SMS Reminders

SMS Reminders automatically text participants ahead of time, helping reduce no-shows and last-minute cancellations. Reminders are sent from your provider's dedicated SMS number, and any replies land in your SMS inbox.

There are two reminder types, both set up on the same Reminders page and running on the same SMS engine, but configured and sent independently:

• Support Reminders — for scheduled supports in the Scheduling workspace.
• Calendar Appointment Reminders — for calendar appointments with a linked participant.

Opening the Reminders settings

Click the settings wheel in the left-hand menu, then select Reminders.

The Reminders page holds a Support Reminders card and a Calendar Appointment Reminders card. Each is configured separately.

Support Reminders

Support Reminders are sent for every scheduled support that falls within the windows you select — there's no additional filter by time of day or support type.

To set them up, click Create Reminder in the Support Reminders card.

Choose your reminder windows

Under Reminder windows, choose how far ahead of a support participants are reminded. You can enable any combination of:

• 48 hours before
• 24 hours before
• 1 hour before

A participant who has a support inside more than one window will receive a separate reminder for each.

Customise the message

For each window you enable, you can customise the message that's sent, or leave it on the default. Messages support placeholders (merge tags) that are filled in for each participant and support, including:

• ${Participant_FirstName} / ${Participant_FullName}
• ${Business_Name}
• ${Support_StartDate} / ${Support_StartTime}
• ${Support_EndDate} / ${Support_EndTime}
• ${Support_Type} / ${Support_Worker}
• ${Support_LeadTime} (e.g. "in 24 hours")

The default message reads:

Hi ${Participant_FirstName}, this is a reminder that your support with ${Business_Name} starts ${Support_LeadTime} at ${Support_StartTime} on ${Support_StartDate}.

A live Preview shows how each message will look. Leaving a message blank reverts that window to the default. When you're done, click Update.

Once enabled, the reminder appears in the Support Reminders table showing its Status (Enabled), Channel (SMS), and a plain-language summary of when it's sent — for example, "Sent 24 hours before each scheduled support." Use the three-dot menu on the row to Edit or Delete the reminder at any time.

Seeing support reminders that were sent

Support reminders show up in two places:

• SMS inbox — each reminder is an outbound message from your dedicated SMS number, and the full conversation (including any reply) is visible in your SMS inbox.
• The support's audit trail — open the support, go to Actions and select Audit Trail, then the Reminders tab. It lists every reminder sent for that support: the reminder window ("24 hours before"), when it was sent, the participant, the delivery status (for example Sent, Delivered, or Failed), and the message body. See Reminders sent for a support.

The audit trail only records what was sent to the participant — it doesn't capture their replies. To see a participant's response, including a YES or NO reply, open the conversation in your SMS inbox.

Calendar Appointment Reminders

Calendar Appointment Reminders text participants ahead of their calendar appointments. They share the setup screen, reminder windows, message placeholders, and SMS delivery with Support Reminders, but they're configured and sent independently.

The key differences from support reminders:

• What triggers them — a support reminder is sent for a scheduled support (a published, staffed shift). A calendar reminder is sent for a calendar appointment that has a linked task. There's no "published & staffed shift" requirement, because a calendar appointment has no roster.
• Who receives them — the recipient is the participant on the appointment's linked task (and any contacts nominated for calendar reminders), not a rostered support worker, event attendee, or the event's owner.
• Separate Reminder settings — participants (and nominated contacts) are configured with their own Calendar appointment reminders channel, independent of the support channel (see Who receives a reminder).
• A per-appointment toggle — each appointment has its own Send SMS reminder for this event toggle.
• Different placeholders — calendar messages use ${Event_*} placeholders and are formatted in the appointment's own timezone.

Setting up calendar reminders

In the Calendar Appointment Reminders card (it appears once SMS is active), click Create Reminder. Just like support reminders, you set up a single calendar reminder configuration for your whole organisation — you choose the windows and messages once, and they apply to every eligible appointment.

Choose your Reminder windows (48 hours before, 24 hours before, and/or 1 hour before) the same way as support reminders — an appointment that falls inside more than one enabled window sends a separate reminder for each.

For each window, customise the message or leave it on the default. Calendar messages use these placeholders:

The default message reads:

Hi ${Participant_FirstName}, this is a reminder that your appointment with ${Business_Name} starts ${Event_LeadTime} at ${Event_StartTime} on ${Event_StartDate}.

