Set up office messaging

Office messaging setup is for the office owner or an administrator. Settings → Messaging has seven tabs: Email, WhatsApp, SMS, Routing, Team, Client reminders, and Opt-outs. Connecting an SMS provider is not available yet; the SMS tab offers a demo sender for practice, and its messages are not really sent. Technical terms have a question mark next to them that explains them.

The office’s sending address

Every office has a ready SmartBill mailbox, such as cohen-cpa@office.smartbill.co.il, with no setup. Emails go out in the office name, and client replies arrive in Messages.

1. On the Email tab, under Sending addresses, click the edit icon next to SmartBill mailbox.
2. Change the Sender name (usually the office name) or the Address. Clients will see shows the result.
3. Click Save. If the address is taken, choose another name.

If the mailbox was removed, click Turn on mailbox to bring it back.

Send from the office’s own domain (optional)

To send from the office’s own address, such as office@cohen-cpa.co.il, you need a Resend account (an email sending service) with the office’s domain verified.

1. Click Send from your domain.
2. Fill in Sender name, Sender address, and Resend API key. The question mark next to the key explains where to create it.
3. Click Check and save. The key is checked with Resend. If the domain is missing or not verified, a message explains what to fix.
4. To see whether an email was delivered or bounced, click Set up next to Replies and delivery updates and follow the steps. This step is optional.

Connect a WhatsApp number

Each office connects its own WhatsApp Business number. You need someone with admin access to the office’s Meta Business account.

1. On the WhatsApp tab, click Connect number.
2. Fill in the number’s details from Meta, under WhatsApp Manager, then API Setup. The question marks next to the fields explain where to find each value.
3. Click Continue. Step 2 shows the Callback URL and verify token. Paste them into Meta following the steps on screen, then click I’ve done it in Meta.

If you skip step 2, the number shows Incoming messages not connected yet: you can send, but client replies won’t arrive. Click Finish connecting to get new details and paste them into Meta.

WhatsApp consent

Meta requires consent before the office opens a WhatsApp conversation. Instead of marking consent per contact, an owner or administrator confirms once:

1. On the WhatsApp tab, find WhatsApp consent.
2. Make sure the office’s clients agreed to receive service messages on WhatsApp, for example in the engagement letter.
3. Click I confirm. The screen shows who confirmed and when. You can undo it with Withdraw.

After confirming, service templates can open a conversation with contacts of current clients. Marketing templates and distribution lists only go to contacts who consented themselves, meaning they wrote to the office on WhatsApp or replied to a template. Anyone who replies “STOP” gets no further messages.

Create a WhatsApp template

1. In WhatsApp templates, click New template. The editor opens full screen, with the preview beside it.
2. In Where to start?, pick a ready message, such as Documents and information request, Follow-up request, Reminder to finish or Report ready, or a Blank message. A ready message comes with the fields that fill themselves, samples for Meta, and a name. Messages for annual reports, capital declarations and documents to sign appear only in offices that have them.
3. In Template name, give a name your team will recognise. The technical name Meta gets is made for you; Change edits it.
4. Edit the Body. Fields show in the message as named tags, such as Contact first name:
   • Add field puts a field from the system at the cursor; it fills itself on every send.
   • Value typed when sending adds a place whoever sends types into, such as an amount. Name it in What goes here?.
   • Click a tag to change what fills it, its sample for Meta, or to remove it.
   • The toolbar buttons make text bold, italic or struck through, and add emoji.
5. In Type and language, choose Utility or Marketing and the message’s language. The note below says what fits each type.
6. In Extras, add a Title line, a Closing line and buttons (Add button: quick reply, link, call or copy code). On a marketing message, Add an unsubscribe line writes a line that says how to opt out.
7. Beside it, the preview shows the message with the samples. Fields shows what fills each place instead. The Approval checklist shows what Meta checks: fix what is red before sending; what is orange may get it rejected.
8. Click Save draft, or Submit to Meta and confirm.

