Beginning July 23, 2025, usage tracking will apply for all outbound SMS message credits. Message costs will only be assessed when purchasing additional credits, which are sold in bundles of 5,000 at $99.
Message credit usage includes SMS, MMS, appointment reminders, and mass messages. This is a new billing policy.
Please visit your Message Overview dashboard (in your Admin settings) to review current usage or purchase additional message credits as needed.
Email messaging remains free and is unaffected by this change.
How to Track Your Message Usage
You can review your message credit usage in the Message Overview Dashboard, located under Admin → Client Communication → Message Overview.
This dashboard gives you visibility into your messaging activity and helps you track:
Total credits used
Messaging volume and trends
Estimated messaging costs
It’s a helpful tool to stay in control of your communication usage and make informed decisions.
Take a Look
Messaging Balance
Quickly check how many message credits are available, scheduled to be used, or used.
Scheduled Messages
Scheduled messages include both direct messages and mass communications set to send at a future time. These messages appear in the dashboard so teams can see upcoming communication activity.
Important notes:
Scheduled messages do not reserve credits in advance
Credits are only deducted when the message is actually sent
Messages that fail to send do not subtract from your message credit balance
Messages that fail to send do not subtract from your available message credit
Low Balance Threshold
You can configure alerts when your message credit balance drops below a certain number.
Default threshold: 350 credits
This value can be adjusted at any time.
To update the threshold:
Enter the new value
Click Save
Changes to the threshold are recorded in the Activity Log for transparency.
Auto-Renew Message Credits
Ensure you never run out of credits by enabling auto-renewal. This is enabled by default and can disabled at any time if preferred
When auto-renew is active, the system will automatically purchase additional credits when your balance falls below the configured threshold.
Enabling or disabling auto-renew is tracked in the Activity Log.
Purchase Additional Messages
You can purchase additional message credits directly from the dashboard whenever needed.
Credits are sold in bundles of 5,000 messages for $99.
Messaging Overview
The Messaging Overview graph provides a visual summary of messaging activity across key categories, including:
Appointment Notifications
SMS Texting
Mass Messaging
MMS Usage
Payment Link Messages
Automatic Messages
The graph defaults to the past 30 days of activity, but the date range can be adjusted using the dropdown.
Appointment notifications were previously grouped under SMS texting but have been tracked separately since June 24, 2025, providing clearer insight into automated vs. manual messaging.
Message Usage Cards
At the top of the dashboard, usage cards provide a quick snapshot of messaging activity.
These cards include:
Total SMS Usage
Total MMS Usage
These metrics appear alongside the Message Usage Info section and give teams a quick overview of messaging volume without needing to review detailed reports.
Message Usage Info
The Message Usage Info dropdown contains guidance on managing message credits.
A Managing Your Credits section appears within this dropdown to help practices better understand how credits are consumed.
Key usage details:
Each SMS message uses one credit per 160 characters
Messages longer than 160 characters may consume multiple credits
MMS messages are tracked separately for visibility, but they still count toward total messaging usage
To help manage credit usage, consider keeping messages concise where possible.
A Note on Payment Link Messages
Shepherd Pay Text-to-Pay links appear in the Message Overview for visibility but do not subtract from your available message credit balance.
Other payment link tools, such as Sunbit, do use message credits and will count toward your total SMS usage.
Messaging Purchase History
The Message Purchase History section displays the most recent SMS credit purchases made by your clinic.
The dashboard shows the six most recent purchases with the following details:
Date Purchased – When credits were purchased (MM/DD/YYYY format)
Clinic Name – The clinic associated with the purchase
This column appears only for multi-site clinics
User – The user who purchased the credits
If credits were purchased automatically, this displays Auto
Previous Balance – The message credit balance at the time of purchase
Credits Purchased – Number of credits added
This view helps administrators quickly understand recent purchasing activity.
View Entire Purchase History
To review all SMS credit purchases, select View Entire History below the purchase history table.
This opens a dedicated page displaying the complete purchase history with standard pagination (20 results per page).
The full history includes the following columns:
Date Purchased (sortable)
Purchase Type (filterable)
Manual — purchased by a user
Automatic — purchased by the system
Clinic Name (filterable)
Only visible for MSite clinics
Purchase Type & User (filterable)
Example: Manual, Jane Smith
Automatic purchases display as Auto
Previous Balance (sortable)
Credits Purchased (sortable)
Cost (sortable)
This expanded history provides clearer visibility into messaging credit purchases across your organization.
Activity Log
The Activity Log provides a transparent record of important changes and system events related to message credits.
The log helps administrators understand when settings were updated or when system actions occurred.