Four messages in your own words

Every time the app helps you send to a customer, it is one of four actions. Send a quote, chase a quote, send an invoice, chase an invoice. Each has its own box in Settings with its own words and its own placeholders. A blank box does not send nothing. It sends the app's own message for that action.

The message is handed to the phone's share sheet. You choose text, WhatsApp, email or any app on the phone. Nothing is sent straight from the app in the background.

What it does

Settings holds four editable boxes, one per action. The box shows the real message that will send, in lines, so what you read is what the customer will read.

Each box takes placeholders. Name, job, quote or invoice, amount and business name are on every action. The invoice chase also takes bank details and the escalation line for the step it is on. The placeholders are filled when the message is built, and an empty placeholder is dropped rather than left as a blank line.

If you change a word, your words are kept. If you save the default exactly, the app keeps the record blank so a later improvement to the wording still reaches you. If you clear the box, the blank record means the app's own message sends again. That is how a blank box sends the app's own words rather than nothing.

Who it is for

It is for the trader who wants the customer to hear his own tone, not a system note. One person and one phone, with no template library to work through.

How it works

1. Open Settings and find Messages and chasing. The four boxes are there, each with the app's own message already in it.
2. Edit any box. Use the placeholders listed under the box for that action. The invoice chase lists bank and business and escalation too.
3. The change saves on its own. There is no save button. Closing the screen saves what you typed.
4. Send a quote or an invoice, or chase one from Home. The message box opens with your words filled in for that customer and that document.
5. Choose how to send. The share sheet offers text, WhatsApp, email and other apps. The bill's link rides on the same message.

The four messages are separate. Changing the chase quote box does not change the send quote box, and changing the invoice chase does not change the invoice send.

The four boxes

• Send quote: goes out when you send a quote. Takes name, job, quote number, amount and business name.
• Chase quote: used when you chase a quote that has gone quiet. Takes the same five.
• Send invoice: goes out when you send a bill. Takes name, job, invoice number, amount and business name.
• Chase invoice: the first chase and the start of every chase after it. Takes name, job, invoice number, amount, business name, bank details and escalation. The bank details, the reference and the sign-off are part of this message. If you take them out, the app puts them back on their own line so the chase can still be paid.

Each box opens with the app's message in full, so most traders can send it as it stands.

What it does not do

• It does not send a blank message. A blank box is a real answer and the app's own message goes.
• It does not share words between boxes. Each of the four keeps its own text.
• It does not fill in a price you did not set. The amount is the bill's figure, and the invoice chase uses what is still owed rather than the original total. A line with no price on the quote is flagged before it can go out.
• It does not overwrite your words with an update. An update to the app's wording only reaches traders whose box is still on the default. A box with your words in it stays as you wrote it.
• It does not send in the background. The message is prepared and you send it from the share sheet.

Questions

What happens if I leave a box empty?

The app's own message for that action sends. A blank box never means no message. It means you are happy with the app's own words.

Do the four boxes take the same placeholders?

Most of them, yes, and each box lists the ones it takes. Name, job, quote or invoice, amount and business name are on all four. The invoice chase also takes bank details and the escalation line.

Can I change one without changing the others?

Yes. Each box is kept on its own. Changing the send invoice box leaves the chase invoice box where it was.

Where do the bank details and the reference come from?

From Settings and from the bill. The bank details are the four fields you set in Settings, and the reference is the invoice number. A draft bill has no sent date and is not chased, so a chase always has a reference to print.

Does the app remember what I sent?

Yes. A chase records its count and date on the invoice, so the next chase uses the right step. The message itself lives in the thread you sent it in on the phone.

Can I put the app's message back after I changed it?

Yes. Clear the box. A cleared box is kept blank and the app's own message sends again.

Related

• Chasing: when the message appears and how the wording firms up.
• Invoices: the bill the message carries.
• Quotes: the priced document the customer answers.
• Every part of the app: the other pages.

Join the list

The app is not in the shops yet. Join the list and we will tell you the day it opens.