Find answers to common questions about managing customers and pets in your business system.

Yes. The booking flow captures owner and pet details automatically (name, contact, breed, gender, birthday, weight, vaccination certificates, payment methods).

Intake forms and custom fields live under Fields & Forms. Link a form to a service, then set When to collect:

Answers linked to custom fields write back to the profile. See Custom Fields and Intake Forms, Sending Forms to Clients, and the Intake Forms Guide.

Yes. Open Customers & Pets, then the filters. Under Membership, choose Active Membership or No Active Membership. Under Membership Plan, pick one or more plan names.

No, the system is pet-centric and requires creating both customer and pet together. This design ensures all customer records are linked to the pets they own, maintaining accurate service relationships.

Draft status indicates an incomplete profile that isn't fully active in the system. This is one of the most common reasons a customer or pet seems to "disappear" from your records, so it is worth understanding how it works.

Profiles may be in draft when:

Draft behaviour:

Completing a draft profile:

Tip: Review draft profiles regularly to follow up with customers who didn't complete registration. A quick phone call can convert abandoned sign-ups into active clients.

Yes. When you select a draft pet in the appointment creation form, Petboost detects the incomplete account and lets you complete it inline without leaving the booking flow.

How it works:

What happens during conversion:

Important: Draft pets with placeholder names like "[Buddy] [Owner]" are real records created when a customer started but didn't finish signing up. They are not duplicates. Convert them if you want to keep the customer. If you want that incomplete sign-up gone, delete it from the ribbon. See Can I delete an abandoned booking?.

Yes. Abandoned bookings and unfinished profiles can be permanently deleted. Draft pets on that sign-up do not block delete. You do not need to delete the pet first, and you do not need to archive the owner instead.

If the card is a new incomplete sign-up (draft owner, no confirmed booking):

You can also select the cards in Mission Control under Attention Required, then click Delete.

That removes the draft owner account, its pets, and the abandoned booking data.

If the card is still on the ribbon after delete, refresh the page. Do not tap Delete again. The first delete already succeeded.

If the person is already a customer and left a new booking unfinished, do not delete their account. In Mission Control, open Abandoned, select the cards under Abandoned Bookings (Existing), and click Dismiss. You can also open their profile, open the Action Required tab, and click Dismiss. That clears the unfinished booking and keeps the customer. Appointment history blocks permanent account delete. That block does not apply to a new incomplete sign-up.

Open any pet profile for that customer, then click the "New Pet" button in the Appointments tab header. The owner's information will auto-populate, and you only need to add the new pet's details.

Important: Always check the Family Pets section in the left sidebar before creating a new customer. If the owner already exists, add the pet through their existing profile rather than creating a duplicate customer record.

"Pet Parent" is the default relationship type indicating the primary owner. All customers created through the Customers & Pets module are automatically designated as Pet Parents.

No, each pet is linked to one primary owner (Pet Parent). If multiple people share ownership, designate one as the primary owner and add others as emergency contacts or additional contacts.

For pets the customer is boarding but doesn't own, create separate customer and pet records for the actual owners. Then manage boarding appointments accordingly through those pets' profiles.

This is common with separated or divorced pet owners who share custody. Petboost links each pet to one primary owner, so you need to choose one person as the primary and handle the other through contacts.

Recommended approach:

What to avoid:

Yes, there are several ways to see who is booked in soon:

From the Calendar:

From Mission Control:

From a Customer's Profile:

Tip: Mission Control is the fastest way to see today's and tomorrow's customers at a glance, including any pets that need special attention.

Required Fields:

All other fields are optional but recommended for complete records.

Yes, all information can be edited at any time:

To update contact details:

Important details:

Tip: If a customer calls from a new number, update their profile straight away so your records stay current and future SMS reminders reach the right number.

No. A business cannot add breeds. Petboost adds them on request. Search the breed list first, then contact support if the breed is missing.

Yes, open the pet's profile, click edit next to the pet's name, update the birthday field, and save. The new birthday will immediately reflect in the system and age calculations.

On the pet profile, next to the pet's name. The date-of-birth badge shows the age in years, months and weeks. Tap it to see the full breakdown in years, months, weeks and days, plus the date of birth. You do not need to open Edit just to read the age. Add or change the birthday with the edit icon next to the pet's name.

Click the edit icon next to the pet's name, select the correct gender, and save. The change applies immediately across all records and reports.

Mark the pet as passed away from the Manage Pet menu on the pet's profile. Petboost cancels the pet's upcoming bookings and archives the pet in one step.

After you confirm, Petboost makes these changes:

A rehomed pet has no separate status. To take a rehomed pet out of your active list, select Manage Pet > Archive or Delete Pet, then select Archive pet.

