Make every template sound like your school. Click Customize. Edit. Re-approve. Done.
Click Customize on any ready-to-use Inkwelly template and your school instantly owns its own version — edit the body, the subject, the footer, the action buttons; re-submit to WhatsApp for approval from the same screen; never worry that an Inkwelly update will silently overwrite your edit. School groups with multiple branches publish one customised version at the group level and have every branch use it the same day.
Why "the receipt is too generic" is a real complaint
The accountant of a Pune ICSE school has been writing the same complaint email to the school's previous ERP vendor for three years. Every month, the fee-payment receipt that goes out on WhatsApp says "Dear Parent, your payment has been received" — a generic, factory-default sentence. The principal wants it to say "Dear Parent, thank you for paying the fees for the month of {{month}}. Your child's progress at our school is our shared responsibility." The previous ERP allows the principal to edit the template on screen — but every quarter, when the vendor pushes an upgrade, the school's edit silently disappears and the generic sentence reappears. Three years. Twelve quarters. Forty-eight times a principal has discovered her customisation was overwritten.
Most school ERPs treat templates as a shared catalogue — if the vendor updates the catalogue, every school's edit goes with it. Inkwelly treats it the opposite way. The moment a school clicks Customize, the school's version becomes an independent document, owned by the school, frozen at the moment of the click. Future Inkwelly updates to the ready-to-use template change only the ready-to-use template; the school's version stays exactly as the school left it, including the principal's signature line and the WhatsApp button that opens a UPI link the school configured itself.
The accountant who has been writing complaint emails for three years switches to Inkwelly and discovers she does not have to write another. She edits the fee-payment receipt once, re-submits to WhatsApp for approval from the same screen, and from that moment every parent receives the school-customised receipt — not the factory-default one. The principal's signature appears at the bottom of every WhatsApp receipt, the school's UPI ID appears under the amount, the school's regional language reads exactly the way the principal speaks it. The template sounds like the school because the school owns it.
How Customize actually works
Every school sees the same Templates screen at Communications → Templates. Every ready-to-use Inkwelly template appears there with two badges per row — the channels it supports (WhatsApp, SMS, Email, Push) and whether the school has customised it or not. Click into any template and the detail page shows the body in every channel and every language side by side. At the top right is one button — Customize. Click it.
Inkwelly creates the school's own version of the template, identical to the ready-to-use one in every detail — body, subject, variables, channels, languages. The new version carries a Customised badge and a pointer back to the original (so the school knows where the starting point came from, but the school's version is no longer tied to it). The school can now edit — change the body, rewrite the subject, add a school footer line, swap a generic phone number for the office's WhatsApp number, modify the language of a confirmation button, replace the standard greeting with the principal's signature.
When the school saves, the WhatsApp and SMS versions move to a DRAFT approval state — because the body has changed, the school re-submits to WhatsApp's approval queue and to the school's DLT-registered SMS vendor, from the same screen, with one click each. Email and Push update instantly because they do not need external approval. The audit log records who customised, when, what changed line by line, and which user submitted for re-approval. If the principal wants to revert, one click on Reset to default brings back the ready-to-use template; the customised version is soft-deleted but preserved for the audit trail.
What you can change — and what stays the same
- Body — every sentence the parent reads
- Subject — the email subject line and the WhatsApp header text
- Footer — the school's signature, the principal's name, the school motto
- Action buttons — the URL the parent taps, the button label, the WhatsApp Quick Reply text
- Greetings — "Dear Parent" vs "Namaste" vs "Pranam" vs the principal's preferred opener
- Tone — formal CBSE English, conversational state-board Hindi, ICSE-style polite, every shade in between
- Variables — keep the standard ones, no need to invent new ones; the parent's name, amount, date, link still render automatically
- School-specific links — the office's WhatsApp number, the school's UPI ID, a custom payment page
- Channel-specific copy — a longer body on WhatsApp, a 160-character SMS, a one-line lock-screen push
- Language-specific tone — the Hindi version need not be a direct translation of the English version; rewrite each tab the way each audience would naturally read it
- What you cannot change — the trigger event (when the alert fires), the variable names (so the data still binds correctly), the channel set (you can't switch a WhatsApp-only template to SMS without re-approval)
- What stays the same after every Inkwelly update — your school's customised version, unless you explicitly choose to update it
Customize, edit, re-approve — four screens, three minutes
Inkwelly never silently overwrites your edits
This is the single biggest reason schools switch from another ERP to Inkwelly. In most school systems, a vendor update to the platform automatically pushes new template bodies to every school — erasing local edits in the process. The principal of an ICSE school in Pune calls it "the upgrade reset" — the day every quarter when the vendor's release notes arrive and her receipt template, fee reminder template and absence template all snap back to generic factory defaults. Forty-eight times in three years.
