How to use Twilio to send appointment notification and reminder SMS in Zoho Bookings

How to use Twilio to send appointment notification and reminder SMS in Zoho Bookings

Hit no-shows out of the ballpark by combining Zoho Bookings and SMS providers.

SMS notifications help you remind customers of their appointments and reduce no-shows by reaching out where they are.

In this guide, we'll configure an SMS provider called Twilio.

Prerequisites

  • A Twilio Subscription
    • You need at least one number to send messages from. It can be a short code, your personal number, a local number, or anything else. Twilio charges monthly for phone numbers. Check out Twilio's pricing page for more details.
    • Since Twilio uses a pay-as-you-go model, there are no monthly commitments (except the sender number). The minimum recharge value is $20, and you can use it until the credits expire - Learn more about Twilio's pricing model here.

Things to Know Before Using Twilio

  • You can share your Twilio subscription amongst multiple admins (if required).
  • Twilio is responsible for everything except configuring SMS text (You can configure this inside Zoho Bookings).
  • Both single and dual way communication is possible with Twilio
  • Using Twilio, you can send messages across borders.
    • Case 1: When you send messages from a US number to an Indian number, sender IDs might change. It ensures the deliverability of messages.
    • Case 2: SenderIDs don't change when the sender and the recipient numbers belong to the same country.
  • Twilio charges for text messages on a segment basis. (1 segment = 160 Characters). For instance, if you send an SMS with 200 characters, you'll be charged for two SMS credits - Learn more about it here.
  • To find the number of SMS you'll be able to send with your top-up, use this formula:
    • Number of SMS that can be sent = (Top Up Value - Phone Number Price)/ Message Per SMS
    • Let's assume you belong to the US and recharge for $20. You've also opted for a long code that costs $1.16 (with carrier fees), the equation would look like
    • Number of SMS that can be sent* = ($20 - $1.16)/ ($0.0079) = 2200.
    • You'll be able to send approximately 2200+ SMS with this. (If you don't buy additional phone numbers in the US)
    • Note - The calculation is only an approximate estimation of the number of messages that you can send. This is because factors like carrier fees, and per-message rate change often and vary widely across different service providers.
  • Twilio credits are one-off amounts that don't expire until you use them.
  • Your Twilio account will get suspended once your account balance reaches zero. To avoid this, Twilio sends a notification to your email requesting you to refill your funds when the balance hits $5.
  • Another way to prevent your account from hitting zero you can set up an auto-recharge trigger for a minimum of $10. When your balance hits $10, you can automatically set it up to top up your account. Check out this page for setting up automatic payment triggers.
     

A2P 10 DLC Registration (only if you wish to send messages to the US)

Note - This is only necessary if you send messages to the United States. (Regardless of where you send your messages from - inside or outside the US)
  • If you send messages to the US, you should register for A2P 10 DLC. (Application to Person 10 Digit Long Code messaging protocol)
  • A2P 10DLC is a secure way to communicate with businesses and ensures that the messages are relevant to the recipients. We highly advise you to register for A2P 10 DLC Protocol as numbers without it will incur higher fees and even service disruptions from June 1, 2023. This is to comply with US messaging regulations. You can learn more about it here.
  • A2P 10 DLC registration is only possible with a Twilio premium subscription and not for trial accounts.
  • To do this, navigate to Phone Numbers > Manage > Active Numbers > Click on a Number.

  • Under Messaging Configuration, click on 'Go to 10DLC registration.'



Note - You cannot integrate multiple SMS providers to Zoho Bookings simultaneously.



Configuring Twilio with Zoho Bookings

1. Sign in to your Twilio account. (Sign up here if you don't have one)



2. You'll be redirected to the following screen once you've signed up. Check your mail inbox.


3. Your email would look like this. Confirm your account.



4. Twilio asks you to secure your account with a phone number. Enter your number and click on Send verification code/Get code via phone call depending on your choice.



5. Once you've confirmed your phone number you can fill in the onboarding form and click on get started with Twilio.



6. You'll be redirected to the Twilio dashboard.


  • 'My first Twilio account' is the account name of your Twilio SMS account. If you have multiple Twilio SMS accounts you can navigate it from here
  • The Phone numbers tab helps you to
    • Manage all your Phone numbers
    • Buy new Numbers
    • Release a Phone number
  • When you sign up for a Twilio account, you'll get $15.50. You can get a trial number using this to test their configurations before opting for a premium plan.
7. Let's get a phone number from Twilio. Click on 'Get a Twilio Phone Number.'



8. Twilio will assign you a phone number. Now let's configure Twilio with Zoho Bookings.



Note - To get a premium number, navigate to Phone numbers > Manage > Buy a Number
 
Choose which country's number you wish to get, SMS (as capability), and click search. You can click on buy to obtain the number.



