Texting and the Phone inbox

1:35

Set Up Your Business Phone (1:35 video). Open on its own page

The Phone section: header and tabs

Every page in the section sits under the same header, so the two facts you check before trusting anything below are always on screen: which number this is, and whether texting has cleared the carrier.

• The title Phone with a Beta pill.
• A status chip with a dot showing your business number (green when the assistant is answering calls or texts, grey when it is answering nothing) — or "Forwarding to your assistant" on the free forwarding path, where the private line is never shown to customers.
• A texting chip reading Live, Pending carrier approval, Registration needs attention (the filing stopped and is waiting on you: click the chip, or the Fix registration button on the Automated texts tab, to open Phone → Settings → Texts and see why and retry), or Not registered. It only appears for owners and administrators — the registration record holds business details, so staff without the manage-phone permission never see it.

Under the header is a tab strip: Inbox · Activity · Automated texts · Broadcasts · Settings. Each is its own page — <code>/dashboard/comms/phone/inbox</code>, <code>/activity</code>, <code>/texting</code>, <code>/broadcasts</code>, and <code>/settings</code>. Broadcasts sits between Automated texts and Settings, and only appears if you hold the "Send text broadcasts" permission (owners and administrators by default) — everyone else sees four tabs. See text broadcasts.

Cmd+K (Ctrl+K) reaches them all directly: "Phone inbox", "Phone activity", "Automated texts", "Text broadcasts", and "Phone settings".

The Phone inbox

The inbox has one row per person: everyone who has texted or called the business line, or been texted or called from it, with the person who talked last at the top (pinned conversations stay above everyone else, marked with a small pin). Each row shows their name (or number), the date, and what happened last: their last text, "You: …" for your last text, Brad called for a call your team placed, Missed call, Left a message or Left a voicemail for a call nobody answered, or the summary of a call your assistant answered. To text someone new, click New (the pencil button right of the search box; needs "Respond to inbox messages"): a New message box opens; type a name or a whole phone number and click the person (a customer, lead, saved contact or someone already in your inbox) or New number. Someone you already have a text conversation with opens it; anyone else gets a new one, ready for you to type. Above the list are a search box (names, numbers and text from any message, not only the last; it also finds people you have no conversation with yet: customers, open leads and saved contacts with a phone number show under Start a conversation below any matching conversations, tagged Customer, Lead, Saved contact or the contact's type (like Vendor), and clicking one opens a new text with them; so does a whole number nobody has (New number; when your filters hide a conversation the search found, such as one marked Done, it says how many are hidden by your filters with a button to show them); this needs "Respond to inbox messages", customers show only to roles that can browse the customer list and leads only to roles that can view leads) and the filter chips Active (the default: everyone not marked Done), All (Done included), Unread (with a count of people: an unread text, or a message your assistant took that nobody has marked handled; a message stays unread until someone clicks Mark handled under it), Unresponded (the person spoke last: a text nobody has replied to, or a missed call or message not yet marked handled), Call back, Calls (people you have had a call with), and at the end of that row an Archived button (the archive box icon) that lists the conversations someone archived, with Back to inbox above them; choose Unarchive in a conversation's ⋮ menu to put it back. A company with additional numbers also gets All lines / Main line / [each line] chips (the main line's chip shows its name if you renamed it) that show only the people on that number, and for each of them only what happened on it: their last call or text on that line, its unread dot, no line tag. Opening a person still shows their whole conversation across every line. When Unread is empty on one line but people are waiting on another, it says "Nothing unread on [line]" with a button to show all lines. If your main number was ported in and your old carrier still holds its texting, a blue note above the list says which of your other lines texts go out from for now; calls already ring on the main line, and Pool Founder support moves texting over once the old carrier releases it. Click a person to open the conversation in the middle, with who they are on the right:

