SMS Notifications


Note: This feature is applicable only to the India edition of Zoho Billing.

You can keep your customers informed of their quotes, invoices, and their pending payments using SMS notifications in Zoho Billing. You can also use this feature to send them payment reminders, thank-you messages, and payment retry messages.

Set Up SMS Notifications

To set up SMS notifications for your organisation:

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

Configure SMS Templates

You can configure the SMS templates in two ways:

Without DLT Registration

You can configure SMS notifications for the following:

Notification Description
Invoice Details This SMS notification will be sent to your customers when an invoice is automatically generated from Zoho Billing or when you manually choose to notify them about an invoice.
Payment Reminder This notification is sent to your customers when you want to remind them of pending payments based on the due date.
Payment Thank-You This notification is sent to your customers when you receive payments from them.
Payment Retry You can enable the payment retry notification in the Dunning Management page under Settings to send an SMS notification to your customer on failed payments.
New Subscription This notification is sent to your customers when a new subscription is created for them.
Subscription Cancelled This SMS is sent to your customers when any of their subscriptions is cancelled.
Subscription Expired This SMS is sent to your customers when any of their subscriptions have expired.
Subscription Renewed This SMS is sent to your customers as soon as their subscription is renewed.
Subscription About to be Cancelled This SMS is sent to your customers three days before their subscription is scheduled for cancellation.
Subscription About to Expire This SMS is sent to your customers three days before their subscription is due to expire.
Subscription Renewal Ahead This SMS is sent to your customers five days before their subscription’s renewal date.

Here’s how to configure the template of each SMS notification:

Note: You cannot edit the content of your SMS templates. You can only select the default templates provided for each notification.

With DLT Registration

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.

Here’s how to send SMS notifications to your customer:

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

Register with a DLT Operator

You will have to first register yourself as an enterprise with any of the following DLT operators: Vodafone Idea Ltd, Videocon, BSNL, Jio, or Airtel to proceed further. Here’s how:

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

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.

Configure DLT in Zoho Billing

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

The details provided here will be cross verified with the DLT operator. The status of the configuration 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 details are yet to be verified with the details present in the DLT platform.
Approved The details have been successfully verified.
Rejected The configuration has been rejected due to invalid or missing details.

If you want to make any changes to the DLT registration details after approval, click Edit DLT Configuration at the top-right corner of the SMS Notifications page.

Edit DLT

Note: According to TRAI regulations, the URLs included in your SMS notifications must be whitelisted. Learn more about whitelisting URLs.

Register SMS Templates in DLT

You’ll have to register the SMS templates with DLT to send SMS to your customers. 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 steps below might vary based on the DLT operator you choose.
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.

If you want to use a template from Zoho Billing, you can do so by copying the content from the Message text box in the Configure Template pop-up. You can also include variables like date, customer name, etc., to send dynamic content.

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

Configure SMS Templates in Zoho Billing

Enable and Disable SMS Notifications

For Primary Contacts

Here’s how you can enable or disable SMS for primary contacts:

SMS notifications will be enabled or disabled for the respective primary contact.

Enable SMS Primary Contacts

For Contact Persons

Here’s how you can enable or disable SMS notifications for contact persons:

SMS notifications will be enabled or disabled for the respective contact person.

Enable SMS Notifications for Customers in Bulk

You can enable SMS notifications for customers in bulk in two ways:

All Primary Contacts and Contact Persons

Here’s how you can enable SMS notifications for all primary contacts and contact persons:

Specific Primary Contacts and Contact Persons

Here’s how you can enable SMS Notifications for specific primary contacts and contact persons:

SMS notifications will be enabled for the selected contacts.

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 these cases:

Apart from sending automated SMS notifications, you can also send them manually. Here’s how:

You can also send a Payment Thank-you SMS notification when you’ve collected the payment offline and are recording it manually. Here’s how:

The Payment Thank-you SMS notification will be sent to the customers.

View Sent SMS Notifications

You can view the SMS notifications sent to Zoho Billing using the SMS Notifications report. Here’s how you can view the report:

You will be redirected to the SMS notifications report. You can also view this report in the Activity section of the Reports module.

Disable SMS Notifications in Bulk

Here’s how you can disable SMS notifications for customers in bulk:

The SMS Notifications will now be disabled for the selected customers.

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