Meta usually reviews a template within a few minutes, up to 24 hours. Once approved, its wording cannot change.

Manage existing templates

• The list shows every template with its name, status and text. Select one to see beside it how it looks with samples and what fills it when sending. Filter by Approved, In progress, or Needs attention.
• A template Meta rejected explains the reason in plain words. Fix and send again opens it for editing.
• Sync from Meta updates statuses and brings in templates created directly at Meta.
• An approved template’s wording can’t change. Map variables changes its name in the office and the fields that fill it; Save mapping saves. To change the wording, choose Duplicate as new template.
• Deleting a template that was sent to Meta can also remove it from Meta. After that, its name can’t be reused for 30 days.

Who gets a new conversation

When a client or an unknown sender writes to the office, the conversation goes to one member who is responsible for answering. The Routing tab decides how. Each change saves at once, and only owners and administrators can change it.

1. A client’s message goes to the client’s owner: when on, a client’s message reaches the client’s owner. While the owner is not clocked in, someone who is covers, and the conversation goes back to the owner when they clock in. A client with no owner is routed like any other conversation.
2. Under A sender who matches no contact, choose what happens with someone who writes and is not on file: Stays unknown, Offer a lead (the conversation’s side panel shows Create lead), or Create a lead (every new sender becomes a contact and a lead on the Leads board, owned by whoever gets the conversation, spam included).
3. Under Everything else, choose Members take turns so each new conversation goes to the member who has gone longest without one, or Stays in the shared pool so conversations wait unassigned and anyone can take them.
4. Under Who takes turns, choose Only members clocked in or Everyone on the list. When nobody is clocked in, the conversation waits in the pool and goes to the first member who clocks in.
5. Under Members who get conversations, keep Everyone in the office, or turn it off and pick members. Members on the list also see incoming conversations that are not a client’s, such as unknown senders and leads, even when someone else has them.
6. Under A client counts as unanswered after, choose how long a client may wait for a reply, from a quarter of an hour to a day. After that the conversation is marked red, shows under Unanswered for owners and admins, and its assignee gets an alert.

In every conversation, How this was assigned on the side explains where it went and why: whether the sender is known, whose turn it was, and who was not clocked in.

Office channel

Whole office is a team conversation that everyone in the office belongs to, including people who join later. It is created on its own the first time someone opens the Team tab on the Messages screen.

1. On the Team tab, in the Office channel card, change the Channel name if needed.
2. Under Who can post, choose Everyone, or Owners and admins to make it an announcements channel: everyone reads and reacts with emoji, and only owners and admins write.
3. To hide the channel from everyone, turn off Channel is on and confirm. Its messages are kept, and you can turn it back on in the same place.
4. Click Save changes.

The same settings open from inside the channel: click ⋯ and choose Manage channel. Only owners and admins can change them.

Client reminders

The Client reminders tab sets the default for automatic reminders: the Automatic reminders for new requests switch, and the schedule (first reminder after, then every, up to). Click Save. The change applies to requests sent from now on. Back to the default restores two days, then every three days, up to five reminders.

On WhatsApp, after 24 hours without a message from the client only a template approved by Meta can go out. Each WhatsApp number shows whether it has a reminder template. If not, click Create the recommended template: it goes to Meta for approval, which usually takes minutes. Until it is approved, reminders outside the window go by email. Any service template whose variables are all filled by the system, one of them the link, is used for reminders.

The email uses the Automatic reminder template in the Email tab, where you can edit it. The What the message is about and What the client still owes fields fill in on their own in each reminder.

People who asked not to be messaged

The Opt-outs tab lists people the office will not message on the channel where they asked. Anyone who replies “STOP” is added automatically. To add someone by hand, enter a phone or email, choose a channel, and click Add. The trash icon lets the office message them again.

Email templates

Email templates lists the emails the office sends clients. Built-in templates come ready: portal link, information request, report share, reminder, and a general message. Firm templates are ones you created. Select a template to preview it with sample data. Only firm admins can edit templates.

