Watchdog

Watchdog is Scoro’s proactive monitoring tool designed to save you from manual data checking.

Simply set the threshold for when you want to be notified, and let Scoro handle the tracking in the background. Instead of manually checking progress every day, you'll get an automated email when the threshold is exceeded. This way, you don't need to constantly review your bookmarked views or manually check project metrics – you'll be notified exactly when it's time to step in and make adjustments to stay on track. 

This article will walk you through how watchdogs work, how to set them up for bookmarks and project metrics, and how to increase the number of watchdogs available site-wide for your Scoro plan.

1. How do watchdogs work?

A watchdog monitors a single numerical value (like total cost, margin, or number of overdue tasks) against a limit you set.

Watchdogs can be set up for:

• Bookmarked views: Any value in the summary bar of most views in Scoro – invoice list, quote list, reports, task board, etc.
• Project metrics: Any metric within the summary bar of a one-off or retainer project.

Once the value you’ve set up a watchdog for exceeds a threshold you’ve defined, Scoro automatically sends you an email, allowing you to step in and adjust things at the right moment.

1.1. Example use cases

There are plenty of values in Scoro that you can effortlessly track and monitor with watchdogs – here are just a few examples of useful watchdogs you can create:

• Tracking monthly or quarterly sales targets:
  Bookmark a quote list filtered for a specific timeframe (e.g., this month or quarter). Set up a watchdog for the Sum metric to notify when the total value of quotes in that view reaches a certain threshold (e.g., your monthly or quarterly sales target). This allows you to monitor your team’s or individual progress towards hitting targets in real-time.
• Monitoring project budget health:
  Set up a watchdog for the Forecasted budget burn metric to alert you if it exceeds a certain percentage (e.g., 80%). This allows you to catch potential budget overruns early and adjust your project plan before the actual costs exceed your limit.
• Preventing over-servicing on retainers:
  Set up a watchdog for the Used budget metric to notify you when a specific percentage (e.g., 90%) is exceeded. This allows you to discuss a scope adjustment or overage fee with the client proactively before the budget is fully consumed.
• Managing team capacity:
  Set up a watchdog in a bookmarked team performance report view to alert you when the Booking vs Availability value for a specific team exceeds a certain percentage (e.g., 80%). This serves as an early warning that your team is reaching maximum capacity, allowing you to redistribute tasks, adjust deadlines, or outsource some of the work.

1.2. How watchdog notifications are triggered

Once saved, the watchdog monitors changes in the value after it was set up by comparing the current value against the value from the previous interval (based on the frequency you’ve chosen).

An email notification is only sent if:

1. The current value matches your threshold conditions.
2. The value has changed since the last check.

Example:
If you set a watchdog in the quote list to notify you when the total sum of quotes exceeds 0 EUR, with a frequency check of every day:

• Day 1: The sum is 500 EUR. Since this is over 0, Scoro sends an email notification.
• Day 2: The sum is still 500 EUR. Scoro will not send a notification because the value hasn't changed since the last check.
• Day 3: The sum increases to 600 EUR (or drops to 200 EUR). Because the value is different from yesterday and still exceeds your threshold, a new email notification is sent.

1.3. Key things to remember about watchdog behaviour

• User-based: watchdog notifications are private; only the person who creates the watchdog will receive the email alerts.
• Permission-based: watchdogs take into account permission sets; you will only be notified about items in Scoro that you can access based on your permission set.
• Project-based: alerts set for metrics in a project's summary bar apply only to that specific project.
• Period-based: watchdogs for retainer project metrics apply to the current period you’re viewing and automatically roll over to all future periods, resetting as each new period begins. This means you only have to set the watchdog once to stay informed across the entire retainer lifecycle.
• Entity-specific: watchdogs apply to the entity that the item being monitored belongs to. To monitor multiple entities, you need to create a watchdog for each entity.
• One watchdog per item: you can set up only one watchdog for each bookmark or project metric.

2. Setting up a watchdog for a bookmark

To set up a watchdog for a bookmark:

1. Open the bookmark settings: In your bookmarked view, click on Bookmarks, then click the gear icon next to the bookmark name.
2. Enable the watchdog: Tick the Notify by email checkbox to reveal the watchdog configuration fields. If you don't see this checkbox, a watchdog cannot be set up for the selected metric.
3. Set the trigger conditions: Define what should trigger the alert. Select the Value you want to monitor, the Condition, and the Threshold amount.
4. Choose frequency: Select how frequently Scoro should check the data (e.g., every hour or every day) from the Check again dropdown and click Save.

3. Setting up a watchdog for a project metric

You can set up watchdogs for most numerical metrics in the summary bar of one-off and retainer projects. The setup process is the same for both.

To set up a watchdog for a project metric:

1. Locate the metric: Open the relevant project and find the metric you want to monitor in the project’s summary bar. For retainer projects, ensure you are viewing the period you want to monitor (watchdogs cannot be set while ‘All periods’ is selected).
2. Enable the watchdog: Hover over the metric, click the gear icon that appears, and tick the Notify by e-mail checkbox. If you don’t see this checkbox, it means that you cannot set a watchdog for this metric.
3. Set the trigger conditions: Select from the Notify when dropdown field what should trigger the alert. Then, set the threshold amount and click Save.

Once you’ve saved the watchdog settings, the metric card will show a grey watchdog icon, signalling that this metric is being monitored.

When the threshold you’ve set is exceeded, you’ll receive an email notification, and the watchdog icon will turn orange.

4. Managing watchdogs for bookmarks

You can manage and add watchdogs for all your bookmarks in one place under Settings > My settings > Bookmarks:

• To modify the conditions of a watchdog, click on the Modify watchdog button on the bookmark row. Adjust the watchdog conditions as needed and save the changes.
• To disable a watchdog, click on the Modify watchdog button, untick the Notify by e-mail checkbox, and save the changes.

5. Getting more watchdogs

To ensure optimal site performance, each Scoro plan includes a specific allocation of watchdogs per site.

If you find that you have reached your plan's capacity, you can:

• Audit your active alerts: Review your current watchdogs and disable any that are no longer essential to free up space for new ones.
• Expand your capacity: To increase the number of watchdogs available for your site, upgrade to a higher Scoro plan.

For a detailed breakdown of the capacity available for each plan, visit our Plans & Pricing page.

6. Frequently asked questions

I should have received a watchdog notification, but it wasn't triggered. Why?

If you haven't received a watchdog email notification, check whether:

• You're the creator of the watchdog – watchdogs are user-based, meaning you can set up watchdogs only for yourself, and you can't get notified by watchdogs set up by other users.
• The watchdog conditions were met and should have triggered the email notification.
• The bookmark filters were set up correctly.
• Your user account email address is verified - if it isn't, you may not receive emails from Scoro, including the watchdog notifications.
• You have the right permissions to view the specific items in Scoro. For example, if you don't have access to certain projects, you won't receive watchdog notifications about them or the related documents.

I don't see the watchdog option on my bookmark. Why?

If you don't see the Watchdog feature on your bookmark, check if you’ve enabled the summary bar in your bookmarked view. If you still don't see it, then the Watchdog feature isn't available for that particular bookmark view.