SMS Settings
How the SMS settings page explains the managed reply number, the 4.5p SMS credit rate, and how replies are handled without using credits.
Open Settings > SMS when you want to check the dedicated Work Planner reply number or review how outgoing text messages are charged. This page keeps the pricing explanation close to the live credit balance, so you can see both the managed reply route and the current SMS credit picture in one place.
Platform SMS
- Reply Number: Work Planner sends texts from the dedicated Work Planner reply number. Customers can reply to that number by default.
- Managed by Work Planner: The reply number itself is configured and managed inside Work Planner.
- Reply routing: When a customer replies, Work Planner tries to match the inbound SMS back to the original outbound message so it appears in Communications and on the related customer or job.
- Reply costs: Replies to the managed Work Planner number are included and do not use SMS credits.
SMS Credits
- Credit Price: SMS credits cost £4.50 per 100, which works out at 4.5p per outgoing SMS part.
- Credit Balance: Shows the current SMS credit usage and remaining balance available through Work Planner.
- Part-based charging: Credits are consumed by rendered SMS parts after variables are filled in, not just by recipient count. A longer or personalised message can therefore use more than one credit for one recipient.
- Credits carry over: Credits are a balance, not a monthly quota. Anything you do not use stays on the account and is still there after your billing period renews.
- Manage SMS Credits: Keeps the top-up flow inside Work Planner. Customers still buy the existing SMS credit bolt-on here rather than managing SMS credits anywhere else. Credits can only be bought once the account has SMS messaging, from its plan or the SMS Messaging bolt-on.
A short plain-text message to one customer will often use one credit, but the character counter in the send flow is still the best place to check before you queue a longer or more personalised message.
What This Affects Elsewhere
The information on this page applies to the SMS actions used across customers, jobs, debts, worksheets, and the Work > Communications page. It does not decide who receives a message; those later screens still use the customer and job phone data selected at send time.
Replies coming back from customers are linked to the original outbound text where possible, then copied onto the related customer and job so the conversation can be followed from the communications history as well as from the detail views. If a reply cannot be matched confidently, Work Planner routes it into internal triage instead of guessing which business it belongs to.
Related articles
- Settings Overview: Useful if you want to see where this direct settings page sits in the wider setup picture.
- Communications: The main page where new SMS and outgoing email history are shown together.
- Message Customers Popup: Where texts are written and sent, with the credits they use checked before they go.
- Customer Detail View: Shows where the customer-level Communications tab now appears.
- Job Detail View: Shows the job-level Communications tab that carries job-linked replies.