SMS and email — cancellations, reminders, and your own wording

Why

No more manual messages at 10pm and forgetting to tell a parent — cancellations and reminders send themselves, and the email reads like your practice, not a generic system template.

SMS on cancellation — click path

1. Open the session card in the calendar and click Cancel.
2. Planote states clearly that cancelling will send an SMS about the cancellation to the guardian (the number is already on the child’s record) — add a short note and confirm.
3. Admin → SMS shows the send history: number, status, and SMS quota usage for the month.

Note

The cancellation SMS only goes out for a regular cancellation — not when a session is marked as a no-show.

Tutaj pojawi się film: You cancel a session — the parent gets an SMS in seconds

Nagranie w przygotowaniu — wraca w tym miejscu.

Individual session reminders — click path

1. Admin → Settings → Communication tab → the individual session reminders section.
2. Turn on active notifications and set how many days before the session the reminder should go out.
3. Pick a channel: email (on by default) and/or SMS.
4. Choose the send time: either the same time as the session, or a fixed time independent of the appointment (e.g. always 9am).
5. Save — guardians get reminders automatically, with no manual sending.

The reminder includes a link the parent can click without logging in, to confirm attendance or report an absence straight from the message. The reply shows up right away on the session card next to the child as a chip: Confirmed, Cancelled, or Pending, until the parent responds.

Tutaj pojawi się film: Planote — automatic session reminders: email, SMS, and a fixed send time

Nagranie w przygotowaniu — wraca w tym miejscu.

SMS and email content templates — click path

The wording of automatic messages (reminder, cancellation) doesn’t have to stay the default — in the same Communication tab you can edit your own templates, separately for SMS and email.

1. Admin → Settings → Communication → the SMS templates section (or Email templates below it) → New template.
2. Pick a template type: Reminder, Cancellation, First visit, or Custom.
3. Give the template a name, and for email also a Message subject.
4. Message content — use the placeholders {name}, {date}, {time}, {session_type}, {address}, {signature}, {therapist}, which Planote fills in automatically when sending.
5. Save. You can have several templates of the same type — mark one as default so the system uses its wording for the automatic send.

Tutaj pojawi się film: SMS and email templates in Planote — reminder, cancellation, first visit

Nagranie w przygotowaniu — wraca w tym miejscu.

Custom invite email wording — click path

1. Admin → Email templates → Parent / Guardian tab — this is the letter that goes out with the portal invite.
2. Greeting / header — the first line the parent sees after opening the message.
3. The main body and the button text (e.g. “Activate account” instead of an empty “click here”).
4. Preview — see the message exactly as the parent will.
5. Send test — a trial message to your own inbox, to judge the tone before it goes out to real parents.
6. Save template — from now on every parent invite goes out with this wording.

Tutaj pojawi się film: The invite email template in Planote — your own wording, preview, and a test send

Nagranie w przygotowaniu — wraca w tym miejscu.

FAQ

Can the cancellation SMS be turned off? The toggles live under the Communication tab (Admin → Settings) — you can turn off individual notification types independently.

What if I want different email wording for a therapist versus a parent? Email templates have separate tabs per role (Parent / Guardian, Therapist, and Institution when institutions are active) — you edit them independently.

Will a reminder go out if the session was added less than X days before its time? No — if the configured “days before” value is longer than the time left until the session, the reminder won’t have time to send in that window.