Prerequisites:
- Notifications are available to those using items (Inventory > Items), a feature of our classic version of Checkfront.
- Interested in using Notifications with products (Inventory > Products)? Your account must be a member of our Early Access Program. Please reach out to Checkfront Technical Support to learn more.
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Early Access Program The new product feature mentioned in this article is currently part of our Early Access Program, which means it is available to select Customers to try out and provide us with feedback. To learn more about becoming part of our Early Access Program check out our related blog post or contact our Technical Support team. Find our complete set of help articles related to the Early Access Program here: Early Access Program. |
Creating a Notification
Back to topNotifications are managed at Manage > Notifications in your Checkfront dashboard. To create a new Twilio notification, navigate to the SMS tab, 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.
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. See booking statuses for a full list.
When a status is changed on an invoice, the appropriate notification is triggered.
Deliver
Back to topBy default, notifications are sent as soon as the 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.
Next, specify whether this notification is triggered before the booking start date or after the booking end date.
For example, configure the SMS to be sent one day after the booking ends...
Scheduled SMS are delivered on the same hour they were created.
For instance, if a booking is created at 11 am on Tuesday and the scheduled notification is 2 days before the booking, then it is sent at 11 am on the scheduled day.
Please note, on some occasions, mail can be delayed due to volume (including unscheduled mail), but generally, adheres to this time frame.
Set the recipient of the e-mail 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.
Apply To
Back to topThe apply to field enables you to create notifications for a specific item(s) or product(s) only. This is particularly handy for businesses who need to send out different information depending on the item(s) or 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 (see above). These items or products can then be chosen individually, allowing you to create notifications on a per-item or per-product basis.
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 below to dynamically include particular booking details.
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