Inbox & Notifications

Ascent uses two complementary systems to keep you informed: the Inbox for items that need your action, and Notifications for informational alerts. Both surface in the top bar and refresh in real time.

Overview

The Inbox and notification system together let you:

• See actionable items (assignments, approvals, SLA breaches, expirations) in one place via the Inbox.
• Receive informational alerts (status changes, replies, mentions) via the Notifications bell.
• Track unread counts with badges in the top bar that update live.
• Filter inbox items by category and status, and snooze, archive, or delete them.
• Control which notifications you receive — and whether they also arrive by email — with per-type preferences.

Inbox vs. Notifications

The two systems serve different purposes:

	Inbox	Notifications
Purpose	Items that require you to do something	Informational alerts (things you may want to know)
Top-bar icon	Inbox icon (badge tinted with your primary color)	Bell icon (badge tinted red)
Page	Inbox (/inbox)	Notifications (/notifications)
Examples	Ticket assigned to you, approval needed, SLA at-risk, contract/domain/certificate expiring	Ticket status changed, ticket reply, invoice paid, you were mentioned

Not every notification has a matching inbox item — only events that need action create an inbox item. When you act on an item (for example, a ticket is closed or an invoice is paid), Ascent automatically clears the related inbox items and notifications so you don't have to dismiss them by hand.

Top-bar badges

Both indicators live at the right of the top bar on every page:

• The Inbox icon shows your number of unread inbox items. Clicking it opens the Inbox page.
• The Bell icon shows your number of unread notifications. Clicking it opens a dropdown of your 5 most recent unread notifications, with a link to View all notifications at the bottom. When you also have unread inbox items, the dropdown header shows an N in inbox shortcut (where N is your unread inbox count) to the Inbox page.

Counts greater than 99 display as 99+. Badges update automatically in real time as new items arrive — no page refresh needed.

The Inbox

Navigate to Inbox in the Main section of the sidebar (/inbox).

The page header shows how many items are unread and how many require action (for example, "3 unread items, 1 require action"), or "All caught up!" when nothing is pending.

Filtering

Filter inbox items two ways:

• Category buttons across the top: All, Assigned, Mentioned, Watching, Approval, and System. Each category button shows a count badge.
• Status dropdown on the right: Active, Unread, Read, Archived, or Snoozed. The default view (Active) shows unread and read items together.

Use the refresh icon to reload the list manually.

Item fields

Field	Description
Title	Short summary of the item
Body	Optional detail line beneath the title
Category	One of Assigned, Mentioned, Watching, Approval, or System
Priority	LOW, NORMAL, HIGH, or URGENT — items show an Urgent or High badge when applicable
Action needed	Badge shown when the item requires action
Actor	Avatar of the user who triggered the item (where applicable)
Time	When the item was created, shown as relative time

Clicking an item marks it read and takes you to the linked record (for example, the ticket, quote, or approval page).

Item actions

Each item has a menu (the ⋯ button) with these actions:

Action	What it does
Mark as read / Mark as unread	Toggles the item's read state
Archive	Removes the item from the active list (still visible under the Archived status filter)
Snooze 1 hour / Snooze 4 hours / Snooze until tomorrow	Hides the item from the active list until the chosen time; snoozed items are visible under the Snoozed filter, which shows the snooze-until time
Delete	Permanently removes the item

Bulk actions are available in the page header:

• Mark all read marks every item as read.
• Archive read archives all already-read items.

The Notifications page

The bell dropdown's View all notifications link opens the Notifications page (/notifications).

Filtering

Use the filter dropdown to narrow the list: All Notifications, Unread Only, Tickets, Invoices, Alerts, Mentions, Clients, Calendar, or System. Unread notifications carry a New badge and a highlighted background.

Most real notifications fall into the Tickets, Invoices, Alerts (domain, certificate, warranty, and license expirations), Mentions, or System buckets. The Clients and Calendar filter options exist in the dropdown but currently have no notification types mapped to them, so they typically return no results.

Notification actions

• Click a notification (or its View button) to mark it read and jump to the linked record.
• The per-row menu offers Mark as read and Delete.
• The page header has Mark all read and Clear all (which deletes every notification).

A Notification Preferences card at the bottom links to Manage Preferences in your profile.

Notification preferences

You control notifications per user from your profile's notification settings (see Profile settings). There is no separate notification-settings page in the sidebar — preferences are managed in your profile.

Preferences are opt-out: by default you receive both an in-app notification and an email for every type. You only change a setting when you want to turn something off.

Master email toggle

The Email Notifications switch is a master control. When it is off, you receive no notification emails at all, regardless of the per-type settings below it. (Your in-app notifications are unaffected.) When it is off, the per-type Email switches are disabled.

Per-type switches

Notification types are grouped into collapsible categories. For each type you get two switches:

• In-App — whether the notification appears in the app (bell / Notifications page).
• Email — whether you also receive it by email (only honored when the master Email Notifications toggle is on, and only if your organization has email configured).

The categories and their types are:

Category	Notification types
Tickets	Ticket Created, Ticket Assigned, Ticket Unassigned, Ticket Reply, Ticket Mention, Status Changed, Priority Changed, Ticket Resolved, Ticket Reopened, Ticket Merged, Ticket Split
Invoices	Invoice Created, Invoice Sent, Invoice Paid, Invoice Overdue, Invoice Refunded, Invoice Disputed
Quotes	Quote Created, Quote Sent, Quote Accepted, Quote Rejected
Contracts & Expirations	Contract Created, Contract Expiring, Contract Expired, Domain Expiring, Certificate Expiring, Warranty Expiring, License Expiring
Projects & Tasks	Project Created, Project Assigned, Project Completed, Task Assigned, Task Completed
Time Off	Time Off Requested, Time Off Approved, Time Off Denied
Checklists	Item Assigned, Item Due Soon, Checklist Completed
Other	Mentions, System Alerts

Changes save automatically a moment after you toggle a switch.

Email delivery diagnostic

If your notification emails can't be delivered, a banner appears on the preferences card explaining the specific blocker — for example, your Email Notifications toggle is off, your organization hasn't finished SMTP or Microsoft 365 setup, or your account has no email address on file. When everything is configured correctly, no banner is shown.

Tips

• If your inbox feels noisy, start with the Category buttons to focus on Assigned or Approval items, then snooze lower-priority items rather than deleting them.
• Leave informational notifications in-app and turn off their Email switches to cut inbox noise without losing the in-app history.
• Use the master Email Notifications toggle for a quick all-off when you don't want any notification emails for a period.