9. Scroll to the bottom of Twilio's main dashboard. You'll find three fields here, Auth Token, Account SID, and your Phone number. We'll paste all this data to integrate Zoho Bookings and Twilio.'



10. Now log in to your Zoho Bookings Dashboard. Navigate to Integrations > Others > Twilio. Hover over Twilio and click on Configure.



11. Copy and paste the details from Twilio to the corresponding fields in Zoho Bookings. Once you have pasted the details, click 'Configure.'
 
Note: While pasting the phone number, remove the country calling code. In this case, my phone number was +13203628918. '+1' is the country calling code. Remove it and paste the rest (i.e., 3203628918 without any spaces/symbols in between)



12. Hover over the created Twilio connection and click enable. Reload the page if the connection is still not active. You've successfully integrated Twilio with Zoho Bookings.


Editing Your Twilio Connection

To edit your Twilio connection, hover over the Twilio integration and click on edit. Once you've made the changes, click Configure.



If you wish to remove your Twilio connection, hover over the Twilio integration and click remove.



A pop-up appears asking you to confirm. Click 'Proceed' to delete your Twilio connection.



Note - While Editing or Removing your Twilio connections, if the changes don't reflect immediately, reload the page for the changes to reflect.

Configuring SMS Notifications

To configure SMS notifications for one on one bookings, navigate to services > service notification.



To configure SMS notifications for group/ resource bookings, navigate to settings > workspaces > notifications.


You'll see two tabs here. 'For Staff' and 'For Customers.' Zoho Bookings allows you to send eight different types of SMS under each tab.



You can configure Zoho Bookings to send SMS using Twilio when you change the appointment status to
  • Booked
  • Rescheduled
  • Canceled
  • Marked As Completed
  • Marked As No Show
Alternatively, you can set up to three reminders before your appointment time.



Illustration: Let's send SMS notifications to a customer when an appointment(one-on-one) is booked.

  1. Make sure that the checkbox is enabled corresponding to the booked notification in the customer tab. It ensures that the customer receives an SMS notification when an appointment is booked.


 2. To customize the messages that will be sent, click on customize. You can change the message and insert dynamic variables like meeting info, customer name, meeting date, and more into your outgoing messages. Click 'Save' once you are done with the changes.



The customer receives the following message when an appointment is made.


Note that the message is from the number '59039000' and not my original phone number. This is because the message is sent from a US number to an Indian Number. So the original long code is replaced with this number to ensure seamless deliverability.
 
If the sender and recipient belong to the same country, then the SenderID (i.e., your phone number) doesn't change.
 
There are cases where you might want to block incoming messages. For example, customers might reply to your SMS notifications requesting a reschedule or cancellation. This breaks the flow of Zoho Bookings and introduces unnecessary manual work. If that's the case, check out this document to block all incoming messaging.

SMS Customization Recommendations

  • Since each message can accommodate only 160 characters, we recommend keeping your message crisp. Include vital info like appointment date, time, and business name.
  • Avoid using emojis in your sms. As a single emoji consumes a lot of characters.
  • We recommend you have your entire message length from 160 to 320 characters (i.e., 1 to 2 messages per message) to avoid consuming too many message credits for a single SMS.

Zoho Bookings Plans supporting this feature

Applicable in
Premium

If you want to start a trial of the Zoho Bookings Premium plan, please send an email to support@zohobookings.com including the word 'Twilio' in the subject line.

I want to try this!

    • Recent Topics

    • Super Admin Logging in as another User

      How can a Super Admin login as another user. For example, I have a sales rep that is having issues with their Accounts and I want to view their Zoho Account with out having to do a GTM and sharing screens. Moderation Update (8th Aug 2025): We are working

    • Zoho Creator Application - New User Not able to access the application

      In Zoho Creator, The newly added user not able to access the " Added Application" - User has received the Invitation Email, but while clicking "confirm Account" in the invitation Email, the following error message has appeared. "Sorry! you cannot accept

    • Deleting Salutation Field

      We have updated our lead input screen and 'Salutation' has appeared. This is not visible in the 'Edit Pgae Layout' screen so cannot be moved to 'List of Removed Fields'  Salutation is visible in the list in 'Customization - Fields' however I can only 'Edit' or 'Replace' I cannot delete and I do not need this field on my lead input screen.  Please can you advise how to get rid of this.  Screen shots can be provided if needed.  Thank you Tasha

    • Auto-Generate & Update Asset Serial Numbers using a custom function (Assets Module)

      Hello Team, I’ve been working on a script to automate one of our processes in Zoho FSM, and the core functionality has been successfully implemented. However, I’m encountering an issue related to serial number allocation, which is not working as expected.

    • Partner with HDFC And Sbi Bank.

