> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.timetracker.in/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Email notifications

> How TimeTracker sends notification emails, what they look like, how delivery and retries work, and how to stop emails you do not want.

Email is the second channel TimeTracker delivers on. Every notification that
appears in your [Inbox](/notifications/inbox) can also arrive as an email, and a
few arrive **only** as email.

## What is an email notification?

The same message as the in-app one, rendered for a mailbox. The trigger, the
recipients and the rules are identical – only the delivery changes.

Emails come from **TimeTracker** at a `timetracker.in` address. Add that domain
to your safe-sender list so a filter does not eat your approvals.

## What an email contains

Every notification email uses one shared layout, so they all look the same:

| Part             | What it is                                                     |
| ---------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Subject**      | One line naming what happened                                  |
| **Preview line** | A short hidden line your mail client shows next to the subject |
| **Title**        | The headline, in plain language                                |
| **Body**         | One to three short paragraphs with the details                 |
| **Button**       | A link that opens the exact item in TimeTracker                |
| **Footer**       | Links to TimeTracker, Support and Privacy                      |

The button always deep-links to the thing itself – the task, the timesheet, the
invoice – not to a generic home page. If you are not signed in you are asked to
sign in first, then taken straight there.

<Note>
  Dates and times in an email are rendered in the **workspace** timezone, so
  everyone reading the same message reads the same date.
</Note>

## Which emails you cannot switch off

Three, and only three:

| Email                          | Why it is mandatory                                    |
| ------------------------------ | ------------------------------------------------------ |
| **You have been invited**      | An invitation that cannot email the invitee is useless |
| **Your email address changed** | A security alert you never see defeats its purpose     |
| **Unusual sign-in**            | Same reason                                            |

Everything else is yours to control from
[your notification settings](/notifications/your-notification-settings).

## Emails that go outside your workspace

Some emails are sent to people who are not members of your workspace. They never
create an in-app notification, because the recipient has no Inbox in your
workspace.

| Email                 | Goes to                      |
| --------------------- | ---------------------------- |
| Invoice sent          | The client's billing contact |
| Invoice paid          | The client's billing contact |
| Payment reminder      | The client's billing contact |
| You have been invited | The invited email address    |

The billing contact is the **first contact** on the client record. Set it under
[Client contacts](/clients/client-contacts).

<Warning>
  If a client has no contact email, no client email is sent. Nothing fails loudly –
  there is nobody to send to. Check the client record before you chase a
  missing invoice email.
</Warning>

## How delivery works

<Steps>
  <Step title="The event fires">
    Someone approves a timesheet, or a scheduled check finds an overdue invoice.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Recipients are resolved">
    The person who acted is removed. Everyone else who should hear about it is
    collected.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Preferences are applied">
    Each recipient's channel settings decide whether an email is queued for them.
  </Step>

  <Step title="The email is sent">
    Each recipient gets exactly one email per event. A repeat of the same event
    cannot send you a duplicate.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Failures are retried">
    A temporary problem – a rate limit, a network blip – is retried with a
    growing wait between attempts, up to **6 attempts**. A permanent problem,
    such as an address that does not exist, is not retried.
  </Step>
</Steps>

Waits start around 30 seconds and grow with each attempt, up to a maximum of one
hour between tries. After the sixth attempt the message stops being retried.

## Delivery states

Each email passes through a small set of states:

| State          | Meaning                              |
| -------------- | ------------------------------------ |
| **Pending**    | Queued, not sent yet                 |
| **Processing** | Being handed to the mail service now |
| **Sent**       | Accepted by the mail service         |
| **Failed**     | Delivery gave up after retries       |

"Sent" means the mail service accepted the message. It does not promise the
message survived the recipient's spam filter.

## How to stop an email

<Steps>
  <Step title="Open your profile">
    Click your avatar, then **Notifications**. This is your own settings screen,
    not the workspace one.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Find the row">
    Work out which row the email belongs to. The
    [notification types reference](/notifications/notification-types) lists every
    type against its category.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Turn the Email switch off">
    Switch the email channel off for that row. In-app stays on unless you switch
    that off too.
  </Step>
</Steps>

Changes save as you make them. There is no save button. The change applies to
the next event – emails already queued still go out.

