Who Can Message and Spend Credits
The four messaging permissions, what each one unlocks, and how to let a receptionist answer clients without letting them blast your whole list.
Messaging is not one permission. It is several, deliberately, because "can answer a client's text" and "can text 900 clients at once" are very different amounts of trust.
The sectionsCopy a link to this section
The Messaging page has four sections, each behind its own permission:
| Section | Permission | What it allows |
|---|---|---|
| Inbox | Manage Conversations | "View and reply to client conversations in the messaging inbox." |
| Templates | Manage Message Templates | "Create and edit the templates used for automatic and blast messages." |
| Phone Numbers | Manage Phone Numbers | "Add, label, assign and remove the business' messaging phone numbers." |
| Blasts | Send Blasts | "Send text and email blasts to groups of clients." |
Hold none of them and the page tells you exactly what to ask for: "You don't have access to any Messaging section yet. Ask an owner or a manager to grant you the conversations, templates, numbers or blasts permission."
The money permissionsCopy a link to this section
Separately from sending, there is who pays:
- Manage Messaging Credits — "View the messaging credit balance and history, and buy more credits."
- Use Business Credits in the Inbox — "Charge inbox replies to the business' messaging credits instead of the member's own."
- Use Business Credits for Blasts — the same, for blasts.
Without the last two, a member can still send — it just comes out of their own credit pool. That is a real and useful arrangement for a booth-rent shop where each stylist funds their own client communication. In a commission shop you almost certainly want to grant them, or your team's messages quietly stop.
Attempting to spend a pool you have no claim on fails cleanly: "You are not allowed to spend those credits."
A sensible starting pointCopy a link to this section
Receptionist / front desk
- Manage Conversations ✔
- Use Business Credits in the Inbox ✔
- Send Blasts ✘, Templates ✘, Numbers ✘
They answer everything that comes in, on the business's dime, and cannot rewrite what every client receives.
Manager
- All four sections ✔
- Manage Messaging Credits ✔, both business-credit permissions ✔
Stylist
- Manage Conversations ✔ if you want them talking to their own clients
- Use Business Credits in the Inbox — your call, per the model above
- Send Blasts ✘ unless you have a specific reason
Blasts are the one to be stingy with. A badly worded blast reaches your entire client list once, and there is no recall.
Blast audiences are gated tooCopy a link to this section
Even with Send Blasts, who a blast can reach is bounded. The composer has "Sending to clients of", and choosing someone else's clients can be refused: "You are not allowed to send a blast to that person's clients."
So a stylist with blast permission is not automatically able to market to the whole shop's client base.
Sender identityCopy a link to this section
Send From is not free either — "You are not allowed to send as someone else." Number assignment (Members on the Phone Numbers table) decides who may send from which number, with the rule that at least one number stays open to everyone so automatic reminders keep working. See Your texting numbers.
Where to set all thisCopy a link to this section
Business Settings → Features Configuration, in the permissions area, or per-role under role customization. The permission names above are exactly what you will find in the list, and the settings search will take you straight to any of them — type "blast" or "credits". See Find any setting fast and Customize what each role can do.
Auditing it afterwardsCopy a link to this section
Granting messaging permissions is a change worth checking on. The audit log records permission changes and who made them, so "who gave the new hire blast access" has an answer. See The audit log and approvals.