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Sending Text Messages

Text your crew automatically when something happens on site, using the same SMS credits and consent rules as messages you send by hand

Sending Text Messages from a Workflow

What This Feature Does

Text messages get read. Email does not always reach someone standing on a slab at 6am, but a text does.

Until now, sending one meant a person opening the SMS screen and typing it. With Connect, the message can send itself at exactly the moment it matters:

  • A safety checklist comes back failed, and the site supervisor gets a text within seconds
  • A shift is cancelled the night before, and the whole crew knows before they set off
  • A docket is rejected, and the person who raised it hears about it while they can still fix it
  • An invoice tips into overdue, and the account manager is nudged without anyone watching a report

The Send SMS action does this, and the Get SMS Credits action lets a workflow check the balance first so you are never caught short.

Everything else stays exactly as it is today. Messages sent by a workflow:

  • come from your organisation's usual sender number
  • draw on the same SMS credits as messages sent by hand
  • land in the same Inbox and Outbox, so replies come back to your team in the normal place
  • respect the same consent rules, with nobody texted who has not opted in

Before You Begin

Make sure you have:

  • SMS switched on for your organisation, with a sender number provisioned. If the SMS screen says "SMS not provisioned", contact your Account Manager first. See How to Use SMS for the full setup.
  • Team members who have opted in. Each person opts in from their own profile settings. A phone number on file is not consent, and Connect will skip anyone who has not opted in.
  • Available SMS credits. Credits are shared with the SMS screen, so a busy month of hand-sent messages leaves fewer for your workflows and the other way round.
  • Connect access, which means being an Owner, Admin or Manager in an organisation with Connect switched on.

Day-to-Day Usage

How to Send a Text from a Workflow

1. Build the trigger first

Start with whatever should set the message off, and test it. For example, Form Submission Created filtered to your Site Safety Checklist, or Invoice Status Changed with To Status set to Overdue.

2. Add the Send SMS action

Click + below your trigger, search for Assignar Pay, and choose Send SMS.

3. Write the message

Type your message in the Message box. Use the data selector to drop details from the trigger straight into the text, so every message says something useful:

Safety check failed at {site name}. Raised by {submitted by} at {submitted at}. Please call the site supervisor.

Keep it short and say what to do next. A text that needs a reply to make sense creates work rather than saving it.

4. Choose who gets it

You have two fields, and you can use either or both:

  • People: pick team members by name.
  • Groups: pick the SMS groups you already use for broadcasts, such as Site A Crew.

Groups are usually the better choice. When someone joins or leaves the crew, you update the group once and every workflow that texts that crew is correct from then on.

Note: the picker shows everyone, including people who cannot currently receive a text. Anyone labelled not opted in or no mobile on file will be skipped when the workflow runs, and the step tells you so. Seeing them in the list is deliberate: it is how you spot that half a crew has never opted in, before you rely on the automation.

5. Test it

Click Test flow. This sends a real text and uses real credits, so point it at yourself the first time.

6. Publish

Click Publish. From now on the message sends itself.

How to Read the Result

After each send, the step reports:

  • Dispatched: how many messages went to the carrier
  • Failed: how many could not be sent
  • Skipped: who was left out, and why, such as not opted in or no mobile on file
  • Credits charged and credits remaining

A send that reached nobody is still a success, with dispatched: 0 and everyone listed under skipped. That is a real answer, not an error: the workflow ran, and nobody on the list could be texted. Watching that number is the quickest way to notice a crew that never opted in.

How to Warn Yourself Before Credits Run Out

Add the Get SMS Credits action to a scheduled workflow:

  1. Create a workflow with a schedule trigger, for example every Monday at 7am.
  2. Add Get SMS Credits.
  3. Add a branch: if total available is under, say, 100, send an email or an in-app notification to the office.

Now you find out on a Monday morning, not when a message fails to reach a crew.

Common Tasks

Texting one person about the record that triggered the workflow

Pick that person under People. If who to text depends on the record itself, add a Find step before the message to look up the right person, then use the data selector to choose them.

Sending the same alert to a whole crew

Put the crew in an SMS group on the SMS screen, then pick that group under Groups. One group, any number of workflows.

Sending to more than 200 people

A single step reaches up to 200 people and up to 20 groups. If you need more, split the send across two steps, or send it from the SMS screen where a person can confirm the cost first.

Troubleshooting

"SMS is not set up for this account"

SMS has not been switched on for your organisation, or no sender number is provisioned yet. Contact your Account Manager. Once it is set up, re-run the failed step and the message goes out.

"Not enough SMS credits"

The message needed more credits than you have. The error says how many were needed and how many are left. Top up on the SMS screen, then use Retry failed step on that run and the message sends.

People were skipped

The step lists everyone skipped and why:

  • Not opted in: that person has not given SMS consent. They opt in themselves from their profile settings. You cannot do it for them.
  • No mobile on file: no mobile number saved on their profile.
  • No longer a member: the person has left the organisation.

The message costs more than expected

Credits are charged per 160 characters per recipient. Emoji and some special characters shorten that to 70 characters per credit, so one emoji can double the cost of a long message. A 10-person message costs at least 10 credits.

Will a retry text everyone twice?

No. Retry failed step on a run that already sent will not send again. Re-running the whole workflow from the beginning is a genuinely new send, so use retry rather than re-run when a later step is what failed.

Can a workflow text a phone number I type in?

No, and this is deliberate. Recipients are team members and SMS groups only, because consent is recorded per person and mobile carriers require it. A workflow texting numbers with no recorded consent would put your organisation's ability to send SMS at risk.

Tips for Construction Teams

  • Say what to do, not just what happened. "Safety check failed at Bridge St, call Dave on 0400 000 000" beats "A form was submitted".
  • Text the exceptions, not the routine. A message that arrives every day stops being read by the end of the week.
  • Use groups, not names. Crews change. Groups mean your automations keep up without being edited.
  • Mind the hour. If the trigger can fire overnight, add a condition or a delay so a 2am docket does not wake the crew.
  • Check the skipped count after the first week. It is the fastest way to find out how many people never opted in.

What's Next