How Credits Work
To understand how credits work, it’s important to be familiar with conversation categories such as the utility message. This help document provides an overview of these concepts and includes a simple scenario to illustrate how credits work.
What are Utility Messages?
According to Meta (Parent company of WhatsApp Business), Utility templates are typically triggered by a user action or request. They must include specificity about the active or ongoing payslip or salary letter. In Zoho Payroll, Utility templates are triggered when a user or admin sends payslips or letters to employees.
Cost Deductions
When you send a utility message, such as payslips or letter notifications to an employee, the cost is deducted from your credits. You can then send multiple utility messages to the same employee within the next 24 hours without any additional costs.
The following table explains how cost deduction works when a WhatsApp notification is sent to an employee.
| Date | Notification Time | Message Type | Cost Deduction |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10th of May | 10 a.m. | Utility Message | Cost is deducted for the first WhatsApp notification you send. No cost is applied if another utility message is sent to the same employee in the next 24 hours. |
| 11th of May | 10 a.m. | - | Utility message expires after 24 hours. |
The cost deducted is based on the following factors:
1. Currency Associated with the WhatsApp Business Account
The cost deducted for your conversations depends on the currency associated with your WhatsApp Business Account. To view the currency:
- Log in to facebook.business.com.
- Go to Settings.
- Navigate to Accounts and click WhatsApp Accounts.
- Select the WhatsApp account that you’ve connected with Zoho Payroll.
- You can view the currency in the Business Information section.
Meta provides different rate cards according to the WhatsApp Business Account’s base currency. Download the rate card for your WhatsApp Business account’s currency.
2. Recipient’s Country
The rate also depends on the country of the contact person’s phone number to whom the message is sent.
Example: If you are sending a utility message to an employee with an Indian phone number, the cost deducted is 0.0042 USD. In Zoho Payroll, your credits will be reduced according to the rate that is charged.
For instance, one credit costs 2.06 USD, and sending a utility message costs 0.0042 USD. Therefore, on an average, you can send around 490 WhatsApp utility messages for just one credit to this contact person.
Note No cost will be deducted when the employee messages you. It will be deducted only for the messages that you send.
