What it does

Administrators decide which notification families send, over which channels, at organization, institution, or program level. One setup screen adapts to whichever scope you administer.

Who it's for

Organization, institution, and program administrators with permission to manage notifications.

How it works

Each scope stores its own settings — there is no cascade. Organization, institution, and program settings are each saved and read independently; a program does not inherit or override anything from its institution or organization here.

Open the notifications admin area and stay on the Notifications tab. A scope card confirms which organization, institution, or program you are configuring. Channels and Templates are the two views inside that tab; sender identity and send rules live on a separate Settings tab.

Channel readiness. A readiness strip summarizes each channel's status. In-app is always Available. Email shows Ready once a delivery provider is set up and there are active recipients. Otherwise it shows Needs setup, with a Set up email in Settings link. Text message and webhook channels show as Not enabled.

Default channels by family. Notification families (groups of related events) list toggles for in-app, email, and push per family. Families that don't support a channel show it as n/a. Channels that aren't ready carry a Needs attention badge. Each family expands to show its events, their default channels, and whether an event includes sensitive fields. Text message and webhook columns are read-only and marked Not enabled. Each event also carries a Preview (eye) icon and a Customize wording (pencil) icon; one-event families show these on the family row itself.

Settings — Defaults. On the Settings tab, the Defaults section sets Sender name, Sender email, and Reply to for notification emails from this scope. It also holds Send rules. Those are quiet hours start and end with a timezone, a batching window of 1–60 minutes (default 5) that groups near-simultaneous notices, and retention of 7–365 days (default 90).

Channel toggles and Settings defaults save separately. Changes on each are held locally until you save that section — an unsaved-changes note reminds you, and Cancel restores the stored values.

Before you start

You need the manage-notifications permission for the scope you want to configure. Template-manage-only rights can open the catalog to edit wording, but cannot flip channel switches or open Settings.
Select an organization, institution, or program first — the Notifications tab has nothing to show without a scope.
Decide the level you're setting: organization-wide, one institution, or one program. Each scope's settings are independent — configuring one does not change another.

Do this

Open /notifications/admin and stay on the Notifications tab → the scope card names the organization, institution, or program you're configuring. You should see Channels and Templates views.
Review the readiness strip at the top of the page → each channel shows Available, Ready, Needs setup, or Not enabled. If email needs setup, choose Set up email in Settings.
In the Default channels by family matrix on the Channels panel, toggle in-app, email, or push for a family row → the toggle updates. A Needs attention badge appears if that channel isn't ready yet. Select Save channels → a confirmation message appears, and the unsaved-changes note clears. This does not change sender identity or quiet hours.
Open the Settings tab and stay on Defaults. Fill in Sender name, Sender email, and Reply to → the unsaved-changes note appears once you edit.
Under Send rules in the Defaults section, set quiet hours start/end, the batching window (1–60 minutes), and retention (7–365 days) → values outside those ranges are clamped on save.
Select the Save defaults button → a confirmation message appears, and the unsaved-changes note clears.

You're done when

✓ A confirmation message appeared after Save channels and again after Save defaults.
✓ The family toggles on Channels and the sender identity and send rules on Settings → Defaults match what you set.
✓ The unsaved-changes note is gone on both sections.

Boundaries and limits

Channel switches and Settings need the manage-notifications permission. Without it, those controls hide or the tab is omitted; a restricted message shows instead.
You must have an organization, institution, or program scope selected, or the page prompts for one.
Text message (SMS) and webhook channels are visible but not enabled as configurable channels in this release.
Push can be toggled per family, but push delivery also needs device enrollment. That isn't offered yet, so push toggles don't produce push deliveries.
The batch window accepts 1–60 minutes. Retention accepts 7–365 days. Out-of-range values are clamped when saving.
Saving channels does not change sender identity or quiet hours, and saving defaults does not change family channel switches — the two save independently.
These settings define what the scope sends. They can't override a user's own choice to receive less. Someone who turned a category off stays opted out.
The platform defines the set of notification families and events. Administrators can't create new event types here. Custom content per event goes through templates instead.

Common questions

Q: Why does email show "needs setup"? A: The scope has no email delivery provider configured, or no active recipients. Choose Set up email in Settings, or open Settings → Providers directly; readiness then updates.

Q: Do program settings inherit from the institution? A: No. Each scope — organization, institution, program — stores and reads its own channel and sender settings independently; there's no cascade between them. The one exception is email delivery providers, which are configured only at organization or institution level — program notifications always use those.

Q: What does the batching window do? A: Notifications created within the window can be grouped into one message instead of being sent separately. With a 5-minute window, for example, that cuts down on noise.

Q: What happens when retention expires? A: Notifications older than the retention period are no longer kept. Set retention between 7 and 365 days based on how long your teams need the history.

Notification Setup for Organizations, Institutions, and Programs