Needed-by dates and at-risk alerts

Why set a needed-by date

Most gift campaigns have a real deadline: the event, the holiday, the board meeting. Without a date, a slow parcel is just slow. With one, GiftDesk can tell you which gifts will not make it while there is still time to do something.

Part of Delivery health.

Set the date (store)

1. When you create a campaign in GiftDesk, fill in Needed by (optional) with the day gifts must arrive. You can add or change it later when you edit the campaign.
2. If one order has a different deadline, open that order and set Needed by for this order. Choose Use campaign date to go back to the campaign's date.

The date counts to the end of that day in your store's time zone. The gift team sees the date on the shared desk but cannot change it. If the date moves, they ask you.

Ship by

For each order that has not shipped yet, GiftDesk works out a ship-by date: the needed-by date, minus typical transit time for the carrier, minus one day of slack. Unshipped orders show "Ship by Dec 18 · needed Dec 20" on the desk, and the order page shows the ship-by date too.

How GiftDesk decides a gift is at risk

GiftDesk looks at each order again whenever tracking changes, whenever you change a date, and about every 30 minutes in between.

A gift is At risk when any of these is true:

• The carrier's estimated delivery date is after the needed-by date. When the carrier gives an estimate, GiftDesk uses it first.
• Typical transit would land it late. With no carrier estimate, GiftDesk uses typical transit times for that carrier, counted from the day it shipped. Transit is longer when the gift crosses a border (your store's country compared with the recipient's).
• It has not shipped by its ship-by date.
• The carrier reported a problem before the date has passed.

A gift is Late when the needed-by date has passed and it is not delivered.

Orders without a needed-by date are never marked at risk or late. They can still be flagged for No movement. See Stalled parcels, reships, and replacement orders.

Where it shows

• Shared desk: "Needed by" and an At risk or Late badge in the Status column. The At risk tile counts both and filters the table when clicked.
• Needs attention (store): an At risk section lists gifts that may miss the date, are late, or missed their ship-by date.
• Order page: the needed-by date (campaign or this order), the ship-by date while unshipped, and one line on why, for example "Carrier expects it Dec 22, after the needed-by date."

Tell the recipient it's running late (gift team, optional)

Recipients never get an email about a delay. If the gift team wants the gift page to be upfront about it, they can turn on Tell recipients when a gift is running late in the gift page message settings on the shared desk.

While a gift is at risk or late and still on its way, the gift page headline becomes "Your gift is running a little late". The gift team can write their own message under When it's running late. It replaces the usual gift message only while the gift is running late. If they leave it empty, the page uses a short default that says they are keeping an eye on it.

It is off by default, and it never names the reason.

Alerts (Pro)

On Pro, Plus, and the trial, GiftDesk emails the person who can act:

• At risk or Late: the gift-team teammate assigned to that recipient, or the desk lead if nobody is assigned.
• Missed ship-by date: the store's admin contacts in GiftDesk settings, because only the store can ship it.

Each gift sends one email per flag. A gift that goes back on track sends nothing. Carrier problems already have their own alert, so they do not send a second one. The store can turn these emails off in GiftDesk Settings with Email when a gift may miss its needed-by date.

On Starter, every flag, badge, tile, and filter works the same. Nobody is emailed, so someone checks the desk.