• The conversation shows their texts and calls together, oldest at the top, split by day under a day heading (Today, Yesterday, or the date, like Fri, Oct 16, with the year added for earlier years): their texts on the left, yours and your assistant's on the right (each labelled with who sent it and the time), and each call as a card: Call ended ("Brad called · 3:31"), Answered by your assistant, Missed call, or Call in progress. If someone's calls used more than one of their numbers, each card says which ("Brad called · 0:05 · to (519) 983-8871"). Under a call your assistant answered is a Call summary with the message it took and a View transcript link. The reply composer and assistant controls (below) sit at the bottom. New leads are tagged "New lead". Someone you have only spoken to by phone shows their calls, split by day the same way, with a Text [name] button that opens a text conversation with them.
• The panel on the right (on wider screens) shows the person's name and number, a call button, Profile (or View lead), and Quote (needs permission to create quotes). Quote opens Create Quote for that person, with the message from their call or lead (what they asked for) already in the quote's internal notes, so you can go from a call straight to building the quote: pick Start from a service there to fill it from a saved service. For a lead who isn't a customer yet, Quote first adds them as a customer with the lead's address (it also needs permission to create customers and service locations); a lead missing a name, a phone or email, or a confirmed address opens the customer form instead. For a customer it also shows their next visit and who has it, their balance (for people who can see invoices), quotes waiting on a reply, and their contact details, plus their Notes: type a note and press Enter to add it to the customer, the same notes as on their customer page. There are no per-person tasks in the inbox.
• Fill people in while you talk to them. Click a customer's Name, Company, Phone or Email in the right panel to edit it in place (Enter saves, Esc cancels; needs permission to edit customers), and + Add a service address adds an address picked from the suggestions. A lead's name, email and address edit the same way, with a link to open the lead to quote them or make them a customer.
• Naming a phone number. Someone who shows only as a number gets a Who is this? box in the right panel, with three ways to say who they are. Already a customer?: search your customers by name or address, pick them, and click Link [number] to them (needs permission to edit customers). A customer with no phone on file gets this number as their phone; one who already has a different number keeps theirs, and this number is saved as theirs too, so their calls and texts from either number show under them and your assistant recognizes them on the next call. A number that already belongs to a different customer can't be linked. A linked extra number shows as Other under Phone in the inbox's right panel, and as a phone pill marked other next to their main phone at the top of their customer page; their main phone stays as it was. The Text button on the customer page texts their main phone; to text a linked number instead, click the speech-bubble icon on its other pill, and the conversation shows under the customer. Searching the number finds them: in the Phone inbox search, the Customers list search and the search bar at the top of the dashboard (type the whole number: (941) 237-0706 and 9412370706 both work). Linked a number by mistake? Click the X next to it (in the inbox panel, hover the number) and confirm to unlink it (needs permission to edit customers): its calls and texts go back to an unknown number in the inbox. The X can't remove their main phone; edit the customer for that. Someone new?: type their name (and an email if you have it) and click Save as lead or Save as customer. Save as contact: for someone who is neither a customer nor a lead (a supplier, an employee, a subcontractor, a job applicant, a walk-in), type their name, optionally pick a type next to the button (Vendor, Employee, Subcontractor, Applicant or Other) and click Save as contact. The inbox shows the name instead of the number without making a customer or lead record, and their texts and calls stay together under that name. A saved contact never becomes a lead, with or without a type (contacts imported from Quo included): texting you doesn't create one, and your phone assistant takes a message instead of filing them as a new lead. The type shows as a tag on their row in the inbox and under Start a conversation in search. From then on the right panel shows them as a contact, not the Who is this? box: their Name (click it to change it), Type (pick another, or No type), Note (their company or who they are, e.g. "Leslie's Pool Supply"; click to add or change it) and Phone, Remove the name to go back to the bare number (it removes the type and note too), and a Not a customer yet line with Save as customer and Save as lead (the saved name is filled in; add an email if you have it) and Link to a customer (find them, then Link [number] to them). In every case their earlier texts and calls move under the name. Saved as a lead by mistake? In a lead's conversation, under the lead's details in the right panel, click Not a lead? Save as a contact, check the name, pick a type and click Save as contact (needs permission to edit leads and to respond to inbox messages). Their calls and texts move off the lead and show under the contact, an open lead on that number is archived (it stays under the Archived tab on the Leads page), and the number won't become a lead again. A lead that already became a customer can't be changed this way. Contacts are kept in the Phone inbox only: there is no separate contacts or vendor list page, and an employee's own phone number isn't recognized automatically from their team profile (save it as a contact with the Employee type). During a call in the browser, Add who this is on the call card opens the same box. In the technician app, a text conversation with a number that is no customer or lead shows Who is this? Add a name under the number: tap it (or ⋮ → Add a name) to save a name, the same as Save as contact on the web (the type and note are set on the web). If the first text you sent them starts with a greeting like "Hi Christopher Zahn.", that name is filled in for you; nothing is saved until you tap Save name. Tap the name later (or ⋮ → Change name) to change it or Remove the name. Saving them as a lead or customer, or linking them to a customer, is on the web. A text you send to a new number keeps only the number: the name you write inside the message is not saved as their name.
• "Maybe: Dennis": when an unknown caller tells your assistant their name, the row shows Maybe: [name] and the Who is this? box offers Use this name (fills it in; you still choose lead or customer) or Dismiss. It is only a suggestion from what the assistant heard; nothing is saved until you save it, and it only comes from calls your assistant answered.
• A phone icon in the conversation header calls the person from your browser, from the same line the conversation is on (needs the "Call customers as the business" permission; see calling a customer from your browser). The call shows in the phone panel in the bottom-right corner, which the phone icon at the top of every page also opens to dial any number, see recent calls, and watch your assistant's calls live (see the phone panel).
• The ⋮ (More) menu at the top right of an open conversation (also on each row in the list when you hover it) has: Call (same as the phone icon), Mark as unread / Mark as read (texts only: marking unread closes the conversation and keeps their row bold with the unread dot, counted in the Messages badge, until someone opens it again), Mark message handled (when a message your assistant took is waiting: same as its Mark handled button), Pin conversation / Unpin (keeps this person at the top of the list in every filter, for everyone on your team), Archive conversation / Unarchive (takes this person out of the inbox and its unread count for everyone on your team and lists them under the Archived button; nothing is deleted, and their next text or call brings the conversation back to the inbox by itself; archiving does not block the number, use Mark as spam for that), Copy link (a link that opens this person's conversation for anyone on your team), Copy number, and Mark as spam: the number is blocked at once (no two-call wait, never lapses). Its calls hear "Sorry, we can't take this call. Goodbye." and ring nobody; its calls and texts are hidden (texts are saved, with no lead, reply or notification). Add number under Phone → Settings → Calls → Spam & blocked callers blocks one that never called; Not spam there, or in the ⋮ menu of a blocked number, undoes it. Needs "Manage phone & AI front desk"; customers on file can't be blocked. Texts from auto-blocked numbers still come through. Pin needs "Respond to inbox messages"; Archive and Unarchive need "Archive phone conversations" (an owner can uncheck it on other roles to keep archiving to themselves). There is no way to delete a conversation or its history (Archive hides it, it never deletes), and no "create a task" item: the To do list fills itself (see the To do list). Several at once: click Select conversations (the checklist icon next to Archived), tick rows or click Select all, then Mark as read, Mark as unread or Archive (Unarchive under Archived) in the bar; X leaves select mode. Web only; Pin, spam and status stay one at a time, and the Email inbox has no bulk select. In the Pool Founder phone app, the ⋮ in a text conversation's header has Call, Mark as unread and Mark as spam (or Not spam (unblock)); Pin and Archive are on the web inbox only, but archived conversations are hidden from the app's Messages list too.
• A message the assistant took has a Mark handled button under it, with "Waiting on a call back. It stays on your To do list until it's handled." Until someone clicks it, the message is an urgent Call back item on the To do list, and if nobody has 2 business hours after the call, owners and administrators get one "Still waiting on a call back" reminder. Clicking it (after you have called the person back) takes it off everyone's list and shows "Handled by [name], [time]" on the call; Mark not handled next to that puts it back on the list. Both need the "Respond to inbox messages" permission. Calling or texting the number back does not mark it handled for you, and the technician app has no Mark handled button yet (use the web dashboard).
• Status. The button left of the ⋮ menu says where a conversation stands: Open, Call back (Needs call back), Waiting (on reply) or Done. Pick one; it is shared by your team, with who set it and when. Rows show a tag; the filter button right of the search box lists one status. Done drops it off Active; a new text or call puts Done and Waiting back to Open. Needs call back adds an urgent To do item until a call back from your business line connects (voicemail counts; Call from my phone does not), which sets it to Open; a text or call from them never clears it. Changes show in the conversation ("Brad marked this Done"). Needs "Respond to inbox messages". Done is not Mark handled. A message your assistant took (or a voicemail) has its own Mark handled button under it, and its "Call back …" item stays on the To do list until someone clicks that, even after the conversation is marked Done. Mark handled also clears the conversation's Needs call back; setting Done does not mark any message handled.
• Internal notes. Switch the box at the bottom from Text to Internal note (lock icon) to write a note only your team sees; it is never texted. It shows in the conversation in an amber box with who wrote it and when. Adding one needs "Respond to inbox messages". Notes can't be edited, deleted or carry photos yet. The technician app has the same Text / Internal note switch above the reply box in a Comms conversation and shows the notes there in the same amber box; the conversation status (Needs call back, Done…) is web-only.
• A voicemail left on Pool Founder voicemail (see the AI phone assistant, "No assistant") shows as Voicemail with a bar to play it and its transcript, and is handled like a message: unread, on the To do list, Mark handled. Owners and administrators get a New Voicemail notification that opens it. In the Pool Founder phone app (Messages) it shows as Voicemail with a play button, and "What they said" with the transcript (or "No transcript").
• Calls your team placed show as Call ended with who called and how long, as No answer when it rang and the customer never picked up (the row in the list reads "[name] called, no answer"), as Couldn't connect when the call never went through, so their phone never rang (a number not in service, or one the phone network refused; "[name] called, couldn't connect"), or as Busy. With Record calls on (Phone → Settings → Calls), every incoming call, whoever answered it, and every call your team places from the dashboard or with Call as [your business number] in the technician app has a Recording bar under it to play the audio. A recorded call a person handled (one your team placed, or answered on a cell or in the dashboard) is also transcribed from its recording a minute or two after it ends: it gets a Call summary and a View transcript link, with your side labelled Team. Without Record calls, only assistant-answered calls are transcribed and summarized. Recording starts when the customer picks up, so a No answer or Couldn't connect call has no recording or transcript even with Record calls on. A call a tech dials from their own phone never goes through Pool Founder: it has no recording or transcript and does not show in the Phone inbox at all, so every call card you see there went through your business number.
• An outbound text the carrier could not deliver shows a red "Not delivered" indicator under that message bubble (on web and in the technician app), with the reason under it when the carrier gave one, e.g. "This number is a landline or can't receive texts. Call them or add a mobile number." or "The carrier's spam filter blocked this text. Try again later." A landline can be called but never texted. Some older failed texts only say "The carrier couldn't deliver this text and didn't say why."
• Outbound messages show who sent them — a teammate's name under their replies, and "Assistant (approved by …)" when a teammate approved an assistant draft.
• Automated texts sent on the shared number (the on-the-way and invoice-ready texts a company without its own texting-live business number gets) count as activity with that customer: the row's last line can be the automated text, and for a customer you have no text conversation with, the conversation lists them as Automated text bubbles. There is nothing to reply to, because customers can't text the shared number back. Each one, with Sent or Failed, is on the customer's page under Communications and on the Activity tab.

