Alert windows explained

GarageHQ warns you about expiring MOT, tax, insurance, and service due dates by sending reminder emails at a set number of days before the event. The "alert windows" are the days at which those reminders fire. By default that's 60, 30, and 7 days before expiry.

You can change them. You can also have different windows for the org as a whole and for each individual user. This article explains how the cascade works.

The three layers

┌──────────────────────────────┐
│  Your personal override      │  ← if set, wins over everything
│  (e.g. 90, 14)               │
└──────────────────────────────┘
            ↓ inherits if not set
┌──────────────────────────────┐
│  Organisation default        │  ← set by an owner or admin
│  (e.g. 60, 21)               │
└──────────────────────────────┘
            ↓ inherits if not set
┌──────────────────────────────┐
│  System default              │  ← baked in
│  60, 30, 7                   │
└──────────────────────────────┘

For each user, GarageHQ resolves the active windows top-down: if you've set your own override, those days are used. Otherwise the org default. Otherwise the system default.

Where each layer is set

System default (60, 30, 7)

Hard-coded. You can't change it, but you can override it at the org or user level.

Organisation default

Settings page → "Alert reminders, organisation default" card. Only visible to owners and admins. Whatever you set here applies to every member of the org who hasn't set their own override.

This is the right level to set if you want, say, "everyone in our garage gets warned 90 days out" because you do MOTs in batches and need lead time.

Your personal override

Same Settings page → "Alert reminders, your override" card. Visible to everyone. Whatever you set here applies to your account only, regardless of what the org has set.

This is the right level if you personally want different lead times to your colleagues. For example, the office manager wants 90 days notice for tax (so she can budget) while drivers want 14 days (close enough to feel actionable).

How a single email gets generated

When the daily cron runs at 06:00 UTC:

1. For each vehicle, GarageHQ collects the four expiry dates (MOT, tax, insurance, next service).
2. For each upcoming date, GarageHQ asks the cascade: "is today exactly N days before, where N is one of the active windows?"
3. If yes, an email is queued for everyone who needs to know about that vehicle. Member-only vehicles email the owner; org-wide vehicles email everyone with notification preferences enabled for that vehicle type.
4. A row is logged so we never send the same reminder twice for the same expiry.

So if you're set up with 60/30/7, you'll get three emails per expiry per vehicle.

Resetting an override

Click "Use default" on either the org or user override card. The override clears and the cascade falls through to the next layer.

Per-vehicle notification preferences

The alert windows decide when reminders fire. Whether a specific vehicle generates them at all is controlled by the per-vehicle notification preferences (MOT yes/no, tax yes/no, insurance yes/no, service yes/no). Those live on the vehicle's detail page, not the Settings page. See Notification reminders.

Practical examples

What next?

• Notification reminders, the per-vehicle on/off switches that decide what gets reminded.
• Member roles explained, who can change the org default.