Setting up WhatsApp

The question every school asks. There are two completely different ways to do WhatsApp here, and picking the wrong one wastes weeks.

Read this part first

Schools ask for "WhatsApp" expecting it to work like the app on their phone — type a message, press send, free. Official automated WhatsApp is not that. It is a Meta-approved business channel with verification, approved wording and a per-message cost.

So the system supports both:

	Manual (click-to-chat)	Official WhatsApp API
Cost	Free	Paid, per conversation
Approval needed	None	Meta business verification, plus approval of every message template
Ready in	Minutes	Days to weeks
Automatic sending	No — staff presses send	Yes
Bulk sending	No — one at a time	Yes
Phone number	The school's existing number	A dedicated number that has never been used on WhatsApp
Attachments	No — send a link instead	Yes
Best for	Fee follow-up, individual parent contact	Attendance alerts, fee reminders, results to everyone

Most schools should start with manual

It works today, costs nothing, and covers the thing schools actually do most: chasing individual parents. Move to the API when they want messages going out automatically to hundreds of people.

Option 1: Manual WhatsApp (click-to-chat)

Staff see a WhatsApp button next to a parent's number. Clicking it opens WhatsApp — Web, Desktop or phone, whichever they use — with the message already typed. They read it and press send themselves.

Nothing is sent by the system, so there is no approval, no template and no cost.

To turn it on: enable manual WhatsApp in the school's notification settings. The buttons appear wherever a parent or staff number is shown.

It cannot attach files

Click-to-chat cannot carry a PDF. To "send a receipt", put a link to the receipt in the message and the parent opens it. The system does this for you where receipts are involved.

Two smaller things worth knowing:

• If a number is missing or unusable, the button appears disabled rather than opening a broken chat
• Numbers without a country code use the school's country, so local-format numbers still work

Option 2: Official WhatsApp API

For messages that go out on their own — attendance alerts, fee reminders, results.

Seven providers are supported:

Meta Cloud API · Gupshup · 360dialog · Twilio · Wati · UltraMsg · SendWapi

Meta Cloud is the direct route and usually the cheapest. The others resell it with an easier setup and their own dashboards.

What Meta requires — this is not our rule

Requirement	What it means
Business verification	Meta verifies the business really exists. Documents, and days of waiting
A dedicated phone number	It cannot be a number already on WhatsApp or WhatsApp Business. Using the school office number means losing it from the phones
Approved templates	Every message sent first must match wording Meta approved in advance
The 24-hour window	Once a parent replies, you may send free-form messages for 24 hours. After that, templates only

The dedicated number catches everyone out

A school gives its main office number, then discovers that number no longer works in the WhatsApp app their staff use all day. Use a new SIM, and tell the school this before they choose.

Templates in practice

A template is fixed wording with blanks — "Dear 1, fees of 2 are due on 3". You submit it, Meta approves it, then you may only send that exact wording with the blanks filled.

Approval takes anywhere from minutes to days. Rejections are usually for sounding promotional. Plan the wording before promising a school a go-live date.

Setting it up

Platform-wide settings live under Sidebar → Comms Wallet → Meta / DLT Config. Rates and balances are under Wallet Oversight and Rate Cards, exactly as with SMS.

A school with its own WhatsApp provider account can use it instead, and then its messages always go through its own account.

Which should you choose?

Turning on manual WhatsApp does not stop you adding the API later. Many schools run both — automatic reminders through the API, individual follow-up by click-to-chat.

If WhatsApp is not working

What you see	Cause
Button does nothing, or looks greyed out	The parent has no usable number saved, or manual WhatsApp is switched off for that school
Opens WhatsApp but the chat is empty	The number is stored without a country code and the school has no country set
Template messages rejected	Wording does not exactly match what Meta approved
"Outside 24-hour window"	The parent has not replied recently — only approved templates can be sent
Automatic messages never send	The cron job — same cause as email and SMS
Messages fail once the balance hits zero	Top up the school's wallet