Telegram notifications
Telegram is the cheapest and fastest notification channel Fexl Lite supports. A bot you create yourself in two minutes, free at any volume, and messages land on your phone in under a second after the event fires. This page walks through the @BotFather setup, the channel-ID discovery quirk, and the per-event subscriptions on the Notifications tab.
Create a bot via @BotFather
@BotFather is Telegram’s official bot for creating other bots. Free, no signup beyond your normal Telegram account.
Message @BotFather
Open Telegram (mobile or desktop), search for @BotFather, start a chat, send /newbot.
Pick a name and username
BotFather asks for a display name (free text — Fexl Owner Alerts) then a username (must end in bot — fexl_owner_alerts_bot). The username has to be globally unique on Telegram, so add your shop name if the obvious one is taken.
Copy the token
BotFather replies with a token that looks like 123456789:ABCdefGHIjklMNOpqrSTUvwxYZ-1234567. Treat it like a password — anyone with the token can post as your bot.
Pick a destination
Telegram bots can post to channels (one-way broadcast, you and the bot post; everyone else reads), groups (multi-way chat with the bot as a member), or direct messages. Most shops want a private channel — owner + relevant managers as subscribers.
Create a private channel
In Telegram, New Channel → name it (Fexl Alerts) → set it private → skip the link step.
Add the bot as an admin
Open the channel info → Administrators → Add Admin → search for your bot’s username → grant Post Messages permission. Save.
Find the chat ID
Send any message in the channel (just to make sure the bot can see it). Then visit https://api.telegram.org/bot<YOUR_TOKEN>/getUpdates in a browser. Look for "chat":{"id":-100xxxxxxxxxx. That negative number is the chat ID. Copy it.
Paste into Settings → Notifications
Open Fexl Lite → Settings → Notifications → Telegram panel.
Toggle Enable Telegram
The fields below light up.
Paste the bot token and chat ID
Token: the BotFather string. Chat ID: the negative number you found in getUpdates. Save.
Click Test message
A short “Test from Fexl Lite” message lands in the channel within a second. If not, see troubleshooting below.
Pick which events you want
Three checkboxes:
- Low Stock — fires when a product crosses the low-stock threshold. One message per product per day.
- Big Sale — fires when an invoice exceeds the big-sale threshold. Includes invoice number, total, customer.
- Daily Summary — fires at the configured business-day-end. Today’s revenue, invoice count, top product, cash variance.
Message format
Messages are short, structured, and Telegram-native — they use Markdown and emoji. Examples:
📉 Low stock: Coca-Cola 330ml 3 left in stock (threshold: 5) View → fexl://products/abc123💰 Big sale: $850.00 Invoice INV-2026-00482 · Customer: Ahmed Hassan View → fexl://invoices/xyz789The deep links open the desktop app (when registered as the fexl:// URL handler) or fall through to the cloud web app if you tap from outside.
Troubleshooting
- Test message fails with
chat not found— the chat ID is wrong (positive vs negative confusion is the most common error) or the bot isn’t admin in that channel. Re-check both. Forbidden: bot is not a member of the channel chat— bot was removed from the channel. Re-add with Post Messages permission.- Token rejected — leading or trailing whitespace in the pasted token. Re-copy carefully.
- No notifications fire even after a real low-stock event — the worker hasn’t run yet. Low-stock checks run on a 5-minute schedule; big-sale fires immediately on invoice post. If still nothing, check the Notification log under Settings → System (advanced).
Related
Notifications tab
Where the token and chat ID actually live.
WhatsApp alerts
The other notification channel — costlier but customer-friendly.
Low-stock threshold
The number that drives the low-stock event.
All integrations
Hardware and external services that plug into Fexl Lite.