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A warning is a flag that sits on a property or object and tells your team something before they act on it: the structure is in the Special Flood Hazard Area (SFHA), its improvement costs are over your Substantial Improvement threshold, it is a Repetitive Loss property, or anything else your community wants called out. Forerunner ships a set of warnings that keep themselves up to date from your data, and you can add your own.

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Where warnings appear

Property and object profiles - Applied warnings are listed in the Warnings section, most severe first. Selecting one opens its full text. The mobile app shows the same section on a property or object. Maps - Warning layers highlight the properties that carry a warning. See Map layers. Tables - Filter a properties table by warning to build a working list, for example every property over the SI/SD threshold. See Creating views. Public website - Only warnings set to Shown to public appear on a property’s public page. Everything else stays internal.

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Built-in warnings

Built-in warnings apply and clear themselves as a property’s data changes. Nobody has to keep them current. For a built-in warning you can change its severity and visibility and make it inactive. Its group, object type, title, and text are fixed, and it can’t be deleted.
Warning settings page listing warnings by group, each showing whether it is shown to the public, hidden, or inactive
Repetitive Loss warnings are sensitive. They can’t be shown to the public, and internally they’re visible only to users with the Can view PII permission. See Managing repetitive loss.

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Create a custom warning

1

Open warning settings

Go to Settings > Account > Warnings. The page lists every warning in your account with its current visibility. Anyone can view it, but only Managers and Creators can add, edit, or delete warnings.
2

Select Add warning

Choose Add warning in the top right.
3

Choose the group and object type

Pick a Warning group. Most custom warnings go in Custom, but you can file one under any group except Repetitive Loss so it sits next to related built-in warnings. Under Object type, choose the properties or objects the warning can apply to.
4

Write the title and text

The Warning title is what shows in the Warnings section and on the map. The Warning text is the detail someone reads when they open it, so say what the person should do about it, not just what is true.
5

Set the severity

High (red), Medium (yellow), or Low (grey). Severity sets the color and sorts the Warnings section, so keep red for things that should stop work.
6

Set the visibility

Shown to Public or Hidden from Public (internal only). This choice appears once your public website is enabled. Improvement warnings stay hidden while Show Substantial Improvement / Substantial Damage is off in your public website settings.
Create account warning form with the group, object type, title, text, severity, and visibility fields filled in
Custom warnings can’t be created in the Repetitive Loss group.
If you hide a warning from the public while a public saved view uses it, Forerunner blocks the save and asks you to update those views first. Otherwise the change would break what the public site is showing.

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Apply a warning

Custom warnings don’t apply themselves. There are two ways to put one on a property or object: By hand - Open the property or object, select Edit warnings in the Warnings section, and switch the warning on. The same modal switches a warning back off. Managers and Members see this button. In the mobile app, use Edit in the Warnings section. With an automation - Add an Update a warning action to an automation and choose Apply warning or Clear warning. This is how you keep a warning in step with your records, for example applying a “Do not issue permit” warning when a code case opens and clearing it when the case closes. See Building automations.

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Retire a warning

Make a warning inactive when you want it out of the way but want to keep the history. Choose Make warning inactive from the warning’s menu. It disappears from property profiles and from the Edit warnings modal, and you can make it active again at any time. Delete a warning to remove it permanently. Only custom warnings can be deleted. Deleting takes it off every property and object it was applied to, along with those entries in the activity history.