---
title: Payroll Alerts
keywords: payroll alerts, blue alert, orange alert, red alert, reminders, email alerts, sms alerts, payroll notifications, confirm hours, payroll, disable alert, enable alert, alert timing
summary: "Guide to Payroll Alerts in Manor: the blue, orange and red reminders that prompt employees to confirm their hours, how to edit each alert's timing (workdays before or after the period), custom text, and email and SMS delivery."
url: /payroll/alert
---

# Payroll Alerts

## Introduction

Payroll alerts are reminders that prompt employees to confirm their logged hours before a pay period ends. As a period approaches its deadline, Manor progressively shows coloured alerts to any employee who has not yet confirmed. Once the employee confirms, the alert is replaced by a green confirmation.

Each firm has three alerts — **blue**, **orange** and **red** — that are created automatically. They can be edited but not added or removed.

> **Note:** Payroll alerts are part of the optional Payroll feature and the page only appears once payroll is enabled. See [Payroll](payroll.md) for how to enable it.

![The Payroll Alerts page showing the blue, orange and red alerts](../screenshots/payroll-alerts-list.png)

## Alert Types and Default Timing

| Alert | Purpose | Default timing |
|---|---|---|
| **Blue** | A gentle early reminder that the period "will end soon". | 2 workdays before the end of the period. |
| **Orange** | A stronger reminder on the deadline. | On the last day of the period. |
| **Red** | A follow-up after the deadline for overdue confirmations. | 1 workday after the end of the period. |

Only one alert is shown at a time. Each alert stays visible until the next alert in the sequence becomes visible, or until the employee confirms — whichever happens first.

## Viewing the Alerts

1. Open **Payroll** in the main navigation.
2. Select **Alerts**.

Each alert is shown in its own card with a coloured bar, displaying:

- **Status** — **Active** or **Disabled**.
- **Next visible** — the relative timing and the exact date/time window in which the alert will next appear. A disabled alert reads **Not visible**.
- **Alert text** — the standard wording shown to the employee.
- **Additional custom text** — any extra message added by an administrator (a dash means none).
- **Send email and text alerts** — whether the alert is also sent by email and SMS.
- **Next email and sms alert** — when the next email/SMS delivery is due.
- **Mobile text message** — the shorter wording used for SMS.

The **Settings** and **Payroll rules** links at the top of the page open the firm's payroll configuration.

## Editing an Alert

Click **Edit** on an alert card to change its settings.

![Editing a payroll alert](../screenshots/payroll-alert-edit.png)

- **Visible, in number of workdays, before the end of payroll period** — controls when the alert appears. The value must be between −25 and 25 workdays:
  - A **positive** number shows the alert that many workdays *before* the period ends (for example `2` for the blue alert).
  - **0** shows the alert *on* the last day of the period (used by the orange alert).
  - A **negative** number shows the alert that many workdays *after* the period ends (for example `-1` for the red alert). The helper text explains: "Negative number, i.e. -1, will show the alert after the end of the payroll period."
- **Visible for, in number of workdays, after the end of payroll period** — appears only when the field above is negative, and controls how long the alert keeps showing after the period ends. Its helper text reads: "The alert will be shown for the given number of days or until the start of the following alert, unless confirmed."
- **Additional custom text** — an optional message appended to the standard alert wording and delivered with the alert.
- **Active** — turns the alert on or off. A disabled alert never appears and no messages are sent for it.
- **Send email and text alerts** — when selected, the alert is also delivered by email and SMS in addition to appearing in Manor. Alerts are dispatched once a day, around 11:00, and only to employees who are still enabled and have not yet confirmed the period.

Click **Cancel** to discard your changes or **Save** to apply them. The dialog also carries a **Delete** button that asks you to confirm with **Do you wish to continue?**; because a firm's three alerts are fixed, **Delete** does not remove the alert — use **Disable** to take it out of the sequence instead.

> **Tip:** The alert text and mobile text message are generated automatically from the period dates. You cannot change the standard wording, but you can append your own message with **Additional custom text**.

## Enabling and Disabling an Alert

Each alert card carries a button that toggles the alert:

- **Disable** — stops the alert from appearing and stops any email or SMS for it. The card's **Status** then reads **Disabled** and **Next visible** reads **Not visible**.
- **Enable** — the same button once the alert is disabled; it turns the alert back on.

Only enabled alerts take part in the blue → orange → red sequence.

> **Note:** Every firm has exactly these three alerts, so they cannot be added or removed. To take an alert out of the sequence, use **Disable** rather than any delete action.

## Permissions

Viewing and editing the Alerts page requires the payroll management permission — **Can manage payroll** (all firms) or **Can manage payroll within own firm**. Users without either permission do not see the **Alerts** page; if they have only the payroll analysis permission, the main navigation shows a single payroll analysis link instead of the Payroll menu. See [Payroll](payroll.md).

## Best Practices

- **Keep the blue alert enabled** so employees get an early nudge before the deadline.
- **Enable email and SMS** for the orange or red alert if your employees are often away from Manor near month-end.
- **Add custom text** for firm-specific instructions, such as who to contact about missing entries.
- **Confirm working days** — alert timing is calculated in workdays and respects the firm's default holiday calendar, so keep that calendar up to date. See [Holiday Calendars](../administration/holiday-calendars.md).

## Related Documentation

- [Payroll](payroll.md) — Overview of the Payroll section
- [Pay Periods](pay-periods.md) — Period dates, working quotas and closing periods
- [Confirmations](confirmations.md) — Reviewing and confirming employee hours
- [Confirming your hours (self-service)](payroll-confirmations-self-service.md) — How the alert appears to the employee
- [Firm Payroll Settings](../management/firm-payroll-settings.md) — Period dates and working hours that alerts are based on
- [Holiday Calendars](../administration/holiday-calendars.md) — Non-working days used when counting workdays