A live Preview shows how each message will look, and Reset to default restores a window's message. Leaving a message blank keeps that window on the default. When you're done, click Update.

The per-appointment toggle

Every calendar appointment carries its own Send SMS reminder for this event toggle on the event form. It's on by default, so eligible appointments are reminded automatically. Switch it off to suppress the reminder for that one appointment without changing the participant's opt-in or any other appointment.

• The toggle only appears when there is at least one eligible reminder recipient for the linked participant (the participant and/or nominated contacts).
• The event form also shows a short status message telling you whether reminders will be sent — and a link to edit Reminder settings if they won't.
• For a recurring appointment, editing the toggle honours the same this occurrence / this and following choice as other event fields, so you can suppress a single occurrence or a run of them.

Who receives a calendar reminder

A calendar reminder goes to the participant on the appointment's linked task and/or any contacts nominated for Calendar appointment reminders. All of the following must be true for it to be sent:

• Your organisation has set up a calendar reminder for that window, with an active SMS number.
• The appointment is an event or appointment type (not a Busy or Out of Office block).
• The appointment's Send SMS reminder for this event toggle is on.
• The appointment has a linked task that isn't marked complete.
• The task's participant is not archived, and there is at least one eligible recipient for calendar reminders (the participant opted in with a valid mobile, and/or nominated contacts who can receive SMS).
• Eligible recipients haven't opted out of SMS (for example, by replying STOP).

When calendar reminders are sent

Astalty checks for due appointments every few minutes and sends each reminder close to its lead time — for example, roughly an hour before for the "1 hour before" window. There's a small amount of tolerance either side so a reminder is never sent late for an appointment that's already imminent: an appointment created only minutes before it starts won't trigger a late "1 hour before" reminder.

Each reminder is sent once per appointment, per window. A participant is never texted twice for the same appointment and lead-time.

• Deleting an appointment cancels any reminder that hasn't been sent yet.
• Completing the linked task stops further reminders for that appointment.
• Moving an appointment to a new time before its reminder has been sent means the reminder simply fires against the new time. If a reminder for a window has already been sent, moving the appointment won't send that window again — turn the appointment's toggle off if you no longer want an outstanding reminder to go out.

Seeing reminders that were sent

Calendar reminders show up in two places:

• SMS inbox — each reminder is an outbound message from your dedicated SMS number, and the full conversation (including any reply) is visible in your SMS inbox.
• The appointment's audit trail — open an appointment and choose View Audit Trail, then the Reminders tab. It lists every reminder sent for that appointment: the window ("24 hours before"), when it was sent, the participant, the delivery status (for example Sent, Delivered, or Failed), and the message body. If none have gone out yet, it shows "No reminders have been sent yet."

The audit trail only records what was sent to the participant — it doesn't capture their replies. To see a participant's response, open the conversation in your SMS inbox.

Who receives a reminder

Each participant has their own Reminder settings. Support reminders and calendar appointment reminders are configured separately, and for each channel you choose whether the message goes to the participant, to nominated contacts, or to both.

Opening Reminder settings

Open a participant's profile, go to the More tab, and find the Reminder Settings row. Click Edit to open the drawer.

You can also open the same drawer from:

• the Edit participant reminder settings link in the reminder status alert on a 1:1 support create/update form
• the same link on a calendar event create/update form
• the bell icon on a group support participant row
• the group support Update SMS Reminder flow

The drawer title reads Reminder settings for {Participant Name}, with the helper text "Choose which reminders this participant receives, and who they go to."

Participant opt-in

Reminders to the participant themselves are opt-in and off by default. Under each channel checkbox (Support reminders or Calendar appointment reminders), tick Send to the participant when they should receive that channel's messages on their own mobile.

The participant only receives a given channel when all of the following are true:

1. That channel is turned on in Reminder settings,
2. Send to the participant is ticked,
3. They have a valid Australian mobile on file, and
4. They have not opted out of SMS (for example by replying STOP).

Landlines aren't accepted. You can review who is opted in (and whose mobile is missing, invalid, or opted out) using the Participant Reminder Status Report.

Nominating contacts to receive reminders

You can also send a participant's reminders to chosen contacts — for example a parent, carer, or support coordinator — without putting someone else's number on the participant record.

