Every booking starts from New at the top of the calendar, and every booking opens on its own page, where you check it in, take payment or cancel it. Mission Control shows the same bookings as the day's work, and opens the same booking forms from its quick actions.
Mission Control and the Appointments calendar
Both show the same bookings, so use the one that suits the job.
Mission Control runs the day. It has quick actions such as New Appointment, Quick Sale and Find Pet, and Attention Required, which groups what needs doing, such as Unpaid, Requests to accept and Medical needs. It shows the day in up to 13 views, such as Workflow, Pets, List, Run Sheet and Stays, with your revenue, and it has a layout built for phones.
Appointments plans the schedule. It shows bookings in Day, Week, Month or Timeline view, moves a booking when you drag it to a new time, lays out team members and resources side by side, and is where you set up recurring bookings.
Job | Where |
Start the day: see what needs attention and work on it | Mission Control, under Attention Required |
Book an appointment | Either: New Appointment in Mission Control's quick actions, or New on the Appointments calendar |
Move a booking to another time | The Appointments calendar: drag the card, or right-click it and choose Reschedule Appointment |
Take payments | Mission Control: Unpaid, where you can charge in bulk |
Plan the week or the month | The Appointments calendar, in Week, Month or Timeline view |
Work from a phone |
To book from Mission Control, select Actions, or Expand to show the actions as buttons, then choose New Appointment, New Stay or Blocked Time. New Stay is listed once you have a Stay service.
Start a new booking
New opens the form for each kind of booking.
Open Appointments and select New.
Choose Appointment, Stay, Blocked Time, Bulk Blocked Time or Customer & Pet.
Stay is listed once you have a Stay service. Bulk Blocked Time blocks several team members or resources at once, and Customer & Pet adds a customer and their pet without leaving the calendar. You can also select an empty slot on the calendar and choose Appointment, Stay, Blocked Time or Task in What would you like to add?, or press a to open a new appointment. The letters M and B beside Stay and Blocked Time do not open those forms: m switches the calendar to Month view, and Esc closes an open dialog. On a phone, New is in the bottom bar and lists New Appointment, New Stay and the rest.
Each form has its own address, so you can bookmark it, share it with your team or link to it from another tool. The browser's back and forward buttons work with it too.
Form | Address |
New appointment |
|
New stay |
|
Blocked time |
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Create an appointment
A regular appointment is one visit for one or more pets from the same family. Leave Magic Availability Check on for most bookings: Petboost then offers only the times your team members, resources and booking rules have room for.
Open Appointments, select New, then Appointment.
Pick the date under Appointment Date and leave Magic Availability Check on.
Select the Pet field and search by the pet's name, the owner's name, mobile or email. If the pet is not in Petboost yet, select New to add the customer and pet first.
Optional: to book another of the owner's pets, select Add Sibling, or Create & Add Pet for a pet that is not in Petboost yet.
Select Services for and the pet's name, and choose the service. The list shows each service's price. If the pet has a completed visit in the last 12 months, a Last: badge with its date shows beside the pet: select it to see that visit's services, then Book Same to add them, with any of the owner's other pets from that visit.
Select one of the times offered.
If the service requires a team member or a resource, Team Member or Resources appears, marked Required. Leave Magic Match to assign one for the time you pick, or choose. A service set to Optional or Not used does not show that field.
Optional: add extras from the add-ons under the services, and open Notes to add Internal (private) notes for your team or Customer-facing notes for the customer.
Check the price in the pricing preview near the bottom, which shows each item and the Total.
Under Notify customer?, choose Send notification or Book silently.
Select Create Appointment.
Notify customer? must be answered before the booking can be made, and nothing is saved until you select Create Appointment. Reset clears the form and starts again. The list beside Create Appointment decides what happens next: Stay on page, Go to appointment, or Create another after, which opens a blank form. For every field on the form, see Using the Booking Form.
Each pet has its own card, with its own services and times, and they share one appointment, one invoice and one payment. A multi-pet discount set on the service applies by itself, and the total updates as you add pets and services.
When a team member or resource is filling up, a time offered says how many more bookings like this one fit, such as Pen 2: 1 place left. Petboost counts the bookings already made and how many places this service uses. It shows only from 9 places down, and only for a team member or resource that takes more than one pet at a time.
Add-ons appear once a main service is chosen, and only the add-ons the pet can have are shown. Search them by name, and each shows its price. If you have no add-on services, the add-ons do not appear. If the service needs a resource, locations are listed first under Resources.
