Setting up SMS with Twilio

This article describes the process of setting up the Twilio SMS platform to use with the Forth CRM. It includes the following topics:

Overview

The Forth system can use one of two options for use of our SMS platform. Users can select to use Twilio or Ytel SMS. This article addresses the Twilio SMS platform. For information on the Ytel SMS, see our Help Center article titled Setting Up the Ytel SMS Platform.

Prerequisites

Before you begin, your FORTH CRM account will need to be signed up for the Twilio SMS Platform. To sign up, please contact our Sales team at sales@setforth.com or call (630) 394-6260. (Note: If you are a Centrex client, please contact the Centrex Sales team at sales@centrexsoftware.com or (888) 622-5810 extension 1). Once you have signed up for the SMS Platform, continue with the instructions in this document.

How to Access

View Rate Limits

When editing a number, a new option is now available to “View Rate Limits”.

When selected, a pop-up screen will display the carriers in a table with rows broken down by carrier name and the following columns: 

• Max, 
• Texts Per Hour (TPH), and 
• Brand.

How to Set Up

Creating a Twilio account

The Forth SMS Platform is integrated with Twilio.

1. If you do not have a Twilio account, Sign Up For Free (see login page sample image below). However, to take full advantage of this feature, you must buy a full Twilio Account.
   NOTE: The login page may look a little different as Twilio is responsible for this page.
   

2. After verifying, create a project by clicking Products and then Programmable SMS and then giving it a name. Projects are a top-level of objects in their system. We support one set of Project API per company so that you can have one set of credentials per company within the account (this includes an option to activate credentials for all companies in the account).
   
   IMPORTANT: When setting up the account, you do not need to click "Get Started". This will take you to create a new phone number for SMS. It is not necessary to setup the first phone number this way. You can easily create the phone number from within the CRM and avoid doing anything further in the Twilio interface.
    
3. On the Dashboard page, scroll down the page and locate the Account SID and Auth Token from your Twilio account on the Account Info section on your Dashboard, and input these credentials into the SMS Settings page inside the FORTH CRM.

4. Log into the FORTH CRM.
5. From the Admin tab, click Settings and then select SMS. 
6. Plug in the Account SID and Auth Token where indicated.
7. Select either of the following options in the Company menu: "Individual company; or "All Companies".

8. Click the Save Settings button.

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Syncing numbers

1. To Sync a phone number that you've already created in Twilio, click Sync Numbers.
2. When clicking this button it should pull all active phone numbers from the attached Twilio account and set them as active.
3. Click the button with the ellipses next to Purchase a New Number (see the image below), and then select Sync Numbers to sync the credentials from the current user's company. 
   

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Purchasing phone numbers

REMINDER: A “text-viable” telephone number (or numbers) must be bought first before the sync function will work (see the image at left). Otherwise you will not be able to sync those numbers.   As shown in the image above, click on the SMS Tab, click the ellipsis (…) found at the top right of the page, and select “Sync Numbers.”

1. From the SMS tab in the FORTH CRM, select Manage Numbers from the "My Campaigns" dropdown menu on the top left of the page.
   
    
2. To purchase a number, click Purchase a New Number (see image below). 
   
   3. On the Purchase a New Number pop-up screen, you can search by area code to find numbers in specific locations. Once you have entered your numbers, click Continue found at the bottom right corner of the pop-up screen.
   

Identifying the Provider

If you click the SMS Tab and select Manage Numbers from the dropdown option at the top left of the page, there is a column for listing the Provider in the SMS table. This column lists the provider name assigned to the number.

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Editing phone numbers

When editing a phone number, you'll have the option to Activate or Deactivate phone numbers, give them a Friendly Name, Assign Company/Users access to the numbers and even Delete the phone number via a hyperlink at the bottom left of the popup window. You'll also see additional details about the phone number, such as the date it was purchased, or any SMS Campaigns that are using the phone number.

The Friendly Name allows you to name your Phone Numbers and will appear when selecting that phone number from other pages in the CRM interface.

When assigning Company/User access, you can share with individual users, entire companies, or everyone (see image below). When finished, click Save found the bottom right of the page.

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SMS via the Client Dashboard

Go to the Client Dashboard and select the SMS nested tab (i.e., subtab). When selecting a phone number from the Client Dashboard, you will find that they are organized by the SMS provider in the "Search for a From number" dropdown menu (see the image below).

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Setting SMS role permissions

The SMS platform includes several User Role permissions. Enabling or disabling these permissions allow you to customize how your agents utilize the SMS Platform. Upon activating SMS, you need to edit user roles to provide access to the new features and module.

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Troubleshooting

Phone Number is not syncing with Forth

1. Log into Twilio.com and go to the Console's Numbers page.
2. Click on the phone number you'd like to sync with FORTH.
3. Scroll down the page to find the Messaging Configuration section.
   
4. Go to the A MESSAGE COMES IN dropdown menu, select Webhook, and paste in the following URL in the "URL" field: https://client.forthcrm.com/post/twilio.php 
5. Click Save Configuration at the bottom left of the page (see image above). 

Error: Unable to create Record: Permission to send an SMS has not been enabled for the region indicated by the 'To' number

1. Log into Twilio.com.
2. Click on Settings, then click Geo Permissions.
   NOTE: This page may look different than what is shown below as it is controlled by Twilio and not Forth.
   
    
3. Enable the checkbox that corresponds to the region you are trying to send SMS messages to.
   

Error: Unsupported Provider

• This message indicates there is a problem with the Twilio credentials. Either they are missing or invalid. The assigned company must have a valid, working Twilio account integrated for messages to work.

Error: Message could not be sent. Error: [HTTP 401] Unable to create record: Authenticate

• If an SMS is not sent for any reason, i.e., credentials are wrong, or there is a lack of funds, you get this error message. We cannot really differentiate what caused it. If we see that message, complete the following steps:
  1. Check the AuthToken and SID.
  2. Check funds on the Twilio account.

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Additional Information

For further information, please see the following articles

• SMS: Sending and Receiving SMS Messages
• Sending & Completing a Clixsign Request
• Campaigns - SMS
• SMS Report

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