Problem

The process to generate enotifications involves two parties (minimum). We create a preference file that indicates whether a person wants to receive bills digitally or not.

We output this and another party then imports this and generates bills/notifications. For those where they do not want it digitally they print a bill and post it. For those that do want it digitally we generate an email/SMS etc. if their account is on a list of accounts/claims for the given day.

The problem is the time it can take between us providing the file and them generating all of the bills/letting us know who should get a bill can mean someone can change their preference in between these times. So a person that opted out of getting emails during the time will not get an email or a bill.

Solution

We implement a new function controlled by a date/time mechanism where at a set time each day one cannot change their preference. E.g. 05:00 to 10:00.