A mobile service uses the address on the customer's profile. To change it, open the customer on Customers & Pets and select Manage Owner, then Edit Owner Details. Photos and files are added after booking, on the appointment's Notes & Attachments tab.
Set the time yourself
Switch the check off when you need a time Petboost would not offer, such as an emergency, a walk-in or an arrangement you have agreed with the customer.
Open Appointments, select New, then Appointment.
Switch Magic Availability Check off. With it on, you can instead select Quick Force Create under the calendar of times.
Choose the pet and the services.
Set the start and end time on each service.
Under Notify customer?, choose Send notification or Book silently, then select Create Appointment.
With the check off, the appointment is created without an availability check. Petboost warns you about a clash, such as Fully booked at this time, and still books it. When the service requires a team member or a resource, the field is marked Required and you choose it on each service.
Which way the switch starts depends on how you open the form:
New, then Appointment: the way you last switched Magic Availability Check in that browser. It is on until you first switch it off
A click or drag on an empty calendar slot: off, because the slot already sets the time, team member or resource
Editing an existing appointment, or rebooking a cancelled one: off
Quick Force Create and Set exact time manually switch the check off for that booking only. The next new appointment opens the way you last switched the toggle itself.
Magic Availability Check never offers a time earlier than now. If you are adding a visit for earlier today or a past date, select Quick Force Create and set the times yourself.
Book a recurring series
Use a recurring series for a regular customer whose pet comes on a pattern, such as weekly daycare or a groom every four weeks.
Open Appointments, select New, then Appointment.
Under Create, choose Recurring.
Choose the pet, the services and the date of the first visit.
Under How often, choose Daily, Weekly, Fortnightly, Monthly or Custom.
Under End, choose No End Date, After a number of visits, or End Date.
With Magic Availability Check on, select Check Recurring Availability and choose a time. Petboost lists every visit; move, keep or skip each one marked Clash.
Under Notify customer?, choose Send notification or Book silently, then select Create Recurring Series.
Petboost books the visits up to 12 months ahead, counted from the first visit or today, whichever is later. A series with No End Date is topped up each night, so it stays 12 months ahead until you end it. To change, pause or end a series, see Recurring Appointments.
Book a stay
Use a stay for overnight boarding and other bookings that run over several days, with a check-in and a check-out.
Open Appointments, select New, then Stay.
On Pets & Services, choose the pet, the service under Service for the pet, and a room or kennel under Room/Kennel for the pet.
Select Continue, then on Timing set Check-in Date, Check-in Time, Check-out Date and Check-out Time.
Select Continue, then on Review check the Stay Summary, which lays out the stay day by day with its price.
Select Book Stay for and the pet's name.
Petboost works out the length and the price of the stay from the check-in, the check-out and the service's Pricing Mode. See Stay Appointments.
Block time
Block time when a team member or a resource is not available, such as for a break, lunch, admin or leave.
Open Appointments, select New, then Blocked Time.
Under Block Time For:, choose Team Member or Resource/Location, then choose one or more in Select Team Members or Select Resources/Locations.
Set the Start Date, End Date, Start Time and End Time.
Optional: enter a label, such as Lunch, in Label (Optional).
Optional: switch on Repeat this blocked time to repeat a block of up to 7 days.
Select Create Blocked Time.
The calendar then moves to the day the block starts. If that time is already blocked, Petboost shows Already blocked and adds nothing, so the existing block stays the only one.
Create Blocked Time writes one block for each team member or each resource you chose. To block team members and resources in the same pass, choose Bulk Blocked Time instead. See Block time for many team members or resources.
Calendar views
Open the view button at the top of the calendar to switch views. The keys d, w, m and t switch them too.
View | Shows | Suits |
Day | One day in time slots | Detailed scheduling of a single day |
Week | Seven days in time slots | The whole week at a glance |
Month | The whole month | A monthly overview |
Timeline | A horizontal timeline, by Day, Week or Month, with a row for each team member or resource when the calendar is grouped | Several team members or resources at once |
Filter and search the calendar
Narrow the calendar when you need only some bookings, such as one team member's day or the pets with allergies.
Open Appointments.
Open Filter and choose what to show, such as Weight Range (kg), Breeds, Services, Initial Visits Only, Has Outstanding Payment or Has Allergies.
To see one team member's or one resource's bookings, open Group By, choose Team Members or Resources, then choose which to show.
To find a booking, type in Search calendar, or press
/.To see another date, use the arrows beside Today, or pick the date.
Filter offers only what the bookings in view have: Mobile Services, for example, appears only when a booking in view is a mobile service. The search matches the pet's name, the customer's name, email and phone, the service, the team member, the address, the status and the breed. On a phone, the filters and the search are in the bottom bar.
