Alerts
End users want to know what is happening with their finances at all times. Banno offers a variety of notifications to keep your end users up-to-date with what’s happening in their accounts. Once enabled for your institution by our Implementation Team, those users can configure custom notifications based on a variety of events.
Account alerts
End users can create as many or as few alerts as they want for their accounts. Each alert has a type, a threshold, and a delivery method. Alerts are associated with a specific account. Banno currently offers the following account alerts:
High balance
This notifies the end user when their balance goes above the set threshold.
Example:
Danielle is saving for a down payment on a new car. She sets up a recurring transfer to her Savings account, but she will be sending individual transfers into the account whenever she can.
Since she’s not sure when she’ll hit her $5000 milestone, she sets up a High Balance email alert on her Savings account with a threshold of $5000. One of her recurring transfers for $200 processes overnight, pushing her balance total to $5100 dollars.
When she wakes up, she finds an email informing her that she’s reached her goal and can finally go buy her dream car!
Low balance
This notifies the end user when their balance goes below the set threshold.
Example:
Harold likes to go out to eat. While he otherwise budgets his money well, he regularly leaves the leftovers he brought for lunch in the fridge to treat himself to a plate of lasagna at his favorite Italian place down the road.
Knowing and accepting his inevitable lapses of willpower, he sets up a Low Balance push notification with a threshold of $1000 on his mobile app. One day, while enjoying the last of his garlic bread, his phone buzzes in his pocket, informing him that his balance has dipped down to $986.
Harold relishes the last few bites of his lasagna, knowing they’ll have to hold him over until payday.
Credit transaction
This notifies the end user when they receive a credit transaction with an amount above the set threshold.
Example:
Veronica is in junior high school and receives her allowance each Friday when one of her parents transfers the money into her account. Her set allowance is $10, plus extra for any major chores she’s helped with that week.
Veronica wants to know exactly when her allowance comes in so she can decide if she can go get a burger with her friends after school. Her parents help her set up a Credit Transaction SMS alert through online banking with a threshold of $10.
Every Friday she gets a text message letting her know how much her allowance for the week was. Now she just needs to remember to keep her phone off in class.
Debit transaction
This notifies the end user when they receive a debit transaction with an amount above the set threshold.
Example:
Aaron is not a big spender. He keeps a secondary account for entertainment spending, from which he rarely spends more than $80 at a time. He knows that a big transaction means either a special occasion or someone else using his account. Just to be sure, he sets up a Debit Transaction push notification with a threshold of $100.
One day, he finds a TV he’s had his eye on for a steal at $299.99. He decides to treat himself and buys it on the spot. Within a few minutes. His phone lets him know that a purchase over $300 has been made on his account. He only panics for a few moments before remembering the giant television in his trunk.
An end user can create multiple alerts of the same type for the same account, allowing the user to receive a notification across any of our available delivery methods: Email, SMS and push notification (mobile only).
If an end user needs alerts disabled for any reason, an FI representative can contact Banno support to do so.
Ensenta alerts
Institutions using Ensenta for remote deposit capture have a few additional alerts available.
- Check deposited
- This notifies the end user when a check has been submitted for deposit to a given account.
- Check accepted
- This notifies the end user when a check deposit has been approved.
- Check rejected
- This notifies the end user when a check deposit has been rejected.
How are account alerts generated?
The Banno Platform runs a continuous cycle to see if alerts need to be sent for each account with alerts enabled. This cycle usually lasts just a few minutes, meaning alerts are sent as soon as possible.
Rather than using the same processes our apps use to get balances and transactions, the cycle retrieves only the data it needs to ensure alerts are generated as quickly as possible. This means that balance alerts don’t need to retrieve all of an account’s transactions, and this means the cycle doesn’t rely on a user opening the app to get new data.
The cycle runs in two parts: alerts that require checking transactions, and alerts that do not. As checking transactions is a relatively time-consuming process, we do not do so for accounts with only balance alerts set. This ensures that our cycle time is short, and that alerts are sent as fast as possible.
