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WhatsApp Business Account Setup

This is the complete end-to-end onboarding path for standing up a WhatsApp Business Account (WABA) on Orbit. Plan ~3–7 business days total if your documents are in order, longer if Meta requests changes.

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At a glance

  1. Verify your business on Meta Business Manager
  2. Choose a number (new vs. migrating an existing one)
  3. Connect through Orbit’s embedded sign-up flow
  4. Set your public display name + profile
  5. Submit display-name + at least one template for approval
  6. Start sending
Steps 1 and 5 are the ones that routinely cause delays. Everything else is usually same-day.

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Prerequisites

Before you begin, have these ready: If you operate through a holding company or DBA, submit the documents of the legal entity that will own the WABA. Meta will deny a display name that doesn’t match.

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Technical prerequisites

  • A Facebook account (personal — you’ll be named an admin on the Business Manager)
  • A phone number you control (SMS + voice) for the final verification call. See Number procurement below for the choices.
  • Admin access to the domain’s DNS (for privacy policy URL verification and for potential email deliverability requirements)

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Step 1 — Meta Business Manager verification

Meta Business Manager (business.facebook.com) is the identity layer for all WhatsApp access. Your business must be “verified” before you can publish a display name or raise messaging limits beyond the initial 250/day cap.
  1. Create a Business Manager account at business.facebook.com if you don’t have one.
  2. Go to Settings → Security Center → Start Verification.
  3. Upload the documents from the prerequisites table. Meta does an OCR + manual review.
  4. Expect 1–3 business days. Rejection reasons we see most often:
    • Display/trade name on the document doesn’t match what you typed.
    • Document has been cropped or edited.
    • Business website is a placeholder page or blank (put real content up first).
    • No visible physical address on the document.
While waiting: you can still connect a number and send messages at the unverified-cap (250 unique recipients/day). Don’t let verification block you from launching.

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Step 2 — Number procurement

You have three realistic paths.

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A. Brand-new number from Orbit

Fastest. Buy a number from Orbit’s dashboard (Numbers → Buy), pick a country, and the number is available for WhatsApp within seconds. It can’t have been previously used on WhatsApp in the past 30 days (Meta’s cooldown) — Devotel’s inventory is WhatsApp-safe by default. Pick this when: you’re starting from scratch, don’t need carryover SMS / voice traffic.

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B. Bring an existing number you already own

You can use any number that:
  • Can receive SMS or a voice call (Meta sends the verification code one way or the other)
  • Is not currently active on another WABA
  • Has not been used on WhatsApp’s consumer app in the last 30 days — delete the WhatsApp consumer account and wait the cooldown if it was
If the number was previously on another BSP (Infobip, Twilio, Vonage, MessageBird, etc.) jump to the BSP Transfer guide.

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C. Transfer from a competing CPaaS (porting)

See the dedicated BSP Transfer / Number Porting Guide. You keep the number, your templates, and (with some caveats) your quality rating.

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Step 3 — Embedded sign-up flow

In the Orbit dashboard go to Settings → Channels → WhatsApp → Connect.
  1. Click Connect with Facebook. This opens Meta’s OAuth dialog inside a popup.
  2. Sign in with the Facebook account that has admin rights on your Business Manager.
  3. Pick the Business Manager to associate.
  4. Create a new WABA or select an existing one. If you’re porting, select the existing WABA — do not create a second one.
  5. Choose the phone number (from Step 2) or add one.
  6. Meta verifies the number via SMS or voice OTP. Enter the 6-digit code.
  7. The popup closes and you’re back on Orbit with the WABA in “connected” state.
If the popup closes without returning — common on Safari and in corporate SSO setups — re-trigger from Settings → Channels → WhatsApp; the partial state is preserved in Meta.

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Step 4 — Display name + profile

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Display name

The display name is what appears in users’ chat lists. It must match Meta’s display name guidelines:
  • Match your registered business name or a clearly associated consumer brand
  • No generic names (“Support”, “Sales”)
  • No all-caps / emojis / special characters beyond . , & '
  • Minimum 3 characters
In Orbit: Settings → Channels → WhatsApp → Profile → Edit Display Name. Meta reviews display names in 1–3 business days. You can start sending messages immediately using the placeholder; the name changes live once approved.

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Profile fields

Also in Profile, set:
  • About — short tagline (< 139 chars)
  • Description — up to 512 chars
  • Category — pick the closest to your industry
  • Address + Business hours
  • Websites — up to 2
  • Email — public-facing
These fields are shown inside the user’s chat info pane. They are not reviewed by Meta but they do affect trust signals that influence your WhatsApp quality rating — keep them accurate, professional, and consistent with the brand the recipient expects.

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Profile photo

Square, ≥ 640×640 px, no transparency. PNG or JPG. Your company logo, not a person’s face.

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Step 5 — Submit templates

All business-initiated conversations require pre-approved templates (utility, marketing, authentication, service). See Restricted Content Policy for what Meta will reject. From the dashboard: Channels → WhatsApp → Templates → New Template. For each template:
  1. Pick a category — authentication / marketing / utility / service. Category drives pricing.
  2. Pick a language (separate submission per locale).
  3. Write the body with named variables: Hi {{1}}, your order {{2}} shipped.
  4. (Optional) Add a header, footer, or up to 3 buttons.
  5. Submit. Expected: 1–24 hours; most pass in minutes.
Rejection reasons we see weekly:
  • Category mismatch — a marketing template submitted as utility
  • Promotional content in an authentication template
  • Missing variables where context is needed (“hi, thanks!” — thanks for what?)
  • Language mismatch — body in Spanish but language=en selected
  • Formatting errors — unpaired *bold* markers, rogue \n
You can resubmit a rejected template after editing — Meta keeps the template name free for 30 days.

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Step 6 — First send + scaling

Once the WABA is connected and one template is approved:

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Messaging limits

New WABAs start with a 250 unique-recipients-per-24h cap. Limit tiers: Quality must stay Medium or Green. Hitting Low freezes tier progression; staying “Low” for 7 days drops you a tier.

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Approval timelines summary

If any step exceeds the worst case by more than 48 hours, email whatsapp-support@devotel.io with your WABA ID and we’ll escalate with Meta.

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Common first-week mistakes

  1. Starting marketing blast before Business Verification completes — you’ll hit the 250/day cap and think something is broken.
  2. Submitting display-name with a DBA not on your incorporation docs — denied.
  3. Shared inboxes on @gmail.com — Meta flags consumer email domains.
  4. Privacy policy hosted on a free Notion page or a “Coming Soon” template — denied at display-name review.
  5. Using a number that was a personal WhatsApp account yesterday — 30-day cooldown.

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Troubleshooting

Switch the verification method from SMS to voice call in the embedded flow. Some carriers strip 6-digit codes in transit.
The number is on another WABA or still on the WhatsApp consumer app. Delete the consumer account from the WhatsApp mobile app’s Settings → Account → Delete My Account, wait 30 days, retry. Or migrate via the BSP Transfer flow.
Shift to “Trade Name” variant on Meta Business Manager → Settings → Business Info, and add documentation proving the trade name is yours. Then resubmit.
Usually Meta’s policy backlog. Open a ticket in Orbit with the template name + category; we escalate directly.