Texting your customers
Text estimates and invoices to customers who said yes. Here is exactly what they get, and how they stop it.
The short version
Paint Pals can text your estimates and invoices to your customers' phones. Each text has a link. They tap it to see the estimate, sign it, or pay.
You always ask first. You read a short script to the homeowner and tap their answer. Paint Pals never texts a number that didn't say yes.
Your customer can stop the texts any time by replying STOP. The first text tells them how. If more than 30 days go by without them texting you or getting that line, your next text reminds them again.
- 1Ask firstread the script, tap their answer
- 2Press Sendpick Text and see the exact words
- 3They tap the linkthe estimate or invoice opens on their phone
Replied STOP? Paint Pals won't text that number again until they text START. Send by email instead.
Two ways to text. Free from the Paint Pals number, or from a local number of your own.
Two ways to text
Every company starts on the Paint Pals number. A company can also get a local number of its own. Until your own number is live, your texts keep coming from the Paint Pals number.
The number
The Paint Pals number
(970) 545-7292, the Paint Pals number. Every company on Paint Pals shares it.Your own number
A local number that belongs to your company alone.How each text reads
The Paint Pals number
It names your company and ends with "Sent by Paint Pals software."Your own number
An estimate or invoice text starts with your company's name, and so does a text you type that starts a conversation. There is no Paint Pals line.What you can send
The Paint Pals number
The estimate (or your Customer Hub page) and the invoice, payment requests included. You can't type a text of your own.Your own number
The same, plus texts you type yourself on the Timeline.Before the first text
The Paint Pals number
A welcome text goes out the moment you record their yes.Your own number
No welcome text. Your first text carries the details instead.When they text back
The Paint Pals number
Their text shows on your Timeline, and they get an automatic answer with your phone number. You can't text back from Paint Pals.Your own number
Their text shows on your Timeline and is emailed to you, and you text back from there. Calls to the number ring a phone you choose.If they reply STOP
The Paint Pals number
Texts stop from every company that uses the Paint Pals number.Your own number
Texts stop from your company.What it costs
The Paint Pals number
Free, up to 500 texts a month for your company.Your own number
$15 a month or $150 a year, plus $20 once to set it up. Up to 500 texts a month.Where to set it up
The Paint Pals number
An admin turns on the Texting row of the Features card in Settings › General.Your own number
An admin, once texting is on: the Your own number card in Settings › Integrations.
Asking first
No text goes to a number that hasn't said yes. Paint Pals checks every time you press Send, and nothing gets past it.
Ask, in person or on the phone
Open the contact and press Ask to text on their Texting row, or Ask first in the Send window. Pick the number, and read the script on the screen out loud. On the Paint Pals number it reads:
Would you like to receive your estimate, contract and invoice by text from Paint Pals, the estimating software we use, at (970) 545-7292? Each text names Acme Painting as the source of the document. Message frequency varies, usually a few messages per project. Message and data rates may apply. Reply HELP for help. Reply STOP at any time to cancel. Terms: https://app.paintpals.app/terms. Privacy: https://app.paintpals.app/privacy. Do you agree, yes or no?
The script on your own number
With your own number, the script names your company and your number, and covers texts about the project. The brackets hold your company's details:
Would you like to receive texts from [Company name] about your project, from [Company number]? That includes your estimate, contract and invoice, scheduling updates, and follow-ups you ask for. Message frequency varies. Message and data rates may apply. Reply HELP for help. Reply STOP at any time to cancel. Terms: [Company terms link]. Privacy: [Company privacy link]. Do you agree, yes or no?
Tap their answer
Press They said yes or They said no. Paint Pals writes it down: the number, the answer, who asked, the day, and which script they heard. A no costs nothing. You send by email, the way you always have. Texting is never a condition of the job.
What a yes sets off
On the Paint Pals number, the window says: "They get a confirmation text right away. The estimate or invoice follows when you send it." That confirmation is the welcome text (see the next section).
On your own number, it says: "They'll get the details with the first text you send." There is no welcome text there.
Good to know about a yes
- A yes belongs to one phone number, not to the person. A contact with a cell and a home phone can have a different answer on each. Changing a number means asking again.
- A yes is for the texting number it was given for. When your own number goes live, a homeowner who said yes to the Paint Pals script reads "Not asked yet" until you ask again.
