Section 10

Notifications & Alerts

A permission-aware inbox, nine alert categories, per-user preferences, and an escalation chain.

10.1 The Inbox — Alerts as an Attention Layer

The Alerts inbox is a per-user activity stream showing every system-generated event that requires attention. Alerts can be filtered by category, severity, and status (Unread, Acknowledged, Dismissed, Resolved). The inbox is the mechanism through which the platform proactively surfaces upcoming and overdue work rather than waiting for the user to notice it. Because alerts are user-specific and permission-aware, a warehouse operator does not receive alerts intended for the finance director and vice versa.

10.2 The Nine Categories of Alerts

Alert Category	When It Fires
Maintenance Due	Preventive work orders coming due at a configurable lead time.
Maintenance Overdue	Preventive work is not completed by its due date.
Warranty Expiring	Assets whose warranty ends within 30, 60, or 90 days — prompting vendor-covered service before the window closes.
License Expiring / Renewing	Software or SaaS subscriptions approaching renewal — giving IT and finance time to negotiate rather than react.
Custody Overdue	Loaner assets are not returned by their expected return date.
Audit Milestones	Inventory audit phase transitions and reconciliation items awaiting action.
Compliance Deadlines	Biennial certifications, annual inventory windows, and grant close-outs.
Incident Reports	New asset damage or loss reports requiring follow-up.
System Events	Data import completions, bulk operations, and permission changes.

10.3 Notification Preferences

Each user manages their own preferences under Settings → Notifications, controlling per-category channel (in-app only, email, both, or off), per-severity behavior (always notify on Critical, digest daily on Informational), and digest frequency (immediate, hourly, daily, weekly). This per-user configuration is important because the finance director and the warehouse operator have different tolerance for volume and different working rhythms. A well-configured inbox is one that surfaces exactly what the user must act on and no more.

10.4 The Escalation Chain

Alerts unacknowledged past their SLA escalate to a supervisor. For example, an unresolved Custody Overdue alert first pings the custodian, then after seven days escalates to the site administrator, and after fourteen days escalates to the asset manager and files an incident record. The escalation chain is what turns alerts from a passive display into an active accountability mechanism — an item cannot simply be ignored indefinitely because the escalation path guarantees that supervision engages if the responsible party does not.

10.5 Example — Preventing an Adobe License Lapse

Worked example

Consider a district's Adobe Creative Cloud subscription that renews on November 15. Under the AMS, alerts fire on a staged schedule. On September 15, sixty days before renewal, the first alert routes to the IT director in-app and by email, giving time to evaluate whether the current seat count is still appropriate. On October 15, the second alert fires with the current seat utilization report attached, giving concrete evidence for a right-sizing decision. On November 1, fourteen days before renewal, the third alert also routes to the finance administrator so a purchase order can be raised. On November 15, if the renewal has not been marked complete, the alert escalates to Critical and pings the CBO. The result is that no lapse occurs, no emergency purchase at list price happens, and no compliance gap opens for the users who depend on the software.

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