Send and Manage Messages

When To Use This#

Use this article when staff need the Messages page to search conversations, open thread drawers, reply to active threads, start customer conversations, send broadcasts, and follow related family, dog, document, or billing context.

Before You Start#

• Sign in to the business app and confirm you are in the correct business account.
• Confirm the staff member is allowed to reply, start direct conversations, or send broadcasts before using those actions.
• Use only message threads and related customer, dog, document, billing, or employee details the staff member is authorized to review.
• Follow approved communication policy before sending customer broadcasts, staff broadcasts, urgent notices, or time-sensitive responses.
• Do not include passwords, payment card details, medical documents, or private staff notes in message bodies unless the business has approved that practice.

Messages Page Overview#

The Messages page shows unread conversations, active threads, customer threads, staff threads, search, and thread details. Use it for communication work that belongs in a conversation rather than in a booking, billing, document, or dog record.

Review the summary cards first when staff need to triage unread or active conversations.

Unread And Active Threads#

Open a thread from the list to review conversation history. Unread threads appear before read threads, and threads sort by latest message time after that.

Search by thread title, scope, family, dog, latest message text, sender, subject, or loaded message body when you need a specific conversation.

Thread Drawer And Related Context#

Use the thread drawer to review context, related links, conversation history, and reply controls. Related record buttons sit at the top of the drawer, under the conversation name: use View Family, View Dogs, or View Documents when the conversation needs more context before staff respond. A thread that is not tied to a household has no related records, so those buttons do not appear.

Use only the related records needed for the current conversation. Do not include unrelated household, billing, medical, vaccine, document, or staff details in the message thread.

System Notices#

Some threads are notices the system wrote, not messages a person sent. They appear under a System notices label and are used for things like a customer being stuck in setup, or a dog needing approval before a service can be booked.

A notice looks different from a conversation on purpose. Each one is a card with the date it was raised, the reason it was raised, and a button that opens the page where the work gets done. Words inside the notice that name a page, such as Dogs or Services, are links to that page.

You cannot reply to a notice, so a notice thread has no reply box. Nobody is waiting on the other end. Use the notice's button or link to go and do the thing it describes, then work the record from there.

A notice tells you which household it is about, but its button opens the page rather than that specific household. Find the household on that page by the name shown in the notice.

Notices are not the same as website status notices, which are the public messages customers see. See Manage Website Status and Notices for those.

Reply Or Message Customer#

Reply only when the thread is active and the reply form is visible. Use Message Customer to search by family name, dog name, or primary email, then continue an existing thread or compose a direct customer message.

Confirm the Message sent notice after a reply or direct message.

When you start a new customer message, the composer may offer delivery options — for example whether the message is also delivered by text, and what kind of message it is. Replying inside an existing conversation does not ask again; the reply follows the conversation it is already part of. How a customer is notified follows their own notification preferences, and some essential messages are always delivered; see Messaging and Notices.

Broadcasts#

Use Message All Customers or Message All Staff only when the staff member is allowed to send broadcasts and the communication is approved.

Broadcasts should be factual and limited to approved business communication. Use Manage Website Status and Notices when the message belongs on the customer-facing website status or notices area instead of a conversation.

Billing, Document, Dog, And Family Context#

A Back to Billing link may appear when staff arrive from a billing workflow. Family, dog, and document links help staff confirm context before replying.

If the message is about uploaded documents, use Review Documents before making document review decisions. If it is about a family or dog record, use the linked family or dog page before changing record details.

When Message Controls Are Missing#

• If search returns no results, clear the query and try a family, dog, subject, sender, or message phrase.
• If the reply form is missing, check whether the thread is a system notice. Notices cannot be replied to and never show a reply box. On a normal conversation, confirm the thread is still active.
• If reply, compose, or broadcast controls should be available but are still missing, ask an owner or admin to review messaging access on the Access page. See Manage Access and Invites.
• If broadcast send fails, confirm the recipient group exists and the communication is approved.
• If a message body error appears, add a message body before sending.
• If a family or staff recipient is missing, confirm the customer or staff account is active and linked correctly.
• If communication policy is unclear, pause before sending broadcasts, urgent customer-facing messages, medical details, billing details, or time-sensitive responses.