Creating SMS notifications in Checkfront for use with Twilio

---

Plan Availability: ✓ Soho | ✓ Pro | ✓ Plus | ✓ Enterprise | ✓ Flex |
Locate: Manage > Integrations > Communication
Prerequisites: 

• Admin permissions to manage Integrations.
• The SMS Notifications feature is available to both those using items (Inventory > Items), a key feature of our classic version of Checkfront, and those using products (Inventory > Products), a key feature of our newest version of Checkfront.

 

New to Checkfront - Products ✨ Products (Inventory > Products) is the successor feature to (Inventory > Items) and is available in our newest version of Checkfront. Not yet on our newest version and interested in upgrading? Please contact our Technical Support team for more information. Discover more product-related help articles here: Products (New).

 

In this article, we look at how to set up an SMS notification in your Checkfront account.

New to Twilio SMS notifications? Be sure to read the first article in this series for an introduction!

Please read the full series of articles, accessed at the side and bottom of this page, to learn more about the full capabilities of the Twilio SMS notification feature.

 

---

Notifications are managed in the Notifications area (Manage > Notifications) in your Checkfront account.

 

To create a new Twilio notification, navigate to the SMS tab, and then click on the + New Notification button in the left sidebar.

 

You now see the edit screen for your notification. This is where you choose the options to define how your notification functions, how it is scheduled, and what it says.  

 

Specify the status that triggers the notification. You can create multiple notifications for a single status.

Notifications are based on the status of the booking, for example, Paid or Cancelled.

When a status is changed on an invoice, the appropriate notification is triggered.

 

Learn more about booking statuses here: Introduction to booking statuses

 

By default, notifications are sent as soon as the status event is triggered.

If you'd like to schedule the notification for a later time, then select Scheduled and choose a timeframe of X number of days, weeks, or months. Then, specify whether this notification is triggered before the booking start date or after the booking end date.

 

In the above example, the SMS is configured to send one day after the booking ends.

Scheduled SMS are delivered at the same hour the booking was created. For instance, if a booking is created at 11 a.m. on Tuesday and the scheduled notification is 2 days before the booking, then it is sent at 11 a.m. on the scheduled day. 

 

On some occasions, mail can be delayed due to volume (including unscheduled mail), but generally adheres to the above time frame.

 

Determine the recipient of the email notification.

To send the notification to the Customer, select Customer. To deliver the message to your Staff, select one of the available accounts, or All Staff.  

 

The Apply to field enables you to create notifications for a specific item(s)/product(s) only. This is particularly handy for businesses who need to send out different information depending on the item(s)/product(s) that the Customer has booked.

For example, when a tour booking has been completed and updated to Paid status, you may wish to send out a notification consisting of details on the tour and its meeting location, etc.

You may then have a different SMS for a hotel room booking that has been updated to Paid. You don't need any information about tour meeting places, etc., but rather directions to the hotel and information about the check-in process.  

 

You have the ability to select an entire category or click on the arrow to the right of each category to slide out a list of individual items or products, as shown above.

These items/products can then be chosen individually, allowing you to create notifications on a per-item/per-product basis.

 

Enter the notification name. This is not seen by the Customer but is simply a way for you to identify your notification when making any changes later on.  

 

Type the notification message here. You can use any of the variables listed in the next article to dynamically include particular booking details.

 

 

---

< Setting up SMS notifications in Checkfront     |     Working with SMS notification variables >

---