Send announcements and Site Alerts

Sometimes you need to tell people something right now: a gate is closed, a line is shut down, a hazard needs avoiding. LockLedger has two ways to do that from inside the app. An announcement is for ordinary news. A Site Alert is for something people must not miss: it stays across the top of their screen until they confirm they have seen it. This page covers sending each one, running a drill, what people see, following who has seen it, reminding the ones who have not, and closing an alert when it is over.

Admins

Send to the whole company or to any open site, and see everything every sender sent.

Managers

Send to the sites they are assigned to, and see what they sent.

Techs and Operators

Cannot send, and the sender screen is not open to them. They receive messages, see a Site Alert across the top of their screen, and answer it.

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Announcement or Site Alert

Announcement

Always lands in the person's Messages. It also reaches them by email and by notification on their devices according to their own Announcements setting (see Get notifications on your phone or computer). Email is off for a new account; device notifications are on.

Site Alert

Reaches everyone by email and by notification on every device where notifications are turned on, whatever they chose in Settings. It also shows in a banner across the top of every screen until the person presses I've seen this, until you close the alert, or until 12 hours have passed.

Drill

A Site Alert marked as a drill, so nobody mistakes it for the real thing. A drill is never emailed. It reaches devices and the banner like a real alert, and it also goes to you, so you see what your people see.

Everyone assigned to the sites you choose gets the message, and every Admin gets it too. You do not receive your own message, except a drill. The list of people is fixed when you send: someone added to a site later does not get an old message.

1. Send an announcement

1. 1

   Open Announcements

   On the Admin home screen press the Announcements tile. Managers have the same tile.

   

2. 2

   Press New announcement

   A window opens. Type starts on Announcement, and under it a line explains how people get one.

   

3. 3

   Pick who it goes to and write it

   Under Send to, tick the sites. Admins also see Whole company; a Manager sees only their own sites. Give it a Title (80 characters at most) and a Message (1,000 at most). Both are plain text: formatting and links you type are shown exactly as typed.

   

4. 4

   Press Send announcement

   A line under New announcement says Sent to and the number of people. The message is in your list, with its roll-call beside it.

   

2. Send a Site Alert

1. 1

   Press New announcement and set Type to Site Alert

   Open the Type list and choose Site Alert. A reminder of what an alert does appears under it, and a Send as a drill choice appears.

   

2. 2

   Pick the sites and write it

   Tick the sites and write a short title and message, the same as for an announcement.

   

3. 3

   Press Review

   Review does not send anything. A window asks Send this Site Alert?, says exactly how many people it goes to and at which sites, and shows your words as they will read. Press Back to change something.

   

4. 4

   Press Send Site Alert

   It goes out at once. Your screen opens the alert with its roll-call. Remind is greyed for now, and a line says when it unlocks.

   

3. Run a drill

Use a drill to practice, or to check that people's screens show an alert, without anyone mistaking it for a real emergency.

1. 1

   Choose Site Alert, then set Send as a drill to Yes

   Pick the sites and write the title and message as usual.

   

2. 2

   Press Review

   The window asks Send this drill? and reminds you that a drill reaches devices and the top of the screen but is not emailed.

   

3. 3

   Press Send drill

   A drill also goes to you, so a grey Site Alert drill banner appears across the top of your own screen. Press I've seen this on it when you have looked.

   

4. 4

   Close the drill when it is over

   Select it on the Announcements screen and close it the same way as a real alert (section 7).

   

4. What people see

This is a Tech's phone. Anyone who receives a Site Alert sees the same thing, on a phone, a tablet or a computer.

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1. 1

   A Site Alert shows across the top of the screen

   Whatever page the person is on, a red banner shows the title, the message, who sent it and when. A drill is grey. If several alerts are open, the banner shows the newest and says how many are open.

   

2. 2

   Tap Open

   Open goes to Messages, which lists everything sent to the person, newest first, with a dot beside what they have not opened. The Messages icon in the header shows how many are unread.

