Manage your messaging balance
In this guide, you’ll learn how the messaging balance works and how to top up your balance to send clients appointment reminders and payment requests, through text and WhatsApp.
How your messaging balance works
Your messaging balance lets you send text and WhatsApp messages to clients through Fresha. This includes automated messages and payment policy requests. You’ll get a free monthly allowance, and you can choose to top up your balance as needed.
- Free messaging allowance: This resets monthly and is used before your credit balance.
- Balance top-up: You can top up your messaging balance by adding credits which gives you flexibility to send more messages once your free monthly allowance runs out. These top-up credits don’t expire and will only be used after your free allowance is finished. For example, if your monthly allowance is 20 free messages, you’ll use that first, and any additional messages will then be charged from your purchased credit.
Each message you send, whether via text or WhatsApp, will deduct from your balance based on its cost. Learn more about message pricing.
Top up your messaging balance
You can increase your messaging balance at any time by making a one-time purchase.
- From the main menu on the left of your screen, go to Settings.
- Click on the Billing category to access your messaging balance.
- From the left menu panel, select Messaging balance.
- Under your current messaging balance, click on the Top up button.
- On the One-time purchase page, choose a top-up amount from the available options or select Custom to enter your own value.
- Review your total cost and click on the Pay now button in the top-right to complete the top-up.
Your top-up will be added to your messaging balance immediately, ready to use for automations and payment policy reminders.
You can also access and top up your messaging balance directly through your Messaging automations.
Enable automatic messaging balance top-ups
You can set a trigger so your credits automatically top up when your balance drops below a certain amount.
- From the main menu on the left of your screen, go to Settings.
- Click on the Billing category to access your messaging balance.
- From the left menu panel, select Messaging balance.
- Under your current messaging balance, click on the Enable auto top-ups button.
- On the Auto top-ups page, set a threshold for when your messaging balance should trigger an automatic top-up.
- Choose a top-up amount from the available options or select Custom to enter your own value.
- Review the total cost, then click on the Enable button in the top right to complete the setup.
Once enabled, your balance will automatically top up by the selected amount whenever it falls below your chosen threshold.
Manage automatic messaging balance top-ups
- From your Messaging balance under Settings, click on the Manage auto top-ups button beneath your current balance.
- On the Auto top-ups page, you can:
- Update auto top-ups: Adjust the threshold that triggers a top-up and select the amount to top up by. Click on the Save button in the top right to apply your changes.
- Disable auto top-ups: Click on the Disable button in the top right, then confirm by selecting Disable now in the pop-up.
View your messaging balance activity
- From the main menu on the left of your screen, go to Settings.
- Click on the Billing category to access your messaging balance.
- In the left menu panel, select Messaging balance.
Under your current balance, click on Actions (three dots), then select View balance activity from the panel. - You’ll see a record of all manual and automatic top-ups, along with any free monthly allowance. Each entry includes:
- Whether the credit was added by Fresha as your free allowance or purchased thorough top-ups
- The amount of credit added
- The date the credit was applied
- The cost of the credited amount (if purchased)
FAQs
While WhatsApp is free for personal use, businesses are required to use the WhatsApp Business API to send automated messages like appointment reminders or confirmations. This is an advanced feature which incurs a cost, and so WhatsApp charges Fresha for each message sent. Due to this, messaging credits are used for WhatsApp messages, just like they are for text messages. These credits help cover the cost of delivering important client notifications through the official business messaging channels.
Any text or WhatsApp message sent to clients will be deducted from your messaging balance. This includes appointment updates, reminders, confirmation requests and payment requests.
Messages will stop sending until you top up your balance or your free monthly allowance renews.
You’ll receive a free monthly allowance which resets on the 1st of each month and is always used before any top-up credits.
You will see the exact cost for each type of message on your messaging balance page as well as when you top up.
The payment method saved under your workspace billing settings will be charged.
Your free monthly allowance can be used for both text and WhatsApp messages. Your allowance will automatically apply to whichever messages go out first.