Get your WhatsApp message templates approved by Meta

4 min read Updated 2026-08-30 WindoorERP 19.0

What this does

Meta will not let a business message a customer freely: to start a conversation you must use a message template that Meta has approved. This screen is where those templates are written, mapped to WindoorERP fields, submitted to Meta, and tracked through approval — the quotation notice, the delivery notice, the payment reminder, in English and in Arabic.

Before you start

An Active WhatsApp account — submission goes to Meta through it.
Approval is Meta's decision and is not instant: minutes to days. Submit your core templates early.

Steps

01
Open WhatsApp › Operations › Templates. The screen opens filtered to Approved — remove the filter chip to see your drafts, including the ready-made ones shipped for quotations, invoices, deliveries and leads.
02
Create the template: a machine name in lowercase with underscores, the WhatsApp Account, a Category — Marketing, Utility or Authentication — and the Language. Arabic is its own template: make quotation_notice and quotation_notice_ar as a pair.
03
Write the Body with numbered placeholders — {{1}}, {{2}} — plus an optional header and footer. Each placeholder you type appears automatically as a row on the Variables tab.
04
Map each variable: pick Apply To (the document model, say Sale Order) and then the field each placeholder reads — customer name, order reference, total — with a fallback value for empty fields.
05
Add Buttons if wanted: Quick Reply, URL (which may carry one placeholder), Phone Number or Copy Code.
06
Press Submit for Approval. The template goes to Meta and turns Pending Approval; its status then follows Meta — via the Sync Status button, a six-hourly automatic sync, and Meta's own status pings.

The rules Meta enforces — before it even sees the template

Rule	Refusal, verbatim
Name format	"Template name must start with a letter and contain only lowercase letters, numbers, and underscores."
Header length	"Header text cannot exceed 60 characters." — and it may carry at most one placeholder.
Footer	"Footer text cannot exceed 60 characters." and "Variables are not allowed in footer text."
Buttons	"Button text cannot exceed 25 characters."; URL buttons need their URL, phone buttons their number.
Submission	"Please select a WhatsApp Account before submitting." and "Only draft or rejected templates can be submitted."

States, and what to do in each

Draft — editable, unusable for sending. All shipped templates start here, with no account set.
Pending Approval — submitted, waiting on Meta.
Approved — usable everywhere: only approved templates appear in the Send WhatsApp dialog.
Rejected — a red ribbon and Meta's reason on the form. Fix the content; category mismatch is the usual cause.
Paused / Disabled — Meta throttled or shut the template off, usually for poor engagement; the status sync brings these in.

Category honesty matters

A Utility template must be transactional — this order, this delivery, this invoice. Promotional copy submitted as Utility is either rejected outright or re-categorised and billed as marketing, and repeat offences hurt the number's standing. The Marketing category exists; use it for what is marketing.

Troubleshooting

Symptom	Cause and fix
The Templates screen looks empty	The default Approved filter is hiding your drafts — remove the chip.
"Submission failed: …"	Meta rejected the call — the message is Meta's own. Check the account is Active and the Business Account ID is right.
Approved in Meta, still Pending here	Press Sync Status, or wait for the six-hourly sync.
"Template not yet submitted to Meta."	Status sync only works after a submission has given the template its Meta identity.
An approved template is missing from the Send dialog	The dialog filters to approved templates of the selected account — a template without an account, or on another account, does not appear.

Common mistakes

Leaving the shipped templates as drafts and wondering why nothing can be sent — they need an account and a submission like any other.
Writing Arabic copy into an English-language template; the language code is part of what Meta approves.
Mapping a placeholder to a field with no fallback, then sending records where the field is empty.

Was this article helpful?

Running a window or door factory?

Ask for a demo