Notifications: email, push notifications, and reminders

Beebole’s notifications keep you informed about mentions, approval requests, and decisions on your own timesheets, by email and as push notifications on your computer or phone. Each person chooses which events to receive and how often: Instant, Daily, Weekly, or None. Administrators configure account-wide timesheet reminders and the email content people receive.

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What you get notified about

Beebole sends notifications for a fixed set of events. You control each one independently in your Notifications preferences. When a timesheet you submitted is approved at its last stage or rejected, Beebole notifies you under Approval updates, through the channels you ticked: the Timesheet Approved or Timesheet Rejected email, a push notification, or both. A rejection carries the approver’s comment and a link to open the timesheet, correct it, and submit it again. Beebole also posts the decision to your Journal. In a multi-stage workflow, the approvers of the next stage are notified as soon as the previous stage approves the timesheet. A few notifications have no row of their own but still follow the channels you choose: timesheet and approver reminders, the warning before an unassigned task starts, the alert administrators receive when auto-submit fails on a period, and the notice you get when Beebole stops a timer you left running. That Timer Stopped email and push notification name the activity, the time the timer stopped, and the time logged, with a link to correct the entry on your timesheet.

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How notifications reach you

Beebole delivers notifications through two channels, Email and Push notifications. Tick either or both at the top of the Notifications panel. Like the rest of the panel, the channels can be set on the organization, a tag, or a person, and are inherited like any other setting.

• Email notifications arrive in your inbox. Approval emails include Approve and Reject links: Approve acts straight from the email and opens the timesheet it approved, while Reject opens the timesheet in Beebole with the rejection dialog ready, because a reason is always required. To reject without opening Beebole, reply to the email with “reject” followed by your reason. See deciding from your email. You can also reply to a Journal message email, and Beebole adds your reply to the right thread.
• Push notifications appear on your computer or phone even when Beebole is closed. They cover mentions, approval requests and decisions, reminders, and stopped timers. Clicking one opens Beebole on the related page. A push notification only reaches the devices where you enabled it. See Push notifications on your devices.

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Notification language

Emails and push notifications both arrive in the language each person uses in Beebole. Someone who has never picked a language gets the one Beebole is displayed in when they sign in, and Beebole saves it for them. To change yours, pick another language from the menu behind your initials at the bottom of the sidebar. Sign-up and sign-in code emails use the language of the page you request them from, and an invitation goes out in the language of the person who sends it. An email whose template an administrator customized is sent as written, whatever the recipient’s language. See Email templates.

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Unsubscribing from emails

Every notification email ends with an Unsubscribe link, and mail clients that offer one-click unsubscribe show their own button for it. Either one turns off the Email channel in your own notification settings. Push notifications are not affected. To receive emails again, tick Email in your Notifications panel.

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Push notifications on your devices

Ticking Push notifications turns the channel on, but each device also has to be enabled once, because the browser asks for your permission before Beebole can notify you there. When Push notifications is ticked in your own Notifications panel, a device list appears below the channels:

• This device shows whether the browser you are using is Receiving notifications or Not receiving notifications. Click Enable on this device to turn push on for it (the browser asks for permission), or Remove to stop push on it.
• Other devices lists the other browsers and devices where you enabled push, with the date each one was added. To stop push on one of them, open Beebole on that device and click Remove there.

Ticking Push notifications in your own panel also enables the device you are using right away. If the browser can’t take part, the device list says so instead: Beebole drops a device on its own when its browser no longer accepts notifications. Signing out stops your notifications on that device, and signing in again brings them back without a new permission request.

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The Get notified on this device prompt

When push is on in your settings but the device you are using isn’t enabled yet, Beebole offers to enable it with a Get notified on this device prompt in the top-right corner. It appears once you come back to Beebole on that device on a second day, and only while the browser hasn’t yet allowed or blocked notifications for Beebole.

• Click Enable to turn push on for the device. The browser then asks for permission.
• Click Not now to hide the prompt. The first time, it stays hidden for a month. The second time, it doesn’t come back on that device.

An administrator who turns Push notifications on for the organization, a tag, or another person sees the prompt right away when their own device isn’t enabled yet and they haven’t hidden it with Not now, so they can enable it at the same time.

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Choosing how often you’re notified

For each event, you pick how often Beebole notifies you. The frequency applies to both channels: Daily and weekly digests reduce inbox volume by grouping events into one message instead of sending one email per event. On push, a digest arrives as one notification that says how many new notifications are waiting.

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When many alerts fire at once

Instant never floods your inbox or your notification center. When more than three notifications of the same kind are waiting for you at the same moment (a whole team submitting their timesheets, for example), Beebole collapses them into one summary instead of one message each. By email, the summary uses the same layout as a digest: it lists the first eight items of each kind, then a count of the rest, with a link to open Beebole. On push, it is a single notification that says how many are waiting. If another burst of the same kind follows within the next 15 minutes, it is held and delivered as one further summary once that window closes, so a long-running import or a busy afternoon never turns into a stream of near-identical emails.

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Timesheet reminders

Reminders are configured by administrators in Timesheet and Planning Settings, not in personal preferences. They prompt people to submit their timesheets and nudge approvers about pending work. They reach each person through the channels ticked in their notification settings. Reminders to submit go only to people who have an approval workflow, since without one there is nothing to submit.

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Email templates

Administrators can customize the wording of the emails Beebole sends. Email templates live in the Email templates panel, where each email type has its own tab: Sign Up, Sign In, Invite, Mention, Timesheet Submitted, Timesheet Approved, Timesheet Rejected, Reminder, Approval Reminder, Digest, and Timer Stopped. The editor shows the default wording in your current interface language and switches when you change it. Emails that keep the default wording reach each person in their own language, while a template you customize is sent as you wrote it to everyone it applies to.

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Reliable delivery

Beebole delivers notifications through a background queue so a temporary network or service hiccup does not lose them. If a notification fails to send, Beebole retries it automatically up to three times before marking it as failed. No action is needed on your side — delayed notifications are redelivered once the issue clears. Notifications only go to people who actually belong to the organization, with an active account or a still-valid invitation. Archived people are excluded, so departed team members never receive notifications about an account they left.

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Related content

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Frequently asked questions