Lesson 2

Team and operations

Schedules and Sessions, part 1 - hours, one-off days and public holidays

A schedule is the days someone works. A session is a block inside those hours where appointments can start. A day can be switched on and still offer nothing.

3 min read · Owner · Getting set up
Open in Petboost

Bookable times come from sessions, not from the day being switched on. That one sentence explains most of what follows.

Why a day can be on and still not bookable

Each team member has a week, and each day is in one of three states.

  1. Open Schedules & Sessions and find the team member.
  2. Switch the day on, so its header reads Working.
  3. Select Add Session on that day, set the Start Time and End Time, then select Add Session.
  4. Select Publish Changes, tick the box in Before You Publish, then select Publish Changes.

Turn Thursday on and watch it. It becomes a working day with No sessions, and it is still not bookable.

Trap

That third state is where most "I've set my hours but nobody can book" calls end up. The toggle says Working. The day is empty.

Inside a session

Open a session and you get its start, its end, and how many pets can be in it at once.

  1. Open Schedules & Sessions and find the team member.
  2. Select the session on the day you want to change.
  3. Set Pets at a time, then select Stage for Publishing.
  4. Select Publish Changes, tick the box in Before You Publish, then select Publish Changes.

Pets at a time is how many pets you can have on the go at the same moment, not how many you will do that day. 3 at a time across a 3 hour session with hour-long services is 9 bookings. Leave the field empty and the session uses the team member's default.

Trap

Set it to 0 and the session accepts nothing. The Zero Capacity Warning appears as soon as you do, with a button that clears the field back to the default instead, because clearing it is almost always what was meant.

Set up an alternating fortnight

An alternating roster is a special date, not a second schedule. Pick the first week and the frequency, and the preview shows every week it will create before you commit to any of them.

  1. Open Schedules & Sessions and switch the team member to Special Dates.
  2. Select Create Special Dates, or New Special Dates if the team member already has some, then Switch to Batch Mode.
  3. On First Week, set Week Start and Week End, then select Next.
  4. On Frequency, choose Every 2 Weeks, then select Next.
  5. On End Condition, choose After or Until Date, then select Next.
  6. On Preview, check every week it will create, then select Next.
  7. On Label, name the roster, then select Next: Configure Schedule.
  8. Set the hours on Schedule, then select the Create button, which counts the special dates.

Batch mode saves the special dates as soon as you create them, with no Publish Changes step.

Close for public holidays

Petboost knows the Australian dates for your state, so you switch on the ones you close for and apply them in one pass.

  1. Open Schedules & Sessions, then the tools menu, and select Public Holiday Manager.
  2. Choose your state, then switch on each holiday you close for.
  3. Leave each one on Closed all day, or switch it to Open with hours.
  4. Select Apply Holidays, then the Apply button, which counts the holidays.

Toggle a holiday between its two states and read the label.

SettingWhat it does
Closed all dayThe default. Creates blocked time, so nothing can be booked.
Open with hoursBlocks nothing. Only changes what your Showcase page says you are open for.
Trap

Switching an applied holiday from closed to open does not remove the blocked time it already created. Delete that separately.