Dashboard and reporting - GOV.UK Notify Admin

The GOV.UK Notify Admin dashboard provides real-time visibility into your notification activity, delivery performance, and service usage.

Service dashboard

The main dashboard (/services/{service_id}) shows an overview of your notification activity.

Dashboard sections

The dashboard uses AJAX-based partials that auto-refresh to show live data:

Last 7 days
Template statistics
Inbox
Upcoming

Activity totals - Shows counts for the last 7 days:

Emails sent: Total emails with delivery stats
Text messages sent: Total SMS with delivery stats
Letters sent: Total letters with delivery stats

Each total shows:

Count of sent notifications
Count of failed notifications
Failure percentage
Warning indicator if failure rate exceeds 3%

Click any total to view filtered notification list.

Received text messages - For services with inbound SMS enabled:

Recent inbound messages
Sender phone number
Message content
Received timestamp
Link to full conversation

Only shown if service has inbound_sms permission.

Live updates

The dashboard uses JSON endpoints to update sections without full page reload:

Update URL: /services/{service_id}/dashboard.json
Sections updated: totals, template-statistics, inbox, upcoming
Initial load: Shows loading placeholders (_totals-lazy.html, template-statistics-lazy.html)

The dashboard only appears for users with view_activity permission. Users without this permission are redirected to the template chooser.

Notifications page

View and search all notifications sent from your service.

Accessing notifications

Navigate to /services/{service_id}/notifications to see all notifications, or filter by type:

/services/{service_id}/notifications/email - Email notifications only
/services/{service_id}/notifications/sms - SMS notifications only
/services/{service_id}/notifications/letter - Letter notifications only

Status filtering

Filter notifications by delivery status:

Total
Delivering
Delivered
Failed

Shows all notifications regardless of status (sending, delivered, failed).Query parameter: status=sending,delivered,failed

Notifications currently being processed or in transit.Calculated as: requested - delivered - failedQuery parameter: status=sending

Successfully delivered notifications.Query parameter: status=delivered

Notifications that failed to deliver.Query parameter: status=failed

Each filter shows the count and updates dynamically.

Search functionality

Search notifications by:

Email: Email address
SMS: Phone number
Letter: Postal address or file name
All types: Reference (if API keys exist for the service)

The search:

Stores the search term in Redis with a hash (7-day TTL)
Uses the hash in URLs to avoid exposing personal data
Returns cached search results when navigating back

Implementation details (app/main/views/dashboard.py:89-108):

def cache_search_query(search_term, service_id, search_query_hash):
    # Caches search term using SHA512 hash
    # Returns hash for URL and cached search term
    # 7 day TTL (SEVEN_DAYS_TTL constant)

Data retention

Notifications are retained based on service settings:

Default retention: 7 days
Configurable per service and message type
Shown in UI: “Messages sent in the last X days”

Access retention value: current_service.get_days_of_retention(message_type)

Downloading notifications

CSV export limits

Two download methods available:

Direct download
Report request

When available: Notification count ≤ MAX_NOTIFICATION_FOR_DOWNLOAD constantDownload link: Appears at top of notifications pageURL: /services/{service_id}/download-notifications.csvParameters:

message_type: email, sms, or letter
status: Filter by status

Limits:

Page size: 10,000 rows
Respects service data retention days

When available: Count ≤ REPORT_REQUEST_MAX_NOTIFICATIONS (if feature flag enabled)Process:

Click “Request a report” button
System creates report request via API
Redirects to report request status page

Report types:

report_type: Type of report requested
Includes notification type and status filters

Asynchronous processing for larger datasets.

Download format

CSV exports include:

Recipient information (formatted for human readability)
Message status
Sent date/time (numeric format)
Template name
Additional metadata based on notification type

Filename format: {date} - {message_type} - {service_name} report.csv

Downloads are not available if notification count exceeds the maximum threshold. In this case, contact support or use the API to retrieve notifications.

Monthly statistics

View historical notification volume by month.

Monthly view

Access at /services/{service_id}/monthly to see:

Month-by-month breakdown for selected financial year
Counts by message type (email, SMS, letter)
Requested vs. delivered vs. failed counts
Failure percentage for each month
Warning indicators for high failure rates (>3%)

Year selector

Switch between financial years:

Default: Current financial year
Available: Current year and 2 previous years
URL parameter: ?year=2024
Financial year: April 1 - March 31

Example URL: /services/{service_id}/monthly?year=2024

Template usage reporting

Analyze which templates are being used and how often.

Template usage page

Access at /services/{service_id}/template-usage to see:

Monthly breakdown of template usage
Templates grouped by month
Sorted by usage count (highest first)
Visual bar chart showing relative usage

Usage data

For each template in each month:

Template ID and name
Template type (email/SMS/letter)
Total count sent
Whether it’s a precompiled letter

Data is filtered to exclude:

Cancelled notifications
Future months

Data source: template_statistics_client.get_monthly_template_usage_for_service(service_id, year)

Year filtering

Same financial year selection as monthly statistics:

Current year plus 2 previous years
URL parameter: ?year=2024

Usage and billing

Track your service usage against allowances and view costs.

