Printed receipts get lost. An SMS receipt reaches the customer's phone, proves the sale, and brings them back with your shop name on the screen. If you build or manage a point of sale system, this takes one API call after each sale.
What to send
- Receipt: "Thank you for shopping at Mama Joy's Shop. Total UGX 45,000. Receipt #1042, 3 Nov."
- Loyalty: "You now have 120 points. Spend UGX 20,000 more for a free item."
- Owner alert: "Low stock: Sugar 2kg has 4 packs left." Sent to the owner, not the customer.
- End-of-day summary: sales total sent to the owner each evening.
The code (PHP example)
require 'YoolaSMS.php'; // free SDK from yoolasms.com/api-integration
$yoola = new YoolaSMS('YOUR_API_KEY');
$yoola->send($customerPhone, "Thank you for shopping at Mama Joy's. Total UGX 45,000. Receipt #1042.");Python and Node.js SDKs work the same way. Always send after the sale is saved, and never block the till while waiting: if the SMS fails, the sale should still complete.
Good habits for POS developers
- Ask for the customer's number only when they want a receipt, and say how you will use it.
- Keep receipts under 160 characters so each one costs a single SMS. Our SMS calculator shows the count.
- Check the API response:
statusshould besuccess. Failed messages are credited back automatically. - Keep your API key on your server, never inside a mobile app or web page.
Selling to many shops
If you resell a POS system, ask us about reseller rates. You can give each shop its own account and sender name. Email support@yoolasms.com or WhatsApp +256 704 487 563.
Create a free account and copy your API key from the dashboard to start.
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