Under each enabled channel, use Also send to these contacts to pick one or more of that participant's contacts. The two channels are independent: nominating someone for support reminders does not nominate them for calendar appointment reminders.

Who can be nominated

• The person must already be an active (non-archived) contact of that participant — add them on the participant's Contacts screen first.
• Nomination is always explicit. A starred or communications contact does not receive reminders automatically.

For a nominated contact to actually receive the SMS, they need a valid Australian mobile on their contact record and must not have opted out of SMS.

Three valid delivery setups

For each channel, any of these is valid:

A nomination alone is enough to send. If the participant's own opt-in is off, contacts still receive the reminder.

If a channel is on, Send to the participant is off, and no contacts are chosen, saving shows: "Choose at least one contact, or send reminders to the participant."

What the contact reads

Contacts receive the participant's message word-for-word — greeting the participant by first name, in second person. For example, a carer might read:

Hi Jane, this is a reminder that your support with Acme Care starts tomorrow at 9:00 AM on Tuesday 5 August.

There is no contact-specific wording and no way to customise the message per recipient.

Cost and shared handsets

Each recipient is a separate billable message ($0.10 per outbound segment). A participant plus two contacts is three messages per reminder. A contact nominated by three participants gets three separate messages, not a summary.

Recipients are de-duplicated by mobile number, so a parent and child who share the same phone receive one SMS, not two — which can look like a missing reminder if you expected two.

Clearing and automatic removal

• Turning a channel checkbox off and saving clears that channel's nominations. They are not remembered if you re-enable the channel later.
• Nominations are removed automatically when the contact is deleted or archived, or when the contact's link to that participant is detached or archived.

Replies from nominated contacts

If someone replies YES or NO to a reminder, that reply only appears in your SMS inbox. It does not show as a confirmation on the support itself — whether the reply came from the participant or from a nominated contact.

Turning reminders on or off for a single support

Once a participant has recipients set up for support reminders, those recipients are reminded about every support that falls within your reminder windows. You can override this on an individual support when a particular session doesn't need a reminder — the participant's Reminder settings stay as they are for all their other supports.

On a 1:1 support

When you create or edit a direct support, a Send SMS reminder for this support checkbox appears once you've selected a participant who has at least one eligible reminder recipient. Untick it to skip the reminder for that support, or leave it ticked to send as normal. Astalty also shows a reminder status alert above the checkbox, with an Edit participant reminder settings link when you need to update who receives reminders.

Examples of that alert wording (calendar forms swap "reminders" for "calendar reminders"):

• "This participant has reminders enabled, and they also go to 2 nominated contacts."
• "These reminders go to 2 nominated contacts. This participant does not have them enabled."
• "These reminders go to 2 nominated contacts. This participant has them enabled but cannot receive SMS: opted out."
• "This participant has reminders enabled. 1 other contact cannot receive: opted out of messages."
• "2 contacts are nominated for reminders, but none of them can receive SMS: 2 with no mobile number."
• "1 contact is nominated for reminders, but they cannot receive SMS: an invalid mobile number."

Unreachable reasons use this vocabulary: no mobile number, an invalid mobile number, opted out of messages.

The support's Details view then shows an SMS Reminder field so you can see the state at a glance:

• On — there are eligible recipients for reminders and this support's reminder is on.
• Off — there are eligible recipients, but the reminder for this support has been switched off.
• No — nobody can receive an SMS reminder for this support (no participant opt-in with a valid mobile, no reachable nominated contacts, or everyone has opted out of SMS).

On a group support

When you create a group support, the participants list includes a Reminder column. Each participant who has at least one eligible reminder recipient has a checkbox — ticked to send, unticked to skip. Participants with no eligible recipients show a status icon instead of a checkbox; hover over it to see why.

Changing it later

You can update the reminder after a support has been created.

On a 1:1 support, open the support, click Update Details, and tick or untick the Send SMS reminder for this support checkbox.

On a group support, open the support and select the participant, click Actions for {Participant Name}, and choose Update SMS Reminder.

In the Update SMS Reminder panel, tick or untick Send SMS reminder for this support, then click Update SMS Reminder. If the group support is part of a repeating series, you can then apply the change to just this session or across the recurring series.