Check-call windows and escalation
A check call is a scheduled moment when the person on shift confirms they are safe. Each one has a window that opens a set number of minutes before it is due and lasts a set number of minutes. A call not logged before that window closes is missed, and a missed call alerts administrators — nothing on the shift itself changes.
When is a check call due?
By default, calls are spaced by interval. The first falls First Call After minutes into the shift, the rest follow one Interval apart, and none are placed in the last Last Call Before End minutes. All three default to 60 minutes, so an untouched 07:00–19:00 shift carries eleven calls: 08:00, then hourly, last one at 18:00.
If the first call would land after the last, the shift gets no check calls at all. On the defaults that is any shift of two hours or less.
Fixed times are the alternative, and they come only from a check-call pattern: one set to Fixed Times with its Check Times (HH:MM, comma-separated) filled in. Two things that look like they should give fixed times do not. The organisation-level Check Call Pattern menu offers Shift-Based (fixed times), but the list of times is read from a pattern and nowhere else, so that option leaves the spacing on interval. A pattern set to Hybrid is spaced by interval too.
What is the window?
Each due time carries a window that opens Opens Before (min) early and runs for Duration (min). On the defaults of 15 and 30, a call due at 22:00 can be logged from 21:45 until 22:15.
Outside it, the platform refuses the call rather than logging it late: No active check-call window right now. The window has either passed or has not yet opened.
Book-on has a window of its own, set by Earliest Book-On (min before shift start) — 60 minutes by default — and running to the shift's end time. Earlier than that and book-on is refused with Book-on is not allowed yet. Separately, Require Previous Shift Booked Off is on by default, so somebody still booked on to an earlier shift sees Cannot Book On Yet until they close it.
What does missed mean?
The Check Calls screen labels every book-on, check call and book-off with where it currently stands:
| State | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Scheduled | Due later. The window has not opened. |
| Window open | Can be logged right now. |
| Completed | Logged, by the worker or by an administrator. |
| Missed | The window closed with nothing recorded against it. |
| Blocked | Book-on is being held back by the previous shift. |
A book-off on a shift nobody ever booked on to is skipped rather than missed, since there is nothing to book off from.
Missed is therefore about the window, not about the shift: a call logged 20 minutes after a 30-minute window closed does not retrospectively count.
An administrator can still close the slot afterwards. Log this event on the row records a manual book-on, check call or book-off against that specific due time, marked as manually completed and attributed to whoever did it, and the slot reads Completed even though the time recorded is now.
What happens when one is missed?
A sweep runs every five minutes. For each shift it finds that has been booked on and not yet booked off, it works out which due times are now overdue and raises one alert each.
- When the alert is due. The due time, plus the window Duration, plus Escalation Delay (min). That is measured from the due time, not from the moment the window shut: a call due at 22:00 on the defaults has its window shut at 22:15 and its alert due at 22:45.
- What counts as having been made. Any check call or emergency call logged within Duration minutes either side of the due time.
- Who is told. Every active Super Admin, Admin and Control user in the organisation gets an in-app notification and a push, titled Missed check call and naming the person, the site and how many minutes overdue they are. Managers are not on that list. The organisation's contact address also gets an email, if one is set; if it is not, the in-app and push alerts still go out.
- How often. Once per due time, ever. The alert is recorded before it is sent, so a repeat sweep cannot send it twice.
Nothing else changes. The shift keeps its status, the person is not marked absent, no call is placed to them, and no cover is arranged. The row on the dashboard shows how many minutes overdue it is and offers a phone link to the number on file, and a missed row that has not escalated yet carries an Escalate button that raises the same alert by hand.
Where do the settings live, and which level wins?
Settings are resolved from the most specific level that has a value: the shift's own check-call pattern, then the site, then the organisation's default pattern, then the organisation's own settings under Settings → Check Calls, then built-in defaults. It is per field, so a pattern that sets only an interval still inherits everything else.
| Setting | Where it can be set | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Check Call System on or off | Organisation only | On |
| Interval, First Call After, Last Call Before End | Pattern, then organisation | 60 minutes each |
| Fixed check times | Pattern only | None |
| Opens Before, Duration | Pattern, then site, then organisation | 15 and 30 minutes |
| Require PIN, Site ID, GPS | Pattern, then site, then organisation | PIN and Site ID on, GPS off |
| Escalation Delay | Site, then organisation | 15 minutes |
| Auto-Escalate Missed Calls | Organisation | On |
| Earliest Book-On, Require Previous Shift Booked Off | Organisation only | 60 minutes, on |
| Geofencing | Site only | Off |
| Alert Settings | Pattern only | Off |
Two of those need saying out loud, because the screens suggest otherwise.
Check Call System on a site record picks which pattern applies, not whether check calls happen — a site left on No Check Call System still gets them, spaced by the organisation's own interval settings. And a site's Auto-Escalate Missed override is not read by the sweep: the sweep picks organisations by the organisation-level setting and then covers every shift in them, so setting one site to Disabled does not stop its missed calls escalating. That site's Escalation Delay (min) override does apply.
What else does the platform send?
Two layers sit beside the mandatory missed-call escalation, and both are off until somebody turns them on.
A check-call pattern can carry Alert Settings, covering Shift start, Check call and Shift end at either of two thresholds. Org admins get an in-app alert and a push; the Site manager address and any custom addresses get an email. Late fires at the halfway point of the window, while it is still open. Very late fires Very late after (min) past the window's close, 15 by default. There is also a Before-shift heads-up email, sent Heads-up before shift (min) ahead of the start — 60 by default — and an option to send the worker themselves an overdue push.
Separately, the worker on shift gets a Check call due notification while a window is open and the call has not been made.
All of this runs in a background worker on the same five-minute tick as the escalation sweep, so a deployment that runs its workers in a separate process needs that process up for any of it to fire.
How is an agency officer treated?
The same sweep covers agency officers working an organisation's sites, using the settings resolved from that site. The difference is who hears about it: a missed officer check call alerts the organisation's admins and the agency's Agency Admin and Agency Coordinator users, and emails both the organisation's and the agency's contact addresses.
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Last updated 2026-08-13