Notifications

What it's for

Notifications is where you decide what Thermal sends automatically to customers and technicians — appointment reminders, "on the way" texts, job assignments, and invoice emails. It depends on the channel being ready: text goes out only once your company has a verified sending number (set up at Settings → Integrations → Text messaging), and email depends on Thermal's own email setup, which Thermal runs for you.

Reach it from Settings → Documents and notices → Notifications in the sidebar, at /settings/notifications.

Tabs

This screen has no tabs. It's one section: a master switch, a quiet-hours switch, a reply-to mailbox, and a Notices table.

Panels and controls

Enable customer notifications

The master switch for automatic customer notices. When it's off, those notices do not go out, whatever the individual row switches say. Always editable, regardless of whether a channel is ready. Off until you turn it on.

Turning it on from this page is refused until Choose what your customers get has been accepted, if a customer email is ticked and the switch is still off. Saving then says: "Open Choose what your customers get from your Customer emails setup checklist before turning on customer emails." Turn on customer emails on that step turns this switch on. A company that already has the switch on, with a customer email ticked, can keep saving here.

Send and Send again still try to email an invoice when automatic customer notices are off. They honour customer stops, bounced addresses and provider suppression. See Send and collect an invoice.

Respect quiet hours for texts

Always editable, same as the master switch. On by default. A text that would land inside quiet hours waits until the window ends. The visit's branch quiet hours and timezone apply; a branch without its own uses the company's. Two kinds of text always go out immediately: "On the way" alerts and Arrival-time updates. Booking confirmations and appointment-change messages wait for the window to end unless the visit starts within 12 hours; they have no toggle on this page.

Reply-to mailbox

Customer emails go out under your company name, and replies land here. The box starts with the company email when the company record has one, and it is stored when you click Save notifications. It is required before any customer email can be turned on. A branch can set its own under Defaults on Settings → This company → Branches; leave that box blank to use this one.

If the box is empty and a customer email is on, saving is refused: "Set a reply-to mailbox before turning on customer emails, so replies reach your office." A value that is not an email address is refused: "Enter a valid reply-to email address."

Notices

Notices is a table. Columns are Event, Who receives it, Text, and Email. Each notice has its own switch per channel. A channel that is not connected shows "Connect Text messaging first." or "Connect Email & receipts first." and that column stays disabled. A dash means the notice is not sent on that channel. A link at the top of the page points to Integrations, where text messaging is set up at Text messaging.

Customer rows:

• Booking confirmations — confirm the visit when it is booked. Text and email. Choose each channel here; new-company defaults are below.
• Visit changed — sent when a booked visit moves to a new date or arrival window. Text and email. Choose each channel here; new-company defaults are below.
• Appointment reminder — sent the day before a scheduled visit. Text and email. Choose each channel here; new-company defaults are below.
• On the way — sent when the technician heads out. Text and email. Choose each channel here; new-company defaults are below.
• Arrival-time update — sent when the promised arrival time is set or changes. Text and email. Choose each channel here; new-company defaults are below.
• Survey request — asks the customer to rate the visit after the job is done. Text and email. Choose each channel here; new-company defaults are below.
• Invoice sent — sends a copy of the invoice when it goes out. Text and email. Choose each channel here; new-company defaults are below.
• Invoice reminder — reminds the customer about an invoice that still has a balance due. Text and email. Choose each channel here; new-company defaults are below.
• Statement sent — emails the customer their account statement when the office sends statements. Email only. On by default; see defaults below.
• Quote sent — sends the quote with a link to review it. Text and email. Choose each channel here; new-company defaults are below.
• Quote reminder — reminds the customer about a quote they have not decided on. Text and email. Choose each channel here; new-company defaults are below.
• Inspection results — sends the inspection results when it is completed. Text and email. Choose each channel here; new-company defaults are below.
• Change order sent — emails a change order to approve. Email only. Off until you turn it on.
• Agreement renewal reminder — reminds the customer when a service agreement is due for renewal. Text and email. Choose each channel here; new-company defaults are below.

Technician rows:

• Job assigned — tells a technician when a job is assigned to them. Text and email. Choose each channel here; new-company defaults are below.
• Job moved to another technician — tells a technician when one of their jobs is given to someone else. Text and email. Choose each channel here; new-company defaults are below.
• Route changed — tells a technician when their stops for the day are re-ordered. Text and email. The older default is email on and text off; new-company defaults are below. Email stays blocked until email is ready.
• Day-before schedule — texts each technician their schedule the evening before. Text only. New-company defaults are below. Each technician can also choose texts and emails under My notifications in the field app.

A company created now stores Booking confirmations, Visit changed, Appointment reminder, On the way, and Statement sent ticked for email — every customer text starts off until a sender and consent exist — and Job assigned, Job moved to another technician, Route changed, and Day-before schedule already ticked for every channel each row supports. Enable customer notifications still starts off, so automatic customer notices wait until that switch is on. An older company with no stored notice choices uses the schema defaults: only Route changed and Statement sent by email start on. Existing saved choices are kept.

The save button reads Save notifications until a field changes, then Save notifications · N changed. It stays disabled until something on this form has changed. Back returns to the Settings list.

What it accepts

A disabled toggle can't be submitted as "on" from this form. The reply-to mailbox is the other check: it has to be a real email address, and it has to be filled in before a customer email is turned on.

How to configure it

• Settings → Integrations → Text messaging is where you set up the sending number the text toggles depend on; Thermal runs email for you. Set Reply-to mailbox before you turn a customer email on. Enable customer notifications and Respect quiet hours for texts can be changed whether or not a channel is ready.
• Turning off Enable customer notifications is the fastest way to pause automatic customer notices without touching the individual toggles, which stay exactly as you left them for next time.
• Job assigned, Job moved to another technician, Route changed, and Day-before schedule are the rows aimed at your own staff. Text still needs a verified company sending number. Route changed by email needs email to be ready. A technician chooses their own texts and emails under My notifications in the field app.

See what was sent

Settings → Documents and notices → Sent messages lists every message the system decided on: sent, held for quiet hours, or not sent, with the reason in plain words, such as "Held until 7:00 AM" or "Not notified: opted out". Filter by date, outcome, message, channel and branch, and export the filtered list as a CSV. Owners and office managers can open it. On a held message, Cancel held message stops it from going out.

Each work order also has a Notifications section that lists the same decisions for that job's visits.

Who can see it

• Owners and office managers can open Settings → Documents and notices → Notifications and change every toggle on it.
• Dispatchers and technicians cannot reach Settings at all. The gate is checked on the server, not just hidden in the sidebar.

The full role matrix is on Roles & permissions.