What messaging your plan includes, what uses credits, and which sender your clients see

Messaging has three parts, and it helps to keep them apart.

Included in your plan. WhatsApp appointment messages (the booked, reminder, rescheduled and cancelled messages, and the other messages tied to an appointment) are included in every plan. They are included up to a monthly amount for each bookable person (300), whether you send from the shared or from your own sender. Replies you send inside the WhatsApp window and photos you send to a client count toward the same amount. A reminder that reaches the client as a notification in their app does not count toward that amount or use credits, and the billing screen shows it apart as reminders by app; if the notification is not delivered in 15 minutes and the reminder goes out by WhatsApp, that one does count. Past it, each of these messages uses 1 credit; with no credits left, reminders go by email instead and no SMS is sent. Email never uses credits. On the shared sender there is also a daily fair-use ceiling, explained below.

Paid with prepaid credits. Your company has one pool of prepaid usage credits. It is used for SMS (including the SMS automatic replies to a client's answer), for WhatsApp marketing messages such as a nudge to rebook, and for WhatsApp appointment messages past your monthly amount. Your subscription does not pay for these sends. They come out of the credits.

Which sender your clients see. Messages are sent from one of two senders:

• Shared platform sender. A number and WhatsApp account owned by Zelun, available on every plan. It is the default. Your clients see it as the sender and it is never presented as your own brand, although the message itself names your shop or location.
• Dedicated shop sender. Your own WhatsApp display name, so clients see your shop on WhatsApp. SMS uses the platform sender. This comes with the higher plans. It is part of the plan, not something you buy on top.

Appointment messages go out on every plan, including the lowest, from the shared sender. A dedicated sender changes who your clients see, not whether they are notified.

1. Check your plan. The Plan section of My business tells you whether your plan includes a dedicated sender. If it does not, the screen says so and suggests moving up.
2. Know your credits. Credits are prepaid. Anything that uses them stops when none are left.
3. Access. Your plan is on My business, in the Plan section, and the sender settings are on the WhatsApp page, in the Setup group. If you are sent to a Forbidden page, ask the account holder who set Zelun up.

See what your plan includes

1. Open My business and go to the Plan section.
2. Under the plan cards, read the notes about messaging: that WhatsApp appointment messages are included in your plan, and that credits are used for SMS and WhatsApp marketing messages. If the screen shows how many credits each SMS or each marketing message uses, those are the amounts that apply to you.
3. If the screen shows a line such as "used today" for WhatsApp appointment messages, your company is on the shared sender and has a fair-use ceiling. It shows how many appointment messages you have sent today out of that ceiling.

See which sender you are on

1. Open WhatsApp in the side menu. The page is titled WhatsApp sender. (From My business, the Plan section has a Set up WhatsApp sender link.)
2. Next to Status it reads Not connected, Pending or Connected, and a line says Shared platform sender or Dedicated shop sender, followed by the reason. Reasons include that you are on the shared number by default, that your plan does not include your own number, that you have not subscribed yet, or that your own sender is saved but your plan is currently below the one that includes it. In that last case, messages go out from the shared sender and moving back up restores your own sender without setting it up again.
3. If your plan includes a dedicated sender and none is set up, press Connect WhatsApp to connect your own WhatsApp account. You are asked Choose how to connect WhatsApp, with Connect via Meta (your own WhatsApp Business number, which needs Meta business verification) or Connect via Twilio (a WhatsApp-enabled number on your own Twilio account). Dedicated WhatsApp may not be available yet for your account, and the page says so (the status then reads Pending) when that is the case. The article on connecting WhatsApp has the details.

• On the shared sender, appointment messages arrive from Zelun's platform number or WhatsApp account, with your shop's or location's name in the message.
• On a dedicated sender, WhatsApp arrives from your own display name; SMS uses the platform sender.
• Every message has the same wording either way. A dedicated sender uses the same set of message templates as the shared one, and each template has to be approved for your own WhatsApp account before it can send.
• When the fair-use ceiling is reached on the shared sender, Zelun stops sending your WhatsApp appointment messages from the shared sender for the rest of that rolling day. It may send an SMS instead, only if the client allows SMS and you still have credits. Without credits, that client does not get the message through that route, so check Delivery status on the appointment. A shop on a dedicated sender is counted but is not held to the shared ceiling.
• Which message a client gets does not change between plans, only who it appears to come from.

• Reading "included" as "unlimited". WhatsApp appointment messages are included, but the shared sender has a fair-use ceiling that protects the shared WhatsApp account.
• Assuming a dedicated sender makes SMS or marketing messages free. It does not. SMS and WhatsApp marketing messages use credits on both senders.
• Expecting zero credits to stop WhatsApp appointment messages. They still send. Only SMS and WhatsApp marketing messages stop.
• Expecting a double charge. When a WhatsApp appointment message is delivered, no credit is used and no SMS follows. One event uses at most one credit.
• Thinking you must pay extra to notify. Appointment notifications work on every plan from the shared sender. Nothing extra is needed for them.
• Expecting the dedicated sender to fall back silently. If your own WhatsApp cannot send, for example because the connection was revoked or a template is not approved, Zelun does not switch to the shared sender for it, so that clients are not surprised by a different business name. Fix the connection. An SMS may still use the shared number as a backup.
• Expecting to set the ceiling yourself. The ceiling is set by Zelun and grows with your plan. You cannot change it.

The reminders article covers the messages themselves and the delivery status, and the WhatsApp articles cover connecting your own account.