Best practice: Add a respectful note to the customer's profile acknowledging their loss. Consider sending a condolence message if you have a relationship with the customer. Some businesses send a sympathy card or make a small donation to an animal charity in the pet's name.

No. A pet marked as passed away shows has passed away on its profile instead of a Restore pet button, and Petboost has no setting that reverses it. If you marked a pet by mistake, contact support: select Get Help in your dashboard.

Yes, but this must be handled through support to ensure data integrity.

Common reasons for transferring a pet:

How to transfer:

What transfers with the pet:

What does NOT transfer:

Do not attempt to transfer a pet by deleting it from one owner and recreating it under another. This destroys all service history.

Common Issues:

Solutions:

Yes, the search bar finds customers by:

Just type the information into the search bar and results appear instantly.

Phone number searches are flexible, but there are some common issues:

Common causes:

Tips for searching by phone:

Best practice: When entering new customers, use consistent phone formatting (e.g., always include country code, or never include it).

Yes! Pet names don't need to be unique across your entire customer base.

Common scenarios:

How to distinguish:

Tip: When taking bookings by phone, confirm the owner's surname or phone number to ensure you're booking the correct pet.

Filters narrow results based on specific criteria. If you have both search terms and filters active, you're seeing the intersection of both. Click Reset to clear all search and filter criteria, then try again.

Petboost does not merge two profiles.

When you add a customer whose phone already exists, choose Yes, Same Person - Link Account. That attaches the new pet to the existing owner.

For two profiles that already exist:

Do not delete one profile and recreate the pets under the other. That drops appointment history.

Search by phone before you add a customer. See Archive customers who have not booked since a date.

Recommended:

Common Issues:

Solutions:

Yes:

While not required, uploading vaccination certificates (or titer test results) is strongly recommended for:

Petboost shows vaccination status on the pet profile:

To email or text the pet owner before a vaccination is due, turn on Vaccination Expiry Reminders under Settings → Notifications. See Vaccination expiry reminders.

Download every pet's vaccination row from Customers & Pets.

The spreadsheet lists each pet, each certificate's dates, and a Status of Current, Expiring Soon, Expired, No dates, No expiry date, or No certificates. Filter the Status column to find pets that need a renewal.

Mission Control also flags pets arriving that day with a missing or expiring vaccination.

To email or text owners before a vaccination is due:

Petboost sends the reminder about 30 days before the expiry date, or about 11 months after the Date Administered when no expiry is recorded. A certificate that is only a photo, with no dates, gets one reminder asking for a complete record when Ask for missing certificate dates is on in Settings → Notifications. Each reminder includes a link that opens the vaccination upload.

Configure vaccination requirements:

Turn on Require vaccination certificate under Settings > Policies & Paperwork > Health & Safety Requirements. To require it for one service only, open the service, select Policies & Paperwork, and turn on Require vaccination certificate. Petboost does not check which vaccines a certificate covers.

System behaviour:

Recommended for:

Yes. Use Quick Export: Vaccinations on Customers & Pets, then filter the Status column to Expiring Soon or Expired.

Mission Control also lists pets with an upcoming booking whose vaccination is missing or expiring.

Accepted formats:

Information to include:

Tip: Ask customers to request a digital copy from their vet for clearest quality.

All vaccination certificates are stored in the pet's profile:

The summary card shows a vaccination badge:

Pro tip: Click on any certificate to view the full document or image. You can download or print certificates if needed for your records.

Use the Quick Notes section to document current medications. Include:

For detailed medical history, track in vaccination or health attributes sections.

Document the situation in Quick Notes and request that customers:

You can still provide services, but note the missing records in the pet's profile.

Update weight at every visit for accurate tracking.

Weight affects multiple aspects of service delivery:

Best practice: Weigh pets at every visit and update their profile. This ensures:

Weight history is tracked with timestamps showing when each measurement was recorded. Open the pet's profile and view the weight card in the sidebar to see the current weight and when it was last updated.

For detailed weight trends: Export customer data or track manually if you need historical weight charts.

Open an appointment in the series, select Cancel, choose Skip these dates, and set Stop at to the last day of the break. Appointments in that window are cancelled. The series continues after the end date. There is no separate Pause button.

Always set Stop at. Leaving it empty ends the series. End series (all future) stops the series for good.

See Pause or cancel a recurring series and How do I pause a recurring series?.

Open the pet's profile, open the Appointments tab and switch to the Recurring Series view. This shows a timeline grid of every active, ended, and cancelled recurring series for that pet. It is the single source of truth for understanding how recurring appointments fit together.

