Using Office Alerts and Issues
Tiers: All
Office Alerts is a real-time notification system built into Skimmer. It lets pros know when something important happens without digging through email or running reports.
Alerts appear in two places:
- Office alert panel, a drawer that opens from the bell icon in the top-right corner of Skimmer.
- Email to whichever staff members the company chooses.
Issues is a related feature that lets a tech in the field flag a specific problem (low water, system down, bad weather, no power, repair needed) or anything custom the company sets up. When a tech reports an issue, it can trigger an office alert so the office hears about it immediately.
Why this feature exists
Pool service businesses need real-time visibility into field activity (out-of-range readings, skipped stops, late techs, failed payments) without running reports.
Permissions
Two Settings (Desktop) permissions control access to office alerts:
- Can view Office Alerts panel — lets you see the bell icon and open the alerts drawer.
- Can view Office Alerts settings page — lets you configure which alerts fire and how.
A company can grant one without the other. For example, a billing manager might be allowed to see the panel but not change alert settings.
Three Service Notes & Issues (Desktop) permissions control access to issues:
- Can view issues
- Can edit issue
- Can delete issue
Default access by role
| Role | Sees the bell (panel) | Configure settings | View issue | Edit issue | Delete issue |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Owner | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Admin | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Route manager | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Executive | Yes | No | Yes | No | No |
| Tech | No | No | No | No | No |
| Customer Service | No | No | No | No | No |
| Billing Specialist | No | No | Yes | No | No |
| Custom role | No | No | No | No | No |
You can edit custom roles to add Office Alerts and Issue permissions.
The bell icon and alerts panel
The bell icon
The bell is located in the top-right corner of Skimmer, next to the user menu. When no urgent alerts are active, it shows as a plain bell. When an Urgent alert fires, an orange dot appears so the team knows to check in. Non-urgent alerts still show up in the panel; they just don't trigger the dot.
The company decides per alert type whether it's Urgent. A payment failure might be Urgent for one company and informational for another.
The alerts panel
Clicking the bell opens a drawer on the right side of the screen. The drawer has two tabs:
- Open — Lists alerts that haven't been handled yet.
- Resolved — Lists alerts the team has already taken care of.
From the panel, you can:
- Filter the list to view urgent alerts only
- Search for an alert by keyword
- Select multiple alerts to resolve or reopen
- Click an alert to view it in the customer's service history
The panel can stay open in the corner while you work elsewhere. New alerts appear as they happen, so someone in the office can keep an eye on it throughout the day.
Each alert shows a short message that specifies what happened, who it relates to (customer name, address), and a timestamp. Many alerts include a direct link to the relevant screen (the service stop, work order, or customer profile) so the team can act without searching.
How long alerts remain in the panel
| Alert status | How long it stays in the panel |
|---|---|
| Open | Up to 14 days |
| Resolved | Up to 7 days |
After those windows, alerts clear from the active view automatically. The records are retained in history.
Resolving alerts
Clicking the checkmark on an alert marks it as Resolved and moves it to the Resolved tab. The team can also select multiple alerts and resolve them in bulk.
If someone resolves an alert by accident, they can flip it back to Open from the Resolved tab.
How alerts are ordered
Alerts are sorted newest on top, oldest on the bottom. Urgent alerts don't jump to the top; they're flagged with the orange bell dot instead, so the team knows to look.
Setting up alerts
From the Settings section of the left navigation, select the Office Alerts option. The Office Alert Settings page displays each alert category as its own card: Readings & Dosages, Service, Issues, Quotes & Jobs, Payments & Invoices, and Customers.
Choosing how each alert arrives
Every alert has three settings:
- Panel — does this alert show up in the bell drawer?
- Email — does this alert send an email to the team?
- Urgent — should this alert trigger the orange dot on the bell?
Defaults at launch
| Setting | Default |
|---|---|
| Panel | On for most alerts |
| Off for brand-new alerts at launch | |
| Urgency | On for most alerts |
For alerts that already emailed the customer before Office Alerts existed, Skimmer keeps the customer's previous email setting so nothing changes for them.
Alerts with email controlled elsewhere
- Work Order Added and Work Order Finished — These emails are controlled per Work Order Type (Settings > Work Order Types).
- Auto Invoicing Run — Skimmer always sends an email alert when auto invoicing runs.
Who gets the email
There are two places to add email recipients:
| Recipient setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| Email All Alerts To (top of Office Alerts page) | Anyone listed here receives every alert type that has Email turned on. This list is the same as Send Alerts To on the General Settings page. Changing one changes the other. |
| Additional Staff Emails for this alert (per alert) | Adds recipients on top of the global list, for that specific alert. Useful if you want to send Service Note alerts to the route manager, but not all the other alerts. |
Alert types
Readings & Dosages
Readings and Dosages alerts cover everything related to water chemistry. Since every company has different readings and thresholds, these alerts must be set up manually before they'll fire.
