Policies & Paperwork

These settings protect your business and set clear expectations with customers. Each one is the business default, and each service keeps its own copy, which you change on the service's Policies & Paperwork tab.

Customer Agreement System

When a customer books with you for the first time, their agreement to your terms, conditions and waivers is stored with their account, for legal protection and transparency. Customer Agreement System, at the top of Policies & Paperwork, says so under Transparent Agreement Tracking.

Petboost keeps:

• The date and time of the agreement
• Which documents were agreed to
• The IP address and booking details
• The version of the terms at the time of the agreement

That gives you legal protection, full transparency for pet owners, automatic record-keeping and compliance with consumer protection laws. The customer reviews and accepts your terms, conditions and waivers the first time they book, the agreement is saved to their account, and you see it on the Paperwork tab of their profile.

How customers agree to your terms

Customers agree to your uploaded terms in these places:

• First log in: when a customer opens the pet owner app and has not agreed to your terms, a pending-requirements banner appears at the top. They tap it and accept before they continue
• Self-service booking: the booking flow requires the agreement when a terms PDF is uploaded
• Kiosk Mode: walk-in customers agree on a front-desk tablet. See Kiosk Mode

In the booking flow, the terms and the waiver are two separate cards. The terms card has View Terms & Conditions and the tick box I have read & agree to your business's Terms & Conditions. The waiver card has Review Waiver and the tick box I have read & agree to the terms of the waiver as set out by your business. The customer can open each full PDF, must tick each box to go on, and the agreement is saved with a timestamp to their account, where it stays.

Staff creating a customer or a booking does not collect the tick for them. The customer still sees the terms banner the first time they log in.

Digital agreements like these, known as clickwrap agreements, are legally binding: the timestamp and IP address are the proof, and the customer had the chance to review the documents.

Chase unsigned terms for upcoming bookings

Mission Control lists customers who have not agreed to required terms and have at least one future active booking. Each card is one upcoming booking.

1. Open Mission Control.
2. On Attention Required, select Terms not agreed.
3. In Terms Not Agreed, select Send SMS request on the card. It appears when the customer has a mobile number.

The SMS includes a sign-in link that opens that appointment with the terms dialog. To text more than one customer at once:

1. In Terms Not Agreed, turn on Bulk SMS Mode.
2. Select the cards to send, or select Select All.
3. Select Send SMS to and the number of clients.

You can also send one request from an appointment: on the calendar, open Manage on that appointment and choose Send terms request.

A successful send writes an owner diary note, Terms & conditions request SMS sent, which appears on the customer's Timeline & Notes tab. The send uses the transactional SMS path, so Communications Booster is not required.

If the customer is at the desk and will not use their phone, use Kiosk Mode instead.

Set your change and cancellation policy

The change and cancellation policy decides whether customers can change or cancel their own bookings, what a late cancellation costs and when late starts.

1. Open Policies & Paperwork.
2. Under Change & Cancellation Policy, switch on Allow changes and cancellations.
3. Choose Cancellation Fee Percentage, from 0% to 100% of the appointment cost in 5% steps.
4. Set Change & Cancellation Notice Period in Weeks, Days, Hours and Minutes.
5. Select Publish Changes, tick the box in Before You Publish, then select Publish Changes.

Cancellation Fee Percentage and Change & Cancellation Notice Period show only while Allow changes and cancellations is on, because they only apply when customers can change or cancel.

With Allow changes and cancellations on, customers change and cancel for themselves, which saves admin and gives them flexibility, and your cancellation fee still applies. With it off, customers must contact you to change or cancel. That gives you full control and suits strict booking policies, and it is rarely recommended.

How the cancellation fee works

When a customer cancels late, Petboost works out the fee from the appointment cost and charges it to the card on file, or leaves it on the invoice. The rest is refunded if the customer had paid. A failed charge can be retried from the appointment. Each cancelled appointment shows the fee's status:

These are common fee settings:

For example, a $100 appointment with a 50% cancellation fee: the customer cancels late, the $50 fee is charged, and the other $50 is refunded if they had paid, or never charged. Higher fees reduce cancellations and may frustrate customers. Lower fees are customer-friendly and may not cover your costs.

How the notice period works

The notice period is how far ahead customers must tell you about a change or cancellation. Weeks takes any number of weeks, and boarding businesses often set 1 or 2. Minutes go in 5-minute steps.

With a 24-hour notice period and an appointment on Monday at 2 PM, the customer must cancel by Sunday at 2 PM. Cancelling with at least that much notice costs nothing. Cancelling after Sunday at 2 PM incurs the cancellation fee.

Match the notice period to your preparation and booking lead time. 24 to 48 hours is standard for most pet services, 3 to 7 days suits boarding or high-demand services, and shorter periods suit walk-in friendly services.

Why can't my customer cancel their appointment?