- On your own number, a homeowner who texts you first counts as a yes. Paint Pals keeps their text as the record. A text that only says STOP, START, HELP or YES doesn't count, and neither does one asking you to stop, like "No thanks." Texting the Paint Pals number first never counts.
- They can change their mind. Press Withdraw on their Texting row, and Paint Pals won't text that number until they agree again.
What each text says
These are the real texts, word for word, for a made-up company called Acme Painting. Your company's name, the project and the link go where theirs are.
On the Paint Pals number
You're opted in to receive your painting project documents (estimates, contracts, invoices) by text from Paint Pals software. Each one names Acme Painting as the source. Msg frequency varies. Msg & data rates may apply. Reply STOP to cancel, HELP for help.
Acme Painting has sent you an estimate for Kitchen Repaint. View it here: https://app.paintpals.app/t/k3v9x2Qm7p. Sent by Paint Pals software.
Acme Painting sent you an invoice for Kitchen Repaint. View and pay online: https://app.paintpals.app/t/k3v9x2Qm7p. Sent by Paint Pals software.
The link is a short Paint Pals link. It opens the estimate (where they can sign), your Customer Hub page, or the invoice (where they can pay). The project's name is used when it has one, otherwise its street address.
On your own number
Acme Painting: You have an estimate for Kitchen Repaint. View it here: https://app.paintpals.app/t/k3v9x2Qm7p Reply STOP to opt out, HELP for help. Msg frequency varies. Msg & data rates may apply.
Acme Painting: You have an invoice for Kitchen Repaint. View and pay online: https://app.paintpals.app/t/k3v9x2Qm7p
Acme Painting: Hi John, the crew will be there tomorrow at 8 am.
Hi John, the crew will be there tomorrow at 8 am.
Estimate and invoice texts always start with your company's name. A text you type starts with it only when it starts a conversation: your first text to that number, or one after 90 days with nothing sent either way. A typed text can be up to 500 characters.
Some texts also carry a STOP line. Which ones, and why, is the next section.
The STOP rules
Every customer can stop your texts at any time, and Paint Pals makes sure they know how. These four rules are the same on every number: the Paint Pals number, your own US number and your own Canadian number.
The first text says how to stop
The very first text a homeowner gets carries the opt-out line. On the Paint Pals number that's the welcome text, which tells them to reply STOP to cancel or HELP for help. On your own number there's no welcome text, so your first text ends with:
Reply STOP to opt out, HELP for help. Msg frequency varies. Msg & data rates may apply.
Later texts don't repeat it
After the first text, your texts go without a STOP line, so they stay short. STOP still works on every one of them.
A reminder after 30 quiet days
If more than 30 days have passed since the homeowner last texted you, and since your last text to them that carried the STOP line, your next text carries "Reply STOP to opt out." (30 days on the dot isn't enough yet.) Only that one text carries it, and it starts the 30 days over, so a homeowner sees the line about once a month at most. If they have never texted you, the 30 days count from your first text to them.
What starts the 30 days over:
- On your own number, any text from them, even STOP, START or HELP.
- On the Paint Pals number, a real reply, and only for the company that texted them last (the reply shows on that company's Timeline). STOP, START and HELP don't count there. Each company keeps its own 30 days, so no company can tell from its own texts that a customer is talking to another company.
- A text of yours that carried the line: the first text, or a reminder. One that failed or never arrived doesn't count, so the next text carries the line instead.
- Never your other texts. A text with no STOP line on it starts nothing over.
A later text on the Paint Pals number, after 30 quiet days Acme Painting sent you an invoice for Kitchen Repaint. View and pay online: https://app.paintpals.app/t/k3v9x2Qm7p. Reply STOP to opt out. Sent by Paint Pals software.
A later text on your own number, after 30 quiet days Acme Painting: You have an invoice for Kitchen Repaint. View and pay online: https://app.paintpals.app/t/k3v9x2Qm7p Reply STOP to opt out.
STOP always works, right away
A homeowner can reply STOP to any text, at any time, and texts to that number stop at once. They get one text back saying they're opted out. START turns texts back on. HELP gets an automatic answer about what the texts are and how to get help.
