Attendance Notifications One Time Link OTL
Overview
Compass has the ability to allow parents to add a note/approval from within SMS alerts when the One Time Attendance Note via SMS option is used. By providing parents the option to add a note from within the attendance alert, schools generally see higher response percentages from parents which reduces time spend by staff having to make follow up calls.
Including One Time Attendance Note in your SMS Notifications
To give parents this option, you need to include the placeholder '{attendanceUrl}' in your Attendance SMS content.
To do so, go to Administration Tools (under the cog menu icon) and select 'SMS-Attendance Config' from the menu.
Click the associated 'Edit Template' option for the SMS Attendance type you want to include the One Time Attendance Note link for.
Click to the Communications tab and then the Parent SMS sub-tab.
Edit your text wording to include the '{attendanceUrl}' placeholder. Then click 'Save Template and Close' to update your changes.
This will then include a link in the SMS that the parent can click on, it will take them to the note/approval entry screen of the app.
They can then complete the note to add the approval in Compass and add an attachment if required.
The link has an expiry. By default it is set to 48 hours however you can edit this by going to Administration Tool (under the cog menu icon), and clicking 'SMS - Attendance Config'. On this page in the top right you will see a 'Settings' option.
Click this and then in the pop-up, set the number of hours you would like to pass before the One Time Attendance link expires for parents.
Click 'Update' to save your change. Once updated, the change will take affect on any new SMS' issued from that point on. Any existing SMS' that parents have already received will follow the expiry bounds at the time they were issued.
Disclaimer: We are unable to guarantee delivery of any SMS messages sent through Compass.
We do use Australian SMS providers as we have found these to be more reliable than internationally routed messages.
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