Articles on: SMS

SMS Getting Started

Managing SMS in Xap is quick and straightforward. To help you roll this out across your services, it’s important to note that only Organisation Admins can enable the SMS feature by default.

Once activated, your teams can begin sending SMS communications with ease if they have the SMS authorisation.

Upon enabling SMS for your Organisation, the following fees are applicable:

Fee	Price
Monthly Fees	$25 per month Includes an Organisation mobile number
Usage‑based fee	$0.10 per SMS sent with limit of (160 characters), further characters after this capped at 146 at an additional $0.10
Fee per allocated mobile number	$25 per month - For each additional Centre mobile number

PDF Resources

User	Description	Link
Service	Checklist for getting started with SMS for your Organisation in Xap	Getting ready for SMS Checklist
Guardian	Guardian process to manage SMS message permissions on their laptop	Opt out of SMS Web portal - laptop
Guardian	Guardian process to manage SMS message permissions on their mobile device	Opt out of SMS Web portal - device

Actions

Customise

a) Set User Permissions for Custom Roles

b) Customise SMS Email Template to Guardians (if required/non-mandatory)

Enable SMS for your Service/s
Send Families the SMS opt out email with actions

Step 1(a): Set User Permissions

The 3 default User Roles will automatically have the SMS permission linked:

Organisation Admin
Provider Admin
Centre Admin

Enabling SMS permission

Select the Settings screen
Select Manage Roles

Select the 3-dot menu next to the custom user role
Select Edit

Under Communications tick SMS
Select Save

Note: Default permission of Standard Push notification for custom roles will be changed to SMS permission. Please check custom roles and unselect SMS if not required.

Step 1(b): Customise SMS Email Template (if required/Non-mandatory)

The system email that will be sent out is called SMS Communication Enabled to Guardian.

This can be located within your Settings Screen > Email Templates

Select System Email Templates
To Guardians
Search on the SMS Communication Enabled to Guardian template
Select the 3-dot menu
Select Edit from the drop-down

Note: Please do not remove or alter the wording in between any of the Dynamic Fields {{ }}.

Default Email Template

Step 2: Enabling SMS

SMS can be enabled for:

Entire Organisation
All Centres
Individual Services

Note: Once enabled SMS is ready but recommend allowing time for Guardians to set their opt‑out choices. All Guardians & Nominees will be automatically opted IN for SMS.

Select the Settings screen
Select SMS Configuration

Tick SMS Configuration for the Organisation

Note: By enabling only, the Organisation all Centre's are automatically enabled for SMS, however Only the Organisation Admin, Provider Admin and Centre Admin users can send SMS's

Select the mobile number/s for the Organisation

Note: Mobile numbers can be used for multiple Centre's. It is not mandatory, to purchase additional numbers if there is no business case to do so. All SMS can be sent from a single Organisation mobile number.

Note: If more than 1 mobile number is selected, you can set the Organisation default number and name the additional mobile numbers. (by naming additional numbers, this will not automatically assign them to the selected service/s) but can be manually assigned as required.

Select Save

SMS Settings

By leaving the only selection as Organisation, this means:

Only the Organisation Admin, Provider Admin and Centre Admin can send SMS's

Selected Setting	Action
1.Only selecting Organisation	Automatically enables SMS for ALL centres, only an Organisation/Provider/Centre Admin users can send SMS for all Services.
2.Enable for all Centre's	Enables SMS for all Centre's linked to the Organisation. (Centre's can be disabled individually as required, standard & custom user roles with SMS permission can send SMS's)
3.Select Particular Centre/s	Enables SMS only for selected Centre/s, standard & custom roles with SMS permission can now send SMS's.
4.Send Email	Sends the information email to Guardians to advise SMS has been enabled for their centre. No action is required by Guardians only if they need to opt Guardians/Nominees out for SMS.
5.Manage Configuration	Manage mobile number/s and details for Organisation

Enabling SMS for all Centre's

Select - Enable for all Centre's button
Any User with the SMS Permission can send SMS's.
All Centre's for the Organisation will be automatically enabled for SMS

Note: If the same mobile number is used across multiple services in the message you will need to identify the name of the centre it's the SMS is from. SMS can also be sent across multiple centres at the same time, so even with different mobile number there is no service identifier. The families will need to save the number as a contact

Enabling SMS for individual Centre's

Depending on your Organisation requirements, you may choose to only enable SMS for selected centre's.

Select the Centre name from the left-hand menu
Select the Enable SMS configuration

View/Change Mobile number
Send Guardian SMS Opt out email when ready (see Step 3)

Step 3: Send Families the SMS opt out email

This email is a manual action by the Organisation Admin, and sends an email to all Guardians informing them that SMS has now been activated for your Centre/s.

No action is required from families unless they wish to opt any of their Guardians or Nominees out of receiving SMS messages.

Note: All Guardians & Nominees will be automatically opted IN for SMS.

The email includes clear instructions so families can manage their own preferences if needed and can be customised prior to it being sent.

see Step 1 (b): Customise SMS Email Template (if required)

Within SMS Configurations, select Send Email

Select Email Guardians

Family Summary view of sent email

Received Email

To assist you further with SMS queries see: Help Page - SMS

Updated on: 23/03/2026

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