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Text a customer

Send a text from the order or the Messages page — to one number or several, with pictures and files — and what stops a text from going.

5 min readChecked October 27, 2026
SalesDispatcherOwner & admin

You can text a customer from the order window's conversation or from the Messages page. Both send the same way.

From the order

  1. In the conversation, choose the Message tab.
  2. To shows the order's phone numbers as chips. Texts go to every number that is on — press a chip to leave it out, its ✕ to take it off, or + Add to type another number (to test, or a relative's). A typed number must be a whole 10-digit number. Only this text changes: the customer's number on the order stays as it is.
  3. Type the text. Variable and Template help you fill it in.
  4. Press Send as SMS.

If your words contain variables, the button reads Preview and send SMS and opens Preview and Send SMS first, filled in for this order — check it, then send.

Send as message posts the same words in the customer's portal instead. If the order has no phone, the composer says No phone on the order — a portal message still goes.

Tick Also send as message to send the text and the portal message with one press of Send as SMS — for that one message only. If one of the two doesn't go, MoveBoard tells you which, and the button to press to try that one again.

Pictures and files

Add Photos & documents (up to 10 files, 5 MB each). JPEG, PNG and GIF pictures go as picture messages. Other files go as links under Attachment links (7 days): after your text — the links stop working after 7 days.

When a text can't go

When Send as SMS is grey, the reason is written in red right under it — you never have to guess:

  • There's no phone number to text — add a mobile number to the customer's details.
  • This customer replied STOP… — only the customer can undo that, by texting START.
  • This number can't receive texts — edit the number… — an impossible number, or one the phone company rejected as not a phone. Fix the number and it can be texted again.
  • Texts are switched off on this order / for this customer / for this additional contact — turn SMS status back on in the Customer card's Status.
  • Texting is switched off for your company, the texting balance has run out, your company's texting registration isn't approved yet, this branch has no texting number set up yet — company-wide reasons; the words say where to fix it.
  • MoveBoard couldn't check whether this number can get texts — close the window and open it again.

A storage tenant's Communication composer checks the tenant's own number — the same reasons apply, nothing else.

A text can also be held back when you press send. The reason is shown, for example:

  • … has opted out of texts — they replied STOP. Only the customer can undo that, by texting START.
  • texts are switched off on this order / for this customer — turn SMS status back on in the Customer card's Status.
  • SMS feature is turned off for the company — texting is off in Settings › Communication › Text messages.
  • the texting balance is used up — top up in Settings › Payments & billing › Balance & usage. See Texting balance.

The daily texting limit

Phone carriers cap how many texts a business can send in a day. The cap belongs to your business (your tax ID), so texts sent from any other texting service under the same tax ID count toward it too. It resets at midnight Pacific.

  • On a day the limit was reached, an amber line under Send as SMS says so. The button still works — the limit is per carrier, so texts to many customers still go.
  • A text the carrier refused for the limit shows Status: failed — The carrier's daily texting limit for your company was reached. It resets at midnight Pacific — press Resend after that. If you sent it yourself, the composer says the same at once.

Which number it goes from

A company with several branches texts from each branch's own number. A text about an order — one you type, a workflow's, the crew's job chat — always goes from the order's branch's number, whichever branch your screen is on.

  • You moved the order to another branch: from then on its texts go from the new branch's number. The customer sees them come from a new number; earlier texts stay on the old number's thread on their phone.
  • The customer replies to the old number: the reply still lands on the order's conversation, and the new branch's team is notified.
  • The new branch has no texting set up yet: the text isn't sent, and it says this branch has no texting number set up yet — it never goes out from the branch the order left.
  • A branch with two texting numbers: your reply goes from the one of its numbers the customer last wrote to.

What happens next

The text appears in the conversation, marked as yours. Its delivery status — delivered, never arrived, failed — shows in the Messages page's SMS tab; a text that failed has Resend in its actions. The additional contact gets a copy when their texts switch is on.

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