Inkwelly is built on the opposite contract. The moment a school customises, the customised version is the school's document, end of story. Inkwelly may continue updating the ready-to-use template behind the scenes — a typo fix, a new compliance footer, support for a new channel — but those changes only affect the ready-to-use one. The school's version is untouched. If the school wants to pick up a new improvement (say, a new "Pay now" button Inkwelly added on a fee-receipt template), it clicks one button — Compare to ready-to-use — sees what changed, and chooses what to merge. The school is always in control.
Re-approve to WhatsApp and DLT from the same screen
Indian school communication is regulated. WhatsApp template bodies have to be approved by Meta. SMS template bodies have to carry a TRAI DLT template ID. The moment a school edits the body, both approvals reset — the modified body is a new submission to both sides. Most school ERPs make this a separate workflow: edit the template, then log in to the Meta Business Manager, then re-paste, then log in to the DLT vendor's portal, then re-paste again. Two screens, two pastes, two waits.
Inkwelly compresses the entire thing into a single screen. The school edits the body, hits Save, and sees the WhatsApp and SMS tabs flip to a DRAFT badge. One click — Submit to WhatsApp — sends the body to Meta's approval queue with the right named parameters and sample values; one click — Submit to DLT — packages the body for the school's DLT-registered SMS vendor with the typed variables. The school never opens Meta Business Manager, never logs into the DLT portal for routine edits. Approvals land back on the same screen as a green tick or a red rejection note; the school sees status in one place.
Group-level customisation — one version, every branch
School groups — a Lucknow CBSE chain with four campuses, a Maharashtra trust running three ICSE branches, a religious-trust group with twelve state-board schools across UP and Bihar — used to maintain twelve identical copies of the same fee-payment receipt. Inkwelly recognises group ownership as a first-class workflow. A group administrator opens the group-level Templates screen, customises a template once at the group level, and every branch under that group inherits the customised version the same day.
A branch can still override the group-level version with its own local customisation if there is a real reason — a campus-specific contact number, a region-specific salutation, a state-language variant. The override is visible to the group administrator the next time she opens the group view ("This branch is using its own version of fee-payment-received"). Most groups settle into the pattern of one group-level version per common template and zero branch overrides for routine messages — saving each branch's accountant hours every quarter and giving the group consistency in voice across every parent communication.
Customisation never breaks the trigger or the data
When a school edits the body of the fee-payment receipt, it is editing copy — the sentence the parent reads. It is not editing the trigger (the alert still fires when the payment is recorded) or the variables (the parent's name, the amount, the date, the receipt link still arrive at the right spots). Inkwelly enforces this strictly. The list of variables on a template is defined at the platform level and cannot be removed by a school edit; if a school's body removes a variable, the editor flags it before save. If a school adds an unknown placeholder, the editor flags it too — "This variable does not exist" — and the school knows to fix it.
This is intentional. The principal should be able to rewrite every sentence without worrying that the receipt will arrive with "Dear ____, your payment of ____ was received on ____" because a placeholder broke. The variables are guaranteed; the prose around them is the school's. Approval queues (Meta, DLT) inherit the same guarantee — the school's edit cannot inadvertently break the data binding that the trigger depends on. The principal cannot, by accident, ship a template that produces empty fields.
Both languages travel together when you customise
A school that customises the English version of a template is, almost always, going to want to customise the Hindi version too — same school voice, same school footer, same principal signature, in both languages. Inkwelly's bilingual templates carry over here. The school's customised version has two language tabs, English and Hindi, side by side. The school edits English, switches tabs, edits Hindi, saves once, and both languages re-submit to their respective approval queues at the same moment.
If the school edits only the English tab (a specific tweak that does not apply to Hindi), the Hindi tab keeps the ready-to-use Hindi body intact; the customised version stays bilingual without forcing the school to retype. If the school wants the Hindi tone to differ deliberately from the English tone (more conversational, more formal, more region-specific), the editor supports that too. The two tabs are linked by template, not by content — the school can take them in different directions if that is what its parents need.
