Sending documents by SMS

A receipt, invoice, credit note, quotation or sales order can be sent to a customer's phone as a short message with a secure link. The customer opens the link, sees the document on a page that follows their phone's light or dark setting, in English or Dhivehi, and can download the PDF. Nothing is installed on their side and no login is needed.

Messages go out through Message Owl (MSGOWL), a Maldivian SMS gateway, using your own MSGOWL account. Each message is paid from that account's balance.

1. Connect Message Owl

1. 1Create an API key in the MSGOWL console with the scopes to send messages and read the balance, and make sure your sender ID (the name the customer sees as the sender, up to 11 letters or digits) is approved by MSGOWL.
2. 2Open Settings → Integrations → Message Owl (SMS).
3. 3Paste the API key and type the Sender ID, then Save. The key is stored encrypted and is never shown again; paste a new one to replace it.
4. 4Press Test connection. Voltix reads your balance through the real MSGOWL API and shows "Connected · balance … credits". A wrong key is refused here, before any message is sent.
5. 5Switch Use Message Owl for SMS on.

2. Settings → SMS

The SMS section is always there; until a gateway is switched on it only reminds you to connect one.

General

• Default country code: a number typed without a country code gets this one. With 960, a 7-digit Maldivian mobile number is recognised on its own.
• Daily cap: how many messages the whole company may send per day. 0 stops all sending.
• Default language and Offer Dhivehi: which language the send window starts in, and whether the Dhivehi templates and the language switch are offered at all.

Notifications by SMS (on the General tab): which notices Voltix gives your people may also go out by SMS: Mentions, Approvals, SAP approvals, Documents shared or assigned to me, Rim Inbox drafts, Reminders and System notices. To start with, Approvals, SAP approvals and Reminders are on. Each person still switches SMS on for themselves under My profile → Notifications and needs a mobile number in their Account tab. These messages count towards the Daily cap and appear in the Send log as Notification. See Notifications.

Documents: which documents show the SMS button, and how long the customer's link stays open (48 hours for a receipt and 30 days for the others, to start with; "Never expires" is allowed). An expired link shows a page with your phone number; sending again makes a fresh link.

Templates: one message per document type, in English and in Dhivehi. Use the placeholders {{customer_name}}, {{company}}, {{document}}, {{number}}, {{total}}, {{due_date}} and {{link}}; every template must contain {{link}}. The preview under each box shows the message with sample values and how many segments it takes.

Send log: every message (documents and notifications) with its delivery status, who sent it, the segments used and whether the customer opened the link. Refresh status asks MSGOWL about messages that are still "sent"; Voltix does the same every 15 minutes for messages of the last 24 hours.

3. Sending a document

Open the document as you would to print it (the invoice after a wholesale sale, the receipt after a retail sale, a quotation or sales order from Orders, or a document in the Sales app) and press SMS. The window shows:

• the customer's numbers from their record (mobile, phone, second phone), each with its own Send;
• a dialpad for another number when the customer gives one on the spot (it is not saved to the customer);
• the message, which you can change for this one send, with the segment count;
• the English / Dhivehi switch, when Dhivehi is offered;
• what was sent before for this document, and how much of today's cap is used.

The PDF you are looking at travels with the message, so the customer downloads exactly that file.

4. What the customer sees

The page shows your company name and contact details, the document with a status badge (Paid, Unpaid, Cancelled, Open, Accepted, …) that reflects the document now, the lines, totals and payments, and a Download PDF button. A language switch offers English and Dhivehi. When the company has a verified website domain in Voltix, the link uses that domain; otherwise it uses the Voltix address.

Links are random and unguessable, are never shown to search engines, and stop working when they expire. Treat a link like the document itself: anyone holding it can open that one document.

Troubleshooting