Your notifications
The bell in the top bar is how FCR tells you something happened. A number on it means you have unread notifications; no number means you're clear.
Click it for your most recent unread notifications. Each one links straight to the thing it's about. Clicking the notification itself marks it read on the way past.
Each row also has up to two small controls:
- Mark read — you've seen it; it stops counting toward the badge. This one only appears while the notification is still unread.
- Acknowledge or Dismiss — clear it away. Which word you see depends on the alert; see below.
The most urgent ones also appear at the top of your dashboard, as red-edged banner strips above everything else, so you don't have to open the bell to catch something important.
Two different things sit on your dashboard and it's worth telling them apart. The banner strips at the very top are notifications — something happened. The Tasks needing you card below is tasks — something is still true and needs doing. The difference is explained in the next section.
The banners at the top of your dashboard
These are your high-priority alerts only, newest first, up to five at a time. If you have more than five, a line underneath tells you how many and points you to the bell for the rest.
They work a little differently from the bell:
- The whole strip is a link. Click anywhere on it — the text, the icon, the empty space — to open the thing it's about.
- There's one button, and it says Acknowledge. There's no "mark read" here.
That second point is deliberate, and it's the subject of the next section.
Acknowledge vs. mark read
Marking something read says you've seen it. Acknowledging says you've dealt with it — and unlike marking read, clearing an alert is recorded against your account, with the time you did it.
That's why the wording changes. On alerts FCR expects someone to have actually acted on — an elevated risk screen, a crisis incident, anything urgent — the button reads Acknowledge instead of Dismiss. It's the same action; the word is telling you what kind of moment this is.
On the dashboard banners, Acknowledge is the only button there is. Those strips only ever carry high-priority alerts, so every one of them is an alert somebody should have acted on, and there's no way to quietly sweep one off the screen without that being recorded.
Clearing the alert records that you saw it and took it on. It doesn't record what you did about it, and it isn't a substitute for the clinical follow-up your agency's protocol calls for. Use the link first; acknowledge after.
In the bell, routine notifications still read Dismiss, and unread ones still offer Mark read alongside. So a quiet FYI can just be marked read and left alone, while an urgent one asks you for the deliberate act.
Notifications vs. tasks — they're different on purpose
This trips people up, so it's worth being clear:
| Notifications (the bell) | Tasks | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | Something happened | Something is still true and needs doing |
| Example | "A crisis incident was submitted" | "This note has been in draft for 4 days" |
| Goes away when | You read or dismiss it | You do the work |
A notification is a moment. A task is a standing condition — it disappears when the underlying situation is resolved, not when you look at it.
What generates a notification
You won't get all of these — it depends on your role and your cases. The common ones:
About your calendar
- Upcoming sessions were removed because a case was discharged or transferred, or your assignment ended — always one message per event, never one per appointment.
- A recurring series you're on was cancelled by someone else.
- You were added to an agency event (a training, a closure, a meeting), or one changed or was cancelled.
About clinical work
- Work you submitted was approved or returned for revision.
- Something you supervise is waiting for your approval.
- A crisis incident was submitted.
- A risk screener came back in a range that needs attention.
About cases and staff
- A case was transferred to you and needs your acknowledgement.
- A referral is expiring soon or has expired.
- An authorization is running low on hours.
- A task was assigned to you.
- Work-anniversary and staff reminders (supervisors and managers).
If you approve something, cancel your own series, or create your own event, you don't get a notification about it. You were there.
Why didn't I get one?
A few deliberate silences:
- Your own actions. See above.
- Personal calendar events. An event with no audience but you notifies nobody.
- Staff deactivation. When someone's account is closed their upcoming sessions are cleared, but FCR doesn't send them a notification about it — that's a conversation for a person to have, not a system message.
- Nothing actually happened. If a discharge removed zero upcoming appointments, there's nothing to tell you.
Frequently asked questions
Is there a full notifications page with all my history? Not today — the bell shows your recent unread ones, and the dashboard banners surface the urgent ones. Cleared notifications aren't archived anywhere you can browse, so if something links to work you still need to do, use the link before you acknowledge or dismiss it.
Why does the dashboard have no "mark read" button? Because everything on the dashboard banners is high-priority, and marking read would let an urgent alert leave the screen without recording that anyone took it on. The one button there is the recorded one. Marking read is still available in the bell, where routine notifications live.
Why does one alert say Acknowledge and another says Dismiss? The wording follows the alert, not the surface. Urgent ones — elevated risk screens, crisis incidents — ask you to acknowledge; routine ones offer dismiss. The bell and the dashboard use the same rule, so the same alert is worded the same way in both places.
Do notifications go to my email? No. FCR notifications live in the app. Email is used for account things like invitations and password resets.
The badge is gone but I never read anything. Someone may have marked it read on another device — the count follows your account, not the browser.
I keep getting told about the same case. Several different conditions can produce a notification about one case (an expiring referral and low hours, for example). If it's genuinely repeating for the same reason, tell your practice manager — that's worth reporting.
Need help with something this guide didn't cover? Contact support and we'll walk you through it.