SMS Integration - Twilio
Zoho Books now integrates with Twilio to enable you to send notifications to your customers via SMS. Twilio is a cloud communications platform that enables businesses to make and receive phone calls, SMS and perform other communication functions using its web service APIs.
Benefits
- Send instant SMS notifications for invoices, payments and payment reminders.
- Configure SMS notifications at customer and contact person level.
Prerequisites
- An account with Twilio. If you don’t have an account, you can create one now.
- Account SID and Auth Token from Twilio.
- An active phone number that works with Twilio. If you don’t have one, you need to purchase a phone number from Twilio. Read more.
Note: This feature is available only for certain plans of Zoho Books. Visit the pricing page to check if it’s available in your current plan.
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Connect with Twilio
To set up this integration:
- Go to Settings > Integrations.
- Select SMS Integrations.
- Click Connect. If you don’t have a Twilio account, you can click Sign Up Now to create one.
- Enter your Account SID, Auth Token and Phone Number.
- Click Connect with Twilio.
Now, Zoho Books will be connected with Twilio and you’ll be able to view the SMS notifications that are enabled for your organization by clicking Configure below the integration. You’ll be redirected to the SMS Templates page where you can enable or disable these notifications.
Configure SMS Notifications & Templates
SMS notifications are available for the following cases:
| SMS Notification | When can you send them? |
|---|---|
| Invoice Details |
|
| Payment Reminder |
|
| Payment Thank You |
|
You can enable each SMS notification to send them to your customers. Here’s how:
- Go to Settings > SMS Notifications > SMS Templates.
- Enable the SMS notifications that you’d like to send to your customers.
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.
Send SMS Notifications
Based on the SMS notifications you’ve enabled and the contact preferences, SMS will be automatically sent 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.
- 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.
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