Academy
Decision guides
One question, one answer, and the reasoning you can argue with. Every guide names the Petboost setting it lands on, so the decision and the configuration are never in two different places.
On Academy
Dog grooming courses in Melbourne: which one should you do?Take a subsidised TAFE place at Box Hill or Kangan if you can give the Certificate III 6 to 10 months, or pay for a private academy in Brunswick, Seddon or Berwick if you would rather learn the hands-on part in 4 to 5 full-time weeks in a working salon.Decision guideUpdated 27 September 2026Dog grooming courses in Sydney: which one should you do?Start with TAFE NSW's one-day-a-week course at Ultimo for the recognised Certificate III at a subsidised fee, or choose Petbarn's 4-week salon course in Chatswood if you can take a month off and would rather do the hands-on part in one block.Decision guideUpdated 27 September 2026A puppy misses a week: make-up, credit or nothing?Offer a swap into another intake when you run one and written notes when you do not, and never a credit, because the course was sold as one product and a refunded week takes money out of a class whose costs did not change.Decision guideUpdated 27 September 2026AM and PM visits: one booking or two, and how to price the second?One booking per day carrying two timed services, priced as a shorter second visit on its own service, because the services field holds two start times while keeping the day on one card and one invoice.Decision guideUpdated 27 September 2026Do casual daycare visits need a deposit, or do packages solve it?Packages solve it and deposits do not, because a prepaid credit is already paid before the dog arrives and a casual day is small enough that the deposit costs more goodwill than it protects.Decision guideUpdated 27 September 2026Daycare and a groom on the same day: one booking or two?One booking with both as services on it, because the services field holds two start times, two team members and two resources while the family still gets one arrival, one card and one invoice.Decision guideUpdated 27 September 2026Should groomers take a deposit, and how much?Take one on the bookings you cannot refill the same morning and leave the ordinary bath and tidy alone, because a grooming slot is refillable in a way a fortnight of boarding never is.Decision guideUpdated 27 September 2026Enrolment deposit or full payment on a six-week course?Full payment at enrolment for anything starting inside a month, and a deposit only on the intake you are selling a long way ahead, because a seat lost in week two cannot be resold at any price.Decision guideUpdated 27 September 2026How big should a puppy class be?Six to eight puppies with one instructor, because the ceiling is how many handlers one voice can coach at once rather than how many puppies fit in the hall.Decision guideUpdated 27 September 2026How many dogs should be on a group walk?Start at four for a solo walker and only go higher once your council limit, your lead hand and your vehicle all agree, because the ceiling on a group walk is set outside your booking system before it is set inside it.Decision guideUpdated 27 September 2026Should you charge a travel fee, and where does the zone end?Build the travel into the price of a second service for the outer ring rather than adding a fee, and draw the zone as a list of suburbs, because Petboost has no distance calculation and no travel fee to switch on.Decision guideUpdated 27 September 2026Staff or station: what should your capacity hang off?Hang it on whichever one you would actually turn a booking away for, and on both only when both genuinely bind, because every constraint you add that is not real removes slots you could have sold.Decision guideUpdated 27 September 2026Should every new daycare dog do a temperament test first?Yes, and it has to be a booked service the software enforces rather than a promise on your website, because the assessment you skip is the one you skip on the busiest morning of the year.Decision guideUpdated 27 September 2026What commits a weekly walk, and is the meet and greet paid?A standing series with a card on file commits it and a deposit cannot, because recurring bookings do not take one, and the meet and greet is a paid first visit that gates the walks behind it.Decision guideUpdated 27 September 2026What holds a two-week house-sit over Easter?A deposit sized to the fortnight you cannot resell, plus a card you have checked is still valid on the day the sit runs, because a booking taken in January is usually held against a card that expires before Easter.Decision guideUpdated 27 September 2026How should a boarding cancellation policy work at peak?Run one ladder all year and tighten peak on a separate peak Stay service, because nothing in Petboost reads the date: the notice period, the fee and the deposit come from the business default or the service booked.Decision guideUpdated 27 September 2026Should boarding have fixed check-in and check-out windows?Yes, published on the service so the booking form enforces them, because open-ended collection is what breaks the next stay rather than a courtesy you extend to good customers.Decision guideUpdated 27 September 2026Should you take a deposit on a two-week boarding stay?Yes, and size it to the stay rather than to a slot, because a fortnight over Christmas is the hardest booking in your year to refill and the deposit is the part you keep.Decision guideUpdated 27 September 2026How many dogs can you board? The number that paysBoarding capacity is runs multiplied by nights, not pets per day, and the number worth setting comes from staffing and cleaning time rather than from how many beds you own.Decision guideUpdated 27 September 2026
On the Petboost blog
Decision guides that already live on petboost.com.au. They stay there; Academy links rather than copies.
How Should a Pet Business Cancellation Policy Work?What to Charge When the Coat Is Worse Than BookedEmployee or Contractor? The Rules for Pet BusinessesHourly Pay or Commission for Groomers in Australia?Should Online Bookings Confirm Instantly or Wait?Fixed Price or Price Range for Grooming Quotes?Multi-Pet Homes: One Appointment or Separate Bookings?How Far Ahead (and How Late) Should Clients Book?How to Fill a Last-Minute Cancellation the Same DayThe Client Did Not Rebook. Now What?When a Client Is Not Worth Keeping, and How to Part WellHow to Choose a Dog Grooming Course in AustraliaNobody Is Going to Stop YouDeposits: Take Money at Booking, Refund It AutomaticallyHow Many Pets a Day Is Sustainable? 5 Things That Decide It