<Tip>
  Before you mute a whole row, turn email off and leave in-app on. You keep the
  information in your [Inbox](/notifications/inbox) and lose the interruption.
</Tip>

## Example

Daniel Okafor at Northwind Studio is drowning in project chatter but must not
miss money.

* **Money** – email on. He needs to see an overdue Bluebird Coffee invoice the
  day it turns.
* **Project changes** – email off, in-app on. He can read those when he opens
  TimeTracker.
* **Work assigned to you** – email off. He is Finance, not delivery.
* **Security** – he could not switch this off if he wanted to.

His mailbox now carries invoices, payments and budget alerts only.

## Options and settings

| Setting                      | Where                                 | Who can change it |
| ---------------------------- | ------------------------------------- | ----------------- |
| Email on or off, per row     | **Your profile → Notifications**      | You, for yourself |
| The workspace starting point | **Settings → Notifications**          | Owner, Admin      |
| Your email address           | [Your profile](/account/your-profile) | You               |
| Daily reminder times         | **Your profile → Notifications**      | You, for yourself |

## Permissions

| Action                            | Capability                 | Roles        |
| --------------------------------- | -------------------------- | ------------ |
| Change your own email preferences | None                       | Everyone     |
| Change the workspace default      | `workspace.updateSettings` | Owner, Admin |

## What happens next

Turning an email off does not turn the notification off. The in-app row still
appears in your Inbox unless you switch that channel off as well. Nothing is
lost – you just read it in a different place.

## Common questions

<AccordionGroup>
  <Accordion title="Why did I get an in-app notification but no email?">
    The email channel is off for that category. Either you switched it off, or a
    workspace admin has forced it off. Check
    [your notification settings](/notifications/your-notification-settings).
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Why did I get no email about something I did?">
    You are excluded from the recipients of your own actions. See
    [Notifications overview](/notifications/overview).
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Can I change the address emails are sent to?">
    Emails go to your account email address. Change it on
    [your profile](/account/your-profile). It is the same address you sign in
    with.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Do clients get in-app notifications?">
    No. A client-portal contact is outside your workspace. Client-facing messages
    are email only.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Will I get two emails if the same thing happens twice?">
    Not for the same event. Each recipient gets one email per event, and a repeat
    of the same event – a retried scheduled check, for example – cannot send a
    duplicate. Two genuinely different events do send two emails.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Can I get notifications somewhere other than email?">
    Yes. Webhooks send the same events to any HTTP endpoint you control, which is
    how teams route notifications into their own tools. See
    [Webhooks](/integrations/webhooks).
  </Accordion>
</AccordionGroup>

## Troubleshooting

**No emails at all.** Check the address on your profile first. Then check your
spam folder, then ask your IT team whether `timetracker.in` is being filtered.

**Some emails arrive, others do not.** That is a category setting, not a
delivery problem. Find the type in the
[notification types reference](/notifications/notification-types) and check that
category.

**A client says they never got the invoice.** Confirm the client has a contact
with an email address on the client record. Without one there is nobody to send
to. See [Client contacts](/clients/client-contacts).

**Emails arrive late.** A failed attempt is retried with a growing wait, up to an
hour between tries. A message that took a while has usually been retried.

More help in [Email not arriving](/troubleshooting/email-not-arriving).

## Related guides

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Notifications overview" icon="bell" href="/notifications/overview">
    How the notification system fits together.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Your notification settings" icon="sliders" href="/notifications/your-notification-settings">
    Choose what reaches you, and on which channel.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Reminders" icon="alarm-clock" href="/notifications/reminders">
    Your three daily checks, in your own timezone.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Notification types" icon="list" href="/notifications/notification-types">
    Every notification, its trigger, and its recipients.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Email not arriving" icon="triangle-alert" href="/troubleshooting/email-not-arriving">
    Step-by-step fixes for missing mail.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Client contacts" icon="users" href="/clients/client-contacts">
    Set the billing contact who receives invoices.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>