Notification types
What notifications can you receive in Slack?
Plutio sends notifications to Slack when important events happen in your business. You choose which events matter and where they go. Each notification includes context about what happened and a link to see details in Plutio.
Invoice paid
See client name, invoice amount, payment method, and invoice number the moment payment arrives. Celebrate wins with your team or track cash flow in real-time. For agencies routing payments to a #revenue channel, these notifications create a running log of incoming payments that the finance team can reference without logging into Plutio.
Proposal signed
Know immediately when clients accept your proposals. The notification includes client name, proposal title, and total value. New work is confirmed and ready to start. Teams that route proposal notifications to a #wins channel build a record of closed deals that motivates the sales team and informs delivery about upcoming projects.
New contact created
Track new leads entering your pipeline. See contact name, email, and how they were added (form submission, manual entry, integration sync). Sales teams monitoring a #leads channel can respond to new inquiries within minutes instead of checking Plutio periodically throughout the day.
Task completed
Monitor project progress as tasks are checked off. See task name, project name, and who completed it. Keep project channels updated without manual status reports. For project managers tracking deliverables across multiple client accounts, task completion notifications provide a real-time progress feed.
Booking confirmed
Get notified when clients book meetings through your scheduling pages. See client name, meeting type, and scheduled date/time. Freelancers who use Plutio's booking pages can route these to their personal DM so they know about upcoming meetings without checking their calendar constantly.
Time entry logged
Track team utilization as time is logged. See duration, project, and work description. Useful for managers monitoring billable hours across the team.
How do I route notifications to different channels?
Configure routing rules in Plutio to send different notification types to different Slack channels based on what makes sense for your team.
Channel routing prevents notification overload by ensuring each channel receives only relevant updates. Your sales team sees new leads in #sales without seeing every task completion. Your finance team sees payments in #revenue without project noise. Each person sees what matters to their role without wading through notifications that do not apply to them.
Routing also enables project-specific channels. Route task completions for a specific project to #project-acme so that project team stays updated while others are not distracted. For agencies with 5-10 active client projects, this structure keeps each project's updates contained to the people working on that account.
Common routing patterns: payments → #revenue, new leads → #sales, task completions → project-specific channels, proposal signatures → #wins or #closed-deals, bookings → #calendar or the team member's DM.
Setting up channel routing
- Step 1: In Plutio Settings → Integrations → Slack, find the notification configuration
- Step 2: For each notification type, select which channel should receive it
- Step 3: For private channels, first add the Plutio app to the channel using /invite @Plutio
- Step 4: Save your configuration. Routing takes effect immediately.
Can notifications go to private channels or DMs?
Yes. Notifications can be sent to private channels or direct messages, not just public channels.
Private channel routing is useful for confidential projects where updates should not be visible to the entire workspace. Financial notifications might go to a private #finances channel that only leadership can see. Client-specific channels might be private to prevent cross-client visibility. For agencies that handle multiple competing clients in the same industry, private channels prevent any chance of cross-client information leaking through notifications.
Direct message routing is useful for solo freelancers who do not have team channels, or for notifications that are only relevant to one person (like a team member's own task completions). A freelancer working alone can route all Plutio notifications to their personal DM, creating a private feed of business activity that does not clutter any shared channels.
To send notifications to a private channel, you must first add the Plutio app to that channel. In Slack, open the private channel and type /invite @Plutio. The channel then appears as an option when configuring notification routing in Plutio.
Privacy considerations
- Workspace guests: If your Slack workspace has external guests like contractors or freelance collaborators, ensure financial notifications go to channels they cannot access
- Slack Connect: If a channel uses Slack Connect with external partners, notifications will be visible to everyone in that channel
- Client-specific channels: Use private channels for client-specific notifications to prevent data leakage between clients
- Admin oversight: Workspace owners and admins can see all channels, including private ones, so sensitive financial data remains visible to leadership even in private channels
How do I connect Slack to Plutio?
Connecting Slack takes about 2 minutes. Authorize Plutio in your Slack workspace, select your default channel, and enable the notifications you want.
The authorization grants Plutio permission to post messages to channels you select. Plutio cannot read your Slack messages, access private conversations, or view workspace data beyond what is needed to post notifications. The permissions scope is minimal: Plutio sends messages and nothing else.