The two banners above the list

Work that is still outstanding sits as a thin, one-line banner at the top of the conversation list. Click the line to expand it in place, or the ✕ to dismiss it — a dismissal lasts for that browser session only, so anything still outstanding comes back next time you sign in.

• "Finish setting up" with "N of M done" — the setup checklist (Get your phone number → Set up call answering → Forward your calls). Owners and administrators only, and it disappears on its own the moment setup is complete.
• "N visits need approval" (or "1 visit needs approval") with "Proposed by your assistant" — expands to the same approve/decline queue as before, for anyone with the "Approve scheduling" permission.

The Activity tab

Activity answers "how is the phone doing" and "why didn't my customer get a text" on one page. It works without a business number — in that state the call tiles and the inbox link are left off and the page is just the automated-text log.

• "Last 30 days" stat tiles: Texts received (with "N sent" underneath; shown only once texting is live), Calls answered (with "of N calls" when some went unanswered), and Avg response time ("customer message → your reply").
• A "Every call in the inbox" link beside the heading — calls have no separate log, because the inbox is the call log; the link opens the inbox pre-filtered to calls.
• Below the tiles, the Automated texts log — every automated text of the last 30 days, including the ones that never went out, with the reason. It is the same log described under "Automated texts" below.
• Texts that went out on the shared toll-free number (before your own number is texting) are in this log too — a sent one reads Sent with "From the shared number" underneath; one the carrier rejected reads Failed with the carrier's reason.

Text thread controls

• Assistant mode dropdown (top right of the thread): "Assistant replies automatically", "Assistant drafts, you approve", or "Take over (assistant off)". Changing this needs the "Manage phone & AI front desk" permission. While texting is waiting on carrier approval (or the registration needs attention) the dropdown is replaced by an Assistant paused chip, because the assistant answers no texts until texting is approved.
• Draft approval: when the assistant drafts a reply, a "Your assistant drafted a reply" card appears above the composer — edit the text if needed, then Send or Dismiss.
• The composer always texts the customer directly — there is no separate "coach" mode on the web. To change how the assistant behaves, add a rule under Phone → Settings → Assistant → Standing instructions instead.
• A thread you switch by hand keeps its own mode. The mode every new conversation starts in is Reply style on Phone → Settings → Texts.
• When the assistant stays quiet, even with "Assistant replies automatically" on. A teammate is texting them: for 2 hours after someone on your team texts a person from the inbox or the app (30 minutes outside business hours), the assistant leaves that conversation to them and you are notified of every text they send back. After that it answers again, picking up from what your team said: it sees your team's texts and the automated texts in the thread, so it never greets someone as new partway through a conversation. A machine is texting: order and pickup notices, carrier auto-replies ("Thanks for the message. Configure your number's SMS URL…"), short codes and other automated texts get no reply and create no lead; they still show in the inbox. A person texting from a toll-free number is still answered. A reaction (an iPhone "Liked …" or "Loved …") gets no reply, and a second thank-you after the assistant already closed the conversation gets nothing. The same text sent again after the assistant answered it gets no second reply; you are notified instead. Texts sent back to back get one reply a few seconds later. A runaway back-and-forth: if the assistant ends up trading texts with another system (the same text arriving again and again, or a burst of replies in 10 minutes), it pauses itself, the conversation switches to "Take over (assistant off)", and owners and administrators are notified. Switch the mode back once it is sorted out. There is no setting to change these rules.
• Replying and approving or dismissing drafts needs the "Respond to inbox messages" permission — so office managers can reply. Reading the inbox needs inbox read access.
• Saved replies: the speech-bubble button next to the photo button in the composer (or typing <code>/</code> in an empty reply) opens a searchable list of your company's saved replies. Picking one drops it into the reply box with the customer's name filled in, ready to edit — it never sends by itself. See saved replies.

Sending a text later (scheduled texts)

You can write a text now and have it go out later. In a Phone inbox conversation, type the message (photos too), then click the clock button next to Send ("Send later"). Every time here is your company's time zone, not your computer's.

• Tomorrow at 9:00 AM — one click.
• When quiet hours end — shown only while it is currently quiet hours (outside your Quiet hours Start–End window); it sends when the window opens, e.g. 8:00 AM.
• Pick a date and time — choose any date and time up to a year ahead, then click Schedule text. If the time you pick falls in your quiet hours it says "That time is during your quiet hours", but it still lets you schedule it.
• The text then waits at the bottom of the conversation as a dashed bubble reading "Scheduled for Fri, Oct 17 at 9:00 AM" (or "today at…" / "tomorrow at…"), with the name of whoever scheduled it. Under it: Edit (change the wording, then Save or Discard), Change time (the same quick picks and date/time picker), Send now, and Cancel (it never goes out).
• At that time it sends exactly like a text you typed, from the same line the conversation is on. If the person opted out in the meantime, customer notifications were paused, or texting stopped working on your number, it does not go out: it shows in the conversation as a failed text marked "Not delivered".
• Scheduling a text needs the same "Respond to inbox messages" permission as replying.
• Scheduling is on the web. The technician app shows scheduled texts in the conversation and you can tap one to Send now or Cancel text, but it has no Send later button.
• This schedules one text in one conversation. To text many customers at a set time, use a broadcast: the broadcast dialog has its own Send later option.

Photos and attachments (MMS)

• Photos customers text in appear inside the conversation — click to enlarge.
• Other attachment types — contact cards, audio, video, PDFs — appear as labeled chips that open in a new tab.
• To send photos, use the image button next to the composer in Reply mode, or on a computer paste a screenshot or copied image straight into the reply box (Cmd+V / Ctrl+V) — up to 3 photos per text, compressed automatically. The technician app's Comms tab works the same (attach via camera or photo library).
• Video sending is not supported (carrier size limits).

The Settings tab

Settings has a section list down the left (a scrolling chip row on a narrow screen). Clicking an entry shows that section on its own, and puts it in the URL as <code>?section=</code>, so you can bookmark or share it. It opens on Calls. A company with more than one number also gets a Your numbers list below the sections, one page per number (see phone setup). The six sections are:

• Assistant — "Who answers for you, what it sounds like, and what it knows about your business." The three tiles Answer phone calls, Answer texts and Automated texts, then Identity and greeting, Voice, Existing customers, Website knowledge, and Standing instructions. Covered in detail in the AI phone assistant.
• Calls — "What happens when someone dials your line. Calls are answered the same way around the clock — your assistant never keeps office hours." Holds Ring my phone first (with the "If you can't answer" choice), Test a call, Block spam calls (a switch that has your phone carrier refuse likely spam calls on all your numbers before they ring), and Spam & blocked callers — robocalls and sales pitches the assistant ended and numbers your team marked as spam, hidden from the inbox, each with a Not spam button that restores its calls and texts and lifts any block, and an Add number button to block a number yourself (see the AI phone assistant).
• Texts — "Your assistant replies to inbound texts — the ones your customers and leads start." See below.
• Saved replies — "Answers to the questions customers text most." Add, edit, reorder and delete the canned replies your team inserts from the composer. See saved replies.
• Phone line — "The number your assistant answers on, and how calls get to it." Your number (titled "Your assistant's line" on the forwarding path), Call forwarding with the carrier dial codes (forwarding path only), the "Make this your business number" upgrade, and an Advanced group holding Turn off call forwarding for companies that upgraded.
• Notifications — "When your team hears about something your assistant handled." Holds Text notifications.

