SMS integration

Overview

The SMS integration in the Mallard Bay dashboard lets your outfitturn on text messaging for marketing and guest-facing outreach, and it collects the business, representative, and campaign details carriers require before those messages can be sent legally and reliably.

After you start setup, Mallard Bay stores an SMS connection for your outfitter. You will see two separate statuses:

• Marketing SMS — used when the dashboard treats outbound marketing-style SMS as ready (for example when you compose SMS to clients, client lists, bookings, or leads using templates or custom text).
• Transactional SMS — tracked alongside marketing; the dashboard labels it either Setup completed or Pending approval depending on backend provisioning. Exactly when each pathway becomes active is enforced by Mallard Bay’s services, not by additional toggles on this screen.

The main surfaces are:

• /integrations/sms — introductory Connect SMS to Mallard Bay screen or, after registration, SMS Connection Details.
• /integrations/sms/registration — guided SMS registration (business compliance information and sample messages).

SMS ties into integrations as a communication channel for message templates and automations, and complements clients / client lists (phone numbers required for SMS) and email (custom domain is a separate integration).

Prerequisites

• SMS on your Mallard Bay plan — the SMS integration is guarded by subscription access (SMS_INTEGRATION in product code). If you cannot reach the SMS pages or see upgrade messaging, SMS may not be included for your account. Exact plan rules are not defined in this app repository.
• An outfitter context selected — the integrations hub expects an outfitter profile;without one, related screens can show prompts to choose an outfitter first.
• Information you’ll need for registration
  • Business details: legal business name, 9‑digit EIN, business type, company type, business website URL (must validate as a URL), and a full physical business address.
  • Address format: State/region and ISO country code fields must each be exactly two characters (for example US state abbreviations); otherwise the form will ask you to contact support for help.
  • Authorized representative: name, email, phone, job position (from a fixed list in the product), and business title on file for compliance.
  • Marketing campaign details: regions of operations (from product options), a campaign description (between 40 and 4,096 characters), and between 2 and 5 sample messages (20–1,024 characters each).

The registration form pre-fills some fields from your outfitter profile (for example outfitter name, website URL, owner name/email/phone for the representative step) so you usually only need to correct or supplement them.

Step-by-step usage in the dashboard

Open the SMS integration

1. In the sidebar, open Integrations.
2. Find the SMS card (“Enable marketing and customer support based SMS”) and select it. You land on /integrations/sms.

First-time setup: connect and register

1. On Connect SMS to Mallard Bay, read the overview (marketing campaigns and transactional messages).

2. Select Set Up SMS. You are taken to /integrations/sms/registration.

3. Follow the wizard (order in the product):

   Business Details

   Confirm business identity and address exactly as filed with tax authorities.

   Representative

   Enter the authorized representative who will attest to messaging use.

   Marketing Campaign Details

   Explain how SMS will support your business (the form includes editable starter text referencing Mallard Bay as your platform partner and mentioning consent). Provide regions of operations and realistic SMS samples. You may add/delete samples until you stay within 2–5 messages total.

   Review and Submit

   Confirm all sections before sending.

4. Submit with Register for SMS. On success you should see “Successfully registered for SMS!” and you’ll be brought back to /integrations/sms.

After registration: read your connection statuses

Once registration has created an SMS configuration for your outfitter, the introductory connect screen is replaced by SMS Connection Details.

You’ll see two rows:

These labels mirror what Mallard Bay’s backend stores; there are no separate “Approve” buttons here—when a pathway still shows Pending approval, provisioning or carrier compliance is incomplete on the Mallard Bay side.

Using SMS elsewhere in the dashboard (what the UI enforces locally)

When you compose an SMS (for example messaging a client or reviewing automations):

• If marketing SMS setup is still incomplete, Mallard Bay shows “SMS is disabled” — “Complete your SMS configuration to enable SMS templates.” with Configure SMS routing you back /integrations/sms. In that state the composer cannot be submitted.
• After marketing SMS is deemed ready by the dashboard, SMS options in composing tools should unblock (subject to server‑side enforcement Mallard Bay may still apply for consent, quotas, scheduling, etc.).

Automations expose each template’s channel (SMS vs email). SMS steps rely on is_configured flags Mallard Bay returns from the automation API; When SMS is not configured, the UI repeats the configuration banner guiding you toward Integrations → SMS.

Not verifiable purely from dashboard code: exact mapping between “Transactional SMS • Setup completed” and specific features (booking reminders vs payment texts, etc.). Server documentation would be required to list every transactional touchpoint.

Common pitfalls

• Thinking one green check means everything is live — marketing and transactional can finish at different times. Watch both status pills after registration.
• Validation surprises — EIN must be exactly nine digits. Country and state abbreviations must be two letters; mismatches surface errors that explicitly suggest contacting Mallard Bay support.
• Length limits on messaging samples — Short or long draft SMS outside the enforced ranges will prevent advancing or submitting registration.
• Trying to send SMS before marketing setup completes — You’ll hit the disabling banner and blocked send controls even if some other part of the product looks ready.

Related workflows

For contextual help links from the SMS page header (where implemented), Mallard Bay may point readers to sms-integration in the knowledge base.