Integrating WhatsApp Business with Zoho Payroll
You can integrate Zoho Payroll with WhatsApp Business - the instant messaging platform. By integrating with WhatsApp Business, you can send important notifications such as payslips and salary letters to your employees. These notifications will be sent directly to your employees’ WhatsApp inbox.
Note This integration is only available in early access. Contact support@zohopayroll.com to get access for your organisation.
These WhatsApp notifications also come as a handy reminder tool if some employees had missed to receive important payroll notifications on their email.
Scenario Ram, an HR for Trillinat, an hedge fund firm, notices that the employees in their organisation often miss to view the payslip sent over email. He takes the matter in his own hands and notices that employees use WhatsApp over any other application. He decides to integrate Zoho Payroll with WhatsApp Business, and ever since the employees started receiving payroll notifications on WhatsApp, the payroll support tickets have reduced significantly.
You will be able to send WhatsApp notifications for:
| Notifications | Types |
|---|---|
| Payslips | - Regular Payslips - Off Cycle and One Time Payslips - Resettlement Payslips - Full and Final Settlement |
| Letters | - Bonus - Salary Revision - Salary Certificates |
Note For employees with access to the Employee Portal, the WhatsApp notification will be sent with a link to access the payslip/letter. For employees without access to the Employee Portal, the payslip/letter notification will be sent along with the respective attachment.
Furthermore, these notifications can be customised to meet your organisation’s requirements using placeholders.
Connect to WhatsApp
- Go to Settings.
- Select WhatsApp under Integrations.
- Click Connect near WhatsApp Business.
- In the pop-up that appears, check I agree to WhatsApp Client ISV Terms and WhatsApp Client Terms, and click Connect WhatsApp. You’ll now be redirected to the Facebook login page.
- Enter your Facebook registered email address and password, and click Log in.
Insight If you don’t have a facebook account, create one by clicking Create New Account.
- In the next page, verify your account and click Continue as ‘Your Account Name’. If you want to log in using another account, click Log in to another account.
- Read the WhatsApp Business Terms of Service and Meta Terms of Service, and click Get Started.
- Fill in your business details and click Next.
- In the page that follows, select a WhatsApp Business account and WhatsApp Business Profile.
- Click Next, and on the page that follows, click Finish.
Your Zoho Payroll organization will be connected with WhatsApp.
You’ve now connected Zoho Payroll and WhatsApp Business.
- Select the WhatsApp business number. Your employees will receive payroll notifications from this number.
Note Ensure you select a unique WhatsApp Business number that has not been used for any other applications.
- Click Continue.
In the next screen, you can review all the default payslip and letter templates offered by Zoho Payroll. You can enable and customise them later, if required.
Manage WhatsApp Credits
Once you connect WhatsApp to your Zoho Payroll organization, you’ll have to purchase IM (Instant Messaging) credits to send notifications through your WhatsApp Business account. Learn more about how credits work.
Buy Credits
To buy WhatsApp credits in Zoho Payroll:
- Go to Settings.
- Select WhatsApp under Integrations.
- Click Buy Credits at the top of the WhatsApp configuration page.
- In the Buy Credits pop-up, enter the number of IM credits you want to purchase.
- The price for one IM credit will be displayed next to the field.
- Click Calculate Price. The total amount (including tax) will be displayed.
- Click Make Payment.
You’ll be redirected to the payment gateway, where you can make payment for the IM credits you want to purchase. Once done, the credits will be added to your organization. You can also buy credits from the Zoho Store.
Note The amount used to purchase IM credits for WhatsApp may vary, depending on the currency you use for purchase. Once you purchase credits, you can either enable the notifications (default templates provided by Zoho Payroll) or create new templates if required.
Credits Usage Report
In Zoho Payroll, you can view and keep track of your IM (Instant Messaging) credits usage directly from the Reports module. This helps you monitor and manage your IM credits efficiently.
To view the IM Credits Usage report:
- Go to Reports on the left sidebar.
- Select IM Credits Usage under Activity.
You can view the details of the IM credits you had used for your WhatsApp Business account.
Enable Templates
To enable the default templates offered by Zoho Payroll:
- Go to Settings.
- Select WhatsApp under Integrations.
- Slide the toggle button next to the payslips or letters for which you want to send the notifications.
The notifications will be sent based on the default templates provided by Zoho Payroll. However, if you do not wish to use our default templates, you can create new ones or edit them if required.
Create Templates
Here’s how you can create new templates:
- Go to Settings on the left sidebar.
- Hover over the default template name in the payslip and click the Edit icon.
- Click + New.