If a customer says they cannot cancel in the customer portal, check these in order:

1. Allow changes and cancellations: if it is off, customers must contact you directly.
2. The notice period: once the appointment is inside your notice period, for example within 24 hours, the customer can no longer cancel or change it themselves. They can still contact you to cancel it.
3. The appointment status: a customer can only cancel or change a Confirmed or Pending appointment, and never a course appointment. Once it is In Progress, Complete or Ready to Pay, only your team can cancel it.
4. Recurring appointments: if cancellations are allowed and the notice period has not passed, customers see the same three Cancel options you do: Cancel single, Skip these dates (pause a date range, where they must set Stop at), and End series (all future). Ending the series cannot be undone, so you would create a new series if they return. A prepaid recurring series cannot be cancelled in self-service, and they must contact you. See Pause or cancel a recurring series.

Set a different policy for one service

Each service has its own cancellation policy, terms and waiver. Change a service's copy when it needs a stricter or looser policy than the rest of your business.

1. Open Services, select Manage on the service, then Manage Service.
2. Choose Policies & Paperwork.
3. Under Change & Cancellation Policy, set Allow changes & cancellations, Cancellation Fee Percentage and Notice Period. To give the service its own notice period, choose Set Custom Duration.
4. Select Publish Changes, tick the box in Before You Publish, then select Publish Changes.

When an appointment has several services, the highest cancellation fee and the longest notice period apply. The service's own terms and waiver documents are under Advanced options on the same tab.

Waive a cancellation fee

Waive the fee when a customer has an emergency and cannot give the notice your policy asks for. Petboost only asks about the fee when the service has one and the booking is already inside its notice period.

1. Open the booking from Appointments and select Cancel.
2. Under Charge customer a cancellation fee?, choose Waive Cancellation Fee.
3. Answer Notify customer?, then select Cancel Appointment.
4. In Confirm fee waiver, select Waive fee & cancel.

Require vaccination certificates

Turn on Require vaccination certificate to make proof of vaccination or a titre test, uploaded before they can book, a condition of booking online. Petboost checks each certificate's label and dates, not the document itself.

1. Open Policies & Paperwork.
2. Under Health & Safety Requirements, switch on Require vaccination certificate.
3. Optional: switch on Require vaccine review & approval, which appears once the first switch is on.
4. Select Publish Changes, tick the box in Before You Publish, then select Publish Changes.

With approval on, appointments stay Pending until you approve the uploaded certificate, and you enter its dates when you approve. With Require vaccination certificate off, customers can book without vaccination or titre test records and you check them yourself later.

A service can override either setting on its own Policies & Paperwork tab. When the business switch is on and some services store it off, the switch shows how many use their own setting (off), so this rule does not apply to them. The same badge shows on Fields & Forms for the matching field.

Always require certificates for boarding, daycare, group training classes and any service where pets interact or share space. They can be optional for one-on-one grooming, mobile services at the customer's home and training with no pet interaction. Ask for the core vaccines (Rabies, Distemper and Parvovirus for dogs) and Bordetella (kennel cough) for boarding and daycare, current and not expired, and signed by a licensed veterinarian. Titre test results are also accepted as proof of immunity. Requiring certificates matters legally and protects every pet in your care.

Review uploaded certificates

Certificates waiting for you are listed on Mission Control.

1. Open Mission Control.
2. On Attention Required, select Vaccinations to review.
3. Select Review certificate on the pet's card.
4. Check what the owner submitted, confirm Vaccine / label, Administered date and Expiry date, then select Approve vaccination.
5. To turn a certificate down instead, select Reject, enter the Reason for rejection, then select Reject & notify owner.

When you reject a certificate, the owner is notified and asked to upload a new one.

Require pet details before booking

Five more requirements sit under Advanced options at the foot of the tab. Each one must be met before a customer can complete a booking.

1. Open Policies & Paperwork.
2. Switch on Advanced options.
3. Under Vet, Microchip, Weight, Birthday and Desexed, switch on the requirements you need.
4. Select Publish Changes, tick the box in Before You Publish, then select Publish Changes.

If any of them is already on, Advanced options opens by itself and shows how many are set. Each is a business-wide default: the dropdown beside it shows which services override it, and you can turn a requirement on or off for one service under Advanced options on that service's Policies & Paperwork tab. To see which requirements a customer still has to complete, open the pet's profile and choose Simulate, then Profile Completion.

The customer adds a missing detail once, on the pet profile, and it stays on file for every later booking.

Policy Builder

The Policy Builder is not a done-for-you finished document. It walks you through a click-through wizard and builds a starting-point Word template from your answers. You download that copy, edit it to suit your business, and we strongly recommend about an hour with a legal professional to review it before you use it live. The point is to bring down the legal cost and effort so you are not starting from a blank page. It does not replace that review, and it is not legal advice.

Build your terms and waiver templates

1. Open Policies & Paperwork.
2. Under Client agreements, on Build a T&Cs & Waiver Template, select Build Your T&Cs. Once you have bought it, the button reads Start producing your template, Continue producing template or Generate & download templates.
3. Select your service categories, such as pet grooming or dog training.
4. Answer the guided sections about your policies: cancellations, late arrivals, payment, matted coats, grooming risks, behaviour, emergency care, liability, photography and waiver terms.
5. Accept the disclaimer, then select Generate Draft Templates.
6. Download the two Word drafts (.docx): Terms & Conditions and Client Waiver.

