Set notification defaults
Choose which events notify parents by default. Each parent can still change their own.
You set the default notifications every parent starts with, and each parent can override their own from there. They're under Settings → Operations, in Notification Defaults.
Organization settings are owner-only. A center admin will not see the Operations tab, because everything on it is something the server would refuse from them anyway.
You can also change these from the iOS and Android apps, on the same Admin tab as the rest of your organization settings.
What you can toggle
Each of these is on or off by default for your families:
- Sign-In and Sign-Out: when their child is checked in or out.
- Daily Activities: photos, meals, naps, and other feed updates.
- Room Transfers: when their child moves rooms.
- Incidents: when an incident report involves their child.
- Billing: invoices and payment updates.
- Newsletters: when you send a newsletter.
How to think about it
Turn on the ones most families would want (check-in/out and daily activities are the favorites), and leave the rest to preference. Whatever you set is just the starting point; a parent who wants more or fewer alerts changes their own in the app.
What a check-in notification actually says
Parents get a short arrival alert with the child's first name and the time in your center's timezone:
Emma checked in Emma was checked in at 08:15 AM
Check-out is the same shape:
Emma checked out Emma was checked out at 05:42 PM
A few details worth knowing before you decide whether to leave this on:
- It is the child's first name only — no last name, no room, and no mention of who checked them in.
- It fires the same way whether the check-in happened at the kiosk, from a parent's own phone, or manually from a teacher's dashboard.
- Automatic end-of-day check-outs do not notify anybody. If your center relies on auto check-out, parents will see the arrival alert but no departure alert.
- If a child is checked into a room that is not their own, parents get a second, separate notification saying so. That one has its own toggle, so a parent who has muted check-in alerts can still receive it.
Where notifications live in the app
The bell is the one place notifications appear. Anything that pushes to someone's phone also lands in their bell, so a missed push is never a lost message. There is no second inbox to check.
A few things are bell-only and never push, most notably payment activity that would be noise on a phone.
Staff notifications
Staff have their own notification preferences on their profile in the app, covering the things they are told about rather than the things parents are: leave updates, messages, and announcements.
Worth knowing: owners now get leave updates switched on by default, so a staff member's time-off request reaches you. Turn it off in your own preferences if you would rather work from the Leave page.
Owners (and center admins with Finances access) also get Payments received on by default: a push and a bell entry each time a parent pays an invoice online, with the family, amount, and invoice number. It has its own switch in your notification preferences. See Enable online payments.
Troubleshooting
I can't find the Operations tab. Organization settings are owner-only. Center admins see General and Reports.
A parent says they get nothing. Check your defaults here first, then ask them to check their own preferences in the app, which override yours. Also check that notifications are allowed for NestliCare in their phone's system settings.
A parent changed rooms and got no alert. Room Transfers is a separate toggle from Daily Activities. Both need to be on.