Notes, files and alerts

Three tabs let you leave something on a record. Notes, Files and Alerts appear on an account and on a counterparty, and they behave the same way on both.

They differ in one thing only: who is meant to read what you left, and when.

A note and a file wait to be found. An alert goes looking for the reader.

Choosing between the three

flowchart TD
    A["You want to leave something on a record"] --> B{"Must the next person see it<br/>without going looking?"}
    B -->|Yes| C["Alert"]
    B -->|No| D{"Is it a document<br/>that exists elsewhere?"}
    D -->|Yes| E["File"]
    D -->|No| F["Note"]
    C --> G{"Must someone actually do<br/>something, by a date?"}
    G -->|Yes| H["Raise a task instead"]

An alert tells the next reader something. It does not ask anyone to act, and nobody is accountable for it. When the record needs work done by a person, by a date, raise a task — see tasks.

Notes

A note is free text against the record. Use it for the things a colleague reading this account next week would want to know.

Select Add Note, type the text, and save. There is no title, no category and no length limit — a note is one block of text.

The list reads newest first. Each entry shows who wrote it, how long ago, and the text in full.

Very recent entries show as “2 hours ago”. Anything older than a day shows the date and time instead.

The name against a note is the person’s own name, not a sign-in id.

Not every note is typed by a person. Where a record was loaded into LedgerTM from another system, the load can leave notes of its own, and they read in the list like any other.

Files

The Files tab is a register of the documents that belong with this record.

Select Add File and give the document a name and where it is kept. The list then shows the file name, who added it, and when.

LedgerTM does not keep a copy of the document, and a row does not open it. The Files tab records that a document exists — it is not a document store.

Documents the platform produces for itself, such as a statement or a tax certificate, are not here. You read those on the tab that produced them — see statements.

Alerts

An alert is a short line of text that shows itself to whoever opens the record next. Use it for the thing that would change how someone handles this account before they touch it.

Never call this number, it reaches the debtor’s employer.

Select Add Alert, type the text, and save. An alert has no severity, no category and no date — it is text, and it shows from the moment you add it.

How an alert shows

A bell appears beside the record’s number in the header, with a count of the alerts on the record. Rest on the bell to read them, or select it to open the Alerts tab.

An account with two alerts, one of which was removed, shows a bell reading 1. The text of the removed alert is not in the count and not in the tooltip.

Where a record has no alerts, no bell appears at all. The header is not carrying an empty control.

What an alert does not do

Three things people expect of an alert, which this one does not do.

• It never expires. An alert stays until somebody removes it. There is no end date and no review prompt.
• It cannot be dismissed. Reading an alert does not clear it, for you or for anyone else. Removing it is the only way to stop it showing.
• It blocks nothing. An alert does not stop a payment, hold an operation, or require anyone to acknowledge it before continuing.

So an alert is worth reading and cheap to leave behind. Review the ones on a record you work often, or the bell becomes wallpaper.

Editing and removing

All three behave the same way here.

Editing a note keeps the original author against it, so an edit never reassigns authorship to whoever made the edit.

Deleting does not erase anything. The entry and its text stay on the record’s history, out of the list. Neither the list nor the export brings a deleted entry back, so treat delete as final for everyday purposes.

There is no version history on the tab itself. If it matters that the previous wording survives where a reader can see it, add a second note rather than editing the first.

Who can see what you leave

None of the three is private. Everyone who can open the record and read these tabs sees the same entries, with your name against them.

So a note is the wrong place for anything you would not put in front of the customer, an auditor, or a colleague on another desk.

Your organisation decides who may add, edit and remove entries. Adding, editing and removing are three separate permissions, set for each of the three tabs. Where you do not hold one, the action is refused.

Adding, editing or removing can also be held for a countersignature where your organisation’s approval rules require one — see countersign.

Finding an entry

Each tab counts what it holds beside the title, and reads “N of M” while a search is narrowing it.

• Notes and Alerts. The search box matches the text and the author’s name.
• Files. The search box matches anything on show, and the columns sort.
• Export. Excel, CSV and JSON exports carry the rows the search has left on screen, and never the removed entries.

Where the tabs appear

Two things decide whether you see a tab, and both are your organisation’s configuration.

• Licence. Notes, Files and Alerts are three separately licensed capabilities. A tab your organisation is not licensed for does not appear — see switching features on and off.
• The record’s type. Each account type and counterparty type names the tabs its records carry. A type that does not name Notes has no Notes tab, even on a licensed tenant.

The alerts bell is the exception to the second rule. It sits in the header of every account and counterparty that has an alert, whether or not that record’s type carries the Alerts tab.