Reset to default — one click, audit-logged
A principal who has customised a template and later wants to go back to the ready-to-use version does not have to remember the original body, copy it from documentation, or call Inkwelly support. The Reset to default button on the template detail page brings the school back to the ready-to-use template instantly — the school's customised version is soft-deleted, the next message uses the ready-to-use one. The audit log records the reset with who clicked it, when, and which user took the school back to default.
This matters when a customisation does not land well with parents. The principal edited the fee-receipt body to include a sentence about the new admission cycle; parents found it pushy; she gets feedback in the parent group; she resets in one click. By the next fee payment, parents see the original ready-to-use body. The customised version is preserved in the audit trail — the school can recover it later if it changes its mind — but the active template is back to safe defaults. Speed matters when the school is reacting to live parent feedback.
“Pehle har ERP upgrade ke baad humara receipt template reset ho jata tha — ek bar customise karte the, agle quarter generic ho jata tha. Inkwelly me customise kiya, woh humara hai. Six months ho gaye, ek baar bhi overwrite nahi hua.”
Real situations customisation solves
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A Lucknow CBSE school where the principal wants every WhatsApp message to end with her signature line. She customises the fee-payment-received, fee-receipt-shared and absence-marked templates once — adds the line "With best wishes — Dr Meera Sharma, Principal" to each. Re-submits to WhatsApp from the same screen. Within twenty-four hours every parent receiving any school WhatsApp message sees the principal's signature. No other staff has to remember to add it; the templates carry it forever.
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A Bahraich state-board school whose accountant wants the fee receipt to mention the school's UPI ID for the next month's payment. She edits the fee-payment-received template, adds the line "अगले महीने की fee इस UPI ID पर भेजें: school@hdfcbank". Both English and Hindi tabs get the edit. WhatsApp re-approval clears in two days. From the third day, every parent who pays gets the receipt with next month's UPI prompt embedded — online payment adoption climbs by 18 percent the following cycle.
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A Maharashtra CBSE group with four branches — Pune, Mumbai, Nashik, Aurangabad. The group administrator wants every branch's marksheet-published template to carry the same group letterhead reference and the same principal-signature variant. She customises the marksheet-published template once at the group level. Within an hour, all four branches inherit the same customised version. No branch accountant has to do anything. The group sees consistency in voice across forty thousand parents.
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A Pune ICSE school whose office assistant overrode an Inkwelly platform-level template last year with a school-specific body. This year, Inkwelly ships a new "Pay now" action button on the ready-to-use fee-payment-received template. The school's customised version does not get the button automatically (because the school owns its own version). The office assistant sees a Compare to ready-to-use banner on the template detail page; clicks it; reviews the diff; chooses to merge the new button into the school's version with one click. The school's school-specific body stays, the new button comes along, the merge is audit-logged.
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A school auditor doing the year-end compliance review. She filters the audit log by template-customisation events to see every change made to school templates in the financial year, who made the change, what the change was, which approval queue cleared it. The evidence is complete — every parent-facing communication's evolution is traceable. The auditor's note in the report reads: "Template-level audit trail confirms compliance with TRAI DLT and Meta approval workflows for all material edits in the period."
Common operations and scenarios
- Click Customize on any ready-to-use template — your school owns the version instantly
- Edit body, subject, footer and action buttons across every channel — same screen, same session
- Re-submit to WhatsApp and DLT from the same screen — one click per channel, no separate logins
- Apply customisation at the group level for multi-branch trusts — every branch inherits the same day
- Override a group-level customisation with a branch-specific local edit when there is a real reason
- Reset to default in one click — customisation is soft-deleted but preserved in audit
- See a Compare to ready-to-use banner whenever Inkwelly updates a ready-to-use template — review the diff and merge selectively
- Audit every customisation event — who edited, what changed, when approval cleared
- Edit English and Hindi tabs together or separately — the bilingual templates editor supports both
- Preview the customised version per channel and per language before save — the same preview the parent will see
- Keep variables guaranteed — the editor flags an unknown placeholder before you can save
- Roll out a school-wide voice change (principal signature, school motto, regional greeting) by editing five templates in one afternoon
Customise your first three templates in a 20-minute demo
Bring your school's preferred greeting, the principal's signature line, and a WhatsApp number you want every receipt to mention. We will customise three real templates on your school's account during the call and watch the WhatsApp approval clear by the time the call ends.
