Introduction
In Perfect Gym, the SMS feature allows you to easily contact your club members directly on their mobile phones. This is a valuable tool for communicating changes to opening hours, special promotions, or any other important club announcements.
In this article, you will learn about SMS pricing, the setup process, character limits, and the specific ACMA Sender ID registration requirements for Australia.
This article will be helpful for: PG Champion, Administrator, Finance & Accounting, Club Manager, Marketing Manager, and Club Owner.
Before you start
To enable SMS messaging for your club, please contact the Perfect Gym Support Team and request the activation of this feature. When reaching out, you will need to provide:
Your preferred SMS Sender Name (also known as an Alpha Tag in the telecommunications industry — maximum of 11 characters).
A phone number to receive a test message after the setup is complete. Note: Only one Sender Name can be configured per company database. If your organization has multiple clubs under the same database, please choose a general name that fits all locations.
Feature description
SMS pricing is based on the rates set out in your Software Agreement. For Australian and New Zealand clients, the standard default rate is $0.10 per SMS credit (excluding GST). Please check your contract for your actual specific rate. SMS usage is billed in arrears separately from your Perfect Gym license invoice at the end of each billing period, based on your actual usage.
To send a bulk SMS to a group of members, navigate in your system to PGM → Marketing → Newsletter → Messages, and click on Create Newsletter.
If you want to view a report of previously sent SMS messages, go to PGM → Reports → Sent Text Messages.
ACMA SMS Sender ID Registration (Australia)
The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) requires businesses sending SMS messages in Australia to register their Sender ID. This helps to reduce SMS scams and improves customer trust in business messaging.
This requirement applies to Australian clients only. Clients outside of Australia (including New Zealand and Singapore) do not need to register with ACMA.
Please keep in mind that from July 1, 2026, any unregistered Sender IDs will display as "Unverified" to your message recipients, which might lower customer confidence in your communications.
How to Register
Perfect Gym works with an integrated SMS provider to help you register your Sender ID. To do this, you need to complete the online registration form. Before starting, make sure your Australian Business Register (ABR) entry is up to date, including the correct details for your authorized representative.
The registration process looks like this:
You fill out the registration form with your Sender ID details and ABR representative information.
Our integrated SMS provider processes your registration request.
Your authorized representative will receive an email directly from ACMA.
The representative confirms and approves the registration through the ACMA Assist portal (this only takes a few minutes).
Useful Links:
Character Limits & Encoding
Understanding how SMS text encoding works is very important for managing your costs. There are two standard ways text is encoded, which decide how many characters fit into one SMS credit:
GSM Encoding (Standard): This applies when your messages contain only standard letters, numbers, and basic punctuation. It allows up to 160 characters per credit.
Unicode Encoding (Special Characters): If a message contains even one special character, the whole message changes to Unicode encoding. This reduces the limit to just 70 characters per credit, which can greatly increase the number of credits used per send.
Common things that trigger Unicode encoding include emojis (like 👋 or 😊), special symbols (like ~, [, ], {, }, |), and hidden formatting characters that are often added by mistake when copying and pasting text from external tools like Google Docs or Microsoft Word.
Hints
Perfect Gym passes on all charges directly from the SMS network providers. The best way to keep your costs low is to carefully check your message templates before you send them out to large groups of members. We highly recommend the following best practices:
Use a Segment Calculator: Before sending, test your text using a free online tool to see exactly how many credits your message will use. You can search online for tools like "SMS Character Count" (which offers real-time encoding detection) or the "Twilio Message Segment Calculator" for a detailed breakdown.
Use the Notepad Trick: If you are copying text from another program, paste it into a plain-text editor first (like Notepad on Windows or TextEdit on Mac in plain-text mode). This simple step removes any hidden formatting characters before you paste the clean text into Perfect Gym.