> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.probaseapp.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
# Updates
> The bell, the Updates drawer, and how ProBase tells you something needs your attention
## What updates are
An **update** is a short, in-app message telling you something happened in your business that may need you — a new contact came in through your form, a customer's card payment went through, or Stripe paused your payouts, for example. Updates collect in one place behind the **bell**, so you can see what's new without hunting through screens or scrolling back through your email.
Each update is one line you can tap. Tapping it takes you straight to the screen where you'd act on it — the new lead's customer page, for instance — rather than making you go and find it.
**Updates are being switched on gradually.** The bell only appears once the feature is enabled for your account, and more kinds of updates are being added over time. If you don't see a bell yet, nothing is wrong — it hasn't reached your account.
## Where the bell lives
**On your phone**, the bell sits in the app bar at the top of every screen, at the far right edge with the chat (support) icon just inside it. When you have unread updates, a small gold badge sits on the corner of the bell with the count in it. More than nine and it reads **9+**. With nothing unread, there's no badge at all.
**On a computer**, there's no top bar, so the bell is an **Updates** item in the [navigation drawer](/getting-started/navigation), pinned in the footer just above **My Profile**. The unread count rides on the right-hand side of the row as the same gold pill.
Either way, tapping it opens the same Updates drawer.
The count refreshes on its own while you're using ProBase, so you don't have to reload the page to see something new land. It keeps checking even when ProBase is sitting in a background tab — so if you read something on your phone, the badge on your laptop clears itself without you touching it.
## The Updates drawer
Tapping the bell slides the **Updates** panel out from the right-hand side of the screen. It opens the moment you tap — grey placeholder lines fill it for the instant it takes your updates to load, then the real rows replace them. Tap the **✕** in its top corner, or the dimmed page behind it, to close it again.
Inside, updates are grouped into two sections, newest first:
* **New** — updates you haven't read yet. These rows are tinted, their titles are bold, and each carries a small gold dot on the right.
* **Earlier** — updates you've already read. Plain rows, no dot.
Every row shows an icon for the kind of event, a title, a one-line summary, and how long ago it happened ("just now", "2 hours ago").
If a section has more than twenty updates, a **Show more** button appears at the bottom of it — tap it to load the next batch.
The list shows updates for the business you're currently working in. If you belong to more than one business in ProBase, switch companies to see that business's updates — the badge on the bell counts everything unread across all of them, so it can read higher than the list you're looking at.
### When there's nothing to show
If you have no updates at all, the drawer says **You're all caught up**, with a line explaining what will land there in future: *"When something needs you — an accepted quote, new photos, a new contact — it lands here."*
## Updates on HomeBase
You don't have to open the bell to see what's waiting. [HomeBase](/getting-started/homebase#updates) carries an **Updates** section of its own, below **Action needed**, showing your unread updates on the page you land on after logging in.
* The gold **N new** chip beside the heading counts everything unread.
* Up to **three** rows are shown, newest first — the glance version, not the whole feed.
* **View all** opens the drawer described above, where the rest of them (and everything you've already read) live.
* Tapping a row works exactly like tapping it in the drawer: you land on the screen it points to, and the update is marked read.
The HomeBase section is **unread only**, so it empties out as you work and disappears entirely once nothing is unread — there's no empty state there. The drawer is the place to look back at things you've already read.
## How updates get marked read
**Opening the drawer doesn't mark anything read.** You can look at the list, decide none of it is urgent, and close it again — the badge keeps its count.
An update is marked read when you actually **arrive at the screen it points to**. Tap a **New contact** row, land on that customer's page, and that update quietly moves to **Earlier**, the badge ticks down, and the row drops out of the HomeBase section. Getting to the same screen another way counts too — if you happened to open that customer from your customer list, the update is marked read just the same.
This is deliberate. The badge tracks work you haven't looked at yet, not notifications you haven't glanced at — so it clears itself as you actually work through things.
## Push notifications for updates
Updates can also arrive as alerts on your phone's lock screen. That's a separate switch, granted per device:
* Open the drawer with notifications not yet decided on this device and a small **Never miss an update** panel appears at the top with an **Enable** button. Tapping it asks your phone for permission.
