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If you already know when the item will be available, schedule the dispatch. The bakery that takes bread out at 4 p.m., the food truck that arrives at noon, the store that opens sales of a new release at 10 a.m. on Friday.

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Schedule

1

Open the item and click Send alert

Turn on Schedule for later.
2

Pick the date and time

The time is always in the establishment’s time zone, shown below the field, even if you are in a different time zone. The dispatch must be at least 10 minutes ahead and at most 90 days ahead.
3

Write the alert and confirm

Fill in the title and message as you would for an immediate dispatch and click Schedule.
Nothing is charged when you schedule. The form shows today’s estimate, but the real cost is calculated at dispatch time, based on who is subscribed at that moment.

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Balance warning before the dispatch

About 2 hours before the scheduled time, Need Alert checks the balance against the estimate at that moment:
  • Insufficient balance: you get an email and a “Not enough credits for the dispatch” notification, with the expected cost and your current balance. There’s still time to buy credits.
  • Enough balance: you get only a reminder notification inside Need Alert, with the number of subscribers and the expected cost. It’s your chance to cancel if plans changed.
The warning goes to the owner and to members with the Dispatch events permission at the unit.
Dispatches scheduled less than 2 hours ahead don’t get the balance warning. The estimated cost is already shown in the form.

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At the scheduled time

The dispatch goes out automatically, within about a minute of the scheduled time. It may not go out for three reasons, in which case you get an email and a notification: Once it goes out, a scheduled dispatch follows the same rules as an immediate one, including the sending error. Archiving an item cancels its scheduled dispatches.

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Track, reschedule, and cancel

In Dispatches, the Scheduled tab shows the time, how long until it goes out, the estimated cost, and whether the balance warning was sent.
  • Reschedule: change the time, title, or message. Changing the time resets the balance warning for the new time.
  • Cancel schedule: the dispatch won’t be sent and nothing is charged.
You can only reschedule or cancel while the dispatch is Scheduled. You can’t have two scheduled dispatches of the same item in the same minute.