      Hdfc and sbi both are very popular bank if zoho books become partner with this banks then many of the zoho books users will benefit premium features of partnered banks.

    • Zoho Mail iOS app update: Access Delegated Mailbox.

      Hello everyone! You can now access the delegated mailbox from within the iOS version of the Zoho Mail app. To access the delegated mailbox: Open the Zoho Mail app. Go on to the 'Email' module. Tap the profile picture. Choose the delegated mailbox Please

    • How to convert Lead's country field from Text to Pick List

      Hi, I would like to change the default country field in ZCRM from text to pick list. It looks like not I can't delete default country field and recreate it as pick list nor can i create an new custom field country because such a label belong to default field. So what do I have to do? Any ideas? L

    • How create a draft via workflow?

      I wish to create a workflow rule for specific emails that creates a draft response - not an automatic email reply, but just a draft with a set response ready to be verified by an agent who can then manually select recipients. Alternatively, the workflow

    • New feature: Invite additional guests for your bookings

      Hello everyone, Greetings from Zoho Bookings! We are happy to announce the much-awaited feature Guest Invite, which enhances your booking experience like never before. This feature allows additional participants to be invited for the bookings to make

    • Improved Contact Sync flow in Google Integration with Zoho CRM

      Hello Everyone, Your contact sync in Google integration just got revamped! We have redesigned the sync process to give users more control over what data flows into Google and ensure that this data flows effortlessly between Zoho CRM and Google. With this

    • Image field in custom module

      Hi guy, Is there any hope of adding a custom image field in the custom module? We created a custom module to keep track of assets, and it would be helpful if we could attach an image to the record. Thanks Rudy

    • الخصم على مستوى فاتورة المبيعات

      السلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته مطلوب في إنشاء خصم على مستوى فاتورة المبيعات وليس على مستوى البند أريد معرفة الطريقة؟

    • VAT and Taxes option not available

      Dear ZOHO Team , The VAT and Taxes options in my ZOHO books account not available,I tried to find how to enable or check the way to use this option but unfortunately couldn't find it anywhere ,I'm in UAE ,kindly let me know what to do to solve this issue

    • Default Tagging on API-generated Transactions

      If one assigns tags to an Item or Customer, those tags get auto-populated in each line item of an Invoice or Sales Order when one creates those documents. However, if one creates the Sales Order or Invoice via the API (either directly coding or using

    • Direct Feed (Bank)

      Is Direct feed integration for AlRajhi and ADCB bank supported by Zoho Books in GCC/Saudi

    • Sales Order, Invoice and Payment numbers

      Hi zoho friends, it is me again, the slow learner. I'm wondering if there is a way to have it so the Sales order, invoice and payment numbers are all the same? It would be easier for me if they were the same number so there is not so many reference numbers

    • MS Teams for daily call operations

      Hello all, Our most anticipated and crucial update is finally here! Organizations using Microsoft Teams phone system can now integrate it effectively with Zoho CRM for tasks like dialling numbers and logging calls. We are enhancing our MS Teams functionality

    • Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) Report

      From data to decisions: A deep dive into ticketing system reports The customer satisfaction (CSAT) report helps teams understand how customers feel about their support experience, identify service gaps, and continuously improve the help desk. It turns

    • Timeline Tracking Support for records updates via module import and bulk write api

      Note: This update is currently available in Early Access and will soon be rolled out across all data centers (DCs) and for all editions of Zoho CRM. The update will be available to all users within your organization, regardless of their profiles or roles.

    • Shifts in Zoho People vs Zoho Shifts?

      Hello Zoho People Team, We hope you are doing well. We are evaluating the Shifts functionality within Zoho People and comparing it to the standalone Zoho Shifts product. We’ve encountered comments and discussions suggesting that the Shifts feature inside

    • Disable fields in During action in Blueprint?

      Hi there. I've tried field disable (setReadOnly(true)) using client script and the event is onMandatoryFormLoad on detail page, assuming it'll work on blueprint fields, but it bears no result. Is this the expected behaviour? That we can't do this yet?

    • Develop and publish a Zoho Recruit extension on the marketplace

      Hi, I'd like to develop a new extension for Zoho Recruit. I've started to use Zoho Developers creating a Zoho CRM extension. But when I try to create a new extension here https://sigma.zoho.com/workspace/testtesttestest/apps/new I d'ont see the option of Zoho Recruit (only CRM, Desk, Projects...). I do see extensions for Zoho Recruit in the marketplace. How would I go about to create one if the option is not available in sigma ? Cheers, Rémi.