   

3. 3

   Tap the message to read it

   Opening a message marks it as seen. The roll-call shows the sender when.

   

4. 4

   Tap I've seen this

   The banner goes away, and the screen says when the person acknowledged it. The sender sees it in the roll-call.

   

• On a phone or computer with notifications turned on: a notification titled Site Alert (or Site Alert drill) with the title and the start of the message. Tapping it opens the message in LockLedger.
• By email: for a Site Alert that is not a drill, and for an announcement when the person has turned email on. The email links to the message.

5. Follow who has seen it

1. 1

   Select what you sent

   On the Announcements screen select the message. The roll-call lists every person it went to: whether they have seen it, whether they acknowledged it, and how it could reach them. People who have not answered are listed first.

   

2. 2

   Watch it fill in

   While an open Site Alert is selected, the screen updates itself every 20 seconds, and Refresh updates it at any time. The heading counts how many have acknowledged it and how many have seen it.

   

The Reached by column tells you plainly who you may not be reaching. For example, Email sent and Push to 1 device means the alert went to their inbox and one phone. In the app only (no device on) means they have no device with notifications turned on, so they will see it only when they next open LockLedger. Email on its way, Email failed, No push yet and Push failed mean what they say.

6. Remind the people who have not answered

Nothing is reminded automatically. A reminder goes only when you press the button, and only to people who have not pressed I've seen this.

1. 1

   Wait for Remind to unlock

   Remind is greyed for 5 minutes after the alert. A line says when it unlocks: You can send the next reminder at and the time.

   

2. 2

   Press Remind

   A window tells you which reminder it is and how many people it goes to, for example Reminder 1 of 3 goes to 4 people. It goes by email (not for a drill) and by notification on any device they have turned on.

   

3. 3

   Press Send reminder

   A line confirms Reminder 1 sent to 4 people. The alert shows Reminded 1 of 3 times, when, and by whom.

   

• You can send up to 3 reminders for one alert, at least 5 minutes after the alert or the previous reminder. Until then the button is greyed.
• The sender or any Admin can remind. The screen keeps a note of how many were sent and when.
• A drill reminder is never emailed.

7. Close an alert when it is over

1. 1

   Select the alert and press Close alert

   A window asks Close this Site Alert? It tells you that the banner disappears from everyone's screen and that people who have not acknowledged it can still read it in Messages.

   

2. 2

   Press Close alert again

   The alert is marked Resolved and shows Closed on and the time. The banner leaves everyone's screen within about half a minute. The roll-call stays.

   

The sender or any Admin can close an alert, and an alert can be closed once. Closing only removes its banner: the message itself is permanent.

8. What an Admin and a Manager see

A Manager's Announcements screen lists only what that Manager sent, and the Send to list in their window has only their own sites, with no Whole company.

An Admin's Announcements screen lists everything every sender sent, with the sender's name, and an Admin can read the roll-call of, remind about, or close any of it. Here an Admin has closed a Manager's drill.

Choose how you get announcements

In Settings, under Notifications, the Announcements choice decides how you get routine announcements: Email and device notifications, Email only, Device notifications only, or Neither. Site Alerts ignore it and always reach you by email and on every device where notifications are turned on.

What a Site Alert can and cannot promise

• Someone whose phone is silenced, out of signal, in Focus, or who has never turned notifications on will not hear a notification. Check the Reached by column and use your normal way of reaching them.
• A notification that cannot be delivered within 4 hours is dropped, and Reached by shows Push failed.
• Email can be delayed or land in a spam folder.
• The banner stops showing an alert 12 hours after it was sent, even for someone who never pressed I've seen this. The message stays in Messages.
• A message is permanent: it cannot be edited or deleted after it is sent. Closing an alert only removes its banner.
• To keep one mistake from flooding people, each sender can send up to 5 Site Alerts and 20 announcements an hour, and a drill counts as a Site Alert. Past that, the window says You have reached the limit for this hour. Wait a while before sending another.
• We have tested notifications on Chrome on a computer and on the installed iPhone app. Other current browsers may work too.