Running the company
Staff communication
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Web and mobile4 min readUpdated
On Pro and Business, Staff gives your team one place for announcements, a team feed and photo posts, with a report of who read and acknowledged each announcement.
Staff is your team's own space in BlastoClean. Owners and managers post announcements, and team members who can post share quick updates in the team feed. It works for a two-person home cleaning team and for a commercial crew spread across several buildings.
Staff is included with Pro and Business. Everyone on your team with access to a location sees that location's Staff page. Crew members only see Staff content. They do not see customer messages, invoices, prices or visits they are not assigned to, except the few details a shift swap request shows them: a visit's date and time, the client's name and city, who is asking and their note.
One Staff hub
Open Staff from the menu. Updates appear first, with no open draft in front of them. Request time off is beside New message, with Shift swaps next to it on the website, where shift swaps are asked, answered and approved. The website also works in your phone's browser. Documents and Notification settings are secondary links in Staff.
Owners and managers can also use People and teams to open Settings. The existing member, administrator and saved-team settings remain accessible on the plans and roles that already include them.
Send a message to everyone, a team or a person
- Open Staff, then select New message. Owners and managers use this composer to send an announcement.
- Enter a Title and a Message.
- Choose Send to: Everyone at this location, Person or Team. Team uses saved teams and is offered to people who can view the schedule. Select at least one person or team when using those choices.
- Open More options to Pin announcement or Require acknowledgement if each person must confirm they read it.
- Select Send.
Everyone means the current location. Owners and managers at that location can also see messages sent to a team or a person. These messages are not confidential private chats.
The people who receive an announcement are set when you publish it. Adding someone to a team later does not add them to an earlier announcement.
Read and acknowledge
Open Staff to see Announcements for your current location. Select Mark as read when you have read one. If it asks for acknowledgement, select Acknowledge as well. Opening the page does not mark anything for you.
Owners and managers can open the Read and acknowledgement report on an announcement to see who has read it and who has acknowledged it.
The team feed
The Team feed on the Staff page is for everyday updates: "Front door code changed at the Main Street office" or "Great job on the move-out today." Select Share an update, type a Message and select Send. Team members who can post can also start this draft with New message. These updates go to Everyone at this location. People can Like and Comment on posts.
Owners and managers can Remove a post; the team then sees that a manager removed it. In New message, open Posting access to select Pause posting for a person and Allow posting to turn it back on. A person whose posting is paused can still read updates available to them. Read-only team members can read the feed but cannot post.
Photo posts
On the web Team feed, select Add a photo update. If you have typed an update draft, the web app asks you to discard it before starting a separate photo update. Cancel to keep your draft. On mobile, open an update draft and select Add a photo update; returning from the photo screen keeps your draft. Photo actions are unavailable while a send is busy or waiting for a retry. Owners and managers can also select Share a photo update with everyone at this location in New message. On web, this action also asks you to discard any message draft before continuing. Cancel to keep its title, message and selected recipients. Use it for pictures such as a finished job or a supply closet that needs restocking. Add a Message, select Choose photos (up to 4 JPEG or PNG photos, 5 MB each), then select Publish photo post. Photos are visible to active staff at that location. Removing a post also hides its photos. Photo updates always go to everyone at that location, even if your separate announcement draft selects a team or person. The photo draft does not carry that audience over.
Keep W-9s, IDs and certifications in My documents (or Staff documents for managers, who can file them for any team member). Each private document is visible only to the person it is about and the location's owners and managers. They are separate from shared photo updates. Ordinary file attachments to messages are not supported.
Good to know
- Staff needs an internet connection. If a post or announcement cannot be confirmed, the app keeps your draft and offers to retry the same one.
- Nothing on the Staff page is sent to your customers.
- People can get an email notice when a new announcement is posted. See Staff notification preferences.
- Related: Staff time-off requests, Shift swaps, Offer an assigned visit and Private staff documents.
Questions? Email hello@blastoclean.com.
Refreshing and recovering photo posts
In Staff photos, use Refresh for new posts and Load more for older ones. If a publish response cannot be confirmed, choose Retry the same post. Photos and the draft remain available while that page stays open; this is not the restart-safe offline visit-photo queue. Keep the page open until the publish result is clear.
Unused uploads lists uploaded files that were not attached to a published post. Use Discard unused upload to remove one you no longer need. These shared photo posts are separate from visit evidence and private staff documents.