Pillar

Bookings and the calendar

Who can book what, when, and how the day fits together without a clash.

Lessons

Recipes

Tracks

Decision guides

Product guides

Lessons

Each one shows the screen it is about, running on demo data.

4. Why can't they book? Diagnosing no availabilitySix settings cause almost every empty calendar. Looking at it as the client narrows it to one in about a minute.Lesson2 min read · Owner or manager 5. Services and add-ons, without confusing the clientTwo settings decide how your booking page reads. The service type, which cannot be changed later, and whether an add-on is paired to a parent service.Lesson2 min read · Owner 6. Booking rules: prerequisites, eligibility, notice and cancellationsA rule set once and forgotten is still running. Three tabs on the service decide who can book, how far ahead, and what a late cancellation costs.Lesson4 min read · Owner 8. Making a booking, from one dog to a nineteen-night stayOne booking holds a card per pet, and each card holds that pet's services. The switch at the top of the form decides whether Petboost picks the time or you do.Lesson4 min read · Owner or front desk 9. Recurring bookings, from the first one to the lastOne pattern creates the whole run, and one optional date decides whether a break is a pause or an ending. Changing the days replaces the series rather than editing it.Lesson4 min read · Owner or manager 10. Editing a booking, and changing prices on bookings you already haveA price rise moves your catalogue. Bookings already in the diary keep the price they were confirmed at until something moves them, and by default nothing does.Lesson3 min read · Owner or manager 27. Calendar views and the shape of your dayGroup By decides what the columns are, Stack Mode decides whether there is a clock at all. Most "my calendar looks wrong" is one of those two.Lesson2 min read · Owner or manager 31. Trips: pick-ups, drop-offs and the day's routeTrips shows one stop at a time on purpose. Optimise reorders the run, and the log book turns the kilometres into a BAS number.Lesson2 min read · Walker, driver or sitter 106. The temperament test as the gateThe test is a service that locks another service, so it is set on the service rather than on the dog. It also never reaches the calendar, which is why nobody can find it.Lesson3 min read · Owner 107. A daycare day and a groom, in one visitTwo services on one pet card is one booking. Two cards is two bookings for the same dog on the same day, and that is where the double charge and the missing yard place come from.Lesson3 min read · Owner or front desk 108. Training levels as prerequisitesA level is two things: an attribute on the dog that says it passed, and a rule on the next course that reads it. Courses need a third setting, because booked and finished are not the same.Lesson3 min read · Owner or trainer 110. AM and PM visits, and the in-home overnightTwice a day is two services on one card and one recurring pattern. An overnight in the client's house is a stay, on a different form, and mixing the two is the usual mistake.Lesson3 min read · Walker, driver or sitter

Recipes

One task, one screen, no introduction.

Block one day, or a range, from online bookingBlocked time takes two dates, not one. Same day in both fields blocks a day; move the second and it blocks everything between.Recipe90 s Change a price without texting the clientEvery saved invoice change asks whether to notify. Update silently is the answer when you have already spoken to them.Recipe90 s Colour the calendar by team member or resourceColour Mode decides what the cards read their colour from. The colour itself is set on the person or the resource.Recipe90 s Confirm every pending booking at onceBulk Confirm Mode on Mission Control turns the pending group into a tick list, and tells every client when you finish.Recipe90 s Mark a stop picked up or dropped offOne button on the Up next card. It changes colour with the dog and advances to the next stop.Recipe90 s Pause one dog's series and leave the other runningTwo dogs on the same days are two series. Skipping one does nothing to the other unless you tick it.Recipe90 s Skip two weeks of a recurring seriesA break is a cancelled date range, not a pause. Stop at is what brings the series back.Recipe90 s Turn Magic Availability Check off to force a booking inThe switch at the top of the booking form. Off, it saves the start and end you type without asking whether the slot is free.Recipe90 s Turn stack mode on or offStack mode drops the clock and lists the day instead. The keyboard shortcut is S.Recipe90 s

Tracks

A run of lessons that answers one whole job, in the order to take them.

