Messages (SMS)

Turn on SMS

Who can do thisAdmins

1. Open Settings › SMS.
2. Buy credits: press Buy credits, choose a pack and pay. One credit sends about one SMS of up to 160 characters.
3. Switch on Send SMS. Nothing is sent until you do.
4. Choose who else may send: bursars, HODs (their own classes) and class teachers (their own class). Admins always can.
5. Choose the automatic messages: absence alerts (once a day) and payment receipts, and their wording.

Send a message

Who can do thisAdmins and bursars; HODs and class masters to their own classes

1. Open Messages and press New message.
2. Choose who it's to: all parents, parents of chosen classes, parents who owe fees (above an amount you set) or staff. Teachers send to the parents of their own classes.
3. Write the message. Fill-ins like {parent}, {child}, {class}, {balance} and {school} are replaced for each person, so “Dear {parent}, {child}'s balance is {balance}” is personal for everyone.
4. Choose when: now, or later (once, every week or every month), and press Send now or schedule it.

SR shows how many characters and roughly how many credits a message will use before you send it.

Messages SR sends by itself

• Absence alerts: once a day, at the time you choose, to the parents of each child marked absent.
• Payment receipts: when a payment is recorded (on the web or the desktop), with the receipt number and what's still owed.

Both are switched on and worded in Settings › SMS, and use credits like any other message.

Your school's own sender name

Who can do thisAdmins

Messages come from SR's shared name until your school has its own (up to 11 letters or numbers, like HOPEACADEMY). Ask for it in Settings › SMS with a letter of authorisation and your business registration certificate. We register it with the SMS network and let you know, usually within a few days.

Questions