SMS Rosters
SMS Rosters texts each employee their shifts for the week, so staff without the Microkeeper app still get their roster. Staff reply OK to accept, and you can see at a glance who hasn't replied or can't work.
| Required plan | Standard Enterprise |
|---|---|
| Required access | Roster - Full Access |
Navigate to Menu > Rosters > Roster SMS.
Before you send SMS rosters
- Turn on SMS rosters: set Display Roster SMS to SMS active in Roster Settings. Until then, Roster SMS isn't in the menu.
- Roster the week on the Roster Calendar. See Roster Calendar.
- Each employee has a mobile number on their profile, in the format 04xxxxxxxx.
- You have SMS credit. See Buy SMS credit.
Send each employee their roster
- Choose the year and week next to Roster Calendar. If you use Groups, you can choose a Group to text only its staff.
- Click Display. Each rostered employee is listed with their number and the message. Hover over the message to read it.
- Tick the employees to text under Selected, then click Send SMS.
Each message lists the employee's shifts for the week, one line per day, such as "Mon 09:00-17:00", and asks them to reply OK. A number in red isn't a valid mobile number, so fix it on their profile first.
Messages can take a few minutes to send. To text staff at the same time as you lock a week, tick SMS (10c per sms) in the Send Roster Notifications window instead. It opens after you lock one week on the Roster Calendar, or from More Actions > Send Notifications with the range on 1 Week. That message asks staff to log in for their shifts rather than listing them.
See who has replied
Click Display again to see each message's status:
| Column | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Sent | Waiting in yellow until the message reaches their phone, then Delivered in green. Red means it didn't arrive. |
| Received | Waiting in yellow until they reply. OK in green means they accepted. Any other reply is shown in red, so you can follow up with anyone who can't work. |
Buy SMS credit
Each SMS costs 10c including GST, and a message counts as one SMS for every 160 characters. Your balance shows as SMS Credit Balance on the Roster SMS page.
- Click Add SMS credit.
- Enter how much credit you need, between 100 and 100,000 SMS, then click Add.
- Pay the invoice in Billing. The credit is added once it's paid. See Billing.