Use SMS notifications

Barkway can text clients about eligible bookings and booking requests when SMS is available in your workspace. Texts are for UK mobile numbers. Choose which messages to send in Settings → Communication first.

Choose Text for a client

Open Clients & Pets → Clients and select the client.
Under Contact Preferences, set Preferred Contact Method to Text.
Check that their UK mobile number is correct, then choose Save Changes.

Only a client explicitly set to Text can receive an eligible SMS. Email is the usual route when Text has not been chosen and an email address is available. If Text is selected but there is no supported mobile number, Barkway uses email when one is available. Changing the preference affects future notifications; it does not resend earlier ones. A client's preference cannot turn on a notification type that you have disabled.

SMS credits

Your Barkway account shows your remaining SMS credits.

A trial includes 10 credits for the whole trial. They do not reset during the trial.
Starter includes 25, Growth 50, and Professional 75 credits per paid billing period. Unused included paid-plan credits do not roll over.
One Barkway SMS credit covers one SMS segment. Barkway keeps standard texts short where possible, but a longer text can use more than one credit. Emoji, special characters, or unusually long names and message details can also increase the cost.

If a text was not sent

Check that Settings → Communication allows SMS and that the relevant message type is enabled. Then check the client's Preferred Contact Method, UK mobile number, and the remaining credits on your Barkway account.

If there are not enough credits for a text, Barkway does not send it. It does not automatically switch that message to email because the credits ran out. Future eligible messages can be sent when credits are available again.

Texts show a sender name based on your business name in Settings → Business. Barkway formats it automatically; there is no separate SMS sender-name setting. Clients cannot reply to these texts. Where available, Barkway tracks delivery information from the mobile network, but it does not track whether a client has read a text.