SMS Bills
The SMS Bills page shows the charges from your SMS provider for the messages your ISP has sent through ISPBills. It helps you track SMS costs, manage your credit balance, and keep SMS expenses visible alongside your other ISP operating costs.
Accessing SMS Bills
Navigate to SMS & Notifications > SMS Bills in the left sidebar.
What Are SMS Bills?
Every SMS sent through ISPBills consumes credit from your connected SMS gateway account. SMS Bills are the invoices or usage records that reflect how much of that credit you have consumed and (depending on your gateway's billing model) what you owe your SMS provider.
ISPBills tracks SMS usage to help you:
- Monitor how many messages are sent per month and the associated cost.
- Identify months with unusually high SMS spend.
- Ensure SMS costs are visible in your ISP's operating expense tracking.
SMS Billing Models
Different SMS gateways use different billing models:
| Model | How It Works |
|---|---|
| Prepaid / Credit-Based | You purchase a block of SMS credits in advance. Each message deducts from the balance. Top up when the balance runs low. |
| Postpaid / Monthly Invoice | Your gateway bills you monthly for messages sent during the billing period. You pay after the fact. |
Check your SMS gateway's website or account dashboard for their specific billing model.
What This Page Shows
| Column | Description |
|---|---|
| Billing Period | The month or period covered by the bill. |
| Messages Sent | Total number of SMS messages dispatched during the period. |
| Total Cost | The cost of those messages based on your gateway's per-message rate. |
| Status | Whether the bill is paid, unpaid, or a credit usage record. |
| Gateway | The SMS gateway the usage relates to. |
Managing SMS Credit Balance
To check your current SMS credit balance:
- Log in to your SMS gateway's merchant or account portal (this is external to ISPBills).
- ISPBills displays your approximate remaining balance on this page if the gateway API supports balance queries.
When your balance is running low:
- Log in to your SMS gateway account.
- Purchase additional SMS credit.
- Your new balance will be reflected the next time ISPBills queries the gateway.
Set up low-balance alerts in your SMS gateway account to avoid unexpected SMS delivery failures due to zero credit.
Making SMS Payments Within ISPBills
If your SMS gateway supports in-platform payment and ISPBills has the integration configured:
- Navigate to SMS & Notifications > SMS Bills.
- Select the outstanding bill.
- Click Pay Now and follow the prompts to settle the balance.
If direct payment is not supported by your gateway, top up your credit directly through the gateway's own portal.
Best Practices
- Review your SMS Bills monthly to keep SMS costs within budget.
- Cross-reference the Messages Sent figure with SMS History to understand which event types are generating the most messages.
- If SMS costs are higher than expected, consider adjusting your notifier schedules (Due Date Notifier, Expiration Notifier) to reduce the frequency of automated messages.
- Use Bulk SMS thoughtfully — a single broadcast to 5,000 customers consumes 5,000 credits.