Text messages (SMS)
Choose Google Voice or Twilio for OrderPilot's texts, and let your team text in commands like "status" or an order number to get instant answers (admins only).
What it's for
OrderPilot can text your team alerts, reports and sign-in codes, and answer simple questions by text. This article covers:
- Text provider — how texts are sent: Google Voice (free) or Twilio (instant).
- Text commands — teammates text a keyword and get an answer back.
Where to find it
⚙ Settings → Company settings → Alerts & texts → Text commands (admins only).
The screen at a glance
Text commands
Two ways to use them: reply to any OrderPilot text, or text the OrderPilot number. Only users with the 📱 Text notifications permission (set in Users & Access) can use them, from their verified phone. Unknown senders are ignored. All commands are read-only.
| Command | Answer |
|---|---|
| status | Today so far (Eastern time): incoming orders, sales, estimated profit, shipped, to ship, waiting on vendors, problems |
| shipped | Orders shipped today so far |
| problems | How many problem orders there are |
| week / month | Week to date / month to date |
| 7 days / 30 days | The past 7 or 30 days |
| order (number) | One order's status — or just text the order number |
| command | The list of commands |
| help | A short overview of OrderPilot plus the command list |
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| Enable | Turns text commands on. |
| Mailbox | The Gmail the bot reads and replies from. For Google Voice this must be the Voice number's own Gmail account, added with an app password. |
Text provider
| Choice | How it works |
|---|---|
| Google Voice (free) | Uses Google's email bridge. Replies can take minutes. |
| Twilio (instant) | Texts go directly through Twilio: replies in about a second, with proper line breaks. Costs about $1.15 a month plus under 1¢ per text. |
Alerts, reports, sign-in codes and bot replies all use the provider you choose. Google Voice stays as the automatic fallback.
With Twilio chosen, three more fields appear: Account SID, Auth token and From number, plus the webhook address to paste into Twilio.
The line at the bottom shows the OrderPilot number and which mailbox is being checked, or a warning if an app-password mailbox is needed.
Buttons and actions
| Button | What it does |
|---|---|
| Save provider | Saves the provider and Twilio details. With Twilio active, the message says Twilio is live for alerts, reports, login codes and bot replies. |
| Send test text | Asks for a phone number and sends a test text through Twilio. |
| Save | Saves the Enable switch and mailbox for text commands. |
| Check for texts now | Checks for new texts right away and tells you how many commands were answered. |
How to set up Twilio
- In Twilio, buy a phone number.
- Copy your Account SID and Auth token from the Twilio console.
- In OrderPilot, open Company settings → Alerts & texts → Text commands.
- Set Text provider to Twilio (instant).
- Paste the Account SID and Auth token, and type the From number.
- Copy the webhook address shown under the fields.
- In Twilio, go to Phone Numbers → your number → Messaging. Set A message comes in to Webhook, HTTP POST, and paste the address.
- Back in OrderPilot, click Save provider, then Send test text to your own phone.
How to turn on text commands
- Make sure each person who will text has a verified phone and the 📱 Text notifications box ticked in Users & Access.
- If you use Google Voice, add the Voice account's Gmail as a mailbox with an app password (see Email and mailboxes).
- Turn on Enable and pick the Mailbox.
- Click Save.
- From your phone, text help to the OrderPilot number.
Tips and troubleshooting
- "Needs an app-password mailbox". Google-connected mailboxes cannot be read for incoming texts. Add the mailbox with an app password instead.
- No reply to a text. Check the sender's phone is verified and has the 📱 permission, and that Enable is on. Click Check for texts now.
- Google Voice replies are slow. That is normal for Google Voice. Switch to Twilio for instant replies.
- The Auth token box is blank after saving. It is stored; the box shows "(saved - blank keeps it)".