All tracks

Set up right, onceThe configuration that decides whether anyone can book you. Hours and sessions, capacity, the service menu, and the launch itself. Most no-availability calls come back to one of these.Track9 lessons Prices changed and bookings did notYou raised your prices and the bookings already in the calendar kept the old ones. What a price change actually touches, and how to move the existing bookings across.Track2 lessons Front Desk in a morningThe eleven things a front desk actually does between opening and lunch, in the order they come up. Take a booking, change one, find a client, check them in, take the money.Track11 lessons A client says they cannot bookThe six settings that hide your availability, in the order worth checking. Run Simulate as that client first, because it usually names the cause before you have finished reading this.Track5 lessons Running the dayThe eight things a front desk does every day, from the morning board to the last checkout. Take it in order once and the rest of the week runs on muscle memory.Track8 lessons Stop the no-showsDeposits, holds, reminders and a cancellation policy clients have actually accepted. Four settings and one report, which between them cover most of the empty slots.Track6 lessons Christmas and peak readyPeak rates, closures, deposits and the book-now message, in the order to do them. Worth running in October, because most of it wants to be in place before the phone starts.Track6 lessons The Grooming trackLanes and size tiers first, because that is what a grooming book runs on, then the day itself and the record you leave behind on each dog.Track8 lessons The Daycare trackDrop-off sessions and capacity are where daycare goes wrong, so they lead. Then the passes and plans that turn a casual dog into a regular one.Track7 lessons See it before you sign upThe whole journey from the owner's side: sign up, upload a vaccination, sign the terms, book an assessment, get approved, buy a membership. What a prospect asks to be shown on a demo call.Track6 lessons Go-live weekSeven days from loaded to live without a client getting a stray email. The messages stay paused until the last step, which is the one people skip.Track7 lessons The Owner's trackEverything an owner has to decide rather than delegate, in the order the decisions come up. Twelve lessons, and the account is set the way you meant it.Track12 lessons On the roadFor a walker, driver or sitter working off a phone. The route, the series that repeats, the record you leave, and the shortcut that makes it feel like an app.Track6 lessons The Trainer's trackCourses and intakes first, because a trainer sells a plan rather than an hour. Then the forms, the credits and the messages that keep a cohort together.Track6 lessons SoloOne person, one calendar, no front desk to hand anything to. The settings that matter when nobody is covering for you, and the phone shortcut that replaces the office.Track7 lessons Growing, 2 to 8The point where the calendar stops being yours alone. Capacity, who can see what, and the board everybody works off in the morning.Track5 lessons A price rise without the painChange the prices, decide what happens to the bookings already in the calendar, and tell clients before they find out at checkout.Track3 lessons We are closing for a weekBlock the days, deal with the recurring bookings that fall inside them, and tell the clients who already have one. In that order, because the last step depends on the first two.Track4 lessons A regular got a second dogAdd the dog to the household, then check what the second one is allowed to book. Two clips, and it is usually the second that bites.Track2 lessons 15-minute Christmas prepBlock the closure, set the peak rates, and stop the messages going out while you move things around. The short version of the peak checklist.Track3 lessons The Boarding trackPer-night pricing and the multi-night stay, which is where boarding questions start and usually end. One stay worked through end to end, then the pens behind it and what has to be written down before she arrives.Track9 lessons The Daycare and Grooming trackTwo service lines sharing one floor and one calendar. It leads with the booking that is a day and a groom together, because building that one wrong costs a yard place every time.Track6 lessons The Training trackCourses are the spine of a training book, so they come first, then the intake and the money. Levels are the part people run by memory until the third intake, and that is where it stops working.Track7 lessons The Walking trackThe run and the round it is built from. Trips first, then the suburbs you sell to, the recurring series behind the week, and the plan that turns a regular into a standing order.Track7 lessons The Concierge trackTwo visits a day and an overnight in somebody else's house are two different bookings, and mixing them is what makes an invoice unreadable. Then the proof of visit, and what holds a fortnight.Track8 lessons The Multi-service trackGrooming, boarding and daycare out of one book is one book with a category on every service. Categories first, because the calendar and the reporting both read them, then what each line is actually constrained by.Track6 lessons Mobile and vanA round works when the day's stops are near each other, so the suburb list comes before the pricing. Then the run itself, and taking the money at the kerb rather than chasing it afterwards.Track6 lessons ScalingMore staff, more sites, more rules. The point where the settings stop being yours to remember and have to be written into the account.Track6 lessons Scaling, 8 and upA team big enough that nobody sees the whole day. Permissions, capacity, the views that let each person find their own part of it, and the numbers that tell you which site is working.Track5 lessons Sunday night resetFifteen minutes that make Monday quiet. Clear the pending bookings, block what you are closing, and deal with the series that need a week off.Track4 lessons

Decision guides

AM and PM visits: one booking or two, and how to price the second?One booking per day carrying two timed services, priced as a shorter second visit on its own service, because the services field holds two start times while keeping the day on one card and one invoice.Decision guide4 min read Daycare and a groom on the same day: one booking or two?One booking with both as services on it, because the services field holds two start times, two team members and two resources while the family still gets one arrival, one card and one invoice.Decision guide4 min read How big should a puppy class be?Six to eight puppies with one instructor, because the ceiling is how many handlers one voice can coach at once rather than how many puppies fit in the hall.Decision guide4 min read How many dogs should be on a group walk?Start at four for a solo walker and only go higher once your council limit, your lead hand and your vehicle all agree, because the ceiling on a group walk is set outside your booking system before it is set inside it.Decision guide4 min read Staff or station: what should your capacity hang off?Hang it on whichever one you would actually turn a booking away for, and on both only when both genuinely bind, because every constraint you add that is not real removes slots you could have sold.Decision guide4 min read Should every new daycare dog do a temperament test first?Yes, and it has to be a booked service the software enforces rather than a promise on your website, because the assessment you skip is the one you skip on the busiest morning of the year.Decision guide4 min read What commits a weekly walk, and is the meet and greet paid?A standing series with a card on file commits it and a deposit cannot, because recurring bookings do not take one, and the meet and greet is a paid first visit that gates the walks behind it.Decision guide4 min read Should boarding have fixed check-in and check-out windows?Yes, published on the service so the booking form enforces them, because open-ended collection is what breaks the next stay rather than a courtesy you extend to good customers.Decision guide5 min read How many dogs can you board? The number that paysBoarding capacity is runs multiplied by nights, not pets per day, and the number worth setting comes from staffing and cleaning time rather than from how many beds you own.Decision guide5 min read

Product guides

Where to set it, once you have decided.

All guides

AppointmentsEverything about managing appointments, scheduling, and calendar views14 guides ServicesConfigure your service offerings15 guides TripsMobile run planning, Magic Optimise, your van and stops, and the vehicle log book (paid Trips Booster add-on)2 guides ResourcesManage locations, kennels, rooms, and equipment5 guides

Keep reading

Longer pieces on petboost.com.au.

Smart Booking Rules: Online Bookings That Stop at Your Limits Should Online Bookings Confirm Instantly or Wait?How Far Ahead (and How Late) Should Clients Book?Multi-Pet Homes: One Appointment or Separate Bookings?Self-Service Booking: Let Customers Book While You Sleep Parallel Capacity Logic: Avoiding the 8:01 AM Lobby Rush A Receptionist Asked Us to Remove the Drop-Off Window Why Pet Bookings Aren't Like Booking a Restaurant