This help document is applicable only to Zoho Invoice - Indian edition.

SMS Notifications

SMS Notifications allow you to send SMS messages to keep your customers informed about the invoice and payments. This is one of the fastest ways to update them.

Enable SMS Notifications

You can enable SMS notifications for your organisation by one of the following methods:

• Use the free SMS messages option
• Buy SMS credits from Zoho Invoice (Recommended)
• Integrate with Twilio, a third party SMS service provider

To enable SMS Notifications for your organisation:

• Go to Settings > SMS Notifications.
• Click Use Free SMS to get three free SMS messages and test the feature.
  OR
  Click Buy Credits to purchase SMS credits from Zoho Invoice. Each credit costs ₹75 and you will be able to send 300 messages for one credit. When you purchase, you’ll have to purchase a minimum of 5 credits.
  OR
  Click Configure in the Twilio band under External Service Providers and integrate with Twilio.

SMS notifications for your organisation will be enabled as soon as you perform any one of the actions mentioned above. Next, you can configure the SMS notifications that can be sent from your organisation.

Configure SMS Notifications

In Zoho Invoice, you can configure three types of SMS notifications for your customers. You can send them to your customers manually or automatically based on your settings.

SMS Notification	When can you send them?
Invoice Details	You can send it when you create an invoice and want to notify via SMS. Based on your preferences, Invoice Creation SMSes are sent automatically for recurring invoices.
Payment Reminder	A Payment Reminder SMS will be sent automatically based on your preferences in Settings > Reminders > Automated Reminders - Invoices.
Payment Thank You	You can send them when you record payment for an invoice. Based on your preferences, a Payment Thank You SMS will be sent automatically when you receive online payments.

You can enable each SMS notification to send them to your customers. Here’s how:

• Go to Settings > SMS Notifications > SMS Templates.
• Click the Toggle button at the right end to enable or disable the corresponding notification.

Note: At the moment, you’ll not be able to edit the SMS that will be sent to your customers.

By default, SMS notifications will be enabled for all your customers’ primary contact.

Enable SMS Notifications for Contact Persons

SMS notifications are not enabled by default for contact persons of a customer. You have to enable them manually. Here’s how:

• Go to the Contacts module in the left sidebar.
• Select the customer with the contact person, for whom you want to enable the SMS notification.
• Click the Gear icon next to the contact person’s name in the Overview tab.
• Select Enable SMS Notifications.

If you want disable it, you can do so by repeating the above steps.

Disable SMS Notifications for a Contact

You can disable the SMS notification for individual customers if you don’t want to notify them via SMS. This will prevent you from sending an SMS to the primary contact or any of the contact persons associated with that customer.

To disable SMS notifications:

• Go to the Contacts module in the left sidebar.
• Select the contact for whom you want to disable the SMS notification.
• Click More > Disable SMS Notification.

If you want to enable it, you can do it by repeating the above steps.

Disable SMS Notifications for Primary Contact

If you want to disable SMS notifications only for the primary contact, follow the steps below:

• Navigate to Contacts module in the left sidebar.
• Select the customer whose primary contact’s SMS notification you want to disable.
• Click Disable SMS Notification below the primary contact name under the Overview tab.

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Send SMS Notifications

Based on the SMS notifications you’ve enabled and the contact preferences, SMS will be sent automatically to the respective customers and contact persons in the following cases:

• When you’ve configured the ‘Create and Send Invoice’ or ‘Create, Charge and Send Invoices’ preferences for recurring invoices, Invoice Creation SMS will be sent.
• When you receive online payments from your customers, a Payment Thank You SMS will be sent.

SMS will not be sent if you have not recorded any phone number for the customer or contact persons.

Apart from SMS notifications being sent automatically, you can send them manually. Here’s how:

• Go to the Invoices module in the left sidebar.
• Select the invoice for which you want to send an SMS.
• Click the More option in the top-right corner and select Notify via SMS. You’ll find this option, only if you’ve enabled the invoice creation notification and have not disabled SMS Notification at contact level.

• Check the phone numbers to which the SMS is sent and preview the SMS message.

Note: If your SMS contains special characters, then each SMS notification will be considered as two messages.

• Click Send SMS.

The SMS notification will be sent immediately and the status of the SMS will be updated in the transaction history and contact activities.

Also, you can send the Payment Thank You SMS manually, if you’ve collected the payment offline and are recording it manually. Here’s how:

• Go to the Invoices module in the left sidebar.
• Select the invoice for which you want to record the payment.
• Click the Record Payment button in the top bar.
• Check the option Notify via SMS to thank the customer via SMS for the payment.
• Click Record Payment and the SMS will be sent.

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