Slack Integration

Business or higher Web App

The Slack integration posts Excavation Expert smart notifications into Slack channels of your choice, so your operations, sales, and leadership teams see what’s happening the moment it happens — without leaving the app they already live in.

Slack delivery rides on the Smart Notifications system, which is a Business and BusinessPlus feature. If you’re on the Free plan, upgrade to Business or BusinessPlus to enable Smart Notifications (and their email, web push, and Slack delivery channels). Only Owner, Manager, and Bookkeeper roles can connect or configure the integration.

What you can route to Slack

Each alert type can target a different channel, so noisy ops updates don’t crowd your leadership threads.

Alert	Typical channel
Project status / priority change	#operations
Resource assignments (personnel, equipment, crews)	#operations or #dispatch
Bid status changes (accepted, rejected, etc.)	#sales
New quote requests from your website	#leads or #sales
Change orders (created or status changed)	#operations
Invoice / milestone paid	#finance or #sales
Low inventory	#inventory or #operations

Messages include a direct “Open in Excavation Expert” button so anyone in the channel can jump straight to the project, bid, or request.

Connect your workspace

1. In Excavation Expert, open Settings → Apps.

2. In the Slack card, click Add to Slack. A Slack authorization popup opens.

3. Pick the workspace you want to connect, then click Allow. Slack closes the popup and returns you to the Apps page with Slack marked as Connected.

4. Open Settings → Smart Notifications.

5. For each alert type you want delivered to Slack, click the alert to open its dialog, toggle Also post to Slack on, and pick the channel from the dropdown.

6. Invite the bot to each channel. In Slack, open the target channel and run /invite @Excavation Expert. This is required for both public and private channels — the bot can only post where it’s a member.

Tip

Private channels only appear in the channel picker after you invite the bot to them. If you don’t see a private channel in the list, invite @Excavation Expert to it in Slack first, then refresh the alert dialog.

Managing the integration

• Change a channel — open the alert’s dialog in Smart Notifications and pick a different one. Takes effect immediately.
• Turn Slack off for a single alert type — toggle the “Also post to Slack” switch off in that alert’s dialog. Email and web push still fire.
• Disconnect entirely — Settings → Apps → Slack → Disconnect. The workspace is unlinked, the bot token is revoked at Slack, and all per-alert Slack settings are cleared.

Security

Your workspace’s bot token is encrypted with AES-256-GCM at rest before it ever reaches our database, and lives in a server-only location that’s never exposed to any client or third party. When you disconnect, the token is revoked at Slack and deleted on our side in the same operation.

We only request the minimum scopes needed to post into the channels you pick: chat:write, channels:read, groups:read, and team:read. The app cannot read messages, cannot send DMs, and cannot act on behalf of any user.

Troubleshooting

The bot isn’t posting in a channel. Most often, the bot hasn’t been invited. Open the channel in Slack and run /invite @Excavation Expert.

A private channel isn’t in the picker. Private channels only become visible to the app after the bot is invited. Invite the bot in Slack first, then reopen the alert dialog.

I get “couldn’t start Slack install” when clicking Add to Slack. Check that pop-ups are allowed for your browser — the authorize step opens in a popup. If the popup is blocked, allow pop-ups for excavation.expert and retry.

My workspace is disconnected unexpectedly. This usually means a Slack admin removed the Excavation Expert app from the workspace. Open Settings → Apps and reconnect.