SMS credits

Text messages are sent using SMS credits. This article explains how they work and what happens when you run low.

How credits work

You buy SMS credits in packs, and each message segment uses one credit. A short text fits in one segment; longer texts use more credits. A GSM-7 text holds up to 160 units in one segment, or 153 per segment when split. Some symbols count as two units. The full message, including links, the clinic name and any contact instructions, determines the cost.

Outgoing texts are converted to the standard SMS alphabet. Smart quotes and similar characters are converted, and unsupported characters such as emoji are removed. One credit is one message segment. SMS spending is separate from the subscription.

Checking your balance and auto top-up

Go to Settings > Messaging to check your SMS balance, buy packs and manage auto top-up. Only clinic owners can change these settings. Auto top-up being switched on does not guarantee a successful charge: check for warnings about a missing usable payment method or a failed charge.

Topping up

When your balance gets low, buy another pack so your messages keep flowing. It is worth topping up before a busy period rather than discovering you are out mid-week.

What happens at zero

If you run out of SMS credits, the text is skipped and recorded in the patient's Messages. An independent email version can still send where the message supports one, the patient has an email address, the email channel is on and their automated-message preferences allow it. Email has no per-message credit cost. Skipped texts are not sent retrospectively when you top up.

Automated texts to any one mobile number are also limited: one of each kind in any 24 hours (one per appointment where the text is about an appointment; waitlist offers and moved-appointment texts have their own limits), and no more than eight automated texts in all. A text held back by this limit is not sent, uses no credit and is recorded in the patient's Messages in the same way. Replies you send yourself from Messages are never limited.

Getting the best of both

• Keep a small buffer of SMS credits for the immediacy of text.
• Check the patient's Messages to see which emails and texts were sent.
• Keep templates concise so each message stays to a single credit.

Refunded purchases

If an SMS pack payment is refunded or a payment dispute is lost, the corresponding credits are reversed. A separate Refunded entry removes the credits corresponding to the refunded or disputed amount; a partial refund removes only that share of the pack.