The IDS SMS website has 7 main menu’s before logging in, viz: Home, About Us, Prices, Purchase, Contact Us, Sign Up & Help. Two of which are covered below:

• All fields except Contact 2 are mandatory
• The User name & Password will be required to log in and send Bulk SMS
• Once an account has been created IDS SMS is notified. Should you require SMS units to test the site, please contact us and request units or use the Demo account: Username: Demo, p/w: Demo
• As soon as you have a USERNAME & PASSWORD you can log into the site

• Enter the User name & Password you chose when signing up, this will take you to another menu, which will enable you to set up your account and send SMS
• Once you have logged in, the following SMS Menu will appear:
  Home Page, Maintain Groups, Import Data, Maintain Numbers, Single SMS, Bulk SMS, Sent Report, Replies, Auto Delete, Sub-Accounts & Log Out

• After log in the following menus appear:
  Home, Maintain, groups, Import Numbers, Maintain Numbers, Single SMS, Bulk SMS, SMS Templates, Send Report, Replies, Auto Delete, Sub Account, Logout all of which will be covered below

Your account details are reflected here.

• Password can be changed
• Time Difference can be changed
• Replies:
  There are 3 settings for reply SMS.
  To have SMS replied to your cell phone, enter cell phone number
  To have SMS replies going to your email address, enter email address
  Should you require an auto reply to you client reply, enter in the block: Reply Response
  These will be your default settings, but can be changed on the Single SMS & Bulk SMS page
• After any changes, account must be updated
• Below the account details are the last 10 units to your account with date and time stamp

• It’s important to start here and create one or more groups.
• Groups allow the storage of many cell numbers to be placed where they will be easily found
  Example: Friends, Customers, Sales Team etc. Enter Group name and description
Should the group being created need to be shared with a sub account, indicate No, Read or Write
• Sub accounts are accounts you can create and control for others to use the SMS facility as well
• Below Create Groups is a list of groups created
• Information supplied: Group Name, Description, amount of numbers in the group, Group owner, date & time created & shared information
• Group can be deleted, click block adjacent to group and click Delete Selected
• Edit Group: Click EDIT

• Insert single number:
  A single number can be entered into a group
• Select group to which the single number must be added
• Input values: Number & Value's 1 to 6
• Prevent duplications: click 'Check for numbers across all groups'
• Deleted: Will prevent import of numbers on the Auto Deleted list
• Value 1 to 6 is explained under Bulk Import
• Bulk Import:
  Prepare a spreadsheet with the numbers and values added as follows:
  Microsoft Excel can be used, failing that you can use Open Office which is free to download. Google Open Office to find it.

Cell No.	Value1	Value2	Value3	Value4	Value5	Value6
0831234567	Peter	Smith	R300
0827894563	John	Black	R4000

Note: The titles at the top of the example above is to identify what’s in each column for explanation purposes only, in the spreadsheet to be uploaded the data must start from row 1. The first column (A) is for cell numbers only Columns B to G are for any variables you wish to add into your cell number pertaining to the person linked to the relevant cell number.This allows you to send bulk SMS and make it appear to be personal, and includes number/s or word/s to be used for a specific client.

For example:
Dear Peter Smith we thank you for your donation of R300
Dear John Black we thank you for your donation of R4000

How to insert these into Bulk SMS will be explained under Bulk SMS.

Additional notes on using Excel:
Importing data from excel is by far the easiest. The data is imported from "Sheet1" only (please ensure that the name of worksheet is 'Sheet1'). The excel document needs to contain the mobile number in Column "A". You can place data in columns in "B" through "G". The data will be imported into 6 value fields, Column "B" will appear in Value1 etc. Each field can contain 50 characters with the exception of Value1 or Column "B" which can accommodate data up to 160 characters. This allows you to import a file with the number in Column "A" and message in Column "B". When sending to the group leave the message blank, just click on "Value1", this will place the message (stored in Value1) into the message field to be sent.

