Guide

Appointments

Using the Booking Form

The booking form is where your team creates and edits appointments. It holds the pet, the services and extras, the time, team members, resources, notes, notifications and the price.

Updated 27 September 2026 - 8 min read
Open in Petboost

Creating and editing use the same form, so everything below applies to both. A new booking opens in New Appointment. To edit, open the appointment and select Manage, then Edit, and the same form opens with the booking filled in.

Courses are not on this form

The New Appointment form lists Regular, Initial, Add-on and Stay services. It does not list courses or group classes. Do not create a Regular service just so a class appears in the services picker. See Courses versus services.

To enrol a pet in puppy school, scentwork or any other course:

  1. Open Courses.
  2. Select New, then Enrol pet(s). Or open the course card, select Manage, then Enrol Pet.

Create an appointment

  1. Open Appointments, select New, then Appointment. Or select an empty slot on the calendar and choose Appointment in New Appointment, Stay or Blocked Time?.
  2. Pick the date under Appointment Date. Leave Magic Availability Check on to have Petboost find open times for you, or turn it off to enter times yourself.
  3. Under Create, choose One-off, Recurring or Bulk Create. One-off is the default.
  4. Select the Pet field and search for the pet. If the pet is not in Petboost yet, select New to add the pet and owner first.
  5. Choose the service in Services for and the pet's name. You can choose more than one. See Add more than one service.
  6. Pick the time. With Magic Availability Check on, select one of the times offered. With it off, set the start time on each service.
  7. Optional: add extras such as a nail clip or an ear clean once a service is chosen. See Add extras (add-ons).
  8. Optional: under Team Member and Resources, leave Magic Match to let Petboost assign, or choose one yourself.
  9. Optional: add internal notes for staff, or customer-facing notes.
  10. Optional: keep your usual notifications, or change whether the customer is notified about this booking.
  11. Check the price. The pricing preview near the bottom updates as you add services and extras.
  12. Select Create Appointment. For a recurring booking it reads Create Recurring Series.

Recurring repeats the booking on a schedule. Bulk Create books several dates at once and is for staff only: pet owners book extra days themselves with Book more dates after they pick the first time, for regular appointments while signed in, not stays or courses. See Can pet owners book more than one day at a time?.

Choose how the time is set

Magic Availability Check, at the top of the form, decides whether Petboost finds the time or you type it.

  1. Open Appointments, select New, then Appointment.
  2. Leave Magic Availability Check on to see only the times Petboost can book, or switch it off.
  3. With it off, set the start and end time on each service yourself.

With it off, the appointment is created without an availability check, so you can book a time the engine would not offer. Petboost shows a warning, such as Fully booked at this time, and does not ask you to confirm.

Book several dates at once

Bulk Create keeps the pet, services, notes and payment set-up the same on every date.

  1. Open Appointments, select New, then Appointment.
  2. Under Create, choose Bulk Create.
  3. Set the first date and time, then choose the other dates under Select Additional Dates.
  4. Create the booking and follow the review.

With Magic Availability Check on, a review checks each extra date against your chosen time:

  • Dates free at the same time are accepted and show Same time. Select one of those rows if that day needs a different start, and pick another free time
  • Dates that are busy at the original time open expanded, so you can pick another time, Force Original Time or Skip This Date
  • Nothing is created until you confirm. The appointments are then created one date at a time
  • If an extra date fails, the others still go through. Retry the failed dates, use Change Time to check availability again and pick a free time, or skip the date. Dates already created stay
  • If the first date fails, nothing else is tried until that date succeeds on a retry. The extra dates then continue on their own
  • Force Original Time books the chosen time even when Petboost found a clash. Prefer another time or Skip This Date unless you are sure

With Magic Availability Check off, choosing extra dates shows Same Start Times and Different Start Times under the service. Same Start Times keeps every extra date on the original start and end. Different Start Times adds a start and end time for each extra date, with the same working-hours cues as the service times. Review Times & Create confirms before anything is created. Turn Magic Availability Check on when you want Petboost to suggest free times for each day instead.

Add more than one service

Services for takes several services, so you are not limited to one service per pet.

  1. Open Appointments, select New, then Appointment, or open a booking and select Manage, then Edit.
  2. Select Services for and the pet's name.
  3. Choose a service. It appears as a chip, and the list stays open so you can keep choosing.
  4. To remove a service, select the X on its chip.

The price and total duration update every time you add or remove a service. So to put a groom on a booking that already has daycare, you do not start again: you add the groom beside the daycare on that booking, and both sit on one appointment, one card and one invoice.

A full service, such as a groom, a daycare day or a wash, goes in Services for. Small extras such as a nail clip or an ear clean go in the extras area just below. See Add extras (add-ons).

Add a service to an existing booking

  1. Open the booking from Appointments, then select Manage and Edit.
  2. Select Services for. It already shows the current service as a chip.
  3. Choose the extra service. It is added beside the existing one.
  4. Adjust the time, team member or resource for the added service if needed.
  5. Select Update This Appointment. The price and totals update themselves.

Add another pet

To book more than one pet from the same family onto one appointment:

  1. Open Appointments, select New, then Appointment, and choose the first pet.
  2. Select Add Sibling to add another of the owner's pets, or Create & Add Pet to create a new pet and add it.
  3. Choose the new pet's services and times.

Each pet gets its own card with its own services and timing, and they share one appointment card, one invoice and one payment.

Add extras (add-ons)

Add-ons are the small extras that go on top of a main service. They appear once you have chosen at least one service for the pet. Until then they show Select a service first.

  1. Open Appointments, select New, then Appointment, and choose the pet and a main service.
  2. Select an extra to include it. You can add several.
  3. Optional: use the quantity control to add more than one of the same extra.
  4. To remove an extra, use its delete button.

Add Item on the appointment's invoice is the same kind of extra: a charge only. It does not create a time on the calendar or a Trips stop. If the extra needs to appear on the calendar or on the run, such as a mobile pick-up, a taxi or a second timed service, do not use Add Item. Select Manage, then Edit, and add it in Services for.

When a service is greyed out

  • Not Eligible: the pet does not meet that service's rules, such as weight, age or breed. When the missing detail can be fixed, such as a missing weight, Petboost shows that the pet needs some info to be eligible: select Add Missing Info to update the pet, or Proceed Anyway and update it later
  • Select a service first: the item is an add-on. Choose a main service first and it becomes available

Common questions

Can one appointment have several services?

Yes. Add them all in Services for. They stack on the one booking.

Can different pets have different services?

Yes. Add each pet with Add Sibling or Create & Add Pet, then choose services for each pet.

Where did the add-ons go?

They only appear after a main service is chosen, and they sit just below Services for.

Do I need to redo the booking to add a service?

No. Edit the appointment and add the service in Services for, beside what is already there.

I added something from the appointment and it is missing from Appointments or Trips

Invoice Add Item is a charge only. Select Manage, then Edit, and add a timed service in Services for. See Getting started with Trips.