User alerts
Some alerts can also be configured for a given end user, rather than a single account. These notify that user when something happens regarding their account as a whole.
Login from new device
This notifies the end user when a device that has not used the Remember this device toggle is used to log into a Banno app.
Email address changed
This notifies the end user when a Banno app has been used to change the email address on file.
Mobile phone changed
This notifies the end user when a Banno app has been used to change the mobile phone number on file.
Password changed
This notifies the end user when a Banno app has been used to change the user’s password.
Username changed
This notifies the end user when a Banno app has been used to change the username for this account.
When are alerts sent?
Balance alerts are usually sent once per day, as per your institution’s timezone. These are checked for during each of the aforementioned alert cycles, and will be sent as soon as possible while taking into account designated late-night quiet hours.
Every cycle, each transaction pulled for accounts with transaction alerts configured is checked against each of those alert settings. An alert will be sent for each alert setting that transaction fulfills, meaning a single transaction can send multiple alerts if the user has configured their account to do so. This means end users may see alerts for a single transaction when it is memo posted and another when it is hard posted.
Alerts will send within an hour of a triggering event.
FAQ
- When do alerts act differently?
- Alerts can be tricky. In more complex situations, our alerting system has unique behavior to account for interactions that might create scenarios outside what we’ve defined.
Alerts may behave outside general definitions in the following situations:
If a balance alert is sent, then the given account’s balance exits the set threshold, another alert will be sent if the threshold is met again within the same day.Evan paces out his entertainment spending using a Low Balance push notification alert set with a threshold of $800. He goes out to a movie with some friends, and the popcorn pushes his balance down to $794. His phone alerts him that he’s gone below his budget, but knowing he’ll be going out to eat after, he moves $20 from a secondary account into his primary before silencing his phone.
At dinner, he goes a little overboard on the appetizers and his account dips back down to $786. His phone alerts him again, informing him he’s overspent once again.
If a user changes a balance threshold, another alert will be sent if the balance meets that threshold.
Mary has a High Balance email alert set for when her balance goes above $2000 in her primary account, which she uses to determine when she has a little extra to put into Savings. After getting a raise at work, she gets an alert when her paycheck brings her balance to $3860. Realizing her alert will go off every paycheck with her new paycheck, she raises the alert threshold to $3000. She receives one more alert for the new threshold.
If an account has both a transaction alert and a balance alert set, the balance alert will only be sent if a new transaction is found.
Transaction alerts can be used to verify that there was a change in the account. In order to ensure alerts are not missed for accounts with only a balance alert set, a new balance alert will still be sent each day for accounts without transaction alerts set.
Elaine and Robert are roommates with separate accounts. Both pay rent as soon as they have enough money in their accounts each month, so they’ve set SMS High Balance alerts to let them know when their paychecks have been deposited and taken them over their threshold of $2000. Elaine also likes to track when she’s worked a bigger-than-average pay period, so she has also set an SMS Credit Transaction alert with a threshold of $1000.
When payday comes, they each get an $800 dollar check deposited into their accounts. Since Elaine’s transaction alert checks her balance any time a new transaction comes in, she receives an alert almost immediately. Robert’s comes just a minute later, when the balance check cycle comes back around.
The next day, neither Elaine nor Robert have paid their rent: nor, in fact, made any other purchases. Robert gets an alert after the next day’s quiet hours, informing him of his high balance. As Elaine has not had any new transactions, she does not receive a new alert.
- What makes Banno’s alerts different from NetTeller?
- Banno’s alerting system is completely separate from NetTeller. Unique, custom services have been created to ensure Banno’s alerts are as accurate and responsive as possible.
Banno does not have as many alert options as NetTeller. Since Banno’s alerts integrate directly with the core, more permissions are required to build out the alerting infrastructure. We continue doing everything in our power to ensure that your users’ alerts are as quick, accurate, and configurable as possible. - What if an alert type my users want isn’t supported?
- Our teams are always working on new alerting functionality to deliver the most important features to your end-users. For details on what we have in the pipeline, see our 6 month roadmap.