SMS notifications

SMS notifications help remind clients about appointments and notify them about booking changes without manual phone follow-up. The feature is prepaid: a business buys SMS packs, and BUKMI deducts the number of segments used by each accepted message.

SMS is a plan feature. In public plans it is available from Starter and higher; Free does not expose it.

What can be sent by SMS

Each service can enable these message types independently:

Message type	Meaning
Booking confirmation	SMS after a booking is created or confirmed.
Cancellation	SMS when a booking is cancelled.
Reschedule	SMS after a booking is moved by staff or by the guest self-service link.
Reminder	One SMS before the appointment, using the lead time configured on the service.

Messages are fixed transactional templates. They are not a marketing campaign channel.

Enable SMS for a business

1. Open Integrations → SMS.
2. Turn on Send SMS notifications to guests.
3. Buy an SMS pack if the balance is empty.
4. Optionally turn on Save SMS credits - avoid national characters in message text.

The same master switch is also available in Business settings → Notifications. When global SMS is off, services do not send SMS even if their own SMS toggles are enabled.

Packs and balance

SMS packs are purchased under Integrations → SMS through Stripe Checkout. After successful payment, the business balance is credited automatically.

Keep in mind:

• the balance is shared across all services in the business;
• one message can use more than 1 SMS segment if it is long or uses characters that require a more expensive encoding;
• credits are deducted only after the SMS gateway accepts the message;
• buying a pack can create a sales document according to the platform’s billing configuration.

Service settings

After global SMS is enabled, open a service and go to the SMS section. Choose which booking events should send SMS.

For reminders, configure the number of hours before the visit. The app checks reminders on a schedule, so the SMS is queued on the nearest scheduled run after the configured lead time is reached.

Guest consent

SMS will not be sent without the matching consent recorded on the booking.

Consent	Applies to
SMS - transactional messages	Confirmation, cancellation, and reschedule messages.
SMS - reminder	The one-time reminder before the appointment.

Consent checkboxes appear in the public guest form and in staff Create booking when the conditions are met: the business plan includes SMS, global SMS is enabled, the service has the relevant SMS type enabled, and the phone number looks valid.

Booking details show whether SMS consent was granted. Older bookings created before SMS was enabled may not have SMS consent recorded.

Saving credits by avoiding national characters

The option Save SMS credits - avoid national characters in message text transliterates national characters to plain Latin in the final SMS body. For example, Łódź can become Lodz.

This helps messages use GSM-7 more often, which has longer segments than Unicode. In practice, it can reduce segment usage and SMS pack consumption. The option also affects names inserted into templates, such as the guest, business, or service name.

Why an SMS may not be sent

Check these conditions in order:

1. The business plan includes SMS.
2. Send SMS notifications to guests is enabled.
3. The service has the relevant SMS type enabled.
4. The booking has a valid guest phone number.
5. The guest gave the matching SMS consent.
6. The business has enough SMS balance.
7. For reminders: the lead time has passed and the scheduled reminder process is running.

BUKMI records technical send attempts and their status in the app. If all conditions are met but SMS still does not go out, contact support or your installation administrator.