See the full guide: Recurring Series Timeline

This is caused by duplicate recurring series. When multiple series target the same day for the same pet, cancelling an appointment from one series allows a second, dormant series to fill the gap overnight. Each time you cancel, the next dormant series in line creates a replacement.

To fix this:

Once all duplicates are deactivated, cancelling an appointment will stay cancelled permanently.

See: Recurring Series Timeline: The "Cancelled Appointment Reappearing" Problem

Alternatively, click "Deactivate" directly on each duplicate series row in the timeline grid.

A dormant series is one that has no upcoming appointments but whose recurrence rule has never been formally ended. It is essentially sleeping: it will not create appointments while an active series is covering the same days, but if the active series' appointments are cancelled, the dormant series will wake up and fill the gap overnight.

Deactivating a dormant series sets an end date on its recurrence rule, preventing it from ever creating new appointments.

Not always. Multiple active series are perfectly normal when:

It becomes a problem when:

The Recurring Series Timeline makes it easy to distinguish intentional from unintentional overlaps.

The Appointments tab defaults to Future when the pet has upcoming bookings. Past bookings, including cancelled ones, stay hidden until you select All or Past.

If a cancelled or refunded booking is still missing after you select All, open Filter By and set Cancelled to Show. Cancelled recurring series have their own Cancelled recurring toggle in that same Visibility section.

Other reasons a booking can be missing:

Open the pet's profile and go to the Appointments tab. Select All on the time-frame control to see past and upcoming bookings together, including cancelled and refunded ones.

The list shows the date, status, and notes for each booking. Use Filter By if you want to hide cancelled or refunded bookings.

Appointment details are typically locked after completion to maintain accurate history. If you need to correct information, contact support with specific details about what needs changing and why.

Open the Packages sub-tab on the customer's Wallet tab. You'll see:

The Wallet tab's Packages section shows remaining credits for each package. Set up your own reminders to:

Grooming preferences are optional but highly recommended when:

Yes, you can upload multiple reference photos in the Care & Grooming Templates tab for:

Photos eliminate miscommunication and ensure consistency.

Grooming preferences are pet-specific and must be entered separately for each pet. However, you can:

Grooming preferences are more detailed and service-specific, while Quick Notes cover general care. If there's a conflict:

Cards can only be saved by the customer themselves. Staff cannot manually enter card details for a customer (this is a Stripe security requirement).

Ways a card gets stored on a customer's profile:

1. Customer adds it via the Pet Owner App / Portal (most common):

2. Customer saves a card during online booking:

3. Customer enrols in a membership:

Payment links do NOT save cards on file. Payment links are one-time Stripe checkout sessions. The customer enters their card details, pays, and the card is used for that single transaction only. It is not saved to their profile for future use.

What you can see:

Note: For security, staff cannot manually enter card details into the system. The customer must add their own card through the booking flow or the Pet Owner App.

The updated card applies to all pets owned by that customer.

A "Card on file" indicates the customer has securely stored a payment method in the system. This allows:

The Wallet tab is the best place to see a full payment history for any customer.

Each payment entry shows:

For transaction-level detail:

Tip: Use the Wallet tab when a customer queries a charge or you need to trace a specific payment. Use the Sales tab when you need to see what was purchased.

Yes, go to the Sales tab in any pet's profile to see:

Petboost shows expiration dates on stored cards. When a card is expiring:

Emergency contacts are visible in multiple places so you can access them quickly, even in a crisis:

1. On an appointment:

2. On the customer profile:

3. Mobile view:

If emergency contacts are not set:

In an emergency (pet injury, bite incident, allergic reaction):

Best practice: Ensure every customer has emergency contact details filled in during onboarding. Review them periodically - vets change, phone numbers change.

Emergency contacts are critical when:

Always collect at least one emergency contact for every customer.

No, the purpose of an emergency contact is to reach someone when the customer is unavailable. Collect a different person's information, such as:

The second person signs in with their own phone and a one-time code. They share the same pet profile. See Emergency Contacts.

Changes apply immediately to all pets owned by that customer.

Tip: When adding a vet, use the business search field. It looks up clinics by name and can auto-fill both the vet name and phone number, saving you time and reducing errors.

The Family Pets section automatically shows all pets linked to the same owner. It:

No, pets are linked through shared ownership. The Family Pets feature only shows pets belonging to the same Pet Parent.

Petboost does not merge two profiles. Keep the owner with the history, move future bookings to it, then Manage Owner > Archive or Delete Account on the extra profile. When you add a customer whose phone already exists, choose Yes, Same Person - Link Account.

See How do I merge duplicate customer records?.