Settings → Texts

• The texting registration card, shown until texting is live — this is the surface that turns texting on (see below).
• "Who it texts back" — two switches, New leads ("Someone texting from a number that isn't one of your customers") and Existing customers ("Someone already in your customer list"). Both on by default. "Turn either side off and those texts wait for a person — you still get notified about every one."
• "Reply style" — Send right away ("Answers in seconds, day or night — how most owners run it") or Draft and wait for me ("Nothing goes out until you approve it in the inbox"). This sets the starting mode of every new conversation; a thread you switch by hand keeps its own.
• Business hours — day chips (Mon–Sun) and a start/end time, with Save business hours. After-hours behavior is texting only: calls are handled the same way at every hour. On a call, the assistant only tells a caller these hours when they ask.
• After-hours message — guidance, not a script, for texters who reach you outside those hours; the assistant works it into its reply. Leave it blank and it says the team will follow up.
• A Customer notifications link through to the Automated texts tab — "On-the-way texts, invoice texts, visit reminders and the rest are texts you send."

What texting requires: a business line + free carrier registration

This applies to two-way texting: the inbox, replies, the assistant answering texts, broadcasts, and the automated texts other than On the way and Invoice ready (those two go out on Pool Founder's shared toll-free number without any of this — see "Automated texts" below). Texting can only run on a line Pool Founder provides — it can never work on the free call-forwarding path. On top of the line, US carriers legally require every texting business to register first (10DLC registration). Registration is free — Pool Founder covers the carrier fees and files the paperwork automatically — and it's self-serve: the form (legal business name exactly as on IRS records, EIN, business address, contact info) is collected as the first step of business-line setup, before anything is billed.

• Business verification usually clears within minutes; full carrier approval usually takes a few days. Phone → Settings → Texts shows a live progress timeline until it clears: Payment → Business verified with the IRS → Carrier approval → Number activated. The section header also carries the short version — Live / Pending carrier approval / Not registered — on every Phone page.
• Texting turns on by itself when the carriers approve — nothing to do. Until approval, the "Answer texts" tile stays locked ("Carrier review in progress — this switch unlocks on its own when it clears"); phone calls need no registration and work from day one.
• Texts customers send you while you wait for approval are kept and shown. They appear in the Phone inbox, on the customer's page, and in the Comms tab of the technician app, count toward the unread badge, and notify you like any other text. You can't reply by text until texting is approved: the inbox shows a banner saying so, and the reply box in the conversation is replaced by the notice "You can't reply by text until texting is approved" (with a link to the registration status for anyone who manages the phone setup). Call them back instead, or reply once texting is live. While you wait, the assistant doesn't answer those texts and they don't create a lead or request, so the assistant mode controls in a conversation (the dropdown on the web, Auto / Draft / Off in the technician app) are replaced by an Assistant paused chip; internal notes on the conversation still work.
• If the carriers can't verify the business (usually a legal-name spelling mismatch), the card reopens the form so you can fix it and resubmit — the retry is free.
• Every company has a public texting opt-in page at <code>customer.poolfounder.com/your-portal-link/texting</code>, no sign-in needed. It shows your customers (and the carriers reviewing your registration) what you text, the three ways to sign up (the unticked, optional Text message updates checkbox in the customer portal, the consent script you read when someone signs up by phone or in person, or texting START to your number), how to stop with STOP and get help with HELP, message frequency, rates, and the privacy policy. Pool Founder includes it in your carrier registration automatically. Its wording is fixed and can't be edited.
• Sole proprietors without an EIN can't register — the form steers them to the free forwarding path before any billing; companies already on a business line in that spot should contact support at support@poolfounder.com.

Automated texts

Automated texts are the messages Pool Founder sends your customers for you — "Texts Pool Founder sends your customers for you". They are the Automated texts tab of the Phone section: Messages → Phone → Automated texts, at <code>/dashboard/comms/phone/texting</code> (also Cmd+K → "Automated texts", and the Automated texts tile at the top of Phone → Settings → Assistant). Anyone who can open the Phone inbox can read the page; changing anything needs the manage-phone permission.

If you had turned texting on for some jobs or customers before these company-wide switches existed, those settings carried over: a company that never turned texting on stays off, and a company that had it on for some jobs came over with the switch on and those customers still included.

The status strip

Four readouts across the top: Business number (or "Not set up yet"), Texting — Live, Pending carrier approval, or Not registered — Today's texts ("12 of 1000" with a small bar), and Sending hours (the window automated texts may go out in). Under them is the master switch, "Send automated texts" ("Master switch — with this off, nothing below sends").

The eight automations

Each one is a row under Automations with a switch and a one-line summary (when it fires, and how many of your customers can actually receive it). Click a row to expand the message editor. All eight send today — as of 2026-09-02 there is no "Coming soon" badge anywhere on this page (the only locked switches are the ones that wait for your own business number, above). Every one except On the way is off by default, so turning one on is your decision.

The row switch is the bulk switch; a single pool can still be turned off

Turning a row's switch on turns that text on for every customer at once — you never have to go job by job to turn texts on. Three things can keep someone out of a text that is switched on: that customer's own Texts preference (see "Turning texts off for one customer" below), consent or a STOP reply, and — for On the way only — the On the way texts switch on an individual job's page (see "Turning on-the-way texts off for one pool" below). That per-job switch can only turn a job off; it never turns a job on when the customer or the company switch is off. There is no per-job control in the route builder or the technician app.

The summary line under each row that is on tells you exactly how far the switch reaches:

• "42 customers get this" — the customers with a phone number, consent on file, and no preference against it.
• "42 customers get this · 149 turned off individually" — the switch is on, but 149 customers have this one text switched off on their own page (their Texts pill reads Custom). This is common for a company that had texting on for only some jobs before the company-wide switches existed: those customers were carried over as individually off. Next to it, managers see a Turn on for everyone link.
• "No one can get this yet · 1 customer has no consent on file" (or "has no phone number", "opted out", "has all texts off") — the switch is on but nobody can receive it, with the biggest reason. The reason is a link that scrolls to Who's reachable.

Turn on for everyone is the one-click fix for customers who were switched off individually. It appears as a link on the row summary (when someone is individually off) and as a button in the expanded row next to Save / Reset to default (whenever the row is off or someone is individually off; managers only, and never on a row that is locked waiting for your own business number). It opens a confirmation — "Turn on for everyone?" — that says exactly what will happen: "Turns On the way on for everyone, including the 149 customers who had it switched off individually. Customers who opted out or have all texts turned off are not affected." Confirming turns the row's switch on and removes only that one text's "off" from each of those customers' Custom preferences. It does not touch a customer whose Texts pill reads Off (all automated texts off — that is a stronger choice, and the confirmation says they are skipped), it does not change any other text a customer switched off, and it never changes consent or an opt-out. The toast afterwards reads e.g. "On the way is on for everyone — 149 customers updated", with a second line such as "3 customers with all texts off were left alone" when that applies. The Custom preferences count under Who's reachable drops accordingly.

