS messages remain editable; the channel picker does not offer unsupported conversions to SMS.

The toolbar searches saved subjects and message bodies, filters by channel, and changes the sort order. A match keeps the entire template family visible, including its other channels. Download CSV still exports individual template records using the selected filters. Template details use UUID links; older edit bookmarks redirect to the same family's settings.

Subscription and billing messages (payment failed, trial ending, invoice overdue, plan-limit warnings, and the account lifecycle notices) are written and maintained by PoultryDesk, so they do not appear in your Templates list and cannot be edited from your workspace. You still receive them; only the wording is managed centrally so it stays consistent and compliant across every account.

Where notifications arrive

A notification can reach you on more than one channel:

• In-app - the bell in the header shows a dot when you have unread notifications and updates on its own as new alerts arrive or as you clear them; open it to see recent notifications, and tap one to jump to what it is about. In-app alerts always arrive immediately, even during quiet hours.
• Email - the rendered message to your inbox.
• SMS - a short version to your phone.
• Web push - a pop-up from the installed app that opens the relevant screen when tapped.

Your personal preferences

The Overview tab is where each person tunes their own experience for this organization:

• Personal delivery - use each channel's delivery picker to choose On, Muted, or Daily digest. Changes save when selected. The digest choice shows its scheduled time.
• Quiet hours - enter Start (HH:mm) and End (HH:mm), then Save. Times use the displayed organization timezone. Set both times or clear both; Cancel restores the saved values. Email, SMS and push are held back during the window, while in-app alerts still arrive. If the timezone cannot be loaded, quiet-hour editing is paused rather than using an assumed timezone.
• Rule overrides - choose an Alert rule, Channel, Delivery, and a Digest time when needed, then Save override. Turn on changes an existing override to On; it does not remove the override or restore the global preference.
• Web push devices - register the current device so push notifications can reach it, and send a test to confirm it works.

Preferences are per person and per organization, so the same rule can reach different people in different ways.

Channels for the whole organization

Some channels are turned on or off for the entire organization, not per person. Under Settings then Notifications then Channels an owner or manager can:

• Enable SMS - SMS is off by default and metered. The tab shows how much of your SMS budget is used, so you can decide whether to keep it on. Change the switch and select Save; Save is disabled until the value changes.
• Blocked SMS members - choose a named Member, optionally select + Add reason, then Block SMS. Use Allow SMS to remove a block. Email and in-app notifications are not affected. Older entries and Back to latest navigate a long list, and Download CSV exports it.
• Enable email - email is on by default. Change its switch and select Save independently of SMS.

If PoultryDesk turns a channel off platform-wide, that channel's settings are hidden and replaced with a short note that the channel is not available. No SMS or email is sent on a channel that is off at the platform level, regardless of your organization setting.

If channel availability, usage or member names cannot be loaded, the page explains what is unavailable instead of presenting guessed settings. Supplemental explanations are behind the information buttons beside section headings.

Activity

The Activity tab shows each notification activity separately, with readable alert names, severity, channel and recipient. Times are shown in UTC. Open Filter to choose a delivery channel or alert; the button shows the active filter count. Changing a filter returns to the latest matching entries. Older notifications keeps the current filters while moving through history.

Download CSV exports up to 10,000 matching records using those filters, not just the current page. The CSV retains its original identifiers and event codes for record keeping.

Connecting another system with webhooks

Notifications can also be delivered to another system through a webhook, so your own software can react to an alert. Webhook endpoints are technical infrastructure - HTTPS addresses and signing secrets - so PoultryDesk support provisions and manages them for your organization on request rather than exposing endpoint setup in the app. Contact support if you want a rule to notify an external system.

Keeping your notifications tidy

The Notifications page (the bell in the header) is your full list of in-app notifications. It works like an inbox:

• Filter by status - by default the page shows your Unread notifications (archived ones are hidden), so you land on what still needs attention. The pills at the top switch to Read, Snoozed, or Archived, and All lists every notification including archived.
• Select what you want to act on - tick one notification, several, or use the checkbox in the header to select every notification on the page.
• Mark read - clears the selected notifications from your unread count while keeping them in the list.
• Mark unread - returns the selected notifications to your unread inbox. This also restores an archived notification back to the inbox.
• Archive - moves the selected notifications out of your active view. Nothing is deleted: archived notifications stay under the Archived filter for your records.

Because these actions save on your device first, you can tidy your notifications even with no signal, and the changes sync as soon as you are back online.

See also

• Health and withdrawals
• Invoices and payments
• Members and roles