How to set a monthly Communications budget in Inkwelly

1. Open Communications settings

Log in as an admin. From the left sidebar, click Communications. Inside the Communications workspace, scroll the side menu to the Admin group and click Settings. The Communications settings page opens with a header that reads Quotas, quiet hours, STOP auto-reply and global guardrails. On the right is a Sections column listing Language, Channels, Quiet hours, Auto-reply, Budget and Marketing window. This is the same page where you configure quiet hours and STOP handling later.

2. Click the Budget section

In the Sections column on the right side of the page, click Budget. The active section highlights in green and the right pane swaps to show the Budget panel. The heading reads Budget and the description below it states Soft cap shown on the usage dashboard. Sends are not blocked when exceeded — this is an awareness tool. Read that line carefully so you and your principal share the same expectation about what this number does and does not do.

3. Enter your monthly amount in rupees

The Budget panel shows two fields side by side — Amount and Currency. In the Amount field, type a whole number, the rupees you want to allow per calendar month. A 500 to 1000 student day school usually starts at Rs 5,000 to Rs 8,000. A budget school can run a tighter Rs 2,500. A residential school with daily parent updates often needs Rs 15,000 or more. Add a 10 to 15 percent buffer over last month's actual spend so a normal traffic spike does not blow past the number on day twenty.

4. Keep the currency on INR

The Currency dropdown stays on INR for every Indian school. The amount is interpreted in rupees and that is what shows on the usage dashboard. Unless you operate cross-border campuses on the same tenant, leave the dropdown alone. If you ever switch back to look at historical reports, your old INR figures stay as INR — the dropdown only affects how the cap is read on the dashboard.

5. Save the cap

Click the Save settings button at the bottom right of the page. Inkwelly stores the cap and the page confirms the save. The budget is now active for the current calendar month and every month after, until you change it. There is no separate Apply step and no email confirmation — the cap quietly starts driving the usage dashboard from this point on.

6. Open the Usage dashboard to see live spend

From the Communications sidebar, click Usage. The dashboard shows current-month spend broken down by channel — WhatsApp, SMS and email — alongside the cap you just saved. As your school sends fee reminders, attendance alerts and homework messages through the day, the spend number climbs in near real time. Your principal or office in-charge should bookmark this page and check it once or twice a week.

7. Review and adjust on the first of every month

On the first working day of each new month, reopen Communications, Settings, Budget. Compare last month's actual spend (from Usage) against the cap you had set. Adjust the Amount up or down by Rs 1,000 to Rs 2,000 until the number stabilises over three months. Once stable, leave it untouched — your accountant will thank you at audit time, and the principal has a clean number to sign off on every quarter.