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Compliance Rules in Schedules

Why Is Compliance Built In?​

Canada's Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL) imposes strict rules on commercial electronic communications. Paymely automatically enforces several of these rules to protect your business.

Rules COMP-01 and COMP-02​

These two rules apply when configuring reminders in a schedule:

COMP-01: Maximum 1 email per customer per day (same stage)​

You cannot configure two email reminders in the same schedule stage with the same day offset.

Invalid example: Two email reminders at Day +7 in the same After Due stage.

Valid example: One email reminder at Day +7 and one SMS reminder at Day +7 (different channels).

COMP-02: Maximum 1 SMS per customer per day (same stage)​

Identical to COMP-01 but for SMS.

Paymely shows a warning if you try to create a reminder that violates these rules — but you can override it if you have good reasons.

Exemption: Paid Stage​

Reminders in the Paid stage are not subject to COMP-01/02. A thank-you message can be sent even if the customer received other messages that day.

Reason: Transactional communications (payment confirmation) are exempt from CASL.

Exemption: Settlement Sequences​

Schedules marked as "settlement sequence" have a partial exemption — they can send messages even if the customer is in Stopped status and has already received messages recently.

Opt-Out Management​

Email​

Every email contains an unsubscribe link. When a customer clicks:

  1. An opt-out record is created for this email address
  2. All future emails to this address are blocked (not just for this customer, but for all customers with this address)
  3. The blocked send is logged in the compliance history

SMS​

Every SMS contains the mention "Reply STOP to unsubscribe." When a customer replies STOP:

  1. The opt-out is automatically processed
  2. An opt-out record is created for this phone number
  3. All future SMS to this number are blocked
  4. A padlock icon appears next to the customer in the table — indicating they have opted out of SMS

Auto-detection: Even if the STOP message is intercepted by the carrier before reaching Paymely, the system automatically detects the block on the next send attempt and registers the opt-out.

Compliance Logs​

All blocked sends are visible in:

  • Settings → Email Health: list of bounces, complaints, and blocked sends
  • Settings → SMS Health: delivery statistics and blocked numbers

Provincial Contact Limits (SMS-08)​

Some Canadian provinces have additional rules on contact frequency. Paymely accounts for the customer's province when scheduling sends:

ProvinceLimit
Ontario, AlbertaMaximum 3 contacts per 7 days
Other provincesNo specific provincial limit (standard CASL)

These limits are checked when scheduling sends. If the limit is reached, the reminder is deferred to the next valid day.

Best Practices​

  1. Get explicit consent before sending SMS — Paymely cannot verify this for you
  2. Keep proof of consent (signed form, confirmation email, etc.)
  3. Respect opt-outs — do not attempt to re-subscribe a customer who chose STOP
  4. Start gently: one channel per reminder, spaced at least 5-7 days apart
  5. Use the Province field on the customer profile so provincial limits apply correctly