Getting Started with Mission Control

Mission Control opens on the date and the view you last used, starting on Pets the first time. It is built for running the day, and the Appointments calendar in the sidebar stays the place for detailed scheduling. Your view, Day or Week, header size, grouping and sort order are remembered in the browser you use.

Find your way around

The header starts compressed. It holds your business name, the arrows and date picker, the Day or Week menu, Expand and the Actions menu. Select Expand to show three cards instead: the quick action buttons with the date controls and Compress, the opening hours graph, and Attention Required. Expand and Compress are on desktop only, and Mission Control remembers which one you chose.

The opening hours graph shows how many pets are in through the day, coloured by status. Its title reads today's opening status, or Open and the day's name for another date, and its menu shows Opening Hours: the opening and closing times, worked out from your team members' and resources' hours. When last week has bookings, vs. Prev Week compares the day with the same day last week.

Under the header, the toolbar holds the views, then the search box, Group, Options, Filter and Reset. The bookings for the date fill the space below.

On a wide screen, a sidebar beside the bookings holds Coming & Going, Team & Resources, a stays and courses section, and Intelligence:

• Team & Resources lists who and what is working. Select a team member or a resource to list their appointments, or select a blocked time to see or delete it.
• The stays and courses section is titled Stays & Courses, Stays or Courses, depending on what you offer.
• Intelligence holds Admin Time Saved, then the money cards: Payment Collection and Payment Methods for admins, Revenue Mix (single bookings, recurring and package credits) and Service Mix. Collected or Earned at the top of the section sets how the money is counted, and most cards compare with the previous week. A role that hides financial data sees none of the money cards.

Hide the sidebar with its toggle, and bring it back with Sidebar.

Check what needs attention

Work through Attention Required at the start of the day, before you open the calendar.

1. Open Mission Control and set the date you want to check.
2. If Attention Required is not showing, select Expand in the header.
3. Select a tile to open its list.

Attention Required puts what needs action and the pets that need extra care in one card, and every tile carries the same weight. A tile shows only when its count is above zero, each tile opens its own list, and All Clear means nothing needs you. A tile's label changes to the singular for a count of one. Most tiles count the bookings on the date at the top. Payment issues and Ready to check out cover bookings that ended in the last 180 days, Pending appts. covers the next 180 days, and Vaccinations to review and Abandoned bookings cover everything waiting, whatever the date.

Other tiles appear when they apply, such as Abandoned bookings and Pending forms. Inside a list, bulk controls such as Bulk Confirm Mode handle several bookings at once. See Attention System for each tile and what to do with it.

Start something from the quick actions

The quick actions are buttons on the expanded header and entries in the Actions menu on the compressed one. Package, New Stay and Course Enrolment show only once you have packages, stay services or courses.

Add a new customer

Add the owner and their first pet before you book them, for example a walk-in you have not seen before.

1. Open Mission Control and select New Customer, from Actions when the header is compressed.
2. Enter the owner's details and phone number, then the pet's.
3. Under Notify customer?, choose Send notification or Create silently.
4. Select Create & Send Activation SMS, or Create Silently.

If the number already belongs to a customer, the panel says so before anything is saved. Open that profile and add the pet there instead.

Book an appointment

Use this for a walk-in or a booking taken at the counter. The card lands on today's board once it is saved.

1. Open Mission Control and select New Appointment, from Actions when the header is compressed.
2. Search for the pet, and under Services for choose the service.
3. With Magic Availability Check on, choose one of the times offered. With it off, set the start and end time yourself.
4. Select Create Appointment.

A booking dated today lands in Confirmed when its start time is still ahead, and straight in In Progress when its start time has passed. With Magic Availability Check off and a start time already past, the button reads Review Before Creation. See Using the booking form.

Record a quick sale

A quick sale records a product or a service sold at the counter with no booking behind it. It asks for the pet first so the sale is recorded against the right customer and pet.

1. Open Mission Control and select Quick Sale, from Actions when the header is compressed.
2. Find the pet, then select Continue to Sale.
3. Select + Add Item and pick the product or service. Set its Qty and any Discount.
4. Choose the Payment Method, then select the Record Sale button, which names the method.

Find a pet

Find Pet opens a pet's profile without leaving Mission Control for Customers & Pets.

1. Open Mission Control and select Find Pet, from Actions when the header is compressed.
2. Type the pet's name, the owner's name, an email address or a phone number.
3. Select the pet, then View Profile.

Sell a package

Once you have packages, sell one without opening the customer's profile first.

1. Open Mission Control and select Package, from Actions when the header is compressed.
2. Select the pet whose owner is buying, then Continue to Purchase.
3. Under Select Package, choose the package, then choose the Payment Method.
4. Select the purchase button, such as Purchase on Card Reader, and confirm.

If Package is not in the list, set up a package first. See Getting Started with Packages.

Book a stay

Once you have a stay service, book an overnight or by-the-hour stay from the same place.

1. Open Mission Control and select New Stay, from Actions when the header is compressed.
2. On Pets & Services, choose the pet and the stay service.
3. On Timing, set the Check-in Date, Check-in Time, Check-out Date and Check-out Time.
4. On Review, check the stay, then select Book Stay for and the pet's name.

If New Stay is not in the list, create a stay service first. See Getting Started with Services.

Enrol a pet in a course

1. Open Mission Control and select Course Enrolment, from Actions when the header is compressed.
2. Under Select Owner & Pets, choose the pet, or select New to add a customer first.
3. Choose the Course.
4. Select Enrol Now.

Block time

Block time for a team member or a resource so nothing can be booked into it, such as a lunch break or training.