After connecting, notifications begin flowing immediately. Test by creating a sample invoice and marking it as paid. The payment notification should arrive in your configured channel within seconds. If the notification does not appear, check that you selected the correct channel during setup and that the Plutio app has been added to private channels if you chose a private destination.
If you have multiple Slack workspaces, you connect one workspace per Plutio workspace. Each Plutio workspace can connect to a different Slack workspace.
Step by step
- Step 1: Go to Plutio Settings → Integrations → Slack
- Step 2: Click "Connect" and select your Slack workspace when prompted
- Step 3: Authorize Plutio to post messages to your workspace
- Step 4: Select a default channel for notifications (you can change routing later)
- Step 5: Enable the notification types you want to receive. Save your configuration and test by triggering an event in Plutio to verify the notification arrives in the correct Slack channel.
What do Slack notifications look like?
Notifications are formatted as rich Slack messages with context about what happened and quick links to see details.
Each notification includes a headline describing the event, key details (client name, amount, project name), a timestamp, and a button linking directly to the item in Plutio. Click the button to jump straight to the invoice, proposal, or task without searching.
The formatting matches Slack's visual style, so notifications look native rather than like external bot spam. Notifications are visually distinct enough to notice but not so loud that they disrupt channel conversations. The message formatting uses Slack's built-in attachment style with colored sidebars and structured fields, so notifications stand out from regular team messages without feeling intrusive.
Notifications are designed to be informative at a glance. You should understand what happened without clicking through. The click-through link is there when you need more details or want to take action.
Example notification
- Headline: "Invoice #1234 paid"
- Details: "Acme Corp paid $5,000 via Stripe"
- Timestamp: "Today at 2:34 PM"
- Action: "View Invoice" button linking to Plutio
Proposal notifications follow the same pattern: headline describes the event, details show the client and value, and a link opens the signed proposal in Plutio. Task completion notifications show the task name, project name, and who marked the task complete.
How do I prevent notification overload?
Enable only the notification types that matter to your workflow. Disable everything else.
Plutio gives you granular control over which events send notifications. You can enable invoice payments (high importance) while disabling time entry logging (too frequent for most teams). Enable proposal signatures while disabling every task completion. The goal is keeping notifications valuable so your team actually reads them rather than reflexively ignoring the channel.
Start with fewer notifications and add more if you find you are missing important events. Starting with everything enabled leads to notification fatigue and people ignoring or muting channels. Most teams find 3-4 notification types are enough to stay informed without creating noise.
Recommended starting point: enable invoice paid, proposal signed, and booking confirmed. Payment and signature events are high-value and happen infrequently. Add task completions and other events only if you find you need them.
Strategies for managing volume
- Selective enabling: Enable only high-value, low-frequency events initially
- Channel routing: Route high-volume notifications (tasks) to dedicated channels that people can mute
- Slack notification settings: Team members can adjust their Slack notification preferences per channel
- Scheduled quiet hours: Use Slack's Do Not Disturb to pause notifications during focused work
- Review and adjust: After one month of use, check which channels get the most engagement and remove notifications nobody reads
What if Slack notifications stop working?
Check your Slack connection in Plutio settings first. Most issues are resolved by reconnecting or verifying channel configuration.
Slack authorization tokens can expire, especially after workspace security changes or extended periods without notifications. Reconnecting refreshes the authorization and usually resolves the issue immediately. Workspace admins who rotate security credentials or update OAuth policies may trigger re-authorization requirements for all connected apps including Plutio.
If notifications are not reaching a specific channel, verify that channel still exists and that the Plutio app has been invited to private channels. Channel renames or deletions can break routing rules. Archived channels also stop receiving notifications, so check whether someone archived the target channel if messages stop arriving.
Test notifications after making changes: create a test invoice and mark it as paid. The notification should arrive within seconds. If it does not, check the connection status and channel configuration.
Common issues and fixes
- No notifications at all: Go to Settings → Integrations → Slack and verify the connection is active. Reconnect if needed.
- Notifications to wrong channel: Update the channel routing configuration in Plutio's integration settings.
- Private channel not receiving: Add the Plutio app to the channel using /invite @Plutio in Slack.
- "Missing permissions" error: Disconnect and reconnect Slack to refresh authorization tokens.
- Delayed notifications: Check your internet connection and Slack's status page. Plutio sends notifications in real-time, so delays usually indicate a Slack infrastructure issue rather than a Plutio problem.