* You can also turn it on — or back off — from **Notification Preferences** on your profile. See [Push notifications](/getting-started/push-notifications).
Tapping a push notification opens ProBase straight at the update's destination, the same as tapping the row in the drawer.
Push notifications need ProBase installed on your home screen. See [Push notifications](/getting-started/push-notifications) for the full setup.
## What sends an update today
### Leads
* **New contact** — someone submitted your [contact form](/customers/contact-form). Links to the new lead's customer page. You still get the email as well.
This one goes to everyone whose [role](/team/roles-and-permissions) lets them see customers and leads.
### Money
These land when something happens to a payment while you're out working. They go to everyone whose role includes the **Money** permissions, and tapping one opens the customer it concerns — or the Money page, if ProBase can't tie it to a single customer.
| Update | When it happens | What to do |
| ---------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Payment received** | A customer's card payment went through — whether they paid from a [payment link](/billing/sending-payment-links), it was charged automatically, or you took the payment yourself | Nothing. It's your confirmation the money is on its way |
| **Payment failed** | A card payment was declined | Open the customer and ask them to pay again, or with a different card — see [Tracking payments](/billing/tracking-payments) |
| **Card on file removed** | The saved card ProBase would have charged automatically is gone | Ask the customer to enter a card the next time they pay |
| **Payment disputed** | A customer disputed a charge with their bank | Respond in your Stripe Dashboard before the deadline it shows |
| **Dispute won** / **Dispute lost** | Stripe closed a dispute one way or the other | Nothing — it's the outcome, for your records |
A dispute has a deadline set by the customer's bank, and ProBase can't respond to it for you. Open your [Stripe Dashboard](https://dashboard.stripe.com) as soon as a **Payment disputed** update lands.
### Payment processing
These are about the health of your [Stripe connection](/billing/stripe-setup) — the kind of thing you'd otherwise only notice the next time you opened the Payments page. They go to everyone whose role lets them see payment settings, and each one links straight to **Payments**.
| Update | When it happens | What to do |
| ------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| **Stripe payments are live** | Your Stripe setup finished, and both card payments and payouts are switched on | Nothing — you're ready to get paid |
| **Stripe needs your attention** | Stripe paused payments and is asking for more information | Open **Payments** and work through the **Stripe still needs:** list — see [Restricted](/billing/stripe-setup#restricted) |
| **Payouts paused** | You can still take card payments, but Stripe has stopped sending money to your bank | Finish the verification Stripe is asking for — see [Limited](/billing/stripe-setup#limited) |
| **Stripe disconnected** | The link between ProBase and your Stripe account was cut, so customers can't pay online | Reconnect from **Payments** — see [Disconnected](/billing/stripe-setup#disconnected) |
Stripe updates only arrive when something actually **changes**. Stripe re-checks your account constantly behind the scenes, and you'll only hear about it when the account moves from one state to another — so a healthy connection stays quiet.
More events are being added over time. Anything already in your drawer stays there.
Updates go to the people on your team who can act on them, based on their role. Someone who joins your team after an update was sent doesn't get that older update.
## How long updates stick around
* **Unread updates never expire.** They stay in **New** until you've been to the screen they point to.
* **Read updates are kept for 30 days**, then clear themselves out of **Earlier** automatically.
There's nothing to tidy up manually, and no way to delete an individual update — working through them is how the list empties.
## Related pages
* [Getting around ProBase](/getting-started/navigation) — where the bell sits in the app bar and the drawer
* [Push notifications](/getting-started/push-notifications) — getting updates as phone alerts
* [Text message notifications](/getting-started/text-message-notifications) — the separate SMS preference
* [Your contact form](/customers/contact-form) — the source of the **New contact** update
* [Setting up payment processing](/billing/stripe-setup) — the Stripe connection the payment-processing updates report on
* [Tracking payments](/billing/tracking-payments) — where a **Payment received** or **Payment failed** update lands you
* [HomeBase](/getting-started/homebase#updates) — the unread Updates section on your dashboard