• On the way — "When a technician starts driving to the stop". Sends today, on by default. This is a company-wide switch, and the old "Turn on for all jobs" button is gone because the switch itself is the bulk on. To stop it for one customer, use the Texts pill on their page; to stop it for one pool of a customer who has several, use the On the way texts switch on that job's page (it can only turn a job off — see "Turning on-the-way texts off for one pool" below); to bring back customers who were switched off individually, use Turn on for everyone (below). Default wording: "Hi! {techName} from {companyName} is on the way. ETA {eta}. Track live: {trackingLink}" (the "Track live" part is left out while the tracking link switch is off). The expanded row has two more switches, described under "On the way: ETA, live tracking link and auto-send" below.
• Invoice ready — "When an invoice is created" (maintenance, work orders, and deposits). Sends today, but OFF by default for every company, new and existing (since 2026-09-24) — until you turn it on, its row summary reads "When an invoice is created · Off". To turn it on, open Messages → Phone → Automated texts, make sure the Send automated texts master switch is on, then switch on the Invoice ready row (managers only). A company that had it on before that date — including one whose customers had the old per-customer "Text when invoices are created" checkbox — needs to switch it on again. Also company-wide; the old per-customer checkbox is gone. The text carries a pay link: the <code>{payLink}</code> variable is the invoice's own pay page, the same page the invoice email's pay button and Copy Payment Link open, so the customer can pay straight from the text without signing in. Default wording: "{companyName}: your {amount} invoice is ready. Pay here: {payLink}". Variables available: <code>{firstName}</code>, <code>{companyName}</code>, <code>{amount}</code>, <code>{payLink}</code>. If you reworded this text before the pay link existed, your wording is kept exactly as you wrote it, with no link; click the <code>{payLink}</code> chip to add one (or Reset to default). It goes to the customer who pays the bill (the billing parent, for a child account), once per invoice: resending the invoice email does not text again. It is not sent when Send invoice when created is off on the Invoice Settings page (the text and the email go out together), when the invoice was created with Email this invoice to the customer turned off, or when autopay is about to charge the invoice (a maintenance or one-off stop invoice for a customer with autopay on). When a payment fails (an autopay charge is declined or a bank payment is returned), the same switch sends one text with that invoice's pay link: "{companyName}: your payment of {amount} didn't go through. Pay here: {payLink}". It goes alongside the payment failed email, once per invoice (autopay retries don't text again), and not when Send failed payment notice is off on Invoice Settings. Its wording is fixed. If a failed payment fee was added, the text says so before the link ("A $25.00 failed payment fee was added."); the fee invoice itself is emailed but not texted. There is no text for overdue invoices; payment reminders are email only. The one exception is an unpaid work order deposit (Deposit reminder, below).
• Visit reminder — "Before a scheduled visit". Sends today, but OFF by default — turn it on yourself. Details below.
• Service report ready — "After each service report is sent". Sends today, but OFF by default. Details below.
• Review request — "After a thumbs-up on a service report". Sends today, but OFF by default. Details below.
• Lead follow-up — "When a new lead goes quiet". Sends today, but OFF by default. It is a four-step sequence aimed at leads, not customers, so its summary reads e.g. "4 steps on · Assistant writes it" rather than a customer count. Details below.
• Deposit reminder — "While a work order deposit invoice is unpaid". Sends today, but OFF by default. Texts the deposit invoice's pay link until the customer pays, on the schedule you pick on the row: every day, every 2 days, every 3 days (default) or once a week, up to 1 to 5 reminders (default 3). Summary e.g. "Unpaid deposits · Every 3 days · Up to 3 reminders". Details in work order billing and deposits.
• Quote reminders — "With each automatic quote reminder". OFF by default. Texts the link to accept a sent quote with each reminder on the Quote reminder cadence (Invoice Settings → Quotes); no schedule of its own, so nothing sends while that cadence is Off ("No cadence picked"). Details in quotes.

Visit reminder

• Off by default. Turn the row's switch on, then set "When it sends": Evening before (the default, 6:00 PM, and the text says "tomorrow") or Morning of (8:00 AM, and the text says "today"). The at time box next to the choice takes any time; both controls save as soon as you change them, so there is no Save button here. Switching between the two moves an obviously-wrong time across for you ("Send time moved to 8:00 AM").
• The time is your company's local time, and quiet hours still apply — an early send waits for the quiet-hours window to open rather than waking anyone up.
• One text per customer per service day, no matter how many stops or routes they appear on that day.
• A stop the technician already completed or skipped is not reminded about, and archived routes are ignored.
• A reminder that still cannot send by the end of the day it is for is dropped rather than sent late — it shows in the Activity log as skipped, "Quiet hours ended before it could send".
• Default wording: "Hi, this is {companyName}. Your next service visit is scheduled for {visitDay}. Reply here with any questions." Variables available: <code>{firstName}</code>, <code>{companyName}</code>, <code>{visitDay}</code>.

Service report ready

• Off by default. Once on, it goes out right after the service report email does — it is hooked to the email, not to job completion, so the text can never promise a report the customer cannot open.
• A manual resend re-emails the report but does not re-text. The text is deduplicated per visit, so resending a report as many times as you like sends exactly one text.
• The link opens that visit's report directly, with no sign-in: the same report the email shows (readings, photos, notes from that exact visit), on a page branded with your logo, not the customer portal home. The customer does not need a portal account or a code. Anyone who has the link can view that one visit's report (never other visits, invoices or the account), so customers should treat it like the report email. It works the same whether or not you hide Service History in Portal Visibility. Details in Service reports.
• Default wording: "{companyName}: your pool visit is complete. See the report: {portalLink}". Variables available: <code>{firstName}</code>, <code>{companyName}</code>, <code>{portalLink}</code>, <code>{techName}</code> — <code>{portalLink}</code> is the no-sign-in link to that visit's report (custom wordings that already use it open the report too); <code>{techName}</code> comes from the technician on the completion and renders empty on a visit logged with no technician, so word it to read either way.
• It is a separate thing from the service report email, which is unchanged — see service reports.

Review request

• Off by default. The only thing that triggers it is a customer tapping thumbs-up on a service report — a thumbs-down never triggers anything, ever. The row's helper line says so: "Only a thumbs-up on a service report triggers this. Quiet hours still apply, so a late-night rating waits until morning."
• When it sends is one sentence you fill in: "Wait [1] hours after a thumbs-up, then at most one every [90] days per customer". The wait defaults to 1 hour and takes 0–72 hours; the cooldown defaults to 90 days and takes 7–365. Both save when you click out of the box.
• The cooldown is what stops a weekly-service customer who is delighted every week from being asked every week. Only requests that actually went out count against it — one that was skipped never reached anyone, so it does not start the clock.
• Customers who already reviewed you are skipped. A customer marked Reviewed on Google on their customer page (set by hand with Mark as reviewed, or matched by name from a synced Google review — see Google reviews) never gets the request; the activity log shows it as "Customer already left a review". Clear or Undo match on the customer page makes them eligible again.
• One text per thumbs-up: the same vote can never produce two texts.
• Where the link comes from. The expanded row has a Review link block that says it in one line: "Review request texts send the Google link from your review links list. If there's no Google link, the first link on the list is used. This is the same list your service report emails use." That list is Messages → Email → Service reports → Review Links (the "Manage all review links" link in the block goes there) — the same buttons the service report email shows. There is no separate texting-only link. See service reports.
• Add or change it right on the row. With nothing on file, the block shows an amber "No review link yet — nothing will send. Add one below to start." line, a box that says Paste your Google review link, and Save. It must start with https://. A google.com / g.page / goo.gl address (or anything containing "writereview") is saved as the Google entry, replacing the old URL if there was one — never stacking a second. Any other address is saved as an Other entry labelled "Review link", but only while there is no Google entry; after that the row refuses a non-Google paste, because the text would keep sending the Google one anyway. Under the box: "Where do I find it? In Google Business Profile, open Ask for reviews and copy the link."
• Use my Google Business Profile link — if your profile is connected and returned a ready-made address, this button sits under the paste box and adds it in one click (what the Profile page's "Add link to service reports" task does). It never overwrites an entry you already saved.
• With something on file the block shows a platform badge (Google, Facebook, Yelp, Nextdoor, Thumbtack, or Other), the URL (opens in a new tab), and a Change button that turns it into the same paste box, pre-filled, with Save / Cancel. If the entry in use is not a Google one, a hint reads "Texts work best with a Google review link. Paste one to use it instead." The Preview bubble shows the real URL once one is saved. Read-only users (without the manage-phone permission) see it but get no boxes or buttons.
• With no review link, nothing sends and nothing appears in Activity. A row that is on but has nowhere to point reads "Add a review link to start sending" in its summary instead of a customer count. Saving one here or under Service reports → Review Links clears that either way — it is one list.
• Default wording: "Thanks for the great feedback, {firstName}! If you have a minute, a review really helps {companyName}: {reviewLink}". Variables available: <code>{firstName}</code>, <code>{companyName}</code>, <code>{reviewLink}</code>.