Usage page

Access at /services/{service_id}/usage (requires manage_service or org user permission):

Annual summary

Shows for selected financial year:SMS:

Free allowance for the year
Total fragments sent (chargeable units)
Remaining allowance
Total cost (if exceeds allowance)

Emails:

Total sent (emails are free)

Letters:

Total sent
Total cost (all letters are charged)

Monthly breakdown

For each month in the financial year:SMS:

Free allowance used that month
Breakdown by rate (if charged)
Cost for the month

Letters:

Count by postage type (first class, second class, international)
Rate per letter
Cost breakdown

For users with manage_service permission, dashboard shows annual usage:

Updates via AJAX: /services/{service_id}/dashboard-usage.json
Shows current year usage summary
Links to full usage page

Letter postage breakdown

Letters are grouped by:

Postage type (ordered: first class, second class, economy mail, international)
Rate (price per letter)

Each group shows:

Number of letters sent
Rate charged
Total cost for that group

Inbox (inbound SMS)

View and manage received text messages.

Inbox page

For services with inbound_sms permission, access at /services/{service_id}/inbox:

Shows received text messages in reverse chronological order
Pagination (50 messages per page)
Auto-refreshes via /services/{service_id}/inbox.json

Message display

Each inbound message shows:

Sender phone number (formatted for human readability)
Message content (with Excel formula characters stripped: =+-@)
Received date/time (numeric format)
Link to conversation thread

Download inbox

Export all inbound messages to CSV: URL: /services/{service_id}/inbox.csv Columns:

Phone number
Message
Received (timestamp)

Filename: Received text messages {current_date}.csv

The inbox download includes ALL inbound messages for the service, not just the current page.

Individual notification details

View detailed information about a specific notification.

Notification page

Access at /services/{service_id}/notification/{notification_id}:

Full notification details
Rendered template with personalisation
Current delivery status
Status history
Error messages (if failed)
Letter preview (for letters)

The notification page provides contextual back links based on how you arrived:

From job: Back to job page
From uploaded letters: Back to uploaded letters for that print day
From search: Back to search results (preserves search hash)
From status filter: Back to notifications with same filter
Just sent: No back link (help=0 parameter)

Letter-specific features

Precompiled letters
Templated letters

For uploaded PDF letters:

Shows page count from metadata
Displays validation errors with affected page numbers
Preview shows actual PDF pages as PNG images
Option to cancel (if not yet sent to printer)

Real-time status updates

Notification status updates via JSON endpoint: URL: /services/{service_id}/notification/{notification_id}.json Returns: Status partial HTML for dynamic updates

Report requests

For large datasets exceeding direct download limits.

Creating a report request

From notifications page:

Click “Request a report” button
System calls: report_request_api_client.create_report_request()
Receives report_request_id
Redirects to: /services/{service_id}/report-request/{report_request_id}

Report request parameters

user_id: Current user requesting the report
report_type: Type of report (from form submission)
notification_type: Message type filter (email/sms/letter)
notification_status: Status filter (sending/delivered/failed/all)

Feature flag

Report requests enabled when:

REPORT_REQUEST_MAX_NOTIFICATIONS > 0 and 
notifications_count <= REPORT_REQUEST_MAX_NOTIFICATIONS

Best practices

Monitor failure rates

Check dashboard daily for failure percentages above 3% - investigate templates or recipient data quality.

Use status filters

When troubleshooting, filter to failed notifications and search by recipient to identify patterns.

Download regularly

Export notification data regularly for your own records, respecting the data retention period.

Review template stats

Use template usage reports to identify unused templates that could be archived.

Overview

Core Features

User Guides

Configuration

​Service dashboard

​Dashboard sections

​Live updates

​Notifications page

​Accessing notifications

​Status filtering

​Search functionality

​Data retention

​Downloading notifications

​CSV export limits

​Download format

​Monthly statistics

​Monthly view

​Year selector

​Template usage reporting

​Template usage page

​Usage data

​Year filtering

​Usage and billing

​Usage page

​Dashboard usage widget

​Letter postage breakdown

​Inbox (inbound SMS)

​Inbox page

​Message display

​Download inbox

​Individual notification details

​Notification page

​Navigation context

​Letter-specific features

​Real-time status updates

​Report requests

​Creating a report request

​Report request parameters

​Feature flag

​Best practices

Monitor failure rates

Use status filters

Download regularly

Review template stats

Build docs developers (and LLMs) love

Service dashboard

Dashboard sections

Live updates

Notifications page

Accessing notifications

Status filtering

Search functionality

Data retention

Downloading notifications

CSV export limits

Download format

Monthly statistics

Monthly view

Year selector

Template usage reporting

Template usage page

Usage data

Year filtering

Usage and billing

Usage page

Dashboard usage widget

Letter postage breakdown

Inbox (inbound SMS)

Inbox page

Message display

Download inbox

Individual notification details

Notification page

Navigation context

Letter-specific features

Real-time status updates

Report requests

Creating a report request

Report request parameters

Feature flag

Best practices