Connect WhatsApp so alerts send automatically, and what it costs

Out of the box, alerts wait in the Outbox for a one-tap send. Connect your WhatsApp Business number and they send by themselves, the moment they are queued.

Who can do this: Owners and Admins (connecting needs "Integrations & messaging", and only owners and admins can save an integration).

Connect your number

1. 1In Meta Business Manager, set up the WhatsApp Business Platform (Cloud API) for your number. You need the Phone number ID and a Permanent access token.
2. 2In FurKisses, open Settings → Integrations and find WhatsApp Business.
3. 3Enter the Phone number ID and the Permanent access token, switch it on and save.
4. 4Open Settings → Alerts for pet parents. The Delivery status card should now say "Connected: alerts send automatically through your WhatsApp Business number".

If it says "Not connected: alerts wait in the Outbox for a one-tap send", the phone number ID or the token is missing. More detail is in Connect integrations.

What happens after you connect

• New alerts are sent within moments of being queued. Anything left over is sent by the hourly job.
• A message that WhatsApp refuses moves to the Failed tab of the Outbox with the reason. From there you can Retry or send it by hand.
• Messages older than 48 hours are never sent automatically.

WhatsApp only delivers free-form messages to people who have messaged your number in the last 24 hours. Outside that window, Meta requires a pre-approved message template. If alerts to parents who haven't written to you recently land in Failed, that is the reason. Send those from the Outbox by hand, which always works.

What it costs

FurKisses doesn't charge for alerts. Meta does, and bills your WhatsApp Business account directly.

• Meta charges per message delivered. The price depends on the country of the person receiving it and the type of message.
• Alerts like confirmations, reminders and status updates are utility messages. As of October 2026, rate cards published by third parties put a utility message to an Indian number at roughly ₹0.115. Treat that as an estimate: rates change, and marketing-style messages (come-back nudges, birthday wishes) can be classed and priced higher.
• Messages you send by hand from the Outbox use your own WhatsApp and cost nothing.

The Usage this month card on the alerts page counts the messages sent automatically this month. For businesses in India it also shows an Estimated cost (messages × ₹0.115). It is an estimate based on Meta's published utility rate: check your Meta billing for actual charges. For other countries the card shows the count only.

A rough example: 300 bookings a month with a confirmation, a reminder and three status updates each is about 1,500 messages, or roughly ₹170.

Opt-in rules

WhatsApp requires that people have agreed to receive messages from your business.

• Every customer has a Send WhatsApp confirmations & reminders tick box on their profile. Untick it for anyone who asks not to be messaged. They will never receive automatic alerts, and nothing is queued for them.
• Ask for consent when you take a new customer's number, and say what you will send (booking updates, reminders, report cards).
• If a parent replies asking you to stop, untick the box the same day.

Keep it to a few useful messages

• Boarding and daycare parents get one daily report card per pet instead of a message for every meal, walk and photo. The day's care updates are gathered into one summary with a link to the photos. Set when it goes out with Daily report card time.
• Leave Service started and Reminder 2 hours before off unless your customers ask for them.
• Each alert is sent once per booking, so a parent never gets the same reminder twice.

Fewer, better messages cost less and are less likely to be muted.

Good to know

• Time-based alerts depend on the hourly job (/api/cron/reminders, which needs CRON_SECRET and an external scheduler). Live-status alerts are queued instantly by the database when your team changes a booking's status.
• You can switch back at any time: turn the WhatsApp integration off and alerts wait in the Outbox again.