Common causes and solutions:

Diagnosis shortcut: Use the Availability Troubleshooter when creating an appointment to see exactly why booking isn't available. See Availability Troubleshooter.

When you block a customer from online booking:

Customer can still:

Customer cannot:

What the customer sees:

What you can do:

Best practice: Blocking prevents new online bookings while preserving customer relationships. Customers retain access to their photos and history, maintaining goodwill while you control future bookings.

To block a customer:

To unblock a customer:

When to consider blocking:

An amber "Blocked from Online Booking" banner appears in the customer's profile so all staff are aware.

Open the pet's profile, then Manage Pet or Manage Owner, and select Cancel Future Appointments. The list shows the next 12 months. Tick the bookings to cancel, or use Select all and the weekday buttons, choose whether to notify the customer, then select Review cancellation and Cancel selected bookings. Manage Owner includes every pet on that account.

If you are on Mission Control and the owner has two or more upcoming bookings, open the appointment card menu on Pets, Workflow, Roster, Photos, or Attention Required, then select Cancel Future Appointments.

Only Pending and Confirmed bookings in that 12-month list are shown. A ticked recurring series still ends later visits. In-progress, completed, paid, and class bookings stay. Cancellation fees are not charged. Package credits on these bookings are kept. If your plan cannot send booking messages, the booking is cancelled silently. This cannot be undone.

See Cancel a customer's future appointments.

Pets must be linked to an owner. To transfer a pet to a different owner:

Use Archive Lapsed Customers on Customers & Pets. Pick the date, use the Has opted out of messages toggle if you want, untick anyone to keep, then archive. Petboost does not bulk-delete records.

See Archive customers who have not booked since a date.

To email a filtered segment, open Smart Export, set your filters, then click Send bulk email under Bulk communication. See Send bulk email.

Yes - exports are self-service from the Customers & Pets page. Open Customers & Pets and click the actions (gear) menu in the top right:

For a complete account export (owners, pets, services, team members, resources, packages, credit balances and future appointments), use the Export Your Data page - it is reached from Billing > Cancel, and you can download everything without completing the cancellation.

Export options depend on your role permissions. If you need something these exports do not cover, click Speak with the team.

Common use cases:

Tip: For a recurring or unusually shaped export, click Speak with the team and we can help.

All team members with system access can view customer and pet profiles. Train your team on:

Customer portal access depends on your business settings. Check with your administrator about customer-facing features and what information customers can view or edit themselves.

Important: Don't delete customer records. Instead:

If a customer requests data deletion (right to be forgotten), contact support for proper procedures.

Yes. Use Smart Export or the Quick Export options on the Customers & Pets actions menu (availability depends on your role permissions). See How do I export my client list? above for the steps.

Common Causes:

Solutions:

Common Issues:

Solutions:

Troubleshooting Steps:

If photos consistently fail to display, contact support with specific examples.

Possible Reasons:

Solutions:

They see your terms first thing when they log in. To text them now, open Mission Control > Attention Required > Terms Not Agreed and tap Send SMS request. Use 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. The Paperwork tab stores agreements they have already accepted. It does not capture a new signature. Full steps: Policies & Paperwork.

Customer profile > Fields & Forms tab > Form Submissions. You can also send from the appointment Forms & Responses section, or attach from the form's Responses tab. Do not use the Paperwork tab for this. Paperwork is agreements and uploaded documents.

No. Once per client is per pet owner account. Completing the form for one dog blocks it for a sibling on the same owner. Detach / Remove from an appointment does not reset this. Submissions cannot be deleted. To collect again, change frequency to Every appointment, or Duplicate the form.

Resend re-notifies the same pending submission. Completed, archived, or inactive forms cannot be resent. Send Form creates a new pending submission.

No. In form Settings, set When to collect to Send after booking or Required before booking to send it automatically. Send manually sends nothing on its own: use Send from the client profile.

Yes. Use Preview as client in the builder, on the form summary card, or in the booking-flow simulation. You can type into it. Forms do not hide or show questions based on earlier answers.

No. Required customer fields carry an amber hint on the staff forms. Your team can still save a partial record.

Yes. Use Fill for owner on the staff booking form, or fill on behalf from the customer's Fields & Forms tab. A staff fill counts as completed for once-per-client.

Go to Settings → Notifications. If Intake Forms is not on screen, type intake form in the search box. Turn off Email you: intake form submitted. Completing a form on a client's behalf does not send this email.

See Intake Forms Guide, Sending Forms to Clients, and Form Responses.

If your question isn't answered here:

Need help? Contact support or click the "Get Help" button in your dashboard to chat with our team.