Automatic reminders, the evening before and ahead of expiry dates

When does the reminder go out, and to whom exactly?

Every evening, to technicians with at least one job the next day. Those with nothing scheduled receive nothing.

It goes out at 8 pm, automatically, and covers the next day. Atlas looks at who has at least one job tomorrow and writes only to those people. A technician with nothing scheduled gets nothing, which matters more than it sounds.

A reminder that arrives every single evening, including the empty ones, stops being read within two weeks. By writing only when there is something to say, the message keeps its value. The email goes out in French or in English, following the language set on your account, the same one for the whole crew.

At what time exactly, and in which time zone?

At 8 pm on your company's clock, whatever the country. A company in Montreal, one in Phoenix and one in Réunion each get theirs at 8 pm where they are.

The sending time follows the zone saved in your settings, the one your jobs happen in, not the server's and not the one on the device you happen to be using. It is the kind of detail nobody notices until it is wrong.

Software that sends at a fixed universal hour delivers tomorrow's schedule at six in the evening for some and after midnight for others, and in the second case it announces the wrong day outright, because past midnight, tomorrow has already become the day after.

Eight in the evening, locally

The day is done, the evening is not late, and there is still time to say a personal appointment was forgotten.

Nine in the morning for the customer

Two days ahead, early, so they have the whole day to arrange access or find someone to mind a pet.

Every region by its own rule

Arizona, Saskatchewan and Yukon do not change their clocks while their immediate neighbours do. Atlas keeps them apart instead of lumping them together and being an hour out for eight months a year.

Nothing to work out

You pick your region once in settings. The spring and autumn clock changes are followed on their own, on both sides of the Atlantic, even when the dates fall on different weekends.

Except the certificate alert

It rides along with another morning task, so it goes out at a fixed hour, the same for everyone, and counts the remaining days on Eastern time.

Can one reminder be switched off without the others?

Yes. A Reminders page in settings, one switch per email, sorted by who receives them.

Reminders have their own page in settings, next to Settings itself. It sorts them by recipient, which is the only question that really comes up when you open that screen, who gets what and when.

To the technician

The next day's schedule, on by default. A company that hands out assignments out loud every evening can switch it off, which was not possible before.

To the customer

The reminder two days ahead, and the notice when the job is completed. Both off by default, because writing to someone's customers without being asked is not done.

One customer at a time

On a customer's record you can exclude them even while the general setting is on. Someone who asked not to be written to should not be chased again six months later.

What does not switch off

If a customer has already been told about a visit and you move or cancel that visit, they are told. Those two do not create information, they correct information already sent.

Why the evening before rather than the same morning?

Because a reminder is only worth something if it leaves time to react. Received the evening before, it gives you a whole evening to reorganize the day.

A technician who finds out at seven in the morning that they start across town has no room left. The same message received the evening before lets them plan their departure, prepare equipment, or tell you straight away about a problem, a personal appointment they forgot, a vehicle in the shop.

You then get a whole evening to reorganize the day in the schedule, instead of discovering the hole at eight with a customer waiting.

Does Atlas warn before a technician's certificate expires?

Yes. As soon as an expiry date is filled in, Atlas emails both the technician concerned and the account owner two months ahead, then at closer intervals, and keeps going weekly while the certificate stays expired.

In Quebec, applying a pesticide requires a certificate from the environment ministry, with an expiry date. An expired certificate is not an administrative detail, it is a technician who no longer has the right to treat, and a company exposed at the first inspection or the first complaint. Nobody notices on the day itself, and renewal takes several weeks.

Six alerts before the date

At 60, 30, 14, 7, 3 and 1 day, then on the day itself. Enough not to forget, spaced enough not to become noise that gets filed unread.

One reminder a week after that

While a certificate stays expired, the reminder returns every seven days. It stops on its own once the new date is entered.

To the technician concerned

They are the one who has to renew and who gets the ministry notices. They receive a personal message, with their number and date.

And to the account owner

One email per company, listing every technician concerned, most urgent first. They assign the work and carry the risk at an inspection.

Why both

A message reaching only the office would assume someone remembers to pass it on, which is exactly the oversight we are trying to prevent.

Nothing to switch on

Just enter the expiry date on the technician's record. No date, no reminder, and no pointless alert.

Why does a technician sometimes receive nothing?

Two conditions must be met, an email address on file and a confirmed account. It is almost always one of those two that is missing.

Two conditions must be met for a reminder to go out, and that is deliberate.

An email address

must be filled in on their record. With no address, Atlas obviously cannot send anything.

Their account must be confirmed

meaning they have validated their access. Until that happens no message goes out, which avoids writing into the void for weeks.

If a technician tells you they receive nothing, the cause is almost always one of those two, and it is fixed in thirty seconds on their record.

What does it actually change day to day?

It removes the evening ritual, and above all the forgetting that comes with it. Sending no longer depends on anyone's memory on a Friday night.

It removes the evening ritual. In many companies of three to fifteen technicians, the owner sends the messages themselves at the end of the day, one per technician, often copying addresses out of a spreadsheet. That is half an hour a day, at the hour they are most tired and therefore most likely to forget someone.

Automatic sending removes the task and, above all, removes the error, since it does not depend on anyone's memory on a Friday night. The technician still finds their route in their workspace the next morning, the reminder is only a safety net.

Frequently asked questions

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