Usage Tracking and Benefits

Petboost tracks how membership benefits are used across each period, so members receive what they are entitled to, bookings past a limit are priced by the plan's rules, and your team can see where a customer stands with their allowance.

How usage periods work

A usage period is the stretch of time over which included uses are measured. When it ends, the counters refresh and the member starts fresh.

Period length

A benefit's Allowance length sets how long its quantity lasts:

• Weekly (7 days): refreshes every 7 days from the member's refresh day
• Fortnightly (14 days): refreshes every 14 days
• Monthly (28 days): refreshes every 28 days
• Per billing cycle: refreshes in step with the plan's billing cycle

When included uses refresh

When included uses refresh depends on the plan's When do they pay and refresh? setting, never on calendar month boundaries:

• On their start date (the default): a member who starts on the 15th of a month, or on a Wednesday for a weekly benefit, refreshes from that same day each cycle
• Fixed day of week: every new member shares that weekday for renewals and capped benefit refreshes
• Fixed benefit week, billed from their start date: capped benefits refresh on the shared weekday for every member, while billing follows each member's own start date
• Monthly periods are always 28 days, not calendar months

For example, a monthly period that starts on the 15th runs for 28 days before refreshing, and a weekly period that starts on a Wednesday refreshes every Wednesday.

The benefit calendar on the member's details and on the pet owner's membership page marks those days:

• An amber ring is a day included uses refresh. Weekly benefits ring that weekday every week, fortnightly every 14 days and monthly every 28 days
• A sky ring is a membership billing day
• The weekday label above that column is highlighted
• Open a ringed day to see which benefits refresh on it
• Purple means an included use is still available that day, blue is booked against the membership, and green is already used. A booking on a purple day is not using the membership; open it and choose Apply member pricing

No rollover

Unused allowances do not roll over to the next period. If a member has 2 included grooms per month and uses only 1, they still get 2 fresh grooms next month, not 3.

Usage counters

Each benefit on a membership keeps its own counter for the current period, with four numbers:

• Issued: the total allowance for this period, such as 2 grooms this month
• Redeemed: how many have been used so far, such as 1 groom
• Remaining: how many are left, issued minus redeemed
• Overage: how many extras were booked on a discounted overage after the included uses ran out. Extras charged at full price do not appear here

Counters show in the member's details, under each benefit, in the booking form when you choose a member's services, and on the customer's profile as a summary across all benefits.

For a member on a plan with 2 full grooms per month:

Counters move when the benefit is applied to a booking, not when the visit happens. A groom booked for next week already counts as redeemed, and completing it later changes nothing. A third groom charged at full price, with no discounted overage set up, leaves every counter untouched. A use counts against the period the visit falls in: a groom booked for a later period is held in that period and does not change this period's remaining.

What happens when included uses refresh

Included uses refresh on their own at each period boundary. When they do:

• Redeemed returns to 0
• Remaining returns to the full issued value
• Any overage count returns to 0
• The new period dates are worked out

Refresh happens at midnight in your business time zone on the refresh day: the member's anniversary date, or the shared weekday on a fixed-day or fixed-benefit-week plan. For example, a monthly membership that started on 1 March refreshes 28 days later, at midnight on 29 March.

Book a member

Petboost applies a member's benefits to a booking on its own. You check what it applied before you save.

1. Open Appointments, select New, then Appointment.
2. Choose the member's pet and a service one of their benefits covers.
3. Check the badge beside the pet's services: Checking benefits while Petboost works it out, then the benefit it applied, or Full price when no benefit covers the line.
4. Finish the booking.

For each line, Petboost applies the benefit that takes the most off it:

• An included service drops the line to $0 and uses one included use
• A discount comes off the line price. A capped discount uses one included use; an unlimited one uses nothing
• Once the included uses are gone, the benefit's discount on extra bookings applies if it has one. Otherwise the line is charged at the standard price

While you book, the form shows the membership badge beside the services it covers, the benefit being applied, the price after it, and what is left of the allowance, including whether this booking uses the last included use or goes over it. When a sibling takes the last included use in a multi-pet booking, the form shows Benefit claimed by and the pet's name.

A booking that used a membership benefit carries a redemption badge on the calendar wherever package credits show. Staff can also stamp a benefit onto a booking they have zeroed by hand, which records what the discount was for.

Which benefit applies when several could

When more than one benefit covers a service, Petboost applies whichever is worth the most money on that booking.