- Enter the Template Name.
- Enter the content for the template. You can insert placeholders by clicking the dropdown next to Insert Placeholders.
- Click Save.
The template will be created and sent to Meta for approval. Once Meta approves your template, you have to mark it as default.
It can take up to 24 hours for the WhatsApp team to approve it. The status of the approval will be displayed on the list page.
A template can have the following statuses:
| Status | Description |
|---|---|
| Approved | The WhatsApp Business team has approved the template. |
| Rejected | The WhatsApp Business team rejected the template. Edit and resubmit the template for approval. Learn why templates get rejected. |
| Pending Approval | The template has been sent to the WhatsApp Business team and is awaiting approval. It could take up to 24 hours for the status to be updated. |
| Deletion in Progress | The WhatsApp Business team is evaluating your request to delete a template. |
| Deletion Failed | The template was not deleted due to network issues. Initiate the deletion process once again. |
| Deleted | The WhatsApp Business team has deleted the template. This action cannot be undone. |
Set Template as Default
If you want a particular template to be sent to employees, you can set that template as default. To do so: Go to Settings, navigate to Integrations, and click WhatsApp.
- Click the template name.
- Click Mark as Primary.
The template that is marked as primary will be used to send notifications to employees.
Clone Template
If you want to create a template similar to an existing template, you can clone it. Here’s how:
- Go to Settings, navigate to Integrations, and click WhatsApp.
- Click the template name.
- Click the More icon next to the template you want to clone and select Clone.
- Edit the necessary details in the following Clone WhatsApp Template pop-up, and click Save.
The new cloned template will be sent to the WhatsApp Business team for approval and can be used once approved.
Edit Template
Here’s how you can edit your template:
- Go to Settings, navigate to Integrations, and click WhatsApp.
- Hover over the default template name in the payslip and click the Edit icon.
- Click the More icon next to the template that you want to edit.
- Select Edit from the dropdown.
- Make the necessary changes and click Save.
Delete Template
You can delete a WhatsApp template if you do not require it. Here’s how:
- Go to Settings, navigate to Integrations, and click WhatsApp.
- Hover over the default template name in the payslip and click the Edit icon.
- Click the More icon next to the template that you want to delete.
- Click Delete from the dropdown to proceed.
Note You cannot delete a template that has been marked as primary.
Send Payslip Notifications
When you send regular, one-time / off-cycle, resettlement, and full and final settlement payslips, you will have the option to send the payslips to the employees’ WhatsApp as well. The templates that are marked as primary will be sent as a WhatsApp notification to employees.
Send Salary Letters Notifications
When you send Bonus, Salary Revision, and Salary Certificates, you will have the option to send the payslips to the employees’ WhatsApp as well. The templates that are marked as primary will be sent as a WhatsApp notification to employees.
WhatsApp Notifications Report
In Zoho Books, you can view and monitor the messages you send your customers from your WhatsApp Business account. This allows you to keep track of the type of notifications sent to your customer and its status. To view the WhatsApp Notifications report:
- Go to Reports on the left sidebar.
- Select WhatsApp Notifications under Activity.
Change Default WhatsApp Number
To change the default WhatsApp number:
- Go to Settings, navigate to Integrations, and click WhatsApp.
- Click the Edit icon in the Default WhatsApp Business Number section.
- Select the new WhatsApp number
- Confirm your selection.
- Click Proceed.
Change WhatsApp Business Account
You can also change the WhatsApp Business account if you already have an existing account. Here’s how:
- Go to Settings, navigate to Integrations, and click *WhatsApp.
- Click Configure and select Change Account from the dropdown.
Note Once you change your WhatsApp Business account, you will not be able to use your existing WhatsApp channel and templates. Therefore, you will be required to delete the templates before proceeding.
Warning Ensure that you delete the templates from Zoho Payroll and not from Meta to avoid syncing issues.
In the following pop-up, you should delete the existing templates before changing the default account.
You can click Schedule Automatic Deletion to initiate the automatic deletion process. The time duration for deletion depends on the process at Meta’s end.
Once the deletion process is completed, the status of your WhatsApp Business account will be changed to SETUP PENDING. You can also check whether the number of templates for each module has been changed to 0 to confirm that the deletion process has been completed.
- Click Continue Setup.
The Change WhatsApp Business Account pop-up will appear.
- Click Use the existing WhatsApp Business account registered with Zoho and select the account from the dropdown to continue using the existing account. (or)
- Click Create a new WhatsApp Business account with Zoho to create a new WhatsApp Business account.
- Click Continue.
The WhatsApp Business Account will be changed.
