Save SMS costs with in-app notifications

Schools in Pakistan spend real money on SMS: absence alerts, fee reminders, holiday notices, result announcements. Every message is charged per family, and longer Urdu messages often count as several SMS. Qalamora gives every parent and student their own login with a notification bell, and messages there cost nothing. This article explains how to move most of your messages to the app without leaving any family out.

How in-app notifications work

Every person who signs in to Qalamora, staff, parent or student, has a bell at the top of the screen. When something happens that concerns them, a short notice appears there:

• a fee payment is received, with the receipt number and amount,
• a child is marked absent,
• homework is posted,
• a notice is published,
• results are published,
• a leave request is approved or declined.

The notice is in the reader's own language, English or Urdu, and links to the right page: the receipt, the attendance record or the homework. The app checks for new notices regularly while it is open, so parents see them without refreshing.

Step 1: give parents a login

In-app notices reach only families who can sign in. Create logins for a whole class at once from Students > Logins and print the slips, or send the passwords by SMS one time. One parent login covers all their children. See Create parent and student logins.

The best moment is the start of the year or the first challan of a term: hand the login slip out with the challan and explain in one sentence that fees, attendance and results are now in the app.

Step 2: choose what goes where

Open Settings > Notifications. For each automatic event (fee receipt, result published, absence alert, homework posted, notice published, leave decision) choose the channels: In the app, SMS and WhatsApp. See Automatic notifications.

A cost-conscious setup that many schools can start with:

Set SMS quiet hours so text messages are not sent at night. In-app notices are never delayed.

Step 3: fee reminders, in the app first

On Fees > Defaulters, Send reminder offers In-app first, SMS if no app login. Families with a login get the reminder free in the app; only families without a login get an SMS. As more parents sign in, your SMS bill for reminders falls on its own. There is also In-app only (free) if you do not want to send any SMS. See Defaulters and fee reminders.

Step 4: keep SMS and WhatsApp for what needs them

SMS still has a place:

• families without a smartphone,
• urgent messages such as a sudden closure,
• the first contact with a new family before they have a login.

Send these from Messages, choosing the recipients by class, defaulters or everyone. Messages go through the SMS or WhatsApp provider your school connects, charged at your provider's rates. See Send SMS, WhatsApp and in-app messages.

What parents should know

Parents get the most from in-app notices when they:

• keep the school's address saved on their phone's home screen,
• sign in once and stay signed in on their own phone,
• check the bell when they hear about something at school.

A short notice on the board or in the diary in Urdu helps: where to sign in, and that fee receipts and absences now appear in the app.

Measuring the saving

Your SMS provider's statement shows the monthly count. Compare it with the month before you switched. Settings > Subscription also shows SMS this month under usage. Most of the saving comes from receipts and homework, which are frequent and rarely urgent.

Note

In-app notices reach only people with a login. Keep at least one SMS channel for absences or urgent notices until nearly every family has signed in.

Related

• Automatic notifications
• Create parent and student logins
• Reduce fee defaulters with reminders