• While included uses remain, an included (100%) benefit beats a smaller uncapped discount, because it takes more off that line
• Once the included uses are gone, the uncapped discount applies, or the benefit's discount on extra bookings if it has one
• When two benefits are worth the same on a priced line, Petboost applies the uncapped one, so a capped included use is never spent on a booking it saves nothing on
• A line already priced at $0 is worth $0 under every benefit, so Petboost applies the included-use benefit when the plan has one that covers the service and the period still has a use left. The included use is deducted and the line shows that benefit at $0. The uncapped benefit is stamped only when no included use covers the service or the period is already full. See What happens if I apply member pricing to a booking I already discounted?

Services a benefit does not cover

A service that no benefit on the plan covers is booked and charged at the standard price. Membership status does not affect services outside the plan's scope.

Apply member pricing to earlier bookings

Member pricing is set when a booking is saved, so a booking saved before the customer joined stays at the standard price until you apply member pricing.

1. Open Customers & Pets and select Manage on one of the member's pets.
2. Open the Wallet tab, then Membership Plans.
3. Select Apply member pricing.
4. In Apply Member Pricing, tick the bookings to put on the membership.
5. Select the Apply to button, which names how many bookings.

The customer's Appointments tab offers the same with a green Membership covers upcoming bookings banner, and each booking's menu has Apply Member Price. Apply member pricing whether the line shows the standard price or a price you typed: a $0 line takes an included use where the plan has one, and the remaining count moves the same way.

Check how each benefit reads

The plan card shows each benefit's allowance in one line, written from its settings: an included benefit with a limit reads as a count per period, such as "1x Included per week", and a percentage benefit as the discount, such as "20% off".

1. Open Memberships, switch to Plans and select the plan.
2. Choose Benefits.
3. Select Preview plan cards.

If a line does not say what you meant, change the benefit on Benefits. See Add benefits.

The member crown badge

The crown badge shows your team at a glance that a customer has a membership. It reads Member, with a gold crown, and it appears:

• On the customer's profile and in the customer list
• On appointment cards, on the calendar and in appointment lists
• In Mission Control
• In search results
• In the booking form, beside the services

The crown is always gold. Point at it to see the plan name and, when the membership is not active, its status, such as Paused, Past due or Pending activation. The badge is removed when a membership is cancelled.

The crown helps your team recognise members, check for benefits when booking, and look after members whose membership is paused or past due. It is identity, not a sign that this visit is included.

Extra bookings over the limit

When a member goes past their included allowance in a period, the benefit's discount on extra bookings decides what happens.

With Offer a discount on extra bookings off, the default:

• The service can be booked at the standard listed price
• No discount or inclusion is applied past the limit
• No counter changes. The booking is an ordinary full-price booking, so nothing is stamped against the membership and the overage count stays at zero

With it on:

• The service can be booked at a discount, a percentage or a fixed amount off
• The discount on extras is usually smaller than the plan's standard discount
• The overage count goes up, and staff see the count and the discount applied

There is no setting that blocks bookings. With full price, extras are charged at the normal rate.

Usage visibility for staff

The member's details show, for the current period of each benefit, the period dates, the counters and the benefit calendar with its refresh and billing days. Past periods are not listed as counters. To check what a member used in an earlier period, open View membership, then Activity, which lists each use, or look at the bookings in those dates on the customer's Appointments tab.

The customer's profile shows the active plan name, the crown badge and a summary of the benefits left this period.

Usage visibility for pet owners

Members see their own membership in the pet owner app: their plan name and description, what is left of each benefit this period and when it refreshes, the next billing date and amount, and the membership's status.

From the pet owner app, members can:

• View their usage and remaining benefits, and see when their included uses refresh
• View their next billing date and amount
• Pause their membership, if the plan allows self-service pausing
• Cancel their membership

Your team can also pause, resume or cancel any membership on a customer's behalf from Members on Memberships. Whether a member can pause their own membership is set by the plan's Members can self-service pause; cancelling is open to the member while their membership is active.

Tracking usage across multiple benefits

When a plan has several benefits, each tracks usage on its own, with its own counter, its own services and its own rules for extra bookings. For example, on a Premium Groom Club:

Multi-pet households

Usage counters are per membership, not per pet. Adding a pet to a membership does not add more included uses.

If two dogs are covered on a plan with 2 included daycare days per week, those 2 days are shared between them, and booking both dogs on the same day uses two of them. If each dog should get its own inclusions, create a separate multi-dog plan tier with the inclusions scaled up rather than relying on the additional pet surcharge.

