Sending messages: SMS and email

The Communications hub (Communications in the dashboard) is where your team sends messages and reviews everything that has gone out. Only Managers and above can open it.

The SMS inboxCopy Anchor Link

The Inbox tab is a two-way SMS inbox. Every conversation is tied to a customer's phone number:

• The left-hand list shows each customer with a preview of the latest message and how long ago it arrived. Arrows distinguish inbound replies from your outbound messages.
• Select a conversation to see the full thread, with your messages and the customer's replies in one view.
• Reply from the box at the bottom of the thread — the customer gets a normal SMS.

Use the inbox for back-and-forth conversation. For a message you start, use Compose.

Compose: one-off SMS and emailCopy Anchor Link

The Compose tab has three forms:

• Compose SMS — pick a customer, write the message (up to 1,000 characters, with a live counter) and send.
• Compose email — the email equivalent, beside the SMS form.
• Manual record — log a communication that happened outside Wagday so it sits in the same history as everything else.

SMS opt-in is enforced at the point of sending. Customers who have opted out are badged Opted out in the recipient list, and customers without a number are badged No phone. If you select someone you can't message, the send button stays disabled and the form tells you why — "This customer has opted out of SMS" or "This customer has no phone number on file."

Delivery logs and threadsCopy Anchor Link

The Logs tab is the delivery history for the whole organisation. You can:

• Filter by channel (Email or SMS).
• Filter by status — Queued, Sent, Delivered, Failed or Bounced.
• Search by text.
• Page through older results, twenty at a time.

The Threads tab gives a grouped, conversation-style view of message threads across the organisation.

Message templatesCopy Anchor Link

Some automatic messages are sent from templates you can reword at Settings → Templates. Only Admins can edit templates. The page lists only these messages:

• Email and text: booking confirmed, the booking reminder the day before, the booking reminder two days before, the incident notice to an owner, and the payment reminder staff send for an invoice.
• Email: check-in and check-out, booking cancelled, booking rescheduled, a failed booking payment, a weekly plan paused after its payment failed, the payment receipt, the refund receipt, the vaccination reminders (one for a vaccination that's expiring, one for a pet with no current records), the pet postcard, and Sharing waiver needed. Wagday adds the link to read and sign the waiver after your text. That email is sent only while shared kennel run waivers are required and the waiver email is on in Settings → Safety.
• Referral thank-you, while it's on: an email, or a text when the customer can't be emailed.
• Marketing offer: the starting text when you message selected customers with an offer.

Wagday keeps the layout and the important details of these emails, whatever your wording says:

• Booking confirmed, the reminders, check-in and check-out: your first paragraph appears above Wagday's details (the pet, and the booking's date, time and location, or where and when the pet was checked in or out), and the rest of your text below them. The confirmation still adds your cancellation policy when a fee applies, including when a payment confirms the booking, and a calendar invite.
• Cancelled, rescheduled and failed payment emails: the same, with Wagday's details below your first paragraph: the pet and the booking, the reason and refund for a cancellation, the previous and new booking and any payment or refund for a reschedule, and the amount for a failed payment. In the rescheduled email, {{date}}, {{time}} and {{locationName}} are the new booking's.
• Weekly plan paused: Wagday's panel always says the plan is paused, no more weekly payments or bookings are taken, and the missed payment is still owed.
• Vaccination reminders: Wagday's panel names the pet and either the vaccine and when it expires or expired, or the vaccinations it needs. {{expiry}} reads "expires on" or "expired on" the date. Wagday's emails come from a no-reply address, so ask owners to upload certificates in the customer portal or bring them in, rather than reply.
• Receipts: Wagday writes the heading, what was paid or refunded, the amounts, that a refund went to the original payment method, and the tax details, and your text replaces the closing line. {{receiptFor}} names what the payment was for, such as "Buddy's booking" or "invoice INV-0042". When one payment settles a whole invoice, the paid tax invoice is emailed instead, in Wagday's wording.

Other automatic emails and texts use Wagday's own wording and can't be edited yet. These include the emails about paying for or ending a booking change you're waiting on, no-show and late cancellation charge notices, and texts other than those listed above. Staff copies of notifications always use Wagday's wording.

• Each template says when it's sent, and its buttons insert the placeholders that message fills in, such as {{invoiceNumber}} and {{payUrl}} for the payment reminder. A placeholder that message doesn't fill sends blank, except in the Marketing offer, where it's sent exactly as typed.
• Preview fills in the same values a real message would, with sample data and your facility's name, and shows where Wagday adds its details between your paragraphs.
• Every email template needs a subject. To go back to Wagday's subject and wording, use Reset.
• Every organisation starts with Wagday's default wording for each template; your edits override it for your facility only, and Reset brings it back.

Transactional templates and the Marketing offer templateCopy Anchor Link

Each template has a fixed type that Wagday sets, and editing the wording never changes it.

• Transactional templates (confirmations, reminders, receipts, notices and the like) go to every customer the event applies to, including customers who have not agreed to marketing. Keep them about the booking, pet or account: no offers, discounts, rewards or promotions. If your edit looks promotional, the editor shows a warning. You can still save, but the content is your facility's responsibility.
• The Marketing offer template is for offers and promotions. It is always sent as marketing, so it only reaches customers who have agreed to marketing messages, carries your sign-off, and includes a way to unsubscribe (an unsubscribe link in email, and "Reply STOPM" in the default SMS wording). Use it by choosing Marketing / promotion when you message selected customers, then Start from your offer template.

SMS creditsCopy Anchor Link

SMS sending draws on a credit balance measured in segments — the unit carriers actually bill. A short plain-text message is one segment (up to 160 characters); longer messages split into multiple segments, and messages with emoji or other special characters fit fewer characters per segment (70 for a single segment). Every send path draws on the same balance — composers, the two-way inbox, bulk sends, campaigns and automated reminders. Emails don't use credits.

As you type in a composer you'll see a live estimate of how many segments the message needs, and the send is blocked with an explanation if your balance can't cover it.

Your balance has two sources:

• Monthly included quota — each billing cycle your plan grants an included allowance of segments automatically. Unused quota doesn't roll over.
• Paid top-ups — the SMS credits card offers segment packs you can buy by card through Stripe checkout; they're credited as soon as payment completes. All prices are in AUD and include GST.

The SMS credits card shows your remaining balance and a recent-activity ledger that records each Monthly included quota grant, Top-up, SMS sent and Adjustment with its date. When the balance drops below 20 you'll see a Low balance badge — top up before your next reminder run, because SMS sends start failing at zero.

The card sits at the top of the Communications hub, above the tabs, so the balance is visible from every messaging surface.

Opt-ins and do-not-contactCopy Anchor Link

Wagday respects customer contact preferences everywhere a message can be sent:

• The customer's SMS opt-in flag gates one-off SMS, as described above.
• Customers marked do-not-contact are excluded from call lists, campaigns and marketing syncs.

What's next?Copy Anchor Link

• Postcards, report cards and photos
• Call lists and follow-ups
• Campaigns and Mailchimp