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Late to Close

Late to Close watches each site's operating-hours schedule and, if the premises is still open past its scheduled closing time, contacts the keyholders directly first — giving them a chance to confirm they are closing later — before it becomes a control-room job. The goal is to resolve the routine "someone worked late" case with the customer, without tying up an operator.

It is computed entirely from the site's schedule and live arm state. It does not depend on the alarm panel sending a "fail to close" signal, so it works on every monitored site that has operating hours set.

How it works​

  1. Detection. Every minute, CleverOps compares each site's schedule to whether it is still open. A site is "still open" according to the trigger rule you choose (see below).
  2. Customer nudge + sleeping event (Stage 1). After a short grace period past the close time (default 10 minutes), two things happen together:
    • The keyholders are notified — an app push to the site's CleverAlert users, plus a WhatsApp/SMS to keyholders opted into the schedule notification category. Every message carries that person's own link to a simple response page (see the options below). Tapping the app push opens that page inside the app, and while the site stays open the app's Home tab shows a Late to close card whose Respond button opens it too.
    • A Late to close event is created in CleverCommand straight away, but sleeping (low-noise, on the Trouble board — no operator siren or push). Operators can see a late-to-close is in progress; it stays asleep for the escalation window.
  3. The keyholder responds on the portal page. Options:
    • I'll close within 30 / 60 / 120 minutes — holds the event asleep for that long (they can reopen the link to extend).
    • It's already armed / closed — because no closing signal reached monitoring, the page explains this, asks them to double-check the panel is armed, and offers to log a technical fault. The event wakes so an operator can verify.
    • Report a technical fault — automatically raises a Service Ops job for the site's technician team and resolves the late-to-close event.
    • Please phone me — asks the control room to call the keyholder back.
    • Send help — an emergency signal that wakes the event immediately for the operator.
  4. Automatic wake (Stage 2). If nobody responds and the site is still open when the sleep window (default 15 minutes) elapses, the event wakes on its own and surfaces as needs-attention for an operator. Arming the site (or the required groups) at any point closes it automatically.

None of the portal buttons arm or disarm the panel — they only tell the control room what's happening. The panel and schedule remain the source of truth for whether the site is actually closed.

Enabling it​

Late to Close is configured per site and has a company-level master switch.

  • Company switch. The feature must be enabled for your company (control room). If you don't see Late to Close taking effect, contact CleverCam support to have it switched on for your account.
  • Keyholder opt-in. Only keyholders who have opted into the schedule notification category (and have a valid mobile number) receive the WhatsApp/SMS nudge. App users on the site receive the push, with their own response link, regardless.
  • Automatic messaging. The nudge is an automatic message. While your control room's Automatic messaging switch is off under Settings → Messaging, nobody is nudged — no push, no WhatsApp or SMS, no postpone link — and it is not sent later; the Outbox shows it as Automatic messaging off. The sleeping event is still created and still wakes for an operator when the escalation window runs out.

Configuring a site​

Late to Close appears on the site's Monitoring → Setup page, under the schedule, and is only available when the site is in Business mode (it needs operating hours).

  1. Go to Sites → Connected Sites and open the site.
  2. Open the Monitoring tab and find the Operating hours card. Make sure the site is in Business mode and the daily open/close times are correct.
  3. In the Late to close card below it, tick Enable late-to-close nudges for this site.
  4. Choose what counts as "still open":
    • Fully disarmed — only nudge when the whole site is still disarmed at close. A part-armed, stay-armed or away-armed site counts as closed. This is the default.
    • Specific groups armed — nudge if any of the groups you select is not armed at close. Part-arming the rest of the site is fine, as long as the chosen groups are set. Tick the groups that must be armed.
  5. Optionally adjust the timings:
    • First customer nudge — minutes after the scheduled close before the keyholders are contacted (default 10).
    • Escalate to operator — minutes after the nudge before it becomes a control-room event (default 15).

Changes save automatically.

What the customer's taps do

The portal buttons only tell your control room what's happening — they never arm or disarm the panel and never cancel a real alarm. A postpone holds the sleeping event; "report a fault" raises a Service Ops job; the other buttons wake the event for an operator. The panel and schedule stay the source of truth for whether the site is actually closed.

Late to Close vs. arm/disarm receipts​

Late to Close is separate from open/close receipts (the "your site was armed/disarmed" confirmation messages). Receipts confirm a normal arm/disarm as it happens; Late to Close only fires when a site fails to close on schedule and needs following up.