Common scenarios

A customer books their last included service

• Staff see 1 remaining while booking
• After the booking, the counter shows 0 remaining
• If they book again this period, the extra booking rules apply
• Included uses refresh on the next refresh day

Included uses refresh while a customer has overage

• The current overage count is recorded in history
• All counters refresh to their full issued values
• The overage count returns to 0
• The new period begins fresh

A customer is paused mid-period

• Counters freeze at their current values
• Benefits cannot be redeemed while paused
• If they resume before the refresh day, counters continue from where they froze
• If the pause runs past the refresh day, a fresh period is issued on the plan's usual cadence, and any visits already booked in it keep the uses they claimed
• The refresh weekday does not move because of a pause, and the period does not extend to make up for paused time

Frequently asked questions

Does the Member label mean this booking is included?

No. Member means they have a membership. The visit is included when the booking shows the membership benefit, or after you apply member pricing to an older booking.

Why doesn't remaining match the diary?

Remaining counts visits that have the membership stamped. Completing a walk does not deduct, and a diary walk at full price does not deduct. Purple on the calendar is an unused included visit, not a booked walk. An amber ring is the refresh day and a sky ring is the billing day. Remaining is this period only. Bookings in later periods hold uses in those periods; the benefit card in the Membership Plans section of the customer's Wallet tab lists them. Apply member pricing on a whole series moves remaining by this period's visits only.

What happens if I apply member pricing to a booking I already discounted?

The included use is still taken. A line you have typed down to $0 is worth $0 under every benefit, so Petboost applies the included-use benefit when the plan has one that covers the service and the period has a use left. The line keeps its $0 price, shows that benefit, and the remaining count drops by one.

When no included use covers the service, or the period is already full, the uncapped discount benefit is stamped instead and the count does not move.

To keep a $0 visit off the allowance, leave it unticked in the Apply Member Pricing dialog.

Booking at the standard price and applying member pricing shows the customer the saving on the booking; typing $0 does not. Either way the visit counts.

Why does remaining drop when I book weeks ahead?

Because an included use is claimed when you book the visit, not when the visit happens.

A booking claims its use from the period it falls in, not the period you are standing in. Book a recurring series and it claims a use in every week it covers, months ahead. That is deliberate: it holds the customer's place, so a week that is fully booked cannot be double-promised to someone else.

A member whose start date is still ahead can book visits for that first week now. Those visits hold uses from the start date. This is per visit you save. It is not a promise that a recurring series will stamp every week.

Two things follow:

• A new period can open with most of its uses already claimed by bookings made earlier. The count is right; those visits are still to come
• The automatic email that goes out when one use is left counts claimed uses, including visits booked ahead. A member who joins and immediately books a full week can get it the same day

If a member asks, the plain answer is that nothing has been lost. Their booked visits are already covered, and the email means one unclaimed slot remains before the period refreshes.

Why does a benefit have an allowance length when the plan already has a reset day?

They answer two different questions. Allowance length is how long the quantity lasts before it refreshes: 7 days, 14 days, 28 days or one billing cycle. The weekday it lands on comes from the plan: each member's own start date, the fixed day of week, or the fixed benefit week's day you set under When do they pay and refresh? on the plan's Details. Changing that day later applies to new members only, so existing members keep the day they joined on.

Can I charge on Wednesday and refresh uses on Monday?

Yes, with the right model. On the plan's Details, set When do they pay and refresh? to Fixed benefit week, billed from their start date and pick Monday. Every member then counts included uses over the same Monday week, while each pays from their own start date. The change applies to members who join after you save.

Two things to know about that model:

• A mid-week joiner's first part-week grants the full allowance for the days remaining, and because billing runs from their own start date, their first payment covers a full cycle rather than a part-week
• Every capped benefit on the plan must refresh weekly

On the other two models, pay day and refresh day are the same weekday for each member. A mid-week join on a fixed-day plan still lands on that weekday after the first payment; if Pro-rate the first week is on, that first payment covers only the remaining days. You can still include 2 walks every 7 days on a 28-day invoice, refreshing on that member's weekday.

Related articles

• Memberships Overview: key concepts and how memberships work
• Creating Membership Plans: setting up plans and benefits
• Managing Members: adding members and moving someone onto a new price
• Membership Billing and Payments: billing mechanics and Stripe
• Memberships FAQ: billing, included uses, refunds and changing a member