1. Hemma
  2. Help

What the signal colours mean

Hemma uses colour to communicate meaning, not decoration. Every coloured badge, border, or dot in the product carries a specific intent. This page is the key.

01The signal scale

There are seven signal levels, from calm to urgent:

LevelWhat it meansTypical triggers
CelebrateA real milestone. Sushi tonight.Phase complete, permit approved, handover done
SuccessSmall win. Everything is fine.Invoice paid, document processed, budget on track
NeutralMoving along, nothing to see.Default state, processing, in progress
NoticeWorth a glance when you pass.Invoice due in about two weeks, new contractor added
WarningPut this on your todo list.Invoice due in the next few days, AI extracted something unexpected
UrgentDo this today.Invoice overdue, budget nearly exceeded
CriticalDrop everything. Hard failures only.Budget exceeded, payment failed

02Where signal colours appear

  • Budget cards — the budget status badge on each line shows Success (on track), Warning (approaching limit), Urgent (nearly over), or Critical (over budget).
  • Invoice badges — the payment status colour tells you how urgent the outstanding amount is.
  • Phase and milestone cards — milestone urgency indicators use the Notice and Warning scale.
  • Notification dots — a pulsing dot on a notification uses Urgent or Critical to indicate severity.
  • Calendar events — event borders carry the signal level matching the event's urgency.

03The AI rule

Signal colours from AI output are capped at Urgent. Hemma's AI can flag something as Urgent — do this today — but it can never set a Critical signal on its own. Critical is reserved for objective system failures (a budget hard-exceeded by a confirmed invoice, a failed payment). The distinction matters: AI can be wrong; hard facts cannot.

04Celebrate is not the same as Success

Celebrate is for meaningful milestones — the moments worth marking. A phase complete, a permit approved, the last invoice paid on the whole project. Success covers smaller wins — an individual invoice paid, a document processed cleanly.

If everything in your project got a Celebrate signal, nothing would feel special.

05Common questions

Why is my budget card showing Warning when the total looks fine? The signal reflects the current committed spend — the sum of invoiced and quoted amounts — against the budgeted line. If quoted amounts push the line close to its limit, Warning appears even if nothing is paid yet.

Can I change the signal threshold for my project? Not currently. The thresholds are calibrated to the Belgian construction context and apply uniformly.