1. Choose Edit on a template, Duplicate to start from a copy, or New template. The editor opens full screen, with the preview beside it and the save and test buttons at the top.
2. Name the template and choose Used for. A portal link, information request, or report share template must include the link button, because it is sent with a personal client link.
3. Write the subject and the email as you would in a word processor. Select text to make it bold or add a link, and type / to add a heading, list, divider, button, or image. In the / menu, move with the arrow keys and press Enter to choose. You can also add an image with Image, by pasting, or by dragging it in: PNG, JPEG, GIF, or WebP. Large images are shrunk automatically; a GIF must be up to 900 KB.
4. To add a detail that differs for each client, click Insert field and choose one, such as the contact’s first name or the client name. The field appears as a tag and is filled in when the email is sent. The menu also has From the annual report, From the capital declaration, and From the document to sign groups, such as the tax year, the filing deadline, or who handles the file. These fill in only when you send from that file (for example an annual report questionnaire) and the value is set there. Sent from anywhere else, the email warns that they have no value. The Automatic reminder template can’t use them.
5. Check the preview and the checks under it. Send me a test emails it with sample data to your own address, so you can see it in a real inbox. Then click Save template.

The Office logo appears at the top of every email the office sends; without one, the office name shows. It is set in Settings → General, and Change logo at the top of Email templates leads there. See Office logo.

Editing a built-in template saves the office’s own version, marked Edited. Restore original discards the changes and brings back the original wording. Deleting a firm template does not change emails already sent.

Send an email to a client

Email goes out from a connected office mailbox. You can send from an email conversation (Send an email template) and from screens that send the client a link, such as sending a capital declaration or an information request.

1. Check To and From, then choose a Template. Templates that suit the screen come first.
2. Edit the subject and the email as needed. Changes apply to this email only; the template stays as it is. Tags show the recipient’s values.
3. Review the full email under What the client will receive, including the mobile view.
4. If a warning appears, such as a field with no value, fix it. Send is available only when everything is ready and the preview shows the latest version.
5. To see the email as the client will, click Send me a test. The test goes only to you, with the recipient’s values.

Admins can choose Save as template to keep an email they wrote as a new template.

Send to a client on WhatsApp and email

On screens that send the client a link, such as signing a capital declaration or an information request, Send to client opens one screen for every channel:

1. Choose a Contact. How to send lists WhatsApp and email with the number or address. A channel that isn’t connected is marked and can’t be chosen.
   • For a client with no contacts, a New contact form opens right away, with the client’s phone and email if they are saved. The contact is saved on the client and chosen for this send. You can also add a new contact from the search.
   • For a contact with no phone or email, the channel shows Add phone or Add email. The detail is saved on the contact, for later sends too, and the channel is ticked.
2. The channel the contact usually uses is ticked. Tick both to send on both at once.
3. On WhatsApp, when the conversation is open, write a free-text message (the wording and link are ready). Insert field above the message puts a value, such as the tax year, at the cursor. When the 24-hour window is closed, you send an approved template. The one that fills itself completely is picked for you (when a link is sent, only one that carries it), and you can choose another. Its fields fill in from the system: the contact, the office, the link, what the message is about (for example the 2025 annual report) and what the client still owes. A field with no value here is marked, and you type it in. The template itself shows in the preview.
4. For email, choose a template and edit it as with any email. When you send from a file, such as an annual report questionnaire, Insert field also lists its details: the tax year, the report form, the filing deadline, the office’s target date, and who handles it. For a capital declaration: the year, the as-of date, the filing deadline, and who handles it. For a document to sign: the document’s name. Only details set on the file appear.
5. Check each channel’s preview and click Send. If one channel fails, only it stays ticked so you can try again.

A colleague cannot manage a channel

Channel administration has its own permission checks. Ask the office owner to review their role.

For everyday conversations, use the messages guide.