Lead follow-up

The one automation that texts leads rather than customers, and the only one that is a sequence — four independent steps, each with its own switch, that only ever fire while the lead is still cold. Off by default. Its collapsed summary reads "4 steps on · Assistant writes it" (or "Your template", or "No steps on") instead of a customer count, because lead follow-ups never go to your customer book.

• Who writes it — two choices. Assistant writes it (the default): "The assistant writes each follow-up in the thread it already has with that lead. If your texts wait for approval, follow-ups wait too." Use my template: "Every step sends the same message, with the lead's name filled in." In assistant mode the message box below is relabeled Backup message — "Only used if the assistant can't write one."
• Lead never contacted — "After [2] business hours". Hint: "Only if nobody has marked them contacted." The wait takes 1–72 hours.
• Walkthrough reminder — "The evening before the walkthrough." No timing box; it aims at the evening before the booked walkthrough date.
• After the walkthrough — "[1] days after the walkthrough". Hint: "Only while they're still marked walkthrough scheduled." Takes 1–30 days.
• Gone quiet — "After [14] days with no activity". Hint: "One check-in, then the lead is archived if they stay silent for another 7 days." Takes 3–120 days.
• All four steps are armed out of the box, so turning the automation on starts all four unless you switch some off. Timings save when you click out of the box; switches save immediately.

The footnote under the steps states who actually gets texted: "A lead who texts back, converts, or is archived stops getting follow-ups. Leads from a web form are only texted if they ticked your consent box; leads who called or texted you always count."

• Consent: a lead who called or texted you is always eligible. A lead from your website form or the API is texted only if it arrived with <code>smsConsent: true</code> — see the Leads API for the field and the recommended checkbox wording.
• What cancels the rest of a sequence: the lead texts back, someone changes the lead's status (including marking them contacted), you pause follow-ups on the lead page, the lead converts or is archived, you switch the automation or that step off, or the lead turns out not to be text-eligible. Every one of those is written to the lead's timeline with the reason.
• Draft-and-wait applies. If your Reply style is "Draft and wait for me", an assistant-written follow-up waits in the inbox for your approval exactly like an inbound reply — the lead's timeline records it as "waiting for your approval".
• Each lead has its own Follow-ups card with Pause / Resume and a full timeline of what was sent or skipped — that is where you stop follow-ups for one lead without touching the company switch. See Leads.
• There is no per-customer switch for lead follow-ups on the customer Texts pill, because they go to leads, not customers.

Editing the message

• The Message box holds the wording. Under it, an Insert: row of variable chips shows only the variables that text can actually fill — for example on-the-way offers <code>{firstName}</code>, <code>{companyName}</code>, <code>{techName}</code>, <code>{eta}</code>, and <code>{trackingLink}</code>; invoice ready offers <code>{firstName}</code>, <code>{companyName}</code>, <code>{amount}</code>, and <code>{payLink}</code>. Clicking a chip appends it. A variable the message cannot fill is rejected when you save.
• A counter reads e.g. "118 characters · 1 segment · GSM-7", and a note that it is counted with the preview's sample values filled in and the "Reply STOP to opt out." line carriers require — so a link variable such as <code>{payLink}</code> counts at the length of a real link (about 70 characters), not the length of the placeholder. Longer than four segments and it will not save — carriers filter those.
• Preview shows the message as a text bubble, filled in with sample values (Jamie, Chris, $120.00, Thursday morning, a sample pay link, and so on).
• Save stores your wording. Reset to default puts back the wording Pool Founder ships. Send test to my phone texts it to the number on your own account — it is disabled with an explanation until you verify a phone number on your account.

Sending hours and limits

• Sending hours — a Start and End time, in your company's time zone, with a Save sending hours button. This is the window automated texts are allowed to go out in, not the quiet period: the rest of the day is quiet hours. Default 8:00 AM to 9:00 PM, so nothing automated goes out overnight. Texts that come due during quiet hours go out at the Start time. (Until October 2026 this card was labelled "Quiet hours".) Carriers allow 8:00 AM to 9:00 PM. On-the-way texts ignore quiet hours — the technician is already driving.
• Hold texts typed during quiet hours — a switch under the sending hours, off by default, changed by anyone who can change the sending hours. Normally a text someone types in the Phone inbox sends right away, whatever the time. With this on, a text typed outside your sending hours (web or the technician app) waits and goes out when quiet hours end (your Start time). Before you send, the composer says so: "Quiet hours. Will send at 8:00 AM." (or "tomorrow at 8:00 AM") with a Send now instead link for anything urgent. A held text shows in the conversation as "Held for quiet hours, sends …" with the same Edit, Change time, Send now and Cancel. Assistant replies and draft approvals are not held.
• Most texts per customer per day — 1 to 10, default 3, with a Save limit button. A safety net so one busy day never turns into a flood. Replies you send by hand do not count against it.
• Your sending limits — how many texts a minute and a day your carrier registration allows, shown read-only. Contact support at support@poolfounder.com if you need more.

Who's reachable

Six counts of your active customers: Can get texts, No phone number, No consent on file, Opted out, Texts turned off, and Custom preferences. Each tile is a link: it opens the Customers page filtered to exactly the customers it counted (a Texting: … chip shows the active bucket, and the same filter is available any time from the Texting status dropdown next to the tag filter). The line under each tile says what moves a customer out of that bucket — add a phone number, tick the consent box or share the portal, or change the Texts pill; an opted-out customer can only come back by texting START. Below the counts, Customers with custom preferences lists everyone who differs from the switches above, each with a Reset to default button (one customer at a time, all of their texts). There is no "reset all" button here; to clear one text's exceptions for everyone in one go, use Turn on for everyone on that text's row.

The activity log: why a text did not send

This is the answer to "why didn't my customer get a text?". It lives on the section's Activity tab (Messages → Phone → Activity), under the 30-day stats. It lists every automated text from the last 30 days — including the ones that never went out — with filter chips by type (All texts, On the way, Invoice ready, Visit reminder, Service report ready, Review request, Lead follow-up, Deposit reminder, Quote reminder, Lead first reply, Missed call text, Broadcast, Test text) and by status (Any status, Sent, Skipped, Failed, Waiting). Each row shows the time, the customer, which text it was, and what happened: Delivered, Sent, Not delivered, Failed, Waiting to send, Sending, or Skipped with the reason. Missed call text is the automatic text to a caller you missed. It is not one of the automations on this page: it is switched on under Phone → Settings → Calls → Ring my phone first → "Text callers when I miss a call", and only exists with the "No assistant" option (with the assistant on, every call is answered, so none are missed). See the AI phone assistant.

Every skip reason, in plain English:

• No texting consent on file — the customer has no SMS consent recorded, so nothing automated can go to them.
• Customer replied STOP — they opted out. Only they can undo it, by texting START.
• This automation is turned off — that automation's switch is off company-wide.
• Automated texts are turned off — the master switch on the Automated texts tab is off.
• Texting isn't live on your number yet — no business number, or the carrier registration hasn't cleared.
• Quiet hours ended before it could send — the text waited for the quiet-hours window and expired first (an on-the-way text only stays useful for 30 minutes; a visit reminder expires at the end of the day it is for).
• Customer hit their daily text limit — they already got as many automated texts today as "Most texts per customer per day" allows.
• Your daily text limit was full — the company ran out of its daily carrier allowance before this one could go.
• Already sent — this was a duplicate — the same text for the same job/day had already gone out (this is what a service-report resend records).
• No phone number on file — nothing to text.
• The account owner's phone isn't verified — texting is blocked company-wide until the owner verifies. See verify your phone or email.
• Turned off for this customer — their Texts preference excludes this one.
• Turned off for this job — on-the-way only: the On the way texts switch on that job's page is off, even though the customer and the company are on.
• Canceled before it sent — the text was pulled back before it reached the carrier. This is what a canceled broadcast records, and what a lead follow-up records when the lead replies or converts first.
• Sent one recently — waiting out the cooldown — a review request inside that customer's cooldown window (90 days by default). The skipped row never starts the clock itself; only requests that actually went out do.