Examples, day by day
A quick job, and the homeowner never texts you
Day 1: You text the estimate
STOP line? Yes
It's the first text. (On the Paint Pals number, the welcome text goes just before it and carries the line.)
Day 10: You text the deposit invoice
STOP line? No
Only 9 days since your first text.
Day 14: You text the balance invoice
STOP line? No
Only 13 days since your first text.
A job that starts later, and the homeowner never texts you
Day 1: You text the estimate
STOP line? Yes
It's the first text.
Day 40: You text the deposit invoice
STOP line? Yes
39 days since your first text, and they have never texted you. It carries "Reply STOP to opt out."
Day 44: You text the balance invoice
STOP line? No
Only 4 days since the Day 40 text, which carried the line.
Day 75: You text a touch-up date
STOP line? Yes
35 days since the Day 40 text carried the line, and they still haven't texted you.
The homeowner texts you back
Day 1: You text the estimate
STOP line? Yes
It's the first text.
Day 38: They text you: "Can you start on Monday?"
STOP line? Not your text
Their text starts the 30 days over. (On the Paint Pals number, a reply counts for the company that texted them last: here, you.)
Day 40: You text the deposit invoice
STOP line? No
They texted you 2 days ago.
Day 75: You text the balance invoice
STOP line? Yes
37 days since they last texted you.
The words that work
Stop the texts
STOP, STOPALL, UNSUBSCRIBE, CANCEL, END, QUIT, OPTOUT or REVOKE, and the French ARRET, ARRÊT or ARRETE.
Start them again
START or UNSTOP. YES works too, after a STOP.
Get help
HELP or INFO.
The word has to be the whole text, in capitals or not. "Stop" works. "Stop by on Tuesday" is an ordinary reply.
Who a STOP covers
- On the Paint Pals number, a STOP stops texts from every company that uses the Paint Pals number, not just yours, until the homeowner texts START to (970) 545-7292.
- On your own number, a STOP stops texts from your company, on any number your company texts from. Other companies aren't affected. A STOP a homeowner sent the Paint Pals number after your company texted them still counts when you move to your own number.
What you see when someone replied STOP
- Their contact's Texting row reads Replied STOP with the day, and how they can turn texts back on.
- In the Send window that number reads Replied STOP, and the window says: "This number replied STOP. They can text START to (970) 545-7292 to allow texts again." (On your own number it names your number.) The text won't send. Choose Email instead.
- Nobody at your company can lift a STOP. Only the homeowner can, by texting START. Deleting the contact doesn't lift it either.
What you see in the app
The Send window
With texting on, the estimate's Email button and the invoice's send buttons become one Send button with Email, Text and Both. It opens on Text when the customer has a number that said yes, and never on Both. Under The text you see exactly what they'll get, the link's code shown as dots until you press Send. When the STOP line is due it's in the preview, with a note under it: "No text from them in the last 30 days, so this one ends with the opt-out line."
The Timeline
Every text shows as a green bubble with its words, and Delivered, Not delivered or Opened under it. Their replies show there too. A texted estimate or invoice counts as sent, the same as an emailed one.
The text box (your own number)
At the bottom of a project's Timeline and a contact's Activity. Type your words and press Send text. A line under the box says when your company name will be added in front, or when the STOP line will be added at the end, like: "Ends with "Reply STOP to opt out." since there's been no text from Sarah in 30 days."
When a text can't go
On a number that hasn't said yes, the button reads Ask first. When a text can't go for another reason, Paint Pals says why in one sentence, like "You've sent 500 texts this month, the monthly limit. Email still works, and the limit resets on the 1st." Email always still works.
The Texting row on each contact
It sits under the contact's phone numbers and shows where things stand. The (i) beside it shows every number.
- Not asked yetNobody has asked this number. Nothing can be texted to it.
- OK to text (970) 555-1212 · Oct 20, 2026 · Sam R.They said yes. You see the day and who asked. The (i) opens the full record.
- OK to text (970) 555-1212 · Said yes by text on Oct 20, 2026They texted your own number first, which counts as a yes.
- Said no · Oct 20, 2026They said no. Send by email.
- Withdrawn · Oct 20, 2026They said yes, then changed their mind.
- Replied STOP · Oct 20, 2026 · they can text START to resumeThey replied STOP. Nobody at your company can text them until they text START.