When you edit these alerts, the dropdown of readings and dosages comes from your company's Readings & Dosages page, not a generic list. If a reading is not in your catalog, you cannot add an alert for it.
| Alert | What triggers it |
|---|---|
| Reading was too high or too low | A tech records a reading or dosage outside the company's configured range. The company picks which reading or dosage, the condition (Higher Than / Lower Than), and the threshold. |
| Dosage was too high or too low | |
| Reading increased or decreased by too much | A reading or dosage changes by a chosen percentage compared to recent readings. Cadence is configurable: every reading or dosage recorded, or every X readings or dosages recorded. |
| Dosage increased or decreased by too much | |
| No readings entered by tech for routine stop | A tech finishes a stop without recording any readings or dosages. Configurable: every time, or only when it happens X times in a row. |
| No dosages entered by tech for routine stop |
Service
| Alert | What triggers it |
|---|---|
| Stop skipped | A tech skips a stop and syncs back to the office. |
| Stop unfinished | A tech finishes their day but leaves stops behind. |
| Route not completed by X time | A tech hasn't completed their entire route by a chosen time of day (default 6:00 pm). |
| No stops completed by X time | A tech hasn't completed any stops by a chosen time of day (default 10:00 am). |
| Not enough time at stop | A tech leaves a stop earlier than expected stop time minus a grace period (configurable, default 15 minutes). |
| Too much time at stop | A tech stays longer than expected plus the grace period. Useful for spotting equipment trouble or unusually long visits. |
| Service note marked as alert in mobile | A tech writes a service note and checks the alert the office checkbox. Urgency is controlled by the tech's switch on mobile, not by the settings toggle. |
| Work order added | A work order is added by a tech on mobile or by the office on the web. Email behavior is controlled at the work order type level. |
| Work order finished | A work order is completed. Email behavior is also at the work order type level. |
Quotes & Jobs
| Alert | What triggers it |
|---|---|
| Quote approved or rejected | A customer responds to a quote. |
| Job work complete | All work orders within a job are done. Useful for billing. Signals the job is ready to invoice. |
Payments & Invoices
| Alert | What triggers it |
|---|---|
| Payment failed | A payment doesn't go through. |
| AutoPay turned off | AutoPay is disabled on a payment method, either by the customer or automatically after a failed payment. |
| AutoPay turned on | AutoPay is enabled on a payment method. |
| Payment method added | A customer adds a new payment method. |
| Auto invoicing run occurred | Always emails (no toggle to turn off) because the company needs to know about every run. |
Customers
| Alert | What triggers it |
|---|---|
| Customer suspended or resumed | A customer's account is suspended (e.g., for non-payment) or resumed. |
| Customer status change | A customer's status changes. This covers any status transition (Active, Hold, Inactive, etc.). Broader than just suspend/resume. |
| Customer added | A new customer is created. Useful when multiple staff add customers and the office wants visibility into intake. |
| Incomplete call by AI Phone | AI phone receives a call from a number not associated with a customer and is not able to gather enough information to create a customer lead. |
| Activity added to customer | An activity log entry is added to a customer's profile. |
Issues
Issues allow techs to flag specific problems by selecting a predefined option structured around the issues a company actually cares about, rather than asking the tech to type a free-form note every time.
Default issue types
Skimmer includes five issue types by default:
- Water Level Low
- System Down
- No Power
- Bad Weather
- Repair Needed
For each issue type, all toggles (Panel, Email, Customer Email, Urgent) default to off. Your company decides which ones they care about. The pre-loaded types are just examples; you can rename them, delete them, or add new ones.
How techs report an issue (mobile)
Techs see a Notes & Issues card on every service stop. Tapping Add takes them to a screen with two sections:
- Enter a Note — allows you to enter a free-form service note and choose whether or not to alert the office about the note.
- Report an Issue — lists the issue types the company has set up. Tapping any of them opens a Report Issue screen for that type.
On the Report Issue screen, the tech can:
- Add a description (not visible to the customer).
- Add up to 5 photos of the problem.
If the company has marked a description or photo as required for that issue type, the screen shows a required indicator and won't let the tech save until the requirement is met.
When the tech saves and syncs, the issue is sent to the office and triggers the alerts the company has turned on for that issue type.
How the office views and manages issues
When an issue arrives, the office sees it in several places:
- The alerts panel (if enabled for the issue type). The panel entry links to the full issue.
- Email (if enabled for the issue type). The email includes the customer's contact details.
- The Service History view (web and mobile) — the issue appears alongside service notes for that pool or work order.
- The customer's Recent Activity feed — each time an issue is reported, opened, or resolved, a new row is added.
- The Issues tab under Service Notes/Issues on the web.
Adding new issue types
From the Issues card in the Office Alert Settings page, click the Add button to create a new issue type and configure its alert settings at the same time.
Working with issues on the Service Notes/Issues page
There's a dedicated Issues tab on the Service Notes/Issues page on the web, where the office can see every issue. From this tab you can:
- Filter by status, service type, tech, customer, and date
- Sort the list by issue, customer, service type, reported by, reported on, resolved by, and status
- Review, edit, and delete issues
- Mark an issue as Resolved or change from Resolved to Open
- Export and print the issues list
From the Issue window, you can:
- See what the tech wrote (tech notes) and what photos they took
- Add back-office notes (separate from the tech's notes)
- Mark an issue as Resolved or change from Resolved to Open
Resolving issues
When the office resolves an issue, the issue and the issue alert stay in sync:
- Resolving an issue automatically resolves the related panel alert.
- Resolving the panel alert automatically resolves the underlying issue.
An issue that still needs attention can be reopened at any time.
Customer email for issues
Each issue type has an additional toggle: Customer Email. When turned on, the customer — not just the office — gets an email letting them know the issue was reported.
The subject and body of the customer email are fully customizable per issue type. The default reads something like:
| Subject: Water Level Low
During your recent service visit, our technician reported Water Level Low at your property. We wanted to make sure you were aware. |
You can replace this with whatever wording fits your brand and customer relationship.
Customer email: additional details
- When is the email sent? Customer emails have a built-in 30-minute delay. They are not sent until 30 minutes after sync so that accidental issues can be deleted before the customer is notified.
- How many emails are sent? Customer emails are sent per service stop, not on every re-sync.
- Do customer emails include photos? No. The customer email is text-only. Photos stay internal.
- What happens the first time I turn on customer emails for an issue alert? A confirmation modal listing which issue types are about to start emailing customers displays and requires confirmation.