SMS Notifications

Note: This help document is only applicable to Zoho Inventory - Indian edition.

SMS is one of the fastest ways to keep your customers informed about their invoice payments. In Zoho Inventory, you can configure one of the following options to send SMS:

Free SMS
Buy SMS credits from Zoho Inventory (Recommended)
Integrate with Twilio, a third party SMS service provider

Enable SMS Notifications

To enable SMS Notifications for your organisation:

Go to Settings, then SMS Notifications.
Configure one of the following SMS options:
- Use Free SMS: Get three free SMS messages to test the feature.
- Buy Credits: Purchase a minimum of five SMS credits from Zoho Inventory. Each credit costs ₹75, and you will be able to send 300 messages per credit.
- Twilio: Integrate with Twilio, an external service provider to send SMS to your customers.

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

DLT Registration and SMS Template Configuration

Distributed Ledger Technology also known as DLT, is a block-chain based registration system. According to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), it is mandatory for businesses to register with DLT to send SMS to customers in order to avoid spam.

To send SMS notifications to your customers, you will have to:

Register with a DLT operator
Configure DLT details in Zoho Inventory
Register SMS template in DLT
Configure SMS Template in Zoho Inventory

Note: This is not applicable for users sending SMS using the Twilio integration.

Register With a DLT Operator

You will first have to register yourself as an enterprise with any of the following DLT operators: Vodafone Idea Ltd, Videocon, BSNL, Jio, Airtel or Tata Teleservices to send SMS notifications to your customers. Here’s how:

Note: The below steps might vary based on the DLT operator you choose.

Login to the preferred DLT operator’s website.
Select Enterprise.
Choose No if you have not registered with any other DLT operators.
Enter the necessary details.
Upload the documents requested by your DLT operator in the portal.
Click Submit, and you will receive an acknowledgement that the details have been correctly entered.
You will receive an email with the approval status.

Insight: If the registration is rejected, you will receive an email with the reason for rejection. You can make the necessary changes in the portal and re-register.

On successful registration, you’ll receive your DLT Registration Number and Sender ID in your email**.**

DLT Configuration in Zoho Inventory

Once you have successfully registered with a DLT operator, you’ll have to configure the DLT details in Zoho Inventory. Here’s how:

Login to your Zoho Inventory organisation.
Go to Settings and then SMS notification.
In the Overview tab, click Configure DLT Registration from the banner.
Enter the DLT Registration Number and the Sender ID in the following pop-up**.**
Click Save.

The details entered here will be cross verified with the details provided by you in the DLT platform. The status of the application will be Pending until it is verified. You’ll receive an email informing if the configuration has been approved or rejected.

Status	Description
Pending	The configuration is yet to be verified.
Approved	The details have been successfully verified with the details in the DLT platform.
Rejected	The configuration has been rejected due to invalid or missing details.

If you want to edit or make any changes to the DLT registration details after approval, you can do it by clicking the Edit DLT configuration option from the top right corner of the SMS Notifications page.

SMS Template Registration in DLT

To send SMS to your customers, you’ll have to register the SMS templates with DLT. If the SMS sent to your customers does not match the template registered in the DLT platform, the SMS will be barred. Here’s how you can register your SMS template in DLT:

Note: The below steps might vary based on the DLT operator you choose.

Login to the DLT website where you had registered for your Entity ID and Sender ID.
Go to Templates and click Add New Template.
Enter the necessary details.

Insight: Choose whether the content type is Transactional, Promotional, Service Implicit or Service Explicit. Based on the content type, the list of approved headers will be auto-populated. You can select as many headers as necessary.

Enter or paste the message content.

If you want to use a template from Zoho Inventory, you can do so by copying the content from the Message text box in the Configure Template pop-up.

To send dynamic content, add variables.

Click Submit.

On successful registration you will receive the Template ID and the SMS Template via email.

Configure SMS Template in Zoho Inventory

Once the DLT registration is configured and the status is approved, you’ll have to configure the registered template in Zoho Inventory. Here’s how:

Login to your Zoho Inventory organisation.
Go to Settings and then SMS Notifications.
In the Overview tab, click Configure Templates from the banner**.**

Enter the Template ID and SMS Template that was approved in the DLT platform.

If you have not registered the template in DLT, you can do it now and continue configuring the details in Zoho Inventory.

Note: Please make sure the selected template is approved with the DLT operator.

Click Save

Manage SMS Notifications

In Zoho Inventory, you can enable the following SMS notifications for your customers. These notifications are sent manually or automatically based on your settings.

Invoice Details: Sent when you create an invoice.
Payment Thank You: Sent when you record a payment for an invoice. Based on your preferences, a ‘Payment Thank You’ SMS will be sent automatically when you receive online payments.

To configure the above SMS notifications in Zoho Inventory:

Go to Settings, then SMS Notifications.
Click the Toggle on the right to turn on or turn off the notification.
Click on Change Template to change your SMS template. You can choose from ‘Brief’, ‘Short’ and ‘Detailed’.

Note: For now, you won’t be able to edit the SMS text.

Enable SMS for Contact Persons

By default, SMS notifications will be enabled for all your customers’ primary contact. To enable SMS notifications for a customer’s contact persons in Zoho Inventory:

Go to the Customers module on the left sidebar.
Select the customer with the contact person whom you want to enable the SMS notification for.
Go to the Overview tab and click the Gear icon next to the contact person’s name.
Select Enable SMS Notification.

If you want to disable SMS notifications for the contact person, you can do so by repeating the above steps and selecting the Disable SMS Notification option.

Send SMS Notifications

Based on the configured settings, SMS is sent to the respective customers and their contact persons automatically.

You can also notify your customers manually. Here’s how:

Go to the Invoices module in the left sidebar.
Select the invoice that you want to send an SMS for.
Click the Mails/SMS on the top, then select Send SMS. To access this option, you must enable the invoice creation notification under SMS Templates, and make sure that SMS notification is enabled for the customer.
Check the phone numbers to which the SMS has to be sent, then preview the SMS message.
Click Send SMS.

The SMS gets sent and the transaction history and customer activities are updated.

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

You can also send a ‘Thank You’ SMS every time you record an offline payment. Here’s how:

Go to the Invoices module in the left sidebar.
Select the invoice that you want to record the payment for.
Click the Record Payment button on the top.
Check the Notify via SMS option.
Click Record Payment, and the SMS is sent to your customer that very instant.

Note: You cannot send SMS to your customer or their contact persons if their phone numbers are not recorded.

Disable SMS Notifications

When you disable SMS notification for a customer, you’ll no longer be able to notify their primary contact or any of the contact persons.

To disable SMS notifications:

Go to the Customers module on the left sidebar.
Select the customer whom you want to disable the SMS notification for.
Click More, then select the Disable SMS Notification option.

If you want to disable SMS notifications only for the customer’s primary contact:

Go to Customers module in the left sidebar.
Select the customer whose primary contact’s SMS notification you want to disable.
In the Overview tab, click Disable SMS Notification below the primary contact name.