• Once your texting registration is live on your business number, automated texts send from that number and appear in the customer's conversation in the Phone inbox — customers can reply, and the reply lands in that thread.
• Before registration, they send from a shared toll-free number with no reply thread. They still leave a record: each one appears in the Phone inbox feed and on the customer's page as a read-only "Automated text" row (Sent / Failed), and in the Activity log as Sent — "From the shared number". Only the On the way and Invoice ready automations use the shared number; visit reminders, service-report texts, review requests, lead follow-ups, deposit reminders, and broadcasts wait until your own number is texting and show in Activity as "Texting isn't live on your number yet". The same company switches, customer Texts preferences, consent, quiet hours, and daily caps apply on the shared number as on your own.
• Pool Founder appends "Reply STOP to opt out." for you on the carrier's cadence — do not write it into your own message or it will appear twice.

Turning texts off for one customer

Company switches set the default; a single customer can hold an exception. On their customer page, next to the click-to-copy pills, is a "Texts: Default" / "Texts: Off" / "Texts: Custom" pill. It opens Text preferences: their consent status (or the date they replied STOP), an Automated texts switch ("Off means this customer gets no automated texts at all" — and that includes broadcasts), and a switch each for On the way, Invoice ready, Visit reminder, Service report ready, Review request, Deposit reminder, and Quote reminders. There is no Lead follow-up switch: lead follow-ups go to leads, not customers, so they are paused per lead on the lead's own Follow-ups card instead. Reset to default puts the customer back on your company settings. Editing needs the update-customers permission. A customer's switch can only allow a text, never force it: the text still needs its company-wide switch on (Messages → Phone → Automated texts), SMS consent, and a phone number on file. The same goes when George turns a text on for one customer; if one of those is missing, he tells you which.

On the way: ETA, live tracking link and auto-send

The on-the-way text tells the customer when the technician will get there and lets them watch the technician drive over on a map, like a delivery app, so they don't have to call the office to ask. Open Messages → Phone → Automated texts and click the On the way row to expand it. Above the Message box are two switches (managers only):

• Auto-send (off by default). On: the text goes out by itself the moment the technician's GPS shows them leaving a stop, to the customer at their next stop. Off: the technician gets a "Send On the Way?" notification and taps to send, or taps the button on the stop in the app. Auto-send follows exactly the same rules as the button: the company switch, the customer's Texts preference, the job's On the way texts switch, consent and STOP replies, the per-customer daily cap, and one on-the-way text per customer per route. It needs the technician app's location tracking to be on, because it runs off the GPS. With Auto-send on, the first customer of the day is texted when the technician taps Start Route; every later customer is texted when GPS shows the technician leaving the stop before theirs. With Auto-send off, nothing goes out automatically at route start: the first stop's card shows the I'm on my way button instead.
• Include live tracking link (off until you turn it on). Adds a link to a live map page. The page shows your company name, logo and phone number (with a call button), the technician's first name (only if you show technician names to customers), where the technician is right now, their estimated arrival time, and the customer's own home on the map. It shows nothing about other customers or other stops: while the technician is still finishing the stop before, the map hides their position and says so. When the technician starts the stop the page switches to "is here" and stops showing their location, and the link expires once the stop is finished (or skipped, or the route ends), or 4 hours after the text, whichever comes first. The page updates by itself; the customer does not need to refresh.
• {eta} is the estimated arrival time in your company's time zone (for example "10:25 AM"), worked out from the technician's live location with the same drive-time service the route screens use. If the technician's phone has no recent location, the text leaves the ETA sentence out rather than sending a blank. The same goes for {trackingLink} when the tracking link switch is off.
• If you reworded the on-the-way text yourself, your wording is kept exactly as you wrote it. When Include live tracking link is on and your wording has no <code>{trackingLink}</code>, the link is added at the end ("Track live: …"). To add the ETA to your own wording, click the <code>{eta}</code> chip, or click Reset to default. If you had saved the old default wording without changing it, you get the new default automatically.
• Customers who use your customer app also get a push notification ("Technician On The Way", with the ETA) at the same time as the text.
• There is no separate tracking-link text, and customers can't open a live map any other way: the link only exists in an on-the-way text.

Sending the on-the-way text earlier

Normally the on-the-way text goes out when the technician leaves the stop before the customer's. When your stops are a couple of minutes apart, that is barely any notice. To give customers more, open Messages → Phone → Automated texts, click the On the way row to expand it, and pick Send: When the tech heads over (the default), About 30 min before arrival, About 1 hour before arrival, or About 90 min before arrival. It is one setting for the whole company (managers only); there is no per-customer timing, and no "3 stops away" option (it is based on minutes, because stops take different lengths of time).

• How the time is worked out: once the technician has started their route, Pool Founder projects their arrival at every remaining stop from the stops still ahead (each one's expected time and the drives between them), updated after every stop and every 5 minutes. When the projected arrival at a customer's stop is within the time you picked, their text goes out. Customers near the start of the route can get theirs as soon as the route starts.
• It always sends by itself, whatever the Auto-send switch says. Everything else is the same as the usual on-the-way text: the customer's Texts preference, the job's On the way texts switch, consent and STOP, and one on-the-way text per customer per route, so no second text goes out when the technician heads over. Quiet hours don't hold it, like the usual on-the-way text.
• The wording is fixed for now: "Hi! {techName} from {companyName} expects to be at your place around 12:00 PM." (the time is rounded to 5 minutes). It has no live tracking link even when the tracking link switch is on, because the map hides the technician while they work at other customers' pools. Customers who use your customer app get a "Technician Arriving Soon" push with the same time.
• If the day slips (a long stop, stops reordered) and the projected arrival runs more than the running-late threshold (15 minutes by default, under Settings → Notifications) past the time the text gave, the customer gets the Running late text with the new time, once, even when the Running late row is switched off.
• If the stop is skipped, or moved to another day or technician, after the early text went out, the customer is not told automatically. Call or text them from the inbox.
• The technician app shows the stop's on-the-way text as sent, like any other.
• A technician can also send this "around 11:45" text by hand for any stop further down their route, whatever this setting says: tapping On the Way on a stop that isn't their next one (on the app's My Stops tab, where the button then reads "Text ~11:45 AM", or on the stop's detail screen) sends it instead of "on the way" (see running your route).

Turning on-the-way texts off for one pool

A customer with several pools — a property manager, an HOA, a homeowner with a spa on a separate job — may want the "on the way" heads-up for some of them and not others. That is what the On the way texts row on each job page is for. Open the job (Jobs → click the job, or from the customer's page), and look on the Overview tab, under Customer updates, just below Service emails: the row has a small switch and a one-line note that tells you where the text's state is really coming from.

• "Follows customer (on)" — the switch is on and this job texts like any other. Turn the switch off and the note changes to "Off for this job": this one pool is skipped while the customer's other jobs keep texting. Turn it back on and the job goes back to following the customer.
• "Customer has texts off — change it on the customer page" — the switch is locked off. This customer's Texts preference excludes on-the-way, and a job can't override that; the link takes you to the customer page.
• "Company automation is off — turn it on under Messages → Phone → Automated texts" — the switch is locked off because the company-wide On the way row is off. A job can't turn on something the company has off.
• "No phone number", "No texting consent", "Opted out" — every switch is on but nobody at this job can receive the text. Fix the customer's phone, consent, or opt-out on their page.

