Message of the Day (MOTD)
The Message of the Day is a banner-style announcement shown to everyone in your firm — at login and at the top of the dashboard. Use it for short, firm-wide messages that need broad visibility.
The MOTD is managed at Admin → MOTD. This is for roles with the set MOTD capability.
What MOTD is good for
- Short announcements that need to reach everyone ("Office closed Friday for the holiday")
- Reminders during peak season ("Tax-season verification reminders sent each Monday")
- Quick policy notes ("New mileage rate effective Monday")
What it's not good for:
- Long messages — keep it short, or use Messaging instead.
- Targeted messages — MOTD shows to everyone. For specific recipients, use Messaging.
- Rich formatting — MOTD is plain text only.
What employees see
When the MOTD is active:
- It appears on the login page for users who haven't signed in yet.
- It appears at the top of the dashboard for signed-in users.
- Each user can dismiss it for the rest of their session — clicking the dismiss icon hides it until they sign in again.
The MOTD reappears on next login. Dismissing is per-session, not permanent.
Managing the MOTD
The Admin → MOTD page shows the current message (if any) and lets you:
- Create a new MOTD — Enter the text, mark it active.
- Edit the existing MOTD — Change the text.
- Toggle active / inactive — Disable display without deleting.
- Delete — Remove the message entirely.
Only one MOTD can be active at a time. Activating a new message implicitly deactivates the previous one.
Active vs. Inactive
- Active — Shown to all users.
- Inactive — Saved in the system but not displayed. Useful for messages you want to bring back later.
Toggling between active and inactive is one click; you don't need to delete and re-create.
Plain text
The MOTD is plain text — no bold, italics, links, or HTML. This is deliberate: brevity and consistency are the point.
If you need formatting or links, use Messaging to send a message with the rich text editor instead.
Common scenarios
Office closed for a holiday. Set MOTD: "Office closed Friday Dec 26. Have a great holiday!" Activate. Disable when the holiday's over.
New rule going into effect. Set MOTD: "Mileage rate updated to $0.67/mile effective Monday." Leave active for a week or two, then deactivate.
Routine "verification reminders go out Monday" notice. Activate during tax season; deactivate after.
Don't. Don't use MOTD for ongoing announcements that should live in messaging history. The MOTD is ephemeral — once dismissed and replaced, the previous one isn't easily retrievable.