Lesson 35

Team and operations

Kiosk and the counter: check-in, retail and a quick sale

Kiosk mode hands the iPad to the client. Products are thin on purpose, and a quick sale is an invoice with no booking attached.

3 min read · Front desk · Running day to day
Open in Petboost

Two things happen at a counter that are not bookings. A client arrives and needs checking in, and somebody buys a bottle of shampoo on the way out.

Kiosk mode handles the first by giving the client the screen. Products and quick sales handle the second without inventing an appointment to hang them off.

Hand the iPad over

Kiosk mode fills the screen, drops your navigation and asks the client for one thing.

  1. Select your business name at the top of the sidebar, then Kiosk Mode under Quick Copy Links.
  2. Learn the four-digit code under Staff exit code.
  3. Select Enter kiosk mode.
  4. Lock the tablet to that screen with the device's own setting: Guided Access on an iPad, Screen Pinning on Android.

Quick Copy Links, and Kiosk Mode with it, only appears once Stripe is set up on a Pro, Flex, Max or Enterprise plan. The phone number finds their household and takes them into check-in, and a number Petboost does not know goes to the new-client signup instead. Everything else is gone, including your navigation, and the lock in the last step stops a client browsing away to the rest of your account.

Check

Staff exit is the only way out, and it asks for the code from Staff exit code. The code is fixed rather than one you set, so learn it before the first busy morning, not during it. Exiting signs the device out, so the next person signs in again before they reach your account.

Keep the retail list thin

A product is a name, a price, two descriptions and a photo. There is no stock count, no supplier and no barcode.

  1. Open Products and select New.
  2. Enter the Product Name, Price, Short Description and Description, then select Next.
  3. Optional: add a Product Image.
  4. Select Create Product.

That is deliberate. A product exists to go on an invoice beside an appointment, so anything a shop needs is a thing Petboost does not do.

Tip

Photograph the shelf rather than hunting for supplier images. The picture is only there so whoever is at the counter picks the right bottle.

Sell to someone who is not booked in

A quick sale raises an invoice against a client with no appointment attached.

  1. Open Mission Control and select Actions, then Quick Sale.
  2. Find the pet, then select Continue to Sale.
  3. Select + Add Item and pick the product or service.
  4. Set the Qty and the Discount for that line.
  5. Choose the Payment Method, then select the Record Sale button, which names the method.

The sale goes to the pet's owner. Each line carries its own quantity and discount, and the sale checks out the way any other invoice does.

Tip

Use it for walk-in nail trims too, not just retail. The takings land in the same day's reconciliation either way.

Put the day on the wall

Kiosk mode faces the client. TV View faces the room: a read-only board on a wall TV with every pet not finished yet, split by team member, room or service, and a news ticker along the bottom with who is starting, finishing and going home, sized to the TV and to how busy the day is.

  1. On the device you will use, open the business menu at the top of the sidebar.
  2. Under Quick Copy Links, select TV View. TV preview shows the board as it will look on the TV.
  3. Choose HDMI cable, Apple TV or Chromecast and follow the steps for your device.
  4. Select your TV's size, and under Layout choose Columns or In progress and Up next.
  5. Select Start TV View.

Nothing can be changed from the TV, and it never shows prices, notes or phone numbers.