1. Open Mission Control and select Blocked Time, from Actions when the header is compressed.
2. Under Block Time For:, choose Team Member or Resource/Location, then select who or what.
3. Set the Start Date, End Date, Start Time and End Time.
4. Optional: add a Label (Optional), such as "Lunch break".
5. Select Create Blocked Time.

See Working hours and blocked times.

Get help

Get Help opens Grazi, Petboost's assistant, with a way through to a person.

1. Open Mission Control.
2. If the header is compressed, select Expand.
3. Select Get Help, then type your question.
4. To reach a person, select Speak with the team.
5. Fill in the form, then select Send to the team.

Print the day's run sheet

The run sheet PDF lists every booking for the day with its notes, for the bench or the van. One card per page puts each booking on its own page. Compressed packs several bookings on each page. Include cover adds the overview page (appointment counts, revenue and the day's breakdown). No cover leaves that page out.

1. Open Mission Control and choose the Run Sheet view.
2. If the header shows Compress rather than Actions, select Compress.
3. Select Actions, then Print Day Run Sheet.
4. Under Layout, select One card per page or Compressed.
5. Under Cover page, select Include cover or No cover.
6. Select Print. The PDF downloads.

Choose a view

Mission Control has up to 12 views. Stays shows only while a stay is active, Courses only while course sessions are in view, and Grid and the team and resource view only once bookings have team members or resources.

1. Open Mission Control.
2. Select a view in the toolbar.
3. To hide or reorder views, open the Day or Week menu and switch views on or off under Views, or drag them into order.

Photos, Roster, Grid, Services, Spotlight and Courses are the other views. See View Modes Explained for every view.

Switch between a day and a week

Day view is the default and shows one date. Week view shows a week, Monday to Sunday.

1. Open Mission Control and open the menu beside the date, which reads Day or Week.
2. Under Date Options, choose Day View or Week View.
3. Use the arrows beside the date to move a day at a time, or a week at a time, starting on the Monday.

In week view, the weekday buttons SUN to SAT choose which days show. A filled button is shown, an outlined one is hidden, and a white dot marks today. Select a day to switch it on or off; the last day on cannot be switched off. For the current week, the days from today to Saturday start switched on, and for any other week, every day starts on, in both cases only the days your team members or resources work. The eye button hides or shows the row of weekday buttons.

Under On page load always, Stay on same date reopens Mission Control on the date you last viewed, and Go back to Today always opens on today.

Search and filter

The search box finds bookings by the owner's name, the pet's name, or a word in the booking's notes. Part of a name is enough, and the list updates as you type.

1. Open Mission Control and type in Search customers, pets, notes....
2. To filter, select Filter.
3. Under Status, switch on the statuses you want to see. Only statuses with bookings on the dates in view are listed, each with its count.
4. Select Apply Filters. Clear All removes every filter.

Depending on the bookings in view, Filters also offers Payment Method (Has Card on File or No Card on File), Service Type, Service Category, Pets with Special Needs, Individual Attributes, Appointment Location, Team Member, Vacancy, Resource, Time Range, Pet Suburb, Pet Breeds, Has Addons and Appointment Type. Reset in the toolbar clears the search and every filter, and puts the sort, colours, grouping and weekday buttons back to their defaults. See Filtering & Organisation.

Use Mission Control on a phone

On phones, tablets and narrow windows, two tabs sit under the date:

• Appointments opens first: the booking list in your chosen view.
• Overview holds Daily Activity (the opening hours graph, Attention Required and Coming & Going), Admin Time Saved, stays, Schedules, courses and Revenue Intelligence.

The bar at the bottom of the screen has View, Search, Quick, Filters and Group. View and Group work on Appointments only, Search and Filters open full-screen, and Quick opens the quick actions, where New Stay is named Create Stay. Compress and Expand do not apply here, because the header cards sit on Overview.

Common first-time questions

Where did the calendar go?

It is still under Appointments in the sidebar. Mission Control is for running the day, the calendar for detailed scheduling and planning.

Can I still drag appointments to different times?

Use the Appointments calendar for time changes. In Mission Control, the Workflow view moves a booking between statuses, not time slots.

1. Open Mission Control and choose the Workflow view.
2. Switch off Drag Lock in the toolbar. It is on by default.
3. Drag the card one column to the right.

Each drop runs the real action: In Progress checks the pet in and Ready to Pay checks it out. A drag to the left is refused, so a check-out is undone from the card with Undo Check Out.

Why don't I see all the quick actions?

Package, New Stay and Course Enrolment show only once you have packages, stay services or courses. Get Help is on the expanded header only, and Print Day Run Sheet is in the compressed header's Actions menu only.

How do I turn off the attention cards?

Select Compress in the header. Attention Required only shows on the expanded header, and it has no setting to switch it off.

Can I customise what shows?

Hide and reorder views under Views in the Day or Week menu, and choose what each booking card shows with Card content under Options, a layout the calendar shares. The sidebar cards show when they have data.

Does Mission Control replace the Appointments page?

No. Mission Control is built to be your main screen for the day, and the Appointments calendar stays for detailed scheduling. Use each for the task in front of you.

Next steps

• View Modes Explained: every view and what it suits
• Attention System: each attention tile and what to do with it
• Filtering & Organisation: filters, grouping and sorting
• Mission Control FAQ: common questions and troubleshooting

Related documentation

• Mission Control Overview: what Mission Control is
• Appointments Getting Started: booking in detail
• Team Members: team management
• Resources: space and resource management

Related FAQs

• What's the difference between Mission Control and Appointments?
• Can I see calendar events and appointments in the same view?
• Which view mode should I use?