Pacey Announcement Feature

Pacey Announcement Feature

To ensure that businesses do not use WhatsApp for randomly spamming its users, WhatsApp does not allow businesses to send out just any arbitrary message to its users. They only allow a “Business Template Message” that they have approved, to be sent. This is why PaySpace only offers a few select template options for sending out structured messages to employees, namely, that the employee’s payslip for a period is ready and that Pacey is available as an ESS channel for new customers.

We have now included the ability to communicate a custom message to employees. The employee will be sent the following structured message to invite them to read the actual announcement, if they choose, by tapping on a “Read Announcement” button within WhatsApp, as per the following screenshot. 
      
      

Custom Form

To utilise this feature, customers need to create a custom form within PaySpace where they can capture the message that they wish employees to receive.

The custom form feature is only available to customers on the Master edition and therefore this specific Pacey announcement feature is only available on Master edition, whereas the other message templates are available for customers that have licensed Pacey. 

The following instructions describe how a user can configure a specific custom form to capture custom messages.  Ensure that the exact field values are entered and options are selected in the below screenshot. Click Save. 

      Navigate > Configuration > Basic Settings > Custom Form Configuration
      


Click on the “Fields” tab and select the “Pacey Announcement” option in the Form Category drop down list. The following 3 fields need to be added: 
  1. Subject 
  2. Message 
  3. Expiry Date 
Start by dragging the “Text” type field option from the field types on the right of the screen and drop it in the dotted line frame on the left. Ensure that the following exact values are entered and options are selected for the “Subject” field. 
             Next, drag the “Text Area” type field option from the field types on the right of the screen and drop it in the dotted line frame on the left below the Subject field. Ensure that the following exact values are entered and options are selected for the “Message” field. 

      

Lastly, drag the “Date” type field option from the field types on the right of the screen and drop it in the dotted line frame on the left below the Message field. Ensure that the following exact values are entered and options are selected for the “Expiry Date” field.

This optional field allows a user to indicate when a message should expire if the employee does not read it timeously. For example, a message announcing a particular company event that takes place on a date, may not be relevant if an employee only accesses the message after the event date. In this case, Pacey will let the employee know that the announcement has expired.
      
      
Ensure you click on the "Update" button at the bottom of the screen to save everything. 

Capture Announcement 

      Navigate > Configuration > General Company > Custom Forms

Select the “Pacey Announcement” form from the left menu that you have just created. Complete the relevant fields as per the below example screenshot. The Effective Date indicates which message to send to the employees based on the current date that the Excel sheet is uploaded on the Bulk Actions screen below. The message with an effective date closest to the current date will be sent. You can build up a history of messages that have been sent for record purposes. 


Please note, the maximum amount of characters that can be sent in a single message is 4096 (which includes the date and subject).
      
      

You are now ready to upload an Excel sheet of all the employees that you want to send the announcement.  

Bulk Upload

Navigate to the “Bulk Actions” menu item, select the “Message Templates” option under the “Pacey” heading in the “Action Type” drop down list. Download the empty excel bulk upload template and select the “Announcement” option as per the below screenshot.

      

      

Testing 

We suggest that you send the announcement to yourself first to review that the message is received as expected and then upload it for the relevant employees.