What are notifications?

A notification is Tideswell telling you that something needs you. Priya mentions you in a channel, a Portside Mills order runs late, a task of yours comes due. Each one reaches you as a row in Work › Inbox, a buzz on your phone or laptop, or both.

You decide what buzzes you, under User menu › Account settings. Nobody else can change it for you.

Why are there two places?

Because they do different jobs. Work › Inbox is the list you work through, with an unread dot on each row until you open it. See How to see what needs you.

A push notification is the buzz. It reaches you even when you are not looking at Tideswell, it is switched on per device, and tapping it opens the thing it is about.

Most things do both: a chat mention, a task assigned to you, a comment, a stock or order alert, a suggested change waiting for you. A few are a buzz that points at a page where the work already waits, covered below.

What can buzz you?

• Chat. Somebody mentions you with @, replies to you or pings the channel with @channel. In a channel you follow, every new message can buzz you too.
• Tasks. A task assigned to you, a comment on something you are part of, and task reminders as one of your tasks comes due and while it is overdue. Where the Agent checks in on late tasks, it asks about a task up to two weeks late in its Inbox or a Chat direct message instead of the hourly overdue buzz. See How to have the Agent check in on late tasks.
• Outreach assigned to you, headed Outreach: and the person's name. See How to log and work through outreach.
• Suggested changes. "A suggested change is waiting for you" when the Agent suggests something you can approve. See How to approve, refuse or undo a suggested change.
• Purchase order approvals. A request to the people who can approve, and the decision to the person who asked. See How to route a purchase order for approval.
• Stock count sign-offs. "A stock count needs your sign-off" to the people with Approve stock counts and post them to Shopify, then "Your stock count sign-off was approved" or "Your stock count sign-off was refused" to the person who asked. See How to count your stock.
• Automation alerts: Low stock, Big orders, Late purchase orders, Overdue supplier bills, Shipping backlog and Store data stopped updating. See How to set up the stock and order alerts.
• Register special orders, to the people who record special order payments. See How to turn a register sale into a special order.
• Workflow notifications, from a Notify someone step in a workflow. See How to notify someone from a workflow.
• Purchase order results. When an outcome you committed to on a purchase order is measured, you hear the verdict. See How to commit to an outcome and have it measured.

People who manage automations also hear when one keeps failing. The daily brief never buzzes: it arrives in your Inbox, and by email when the brief is set to send one. See How to read your updates and the daily brief.

Which buzzes point at a page instead of the Inbox?

A handful arrive as a push only, because the work already sits on its own page:

• Task reminders open the task, which also sits on Work › My tasks.
• Purchase order approval requests and decisions open Buying › Approvals.
• Stock count sign-off requests open Buying › Approvals, and a sign-off decision opens the count.
• Register special orders open the special order on Selling › Special orders.
• Purchase order results open the purchase order they are about.
• Workflow notifications open Brain › Workflows, and the failing-automation alert opens Brain › Automations.

When one of these lands in your quiet hours, it is not sent later, so check those pages in the morning. Task reminders and the failing-automation alert are the exception: they try again once quiet hours end.

What has to line up for a buzz?

Three layers, and all of them have to allow it.

1. The device. Notifications are switched on per browser and per device, so turning them on for your laptop does nothing for your phone. See How to turn on notifications.
2. What buzzes you, your personal settings: your time zone, quiet hours, a default for chat channels and four alert switches. See How to set quiet hours and your default chat level.
3. The level on one channel, for chat. It overrides your default. See How to mute or follow a channel.

For automation alerts there is one more step before any of these. The automation has to be on, and you have to be on its list. See How to choose who gets an alert and how often.

Which alerts have their own switch?

Four: Task reminders, Low-stock alerts, Notable order alerts and Suggestions. Each one turns that kind of buzz off on every device you use. How to control task, stock and order alerts covers what each switch includes.

Everything else follows your quiet hours. Chat also follows your channel levels.

How do you see what is waiting without a buzz?

Look at the browser tab. Tideswell puts your unread chat messages plus your unread Inbox rows in front of the page name, so "(12) Documents · Tideswell" means twelve things are waiting.

Above 99 it reads 99+, and the number goes away when nothing is unread. The Inbox row in the menu carries its own unread badge as well.

Are these settings personal?

Yes. They change what reaches you and nobody else, and an admin cannot set them for you. They belong to you in this workspace, so if you also work in another one, set them there as well.

To stop an alert for everyone, an admin turns off the automation or the module it belongs to. See How to turn an automation on, off, or run it now.

Where to go next

Start with How to turn on notifications, since nothing buzzes until a device is switched on. Then shape what reaches you with How to set quiet hours and your default chat level and How to set your time zone.

Quiet the busy channels with How to mute or follow a channel, and decide on the four alert switches with How to control task, stock and order alerts.

If something is on and still not arriving, Why you are not being notified walks through the checks in order.