Limits, safety and the small print
The school's customised version of a template is independent of the ready-to-use one from the moment of the first Customize click — but the school does not lose the ability to see what changed in the ready-to-use template afterwards. The detail page surfaces a Compare to ready-to-use banner whenever Inkwelly updates the underlying ready-to-use template; the school reviews the diff and merges selectively. The school is never forced to take a platform update; the school is always told one exists and can choose.
WhatsApp and SMS approvals are not instant. Meta's queue takes anywhere from a few minutes to a few business days for non-trivial template edits, with longer waits during high-traffic launches; TRAI DLT vendors typically clear in one to three business days once the body is submitted with the right typed variables. Inkwelly tracks status in the school's account and surfaces it on the template detail page; an in-flight approval blocks the school from going live with the new body but the previous approved body keeps firing in the meantime. There is no message-delivery gap during re-approval — parents continue to receive the previously approved version of the template until the new one clears.
Group-level customisation requires the group administrator role on the Inkwelly account; branch administrators can see the group-level version (read-only) and override it locally if needed but cannot edit the group-level version itself. Reset to default works at every scope — a branch can reset its local override; a group can reset its group-level customisation back to Inkwelly's ready-to-use. Both actions are audit-logged. School data, customised templates and approval submissions are stored on Inkwelly's Mumbai infrastructure under DPDP Act 2023 safeguards. A school that exits Inkwelly receives an export of every customised template, in both languages and every channel, as part of standard offboarding.
Belongs to
1 moduleFrequently asked
8 questionsIf Inkwelly updates a ready-to-use template, will our customised version change?
No. Your school's customised version is independent from the moment you click Customize. Inkwelly's updates to the ready-to-use template only affect the ready-to-use version. Your customisation stays exactly as you left it — including every word, every footer line, every button label — until you explicitly choose to merge a future Inkwelly improvement using the Compare to ready-to-use banner.
How long does WhatsApp / DLT re-approval take when we customise?
Meta's WhatsApp template queue typically clears non-trivial edits in a few minutes to a few business days, with longer waits during high-traffic launches. TRAI DLT vendors (MSG91, Fast2SMS and others) usually take one to three business days. Email and Push are instant because they need no external approval. Inkwelly tracks status on the same screen and surfaces a green tick or a red rejection note as soon as either side responds.
Will parents receive a broken or missing message during the re-approval wait?
No. The previously approved body keeps firing for WhatsApp and SMS until the new body clears. There is no delivery gap. Email and Push, which need no external approval, switch to the new body the moment you save. Parents will not notice any gap on critical channels.
Can we customise a template at the group level so every branch inherits the same version?
Yes. A school group with multiple branches publishes the customised template once at the group level; every branch under the group inherits the same customised version the same day. A branch can still override the group-level version with its own local customisation when needed (e.g., a campus-specific contact number); the override is visible to the group administrator. This is the standard pattern for multi-branch trusts with consistent voice requirements.
What happens to our customisation if we reset to default?
Reset to default soft-deletes the school's customisation — from the next send onwards, parents receive the Inkwelly ready-to-use template. The customisation is preserved in the audit trail so the school can recover it later if it changes its mind. Reset works in one click and is audit-logged with who clicked it and when. No data loss, no permanent erasure.
Can we change the trigger that fires a template?
No. The trigger (the event that fires the alert — a fee payment recorded, an absence marked, a marksheet published) is fixed at the platform level and cannot be changed by a school edit. The school edits copy, not behaviour. If a school needs a new trigger that does not exist (a rare situation), Inkwelly considers it as a feature request — we do not allow trigger-level edits per school because they would risk breaking the data binding parents rely on.
Does the customised version stay if we change ownership or switch off Inkwelly?
Yes. The customised template is stored inside the school's account on Inkwelly's Mumbai infrastructure and is preserved across staff role changes, branch additions and academic-session transitions. If the school exits Inkwelly, it receives an export of every customised template in both languages and every channel, as part of standard offboarding under DPDP Act 2023 safeguards.
Can a branch see another branch's customised templates within the same group?
No. Each branch sees only its own customised templates and the group-level ones inherited from the group administrator. One branch's local overrides are not visible to another branch. The group administrator sees the customisation tree across every branch — useful for ensuring consistency — but cannot edit a branch's local override without first acknowledging it in the group view.
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2 readsSee Inkwelly on your school
30-minute demo. We open your current ERP with you and load your data into Inkwelly on the call. Dated go-live plan by the end of it.