Good to know
- Why didn't my text have the STOP line?
- Because it wasn't the first text to that number, and in the last 30 days either the homeowner texted you or one of your texts to them carried the line. They can still reply STOP to it, and it works the same.
- Why did this one have it?
- Either it's the first text to that number, or more than 30 days have passed both since the homeowner last texted you and since your last text to them that carried the line. Only that one text carries it: the ones after it go without, until another 30 quiet days pass. On the Paint Pals number, a reply counts only for the company that texted them last, so if your customer answered another company's text, your texts can still carry the line.
- Can I take "Sent by Paint Pals software." off, or skip the welcome text?
- Not on the Paint Pals number. The phone carriers approved those texts word for word, and they can't be changed without a new approval. The carriers also want everyone who signs up to get a welcome text right away. Because every company shares the Paint Pals number, the last line tells the homeowner which service the text came through. Want your own name only? With your own number, your estimate and invoice texts start with your company's name, there is no Paint Pals line, and there is no separate welcome text: your first text carries the details instead.
- Can I turn the STOP line off on my own number?
- Yes. An admin can switch off "Add the opt-out line to my texts" on the Your own number card in Settings, Integrations. Then Paint Pals adds nothing to your texts: no opt-out line on the first text, no reminder after 30 quiet days, and no company name in front of a text you type. Adding the opt-out wording is then up to you. Your carrier filing says your first text includes it, and carriers can suspend a number whose texts don't match its filing. STOP still works on every text. The Paint Pals number always adds it.
- Can I change the words of an estimate or invoice text?
- No. They're worded the way the carriers approved them. Paint Pals fills in only your company's name, the project and the link. With your own number you can type texts in your own words on the Timeline.
- What happens when a customer texts back?
On the Paint Pals number, the number can't hold a conversation. Their text shows on the Timeline of the latest project you texted them about, so you can call them. They also get one automatic answer a day with the phone number on your letterhead, like this:
This number can't receive replies. To reach Acme Painting, call (970) 555-0100. Sent by Paint Pals software.
A text that comes more than 90 days after your last text to them isn't recorded or answered.
On your own number, their text shows on the project's Timeline and is emailed to the person picked under "Replies are emailed to" on the Your own number card. You answer from the text box on the Timeline.
- What if they write "please stop texting me" instead of STOP?
- The stop word has to be the whole text, so a sentence like that reaches you as an ordinary reply and doesn't stop anything by itself. Respect it anyway: open their contact and press Withdraw on the Texting row. Paint Pals then won't text that number until they agree again.
- Does it cost anything?
- Texting from the Paint Pals number is free, up to 500 texts a month for your company (welcome texts count, and a text that fails to go out doesn't). Your own number is $15 a month or $150 a year, plus $20 once to set it up, billed with your Paint Pals subscription, with up to 500 texts a month. Email always works, and it's always free.
- We got our own number. Why do we have to ask again?
- A yes is for the number it was given for. A homeowner who said yes to the Paint Pals script reads "Not asked yet" for your own number until you ask again, and the script then names your number. If they text your number first, that counts as their yes too.
- Can I text a promotion?
- No. Texts are only about the homeowner's own project: the estimate, the invoice, scheduling, and answers to their questions. Paint Pals never sends marketing texts.
- We're in Canada. What's different?
Paint Pals opens Canadian numbers to Canadian companies one at a time. A Canadian number follows the same STOP rules as every other number, and its later texts read just like a US number's. Two things differ:
- Your number texts Canadian phone numbers only. A customer with a US number gets your estimates and invoices by email.
- Its first text to a homeowner also links a page with your company's contact details, so they know exactly who is texting. Keep the mailing address on your letterhead filled in. For example:
Acme Painting: You have an estimate for Kitchen Repaint. View it here: https://app.paintpals.app/t/k3v9x2Qm7p Reply STOP to opt out, HELP for help. Msg frequency varies. Msg & data rates may apply. More: https://app.paintpals.app/legal/acme-painting
A Canadian business without its own Canadian number texts from the Paint Pals number, which reaches Canadian phones too.
Your customers can read how texting works from their side on the Paint Pals texting page.
Already using Paint Pals? Open texting in Settings