Notes on XLS/CSV/Text download formats:
Set up your spreadsheet as discussed above save as a XLS sheet and upload.
Importing from a CSV (Comma separated file) or Text file is just as easy. The files data is simply separated with a comma (,). The number needs to be contained as the first field in the file. You can create a CSV file from an Excel spreadsheet by saving the Excel file as "CSV (MS-Dos) file type and not Excel workbook. There is a slight benefit of using CSV, as the file size is smaller. Once the data has been set up in one of the above formats it can be downloaded as follows:

• Select group to which data must be imported
• If there is data in the group already it will only append new data and not overwrite all the previous data, in this way you can keep adding to your data, it will not allow duplicates to be uploaded into the same group.
• Browse for the file you want to import
• Select the file type you wish to import (Excel, CSV, Pipe or text)
• Click import Data
• Once imported confirmation on the import status is displayed

• To view the numbers in the various groups, select the group desired or leave to default to all groups
• Enter search criteria or leave blank to give all numbers or all numbers in a selected group
• Select 'Display' if you want to display the values you added in when loading you data, eg Value1 could be the client name, this will assist you to identify the number
• Numbers are listed below the Search Filter area
• Each number can be edited by clicking EDIT next to the relevant number
• Numbers can be deleted individually. Select and click delete selected
• Can send SMS to selected numbers or all numbers
• There is a 'select all' or 'none' function to assist in working with your data
• The size of your sets can be set to 20, 50 or 100. This is to assist when sending selected SMS, once you go to the next set the previous set selections are deleted, its important to select one page then send your SMS, going to the next set will not carry over your selection
• Once you have done a search for data and the data is listed, there are additional functionals, viz: Move/Copy Selected. This allows you to move or copy date from group to group

To send a single SMS:

• Set date and time of single message to be sent, if left at default, SMS will be send upon clicking ‘SendSMS’
• Enter Cell number (Number to)
• Enter message, max 160 characters

Replies:

• is a 7-day window for the SMS receiver to send back a reply
• A choice of where the reply is to go to:
  To a mobile, enter cell number. To an email: enter email address Leave blank to receive replies back to the IDS SMS under menu item Replies
• To send an automated response to the reply fill in the text area 'Send Response'

• Select group to which SMS is to be sent
• Select date & time to send the Bulk SMS
• If not adjusted, the setting will remain at current date and time
• Enter message, where imported value is required selected value as required
• Value 1 = Column B, to value 6=G in the original spreadsheet before uploading
  Eg: Dear @@Value1@@ thank you for your donation of @@value3@@ … etc

Replies:

• Should you require the SMS replies to go to a cell phone, enter cell number under, ‘Forward to Mobile’, like wise for sending replies to your email address, and enter email address under ’Forward to Email’
• If an automated response is required on the replies received, enter text under: send response
• If no entries are made the replies go back to the IDS SMS web site under the menu item 'Replies'

• This is a powerful feature for routine SMS sent
• Set up SMS here and save them
• Once you go to Single SMS or Bulk SMS menus there is a drop down menu from which you can select a SMS, do some minor editing if required and send

• For feedback on items sent, you can do a date search for the relevant Bulk SMS sent
• Report will have the following details: Scheduled for, Submitted, Numbers, Cost, View, download

• All replies to the SMS web site can be date searched
• Filtered further by searching for All, Read or Unread replies
• To include values1 to 6 in the replies to easily identify the sender click ‘Include Sent detail, and click ‘Search’

• Numbers placed on the auto delete list will be deleted and should the same number be imported again it will be deleted again on importing

• An IDS SMS account holder can create sub accounts
• A sub account is a facility to delegate authority to others to send Bulk SMS under their own password and username
• Units can be transferred to the sub account holders from the primary account, by clicking EDIT on the relevant account line
• When creating Groups under the menu item Maintain Groups, you have a choice to make the group available to a sub account holder as read only or write
• Create a sub account by adding in Username, Password and Fullname, click create Sub-Account
• The account will be visible in a line below
• To EDIT the sub account click EDIT on the relevant LINE
• To Edit the sub account the following can be done:
  Change Password, Fullname, activated or deactivate the sub account and change Time Difference
• To allocate units to the account enter the number of units for the sub account and a note if required and click Update units. Note: check the primary credit stock before allocation of credit to see if there is enough units available

• To log out or leave the logged in area, returns you to the main menu home page.