Shift reminders

TacDesk automatically reminds your guards before each scheduled shift starts. Reminders are sent on a tight schedule designed to minimise no-shows; you do not need to configure anything per guard.

The reminder schedule

For every scheduled shift (status scheduled, not cancelled), the guard receives:

• T minus 15 minutes — one heads-up push notification.
• T zero — a reminder at the exact start time if the guard has not yet clocked in.
• Every minute from T+1 to T+10 — repeated reminders until the guard clocks in or taps Dismiss.

From T+5 onwards, the existing late-shift alert system also kicks in, escalating to you and on-call managers at 5, 15, and 30 minutes late. The reminder system and the late-alert system run in parallel — guards may receive both during the T+5 to T+10 overlap window.

How reminders are delivered

• Push notification — sent at maximum priority on Android and as time-sensitive on iOS 15+, so reminders cut through Focus modes and Do Not Disturb.
• In-app modal — if the guard has the TacDesk app open, a dialog appears with Clock In and Dismiss buttons.

The modal polls in the background every 30 seconds while the app is open, so a guard mid-shift-handover will see the reminder within half a minute even if push notifications were missed.

When reminders stop

Reminders stop automatically when any of these happen:

• The guard clocks in (TacDesk detects this and silences further reminders for that shift).
• The guard taps Dismiss in the in-app modal (silences reminders for that one shift only — future shifts are unaffected).
• Ten minutes have passed since the scheduled start (the lateness-alert system takes over).
• You cancel the shift, mark it cancelled, or remove the guard from the assignment.

Clock-out reminders (overdue shifts)

The same system also catches guards who forget to clock out. For every shift whose scheduled end time has passed:

• T_end + 30 minutes — the first reminder fires if the guard is still clocked in for that shift.
• Every 15 minutes after that, up to T_end + 4 hours, repeating until the guard clocks out or dismisses the reminder.

The cross-shift safety check makes sure we do not nag about an earlier shift after the guard has clocked into a later one. Reminders also stop automatically once the guard clocks out, and the in-app modal silences immediately if they tap Dismiss.

This complements rather than replaces the existing early-departure / overlong-shift detection — it specifically targets the "I forgot to clock out and went home" failure mode, which previously surfaced only as accuracy issues on the time-records report.

Common questions

Is the volume of reminders too much? The cadence is deliberately aggressive because the cost of a no-show — client relationship, contractual penalties, reputational damage — is much higher than the cost of an annoyed guard. If a specific guard receives reminders inappropriately (e.g. they consistently arrive on site early but clock in late), the dismiss button gives them a quick out.

What about supervisors and managers — do they get reminders? No, reminders are sent only to the guard assigned to the shift. You only see the lateness alerts that fire from T+5 onwards.

What if a guard has push notifications disabled? They will still see the in-app modal whenever TacDesk is open, but they will not get push alerts when the app is closed. Encourage guards to enable push in both Settings → Notifications in TacDesk and in their phone's system settings.

Can I disable shift reminders for a particular guard or shift? Not currently — the reminders are on by default for every scheduled shift. If you need this granularity, raise it with TacDesk support.

Verifying it is working

To confirm reminders are reaching a specific guard, schedule a short test shift starting fifteen minutes from now. The guard should receive a push within seconds of the scheduled start time, and you will see the cron event logged under Admin → TacDesk → Notification Log if your build has that view enabled.