The per-job switch only ever subtracts: the order is company switch, then the customer's Texts preference, then the job. A job that is off shows a small Texts off badge on the Jobs list, and a text that was skipped because of it appears in the Activity log as "Turned off for this job". Editing it needs the same permission as editing the job. In the technician app, the next stop's card says "On the way texts are turned off for this job." instead of offering the text.

If your company had on-the-way texts on for only some of a customer's jobs before the company-wide switch existed (September 2026), those per-job choices were carried over: the jobs you had on still text, and the rest show "Off for this job". Nothing was turned on for a customer that had every job off — they were carried over as individually off on their Texts pill instead.

Running late texts

Below the Automations list is a separate Running late row ("When a technician will miss an appointment window"). It is off by default. When it is on, a customer whose stop has a set appointment time (a work order or an unplanned stop booked with an arrival window) gets one text per visit when the technician's projected arrival runs more than the Running Late Alerts threshold (15 minutes by default, set under Settings → Notifications) past the end of the window. The projection updates after every stop and every 5 minutes while the route runs.

• Default wording: "Hi {firstName}, {techName} from {companyName} is running behind today. New arrival time is about {newEta}. Sorry for the wait!" Variables available: <code>{firstName}</code>, <code>{companyName}</code>, <code>{techName}</code>, <code>{newEta}</code> (the new projected arrival time). Click the row to edit the Message, insert variables, see the preview, then Save or Reset to default.
• It goes out together with On the way texts: while the On the way row is off, running-late texts don't send (the row says "Waiting for On the way texts"), and a customer who turned off On the way texts, or a job with its On the way texts switch off, doesn't get it either. In the Activity log these texts are listed under On the way.
• Quiet hours, the per-customer daily limit, consent and STOP all apply. Without a business number it goes out on the shared number, like On the way.
• Maintenance stops have no appointment time, so they don't get it, unless the customer got an early on-the-way text with a time in it: that time counts as their appointment, and they get the running-late text even with this row off (see "Sending the on-the-way text earlier"). There is no Send test to my phone for this row.
• The office alert is separate, and also off until you turn it on: see notification settings.

STOP and START (opt-outs)

Anyone who texts STOP — existing customers and new leads alike — is opted out, and neither the assistant nor your staff can text them until they text START.

The mobile Comms tab

The technician mobile app's Comms tab is laid out like Messages on the web. A switch at the top picks Team (team chats between employees), Phone, Portal or Email. Phone, Portal and Email need the "View customer inbox" permission (owners, admins, office managers, and viewers by default); technicians without it see only Team, with no switch. Phone and Portal show a badge with their unread count. Each section has the same tabs as the web, along a strip under the switch:

• Phone: Inbox, Activity, Automated texts, Broadcasts (only with the "Send text broadcasts" permission) and Settings. A company without a business number gets only Automated texts and Activity, as on the web: its On the way and Invoice ready texts still go out from Pool Founder's shared number.
• Portal: Inbox (portal service requests, with All and Unread chips) and Overview (the 30-day numbers from the web Portal messages page).
• Email: Inbox (every email the app sent for you) and Overview (30-day numbers and cards into Blasts, Service reports and Email domain, each shown only with its own permission).

The Phone inbox groups texts and calls one row per person, like the web: a customer who texted your main line and another of your lines, and called, is one row, tagged TEXT and CALL. A lead texting from a different number than the customer's is still its own row (tagged LEAD) until that number is linked to the customer. Pinned people stay on top. Filter chips are Active (the default: everyone not marked Done), All (Done included), Unread, Unresponded, Call back (a message your assistant took that nobody has marked handled, or a conversation marked Needs call back), Calls and Archived. Statuses (Needs call back, Waiting on reply, Done) are set on the web; the phone app filters by them but doesn't change them. Tapping a sent email in Email → Inbox opens it: what was sent, the recipient, its Sent / Delivered / Opened / Bounced timeline and the message as plain text (the formatted version is on the web).

• Tap a person for their whole conversation in one thread: their texts, their calls (a card for each call, with what was said or the message they left; tap it for the summary and transcript), automated texts sent to them, and their texts on your other lines (marked "On [line name]"). Replies go out from the line of the conversation you opened. Someone you have only talked to by phone opens on their latest call. In the thread: reply, assistant mode, and draft approval, for companies with texting unlocked, plus internal notes: tap Internal note (lock icon) above the reply box, type, and tap the note button. Only your team sees it, in an amber box with your name and the time, and it is never texted (needs "Respond to inbox messages"; text only, no photos). Tap Text to go back to texting the customer. Notes added on the web show here too, and the other way round. A phone icon in the thread header calls the customer — companies with a business number and the "Call customers as the business" permission call as the business (your phone rings, press 1, the customer sees the business number); only roles with "Call customers from their own phone" also get "Call from my phone". Everyone else dials directly. Owners, Administrators and Office Managers have "Call customers as the business" by default; the built-in Technician role does not, so add it to the Technician role on Roles & Permissions to let techs call as the business. Tapping the customer's name opens their profile.
• Start a new text with the compose button (bottom-right of Phone → Inbox, shown to users with the "Respond to inbox messages" permission). Until your business number is texting, the button carries a small lock: tapping it says what's left to set up, and managers get Open on the web to do it on poolfounder.com (phone setup is web-only). Search to pick any customer, pick a lead (tagged "LEAD"), or type a brand-new phone number to text someone not in your book. It opens the conversation on your business line, then you type and send.
• The "Text" button on a customer or job screen opens the in-app Comms conversation with that person (on your business line) rather than your phone's own Messages app. Without a business number it falls back to your phone's native texting, as before.
• Roles without the "View customer contact info (phone, email)" permission never see the number itself (every built-in role has it, Technician included; to hide numbers, edit the Technician role (or any role) on Roles & Permissions and uncheck it): the customer and job screens show "Contact info hidden by your role" with Text and Call buttons that work through the business number, the thread header shows only the customer's name, phone numbers inside message bubbles are not tappable, and call details omit the number. Text needs "Respond to inbox messages" and Call needs "Call customers as the business"; without them the buttons are greyed out with the reason. See roles and permissions.
• Each inbox has a search box to find a conversation by customer name, phone number or text from any message.
• Tap a portal thread to reply or leave an internal note; tap a call for its summary and transcript. Its call-back button offers the same business-number choice where available.
• A "bookings need your approval" banner at the top of Phone → Inbox opens the Approvals screen, where users with the "Approve scheduling" permission Approve or Decline each proposed time.
• Push notifications for assistant events open the exact conversation, call, or the Approvals screen.
• When the Comms tab is visible, Account moves out of the bottom bar — it becomes the person icon in the top header.
• Scheduled texts (from Send later on the web, or held by quiet hours) show at the bottom of the thread as a dashed bubble with "Scheduled for …"; tap one for Send now or Cancel text. With "Hold texts typed during quiet hours" on, the composer shows "Quiet hours. Will send at 8:00 AM." and a Send now instead link. Picking a later time (Send later) is web-only.
• Phone → Automated texts lists every automated text with its on/off switch and summary; tap one to change its message, timing, the review request text's review link and other options, or send a test to your phone. Phone → Activity has the 30-day numbers and the log of automated texts (sent, failed or skipped, and why). Phone → Settings has the same sections as the web (Calls, Assistant, Texts, Saved replies, Phone line, Notifications). Changing automated texts and phone settings needs the "Manage phone & AI front desk" permission; everyone else sees them read-only. A few things are still set up on the web only: texting registration, getting or porting a number, ringing in the browser, voices and voice samples, test calls, website knowledge, connecting Quo, and editing who takes transferred calls.

Frequently asked questions

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