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SMS & Snail Mail

SMS & Snail Mail

This course covers text-message (SMS) and physical postal-mail (snail mail) sending in Quickenerp: templates, sending from any record or in bulk, third-party SMS gateways (Twilio, SMS Gate), delivery tracking, and when to reach for a stamped letter instead of an email.

Responsible System
Last Update 07/21/2026
Completion Time 1 day 10 hours
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Managing Cost & Choosing the Right Channel
Managing Cost & Choosing the Right Channel

Every Channel Has a Real Per-Message Cost

Unlike email, both SMS and Snailmail cost real money per message/letter sent (credits, Twilio charges, or per-letter postal fees) — worth factoring into any automation that fires per-transaction at volume.

Choosing a Channel

ChannelBest For
EmailDefault for anything with detail/attachments; free, high volume.
SMSTime-sensitive, short alerts likely to be seen fast (appointment reminders, OTP-style codes, delivery notices).
WhatsAppRicher interactive notifications where the customer already engages on WhatsApp.
Snail MailFormal/legal notices, or reaching contacts with no reliable digital channel.

Best Practices

  • Keep SMS templates short and purposeful — reserve it for messages people actually need to see quickly.
  • Validate postal addresses before triggering bulk Snailmail — a bad address wastes the letter's cost entirely.
  • Monitor Error states on both channels the same way you'd monitor bounced emails — a silent failure means the customer never actually got the message.
  • Respect opt-outs and local regulations for SMS marketing exactly as strictly as for email (see the Email Marketing course's compliance article) — SMS regulations in many jurisdictions are at least as strict.
SMS Overview
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New Content
Managing Cost & Choosing the Right Channel
Managing Cost & Choosing the Right Channel
Preview

Every Channel Has a Real Per-Message Cost

Unlike email, both SMS and Snailmail cost real money per message/letter sent (credits, Twilio charges, or per-letter postal fees) — worth factoring into any automation that fires per-transaction at volume.

Choosing a Channel

ChannelBest For
EmailDefault for anything with detail/attachments; free, high volume.
SMSTime-sensitive, short alerts likely to be seen fast (appointment reminders, OTP-style codes, delivery notices).
WhatsAppRicher interactive notifications where the customer already engages on WhatsApp.
Snail MailFormal/legal notices, or reaching contacts with no reliable digital channel.

Best Practices

  • Keep SMS templates short and purposeful — reserve it for messages people actually need to see quickly.
  • Validate postal addresses before triggering bulk Snailmail — a bad address wastes the letter's cost entirely.
  • Monitor Error states on both channels the same way you'd monitor bounced emails — a silent failure means the customer never actually got the message.
  • Respect opt-outs and local regulations for SMS marketing exactly as strictly as for email (see the Email Marketing course's compliance article) — SMS regulations in many jurisdictions are at least as strict.
New Content
Sending a Physical (Postal) Letter
Sending a Physical (Postal) Letter
Preview

When Email Isn't Enough

Some documents legally or practically need to go out as a real, printed, stamped letter — a formal notice, a contract requiring a wet signature by post, or reaching a customer who doesn't check email. Snailmail sends any Quickenerp document (typically a PDF report — invoice, letter, notice) through a physical mail service without you printing, stuffing an envelope, or visiting a post office.

Sending a Letter

  1. From a document that supports it (e.g. an invoice), choose Send by Post instead of (or alongside) email.
  2. Confirm the recipient's postal address is complete and correctly formatted — an incomplete address is the most common cause of a failed letter.
  3. Choose color vs black & white and single vs double-sided printing if offered — these affect the per-letter cost.
  4. Confirm. The document is queued for printing and postal dispatch by the mail service.

Letter Statuses

  • In QueueSent (handed off to the postal service).
  • Error – with a specific error code (most commonly an invalid/incomplete address) shown so you can correct and resend.
  • Cancelled.

Note that "Sent" means handed to the postal carrier, not confirmed delivered — actual physical delivery tracking depends on the mail service used and typically isn't as granular as email/SMS/WhatsApp read receipts.

Common Use: Overdue Invoice Follow-up

A frequent real-world use is escalating collections: email reminders first, then a formal printed letter by post for accounts that remain unresponsive — a physical letter often carries more weight for a final notice than another email, and can be required before certain legal collection steps.

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Sending Single & Bulk SMS
Sending Single & Bulk SMS
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Sending an SMS

One-Off, From a Record

  1. Open a contact, order, or invoice → click Send SMS (in the chatter's action menu).
  2. Pick a Template or write a message directly.
  3. Confirm the recipient number (defaults to the record's mobile/phone field) and send.

SMS Templates

Go to Settings > Technical > SMS Templates (developer mode). Like email templates, an SMS template is tied to a model and can include placeholders (customer name, order reference) that auto-fill per record. Keep SMS templates short — carriers charge/segment messages by character count, and unlike email there's no room for a long layout.

Bulk / Mass SMS

Select multiple records in a list view (e.g. a filtered list of contacts) → Action > Send SMS to message all of them at once using a template — useful for appointment reminders across a day's bookings or a short promotional blast to an opted-in list.

Automated SMS

Trigger an SMS template automatically from an Automated Action, the same mechanism used for automated emails and WhatsApp messages — e.g. an appointment reminder 2 hours before the slot, or a delivery-day notification.

This documentation is updated continuously. Some features described here may be renamed, deprecated, or still being finalized.