Your business name, email, phone, ABN and state are filled in from your account settings. Your answers save automatically, so you can close the builder and come back later where you left off.

After you generate them, edit the Word drafts to suit your business, have a legal professional review them (we strongly recommend about an hour), save the final versions as PDF, and upload the PDFs as your terms and waiver.

The first few sections of the builder are free. Completing all sections is a one-time purchase, and subscribers on Pro, Flex, Max or Enterprise plans get an automatic 20% discount, shown as 20% Off on the card.

Upload your terms and waiver

Customers review and accept the documents you upload here when they book online.

1. Open Policies & Paperwork.
2. Under Client agreements, select Upload Terms & Conditions and choose your PDF.
3. Select Upload Waiver Document and choose your PDF.
4. Select Publish Changes, tick the box in Before You Publish, then select Publish Changes.

Each document is a PDF of up to 5 MB, and it is not saved until you publish. Once a document is uploaded, its row shows Uploaded and Replace Document. With no terms uploaded, no terms are required, which is not recommended, and with no waiver, no waiver is required, which is strongly not recommended.

Your terms and conditions should cover your service descriptions and pricing, payment terms and methods, cancellation and refund policies, liability limitations, customer responsibilities, pet behaviour requirements and emergency care authorisation. Your waiver should cover assumption of risk, release of liability for injuries, emergency medical authorisation, property damage disclaimers, a photo and video release if you need one, and acknowledgement of pet behaviour risks. Waivers protect you against liability claims, set clear expectations about risks, are required for insurance cover and are standard for pet services.

Have a lawyer review your terms, keep the language clear, include every important policy and disclaimer, update them yearly or when your policies change, and version them, for example "v2.1 - Updated Oct 2024".

Choosing your policies

When you set a cancellation policy, consider your costs when an appointment cancels, how far ahead you can rebook the slot, the standard in your area and what customers expect. A 24-hour minimum notice period, a 50% cancellation fee, clear communication of the policy and a grace period for emergencies, which you give by waiving the fee, is a fair starting point.

Always require vaccinations for multi-pet environments such as daycare, boarding and group classes, for services where the law requires it and for high-risk interaction. Check expiry dates and the veterinarian's signature, keep copies on file and review them yearly.

Your essential documents are terms and conditions and a liability waiver, always, plus a photo release if you take photos and an emergency authorisation for medical care. Review them with a lawyer every year, update them when your policies change, keep versions, and write them in clear, readable language.

Common questions

Can I change my cancellation policy after customers book?

Yes. Petboost applies the policy saved on the booked service when the appointment is cancelled, so a change also reaches appointments already booked. Each service keeps its own copy of the policy. When you publish a change to the business default, turn on Also update services. Every service listed is ticked; untick any that should keep its own policy.

What if a customer has an emergency and can't give 24 hours' notice?

You can waive the cancellation fee case by case when you cancel the booking. See Waive a cancellation fee. The policy protects you, and you keep the flexibility.

Are digital signatures and agreements legally binding?

Yes. Digital agreements with timestamps are legally enforceable in most jurisdictions, and Petboost captures the information needed.

What if customers don't have vaccination records?

If you require them, they cannot book until the records are uploaded. They must get current vaccination certificates or titre test results from their vet.

Do I need a lawyer to create these documents?

It is strongly recommended. Proper legal documents protect your business, and many lawyers offer packages for pet service businesses.

Can customers cancel without a fee if they cancel early enough?

Yes. If they cancel with at least your notice period, for example 24 hours, no fee is charged.

What happens if I don't upload terms and conditions?

You can still operate, with less legal protection. Uploading proper legal documents is highly recommended.

How do walk-in clients sign my terms if they will not do it on their phone?

Use Kiosk Mode on a front-desk tablet. The client enters their mobile and taps Review {your business} terms & your details. The Paperwork tab on their profile stores agreements they have already accepted. It does not capture a new signature on your device.

A customer I added myself has not agreed to my terms. How do I chase them?

They see your terms first thing when they log in. To text them now:

1. Open Mission Control.
2. On Attention Required, select Terms not agreed.
3. Select Send SMS request on their card, or turn on Bulk SMS Mode to send to more than one customer.

Each send is logged on Timeline & Notes. If they are at the desk, use Kiosk Mode.

Can I have different policies for different services?

Yes. Each service has its own cancellation policy, terms and waiver on its Policies & Paperwork tab. See Set a different policy for one service. When an appointment has several services, the highest cancellation fee and the longest notice period apply.

Next steps

• Consult a lawyer to create or review your legal documents
• Upload your terms and conditions and waiver
• Set cancellation policies that suit your business
• Configure Booking Settings to complement your policies
• Turn on Notifications to remind customers of your policies
• Explain your policies clearly on your website and booking page
• Put a tablet on the front desk in Kiosk Mode so walk-in clients can agree to your terms in person