Issue categories define what types of problems occupants can report when they scan a tag in your facility. They also control how urgently your team is alerted. This page explains how categories work, what defaults are seeded for your industry, and how to configure them.Documentation Index
Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.cleanscan.io/llms.txt
Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
What categories are
Categories are org-defined issue types — not a fixed list hardcoded by CleanScan. When someone scans a tag in your facility, the scan page shows them your active categories and asks them to pick the one that matches their report. Examples include “Mess/Spill”, “Equipment Issue”, or “Safety Hazard”. You decide what categories exist, what they’re called, how urgent they are by default, and how alerts behave. When you sign up, CleanScan seeds a sensible starting set based on your industry. You can use those defaults as-is, edit them, or replace them entirely.Industry defaults
The following categories are seeded automatically at signup based on the industry you select.- Gym / fitness center
- Office
- School
| Category | Default priority | Alerting behavior |
|---|---|---|
| Mess/Spill | High | Standard |
| Supply Needed | Medium | Standard |
| Equipment Issue | Medium | Standard |
| Maintenance | Medium | Standard |
| Safety Hazard | Critical | Immediate |
| Other | Low | Passive |
Category fields
Each category has the following fields: Name — The label reporters and resolvers see. Keep it short and plain. “Mess/Spill” is better than “Zone Cleanliness Event.” Description — Optional help text displayed on the scan page to clarify the category. Useful if your category name alone might be ambiguous (for example, explaining what counts as a “Maintenance Request” vs. a “Safety Hazard”). Default priority — The priority automatically assigned to new issues in this category. Can becritical, high, medium, or low. Reporters can flag an issue as urgent to bump priority up one level; managers can adjust it manually at any time.
Alerting behavior — Controls how and when your team is notified when a new issue opens in this category. See the next section for details.
Display order — The sequence in which categories appear to reporters on the scan page. Drag to reorder in the Settings interface.
Alerting behaviors
Each category carries one of three alerting behaviors:immediate — An SMS is sent to the assigned team the moment a new issue is created. Use this for categories where every second matters: Safety Hazard, Biohazard, anything that poses a risk to people in the space.
standard — A dashboard notification fires immediately, and an SMS is sent if the issue remains unresolved after a configurable number of minutes. This is the right default for most categories: Mess/Spill, Equipment Issue, Cleaning Needed. Your team sees it quickly without being flooded with texts for every report.
passive — Dashboard and email notification only — no SMS is sent. Use this for low-urgency categories where a text isn’t warranted: Supply Needed, General Feedback, routine requests that can be handled on the next service visit.
Any issue escalated to
critical priority triggers an immediate SMS to all assigned teams for that zone, regardless of the category’s alerting behavior. Critical priority overrides the category setting.Adding a category
Add a category
Click Add Category. Fill in the name, optional description, default priority, and alerting behavior.
Editing categories
You can change a category’s name, description, default priority, alerting behavior, and display order at any time. Changes take effect immediately — they apply to new issues going forward but do not retroactively change the priority or alerting behavior of existing open issues. To edit: go to Settings → Categories, click the category, make your changes, and save.Deactivating categories
If you stop using a category, deactivate it rather than deleting it.- Deactivated categories no longer appear on the scan page — reporters can’t select them for new issues
- You cannot delete a category that has existing issue records attached to it. Deactivating it achieves the same operational result: it disappears from the scan page and from routing logic going forward
- All historical issues associated with a deactivated category remain visible in your Issues list and analytics
Categories drive routing
Categories are the primary mechanism for routing issues to the right contractor or team. When you configure a service relationship with a contractor and set their category scope to “specific,” you choose which of your categories route to them. For example: your cleaning contractor handles “Cleaning Needed” and “Supply Needed”; your maintenance contractor handles “HVAC Issue” and “Maintenance Request.” You define those categories and you control the routing — not CleanScan and not the contractor.Connecting contractors
Configure contractor scope, including which categories route to them.
Dashboard overview
See how categories appear in the Issues section and filter your views.
Teams and routing
Understand how routing rules use categories to direct issues to teams.
Zones and tags setup
Map your facility and generate printable QR codes for each zone.