What is Low Balance Alert and how can I set it up for my business?

Low Balance Alert is a notification feature that sends real-time alerts to specified recipients when a business’s Paystack Balance has dropped below set thresholds.

This feature will be particularly useful for businesses that offer wallet services, loan disbursements, or other types of businesses where customers constantly make withdrawals or initiate transfers. You can set this alert up from the Preferences tab under the Settings page here.

How does it work?

There are two low balance thresholds that will require configuration:

• Warning amount threshold: Once your Paystack Balance reaches the amount set as your warning threshold, you will receive an initial alert to top up your balance. This threshold will serve as an initial notice to your business that your Paystack Balance is almost depleted or below your desired threshold.
• Critical amount threshold: When your Paystack Balance gets to the amount set for this threshold, you will receive a final alert to top up your business. This amount should ideally indicate that your Balance has fallen below a threshold that’s acceptable for your business operations.

How do I receive the alerts?

Once both thresholds are configured, you’ll be required to select the channel through which you prefer to receive the notifications. There are currently three channels you can choose to receive the notifications:

• Email: If this notification channel is selected, you'll be required to specify the email address(es) you want the email alerts delivered. You’re able to add as many email addresses as you want.
• SMS: If this notification channel is selected, you’ll be required to specify the phone numbers you want the SMS alerts delivered to. Kindly note that you’re currently only able to provide a maximum of three phone numbers.
• Webhooks: This notification medium allows you to automate event(s) you’ll want to occur once a low balance alert is triggered. For you to receive alerts via webhooks, you will need to have webhooks set up for your business. Once you have webhooks set up, all you need to do is listen for a ‘balance.warning’ event type for the warning threshold, and a ‘balance.critical’ event type for the critical threshold.