    • Best Email Backup Wizard in 2026

      While searching for an email backup solution, my main hesitation was reliability. As a user, I had already seen many tools that looked promising but failed when handling large mailboxes, skipped folders, or caused authentication issues during the backup

    • Subforms and automation

      If a user updates a field how do we create an automation etc. We have a field for returned parts and i want to get an email when that field is ticked. How please as Zoho tells me no automation on subforms. The Reason- Why having waited for ever for FSM

    • Allow Managers to Create Shifts for Their Departments in Zoho People

      Hello Zoho People Product Team, Greetings and hope you are doing well. This feature request is related to Zoho People - please don't move it to zoho one! We would like to submit a feature request regarding shift management permissions in Zoho People.

    • Zoho Learn and Zoho CRM integration

      I would like to see an integration between Zoho Learn and Zoho CRM. 1. To be able to add articles in a related list in all modules 2. Zia to suggest related articles in a Deal or Case or Lead 3. Ability to read / search articles during a call / follow

    • Maintain steady traffic to your domain: How Domain Aliasing helps

      Consider this scenario: An organization has its primary domain as administrator.com. Now it wants to shorten its domain to admin.com because it's simpler and easier to remember. However, changing the domain completely can cause the following problems:

    • Why Sharing Rules do Not support relative date comparison???

      I am creating a Sharing Rule and simply want to share where "Last Day of Coverage" (Date field) is Greater than TODAY (Starting Tomorrow). However, sharing rules don't have the option to compare a date field to a relative date (like today), only to Static

    • How do I migrate OLM file to Gmail?

      Migrating emails from Outlook for Mac to Gmail can be challenging because Gmail does not support OLM files directly. This limitation often causes confusion and delays, especially when users need quick access to important emails and mailbox data on a web-based

    • CRM x WorkDrive: File storage for new CRM signups is now powered by WorkDrive

      Availability Editions: All DCs: All Release plan: Released for new signups in all DCs. It will be enabled for existing users in a phased manner in the upcoming months. Help documentation: Documents in Zoho CRM Manage folders in Documents tab Manage files

    • Workflow rule only allows 10 workflow per module

      Apparently a Zoho professional edition only allows 10 workflow rules per module. This makes workflow allocation literally impossible while allocating potential to different members of the team. I have 15 licenses. Is there a way in which related alerts can be varied? In other words, is it possible to have different related alerts be triggered with different rule criteria. so if I say, if potential is 'x' then trigger related alert 'x' and if potential is 'y' then trigger related alert 'y' Thanks,

    • IF Statement in Zoho CRM Formula Field

      Hi, I am attempting to write a formula field that will give me one result if one statement AND another statement are true, then a different value if the first statement AND a different statement are true, else 0. Stated differently: if account = destination

    • CRM Percent custom fields: When will it show the % symbol and behave like %?

      1. Actually Percent custom fields fail to show the % symbol. 2. When in formulas Percent fields work like number: 100 x 5% = 5 ideal world 100 x 5% = 500 what happens actually 3. When importing Percent fields the % symbol has to be removed and the data

    • Free Webinar: Zoho Sign for Zoho Projects: Automate tasks and approvals with e-signatures

      Hi there! Handling multiple projects at once? Zoho Projects is your solution for automated and streamlined project management, and with the Zoho Sign extension, you can sign, send, and manage digital paperwork directly from your project workspace. Join

    • Automatically CC an address using Zoho CRM Email Templates

      Hi all - have searched but can't see a definitive answer. We have built multiple email templates in CRM. Every time we send this we want it to CC a particular address (the same address for every email sent) so that it populates the reply back into our

    • Editing the Ticket Properties column

      This is going to sound like a dumb question, but I cannot figure out how to configure/edit the sections (and their fields) in this column: For example, we have a custom "Resolution" field, which parked itself in the "Ticket Information" section of this

    • "Total Hours" on Employee Attendance Report

      I'm learning that in Zoho jargon, "total hours" does not include paid breaks. Or at least not the way that my setup is working. That seems a little weird to me, since most jurisdictions in the US don't differentiate between time spent on paid break and

    • Fixed assets in Zoho One?

      Hi, We use Zoho Books and have the fixed asset option in it. I started a trial for Zoho One and I do not see that as an option. Is the books that is part of zoho one equivalent to Zoho Books Elite subscription or is it a lesser version? Thanks, Matt

    • Integration with...

      Dear Zoho Commerce team, Please could you consider the integration within Zoho Commerce / Inventory and Qapla'? (https://www.qapla.it/en/) This app is better than Aftership in many ways: - Aftership integration require PRO plan and price start from more

    • Repeat Column merge in ZOHO writer columns doesn't allow to set max columns per row

      I'm using ZOHO writer to merge data from a ZOHO CRM subform and I want it to make a table. We're using Insert Table for Column Repeat, because this is what we need. (Name of column (Teamname) and underneath that a list of names of teammembers). It works

    • Next Page