How to set up Internal Alerts

ShippyPro’s Tracking Solver shows you which shipments have gone wrong, but someone still has to check the dashboard to find out. Internal Alerts closes that gap by sending the alert to your team the moment a shipment is flagged as an anomaly, so problems reach the right person before the customer even notices.

Summary

1. What is Internal Alerts?
2. How to set up an Internal Alerts workflow
3. Use cases
4. Pricing
5. Tips for Success
6. FAQ

1. What is Internal Alerts?

Internal Alerts lets you send a notification to your own team, or to an external contact, instead of to the end customer. It uses the same workflow builder and the same channels (Email, SMS, WhatsApp) as customer-facing Notifications, the only thing that changes is who receives the message.

It pairs with Tracking Solver: a new trigger, Shipment needs attention, fires automatically whenever Tracking Solver flags a shipment as Action Needed or At Risk. Instead of someone checking the dashboard, the flagged shipment comes to your team.

Key benefits:

• Faster response
  Your team is alerted the moment a shipment is flagged, instead of during a manual check
• Fewer costly delays
  Act within the carrier's window to release on-hold parcels or avoid automatic returns
• Proactive WISMO deflection
  Reach out to the customer with a resolution before they file a support ticket
• Saved time on monitoring:
  Eliminates the "monitor-and-check" cycle, freeing up time for CS and operations teams to focus on high-value tasks rather than manual tracking.

📌 Note: Internal Alerts is currently available to Enterprise accounts. If you don't see this option in your account, ask your account manager to enable it.

2. How to set up an Internal Alerts workflow

1. Go to the new Notifications
2. Open the Workflows section and click Create new workflow
3. Choose the trigger Shipment needs attention💡 Tip: This trigger fires for both Action Needed and At Risk shipments. Add a condition (step 4) to narrow it down, otherwise you may get more alerts than you want.
4. (Optional) Add a condition to target a specific scenario, such as Tracking update is 5230 - On hold or Tracking update is 5500 - Customs and documentation
5. Select the Send internal alerts action
   

    

6. Enter the recipient details:
   • Up to 5 email addresses for Email alerts
   • The phone number you want to alert for SMS or WhatsApp
7. Choose the channel(s), Email, SMS, WhatsApp, and the template to send
8. Click Save workflow, then toggle it Active

You'll see the workflow appear in your Workflows list. From this point on, every shipment matching the trigger (and any conditions) sends an alert to your chosen recipients.

3. Use cases

4. Pricing

• Email alerts are free, on any plan where the feature is enabled
• SMS and WhatsApp alerts follow the same pricing as customer notifications, and draw from the same monthly allowance — see SMS and WhatsApp Notifications Pricing

📌 Note: If you're already sending customer-facing WhatsApp or SMS notifications, an internal alert on the same channel counts toward the same free allowance and pay-as-you-go tiers — it isn't billed separately.

5. Tips for Success

• Start from what hurts. Pick two high-value targets: issues you catch too late and workflows that rely on manual updates, such as shipments on hold at carrier’s facility or missing documentation at customs.
• Use Email first if you're unsure. It's free and has no volume limit, so it's the lowest-risk way to test a new alert rule before adding SMS or WhatsApp.
• Pair with a Tracking Solver custom view. If you've saved a custom view for a specific issue (e.g. "Extra-EU Customs Blocks"), mirror the same condition in your Internal Alerts workflow. See how to set up custom views in Tracking Solver
• Review alert volume weekly, especially right after activating a new rule, to catch flood cases early.

6. FAQ

Q: Is this the same as a daily or hourly digest? A: No. Alerts fire per event, one message each time a shipment enters a flagged state. There's no aggregation in this version.

Q: Can I send an alert to a different person depending on the shipment? A: No. Recipients are static, the same email addresses and/or phone number receive every alert generated by that workflow.

Q: Does Internal Alerts replace Tracking Solver? A: No. The alert tells you a shipment needs attention; the investigation and resolution still happen in Tracking Solver or directly with the carrier.

Q: Which plans have access? A: Only Enterprise accounts at the moment

Q: Are internal alerts billed separately from customer notifications? A: No. Email is free. SMS and WhatsApp alerts draw from the same monthly allowance and pricing tiers as your customer-facing notifications.

Q: Can I combine internal alerts and customer notifications in the same workflow? A: You can, but we recommend separate workflows, the recipient logic and the message content are different, and it's easier to manage them independently.

Q: How many recipients can I add? A: Up to 5 email addresses for Email alerts. For SMS and WhatsApp, add the phone number you want to alert.

Q: What happens if I turn off a workflow? A: No further alerts will be sent for that rule. Past alerts already sent are not affected.