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

Yes. When customers book online, they provide owner details, pet information, and health records that automatically create comprehensive profiles in Petboost. We capture name, contact information, pet details (breed, gender, birthday, weight), vaccination certificates, and payment methods.

We're also releasing custom fields functionality (December/January) that will allow you to add business-specific intake questions to the booking flow. After the first booking, you can add detailed grooming preferences, special instructions, and health notes directly to each pet's profile.

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.

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.

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.

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.

To mark a pet as deceased:

What happens after marking deceased:

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.

If a pet was marked as deceased by mistake:

The pet will reappear in booking searches and active customer lists.

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.

Duplicate customer records happen when the same person is created twice - often because a different staff member entered them, or they registered online with a slightly different name or phone number.

Identifying duplicates:

How to merge:

Contact Petboost support to merge duplicate records. Provide:

What happens during a merge:

Do not attempt to merge records manually by deleting one and recreating pets under the other. This destroys appointment and service history.

Prevention tips:

Recommended:

Common Issues:

Solutions:

Yes:

While not required, uploading vaccination certificates is strongly recommended for:

Petboost shows vaccination status in the sidebar:

Set reminders to check statuses monthly and contact owners proactively.

There is no single bulk report that lists every pet's vaccination expiry, but there are practical ways to stay on top of it:

Daily: Use Mission Control

Per service: Use vaccination requirements

Proactive outreach:

Tip: The most reliable approach is combining service-level vaccination requirements (so non-compliant pets cannot book) with a quick daily check in Mission Control for any exceptions.

Configure vaccination requirements per service:

System behaviour:

Recommended for:

Currently, vaccination status is shown per pet. To identify pets needing renewals:

Pro tip: Contact customers 30 days before expiration to request updated certificates.

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:

Vaccination status displays in the sidebar:

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 the pet's profile and go to the Recurring Series tab. 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.

Possible Reasons:

If appointments should be there but aren't visible, contact support.

Open the pet's profile and go to the Appointments tab. You'll see:

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.

Go to the Packages tab in the pet's profile. You'll see:

The Packages tab 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 Grooming Preferences 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. Pet Owner Summary Card (fastest access):

2. Pet Summary Card:

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:

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.

Contact support to merge the duplicate owner records. This will:

Do not attempt to manually merge by deleting and recreating 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.

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

A self-service client list export is not currently available in the app. This is a feature we are actively working on.

In the meantime, the Petboost team can export your data for you:

What we can export:

Common use cases:

Tip: If you need regular exports (e.g. weekly), let us know and we can set up a recurring schedule.

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.

Reporting and export features depend on your system permissions. Contact your administrator or support about exporting customer lists, contact information, or service histories. See How do I