Appointment statuses
Every appointment carries one status, and the status decides what you can do next. Confirmed means you accepted the booking, or Instant confirmation did it for you. See Appointment Statuses Guide.
Status | Meaning | What you can do |
Pending | Waiting for you to accept it | Accept, Decline or Edit |
Confirmed | Accepted and scheduled | Check in, Edit to reschedule, or Cancel |
In Progress | Checked in, and the visit is under way | Check out, which finalises the invoice, and add notes |
Completed | The visit is over and the invoice is not final | Charge the card on file, or record cash or a bank transfer |
Ready to Pay | Invoice finalised, waiting for payment | Charge, take another payment method, or Void Invoice |
Paid | Payment received | Preview Receipt or Issue refund |
Payment Declined | The payment attempt failed | Retry, or take another payment method |
Cancelled | Called off by you or the customer | Recreate |
Declined | You turned the booking down | Delete Appointment |
Charge and Retry show the amount on the button. Switch on Automatic Actions to move bookings from one status to the next without a button.
Payments and invoices
Every appointment has an invoice, built from its services and extras. Check out finalises the invoice and moves the appointment to Ready to Pay. Your team takes payment on the appointment by card on file, card reader, payment link, bank transfer, cash or your own terminal, and issues a refund from the invoice's Manage menu. See Payment Processing.
Notifications
Petboost can email and text the customer when a booking is made, changed or cancelled, remind them before the appointment, and email them on Friday with the next week's bookings. The Friday reminder is email only. Each message has its own switch on Notifications, and a new business account starts with them off. Reminder Time sets how long before the appointment the reminder goes: 2 hours unless you change it. See Notifications.
Troubleshooting
Why can't I see available times with Magic Availability Check?
Petboost offers a time only when a team member and any resource the service needs are working and free, and the service's rules allow the booking.
Open Appointments, select New, then Appointment, and choose the pet and the service.
Select See Availability Reasons under the calendar of times to see what rules each time out.
Fix the cause: working hours on Team Members, working hours or capacity on Resources, or the service's rules on Services.
How do I cancel a recurring appointment?
Open Appointments and select the visit.
Select Manage, then Cancel.
Choose Cancel single for this visit only, Skip these dates for a break, or End series (all future) to stop the series.
Select Cancel Appointment, Skip these dates or End Recurring Series, which matches your choice.
A service cannot be booked
Check that the service is not archived, and that the pet meets its rules. A service the pet does not meet the rules for, such as its weight, age or breed, is marked Not Eligible.
One of several pets cannot be booked
Each pet is checked against the service's rules on its own, such as its age, weight and breed. Check that pet's details, and the service's Who Can Book rules on Services.
Can I move an appointment to a different time?
Yes. Drag it on the calendar, or open it and change the time.
Open Appointments.
Switch Drag Lock off. It is on by default, so a card cannot be moved by accident.
Drag the card to the new time.
Silent Drag, beside Drag Lock, is also on by default: while it is on, a drag sends the customer no email or text. Switch it off before you drag to notify them. To change the time on the appointment itself, open it and select Manage, then Edit. On a computer, you can also right-click the card and choose Reschedule Appointment.
How do I handle overlapping appointments?
With Magic Availability Check on, Petboost offers only times with room for the booking. With it off, Petboost warns you about a clash, such as a team member who is fully booked or a room already in use, and still books it. To clear an overlap, move one of the bookings to another time or to another team member, or check that team member's and resource's schedules on Team Members and Resources.
Why is a customer not getting notifications?
Open Notifications and check that the message's switch is on. A new business account starts with customer messages off.
Open Customers & Pets, select the customer and check their email address and mobile number.
On the customer's profile, open Settings & Overrides and check that their own settings do not turn the messages off.
Related FAQs
Have questions about appointments? See these commonly asked questions:
Related guides
Availability Troubleshooter: understand why times are or are not offered
Next steps
Appointments draw on what you set up on these screens.
Services: what can be booked, its price and length, its category and the rules for which pets can book it
Customers & Pets: the customers and pets you book, and their contact details
Team Members: who does the work, their working hours and how many pets they take at a time
Resources: rooms, kennels, vans and equipment, and their capacity
Packages: prepaid credits that bookings spend
Courses: group classes, their lessons, instructors and enrolments, which are booked there and not on the Appointments calendar
Automatic Actions: moving bookings from one status to the next without a button
Notifications: the messages customers get about their bookings
Booking Settings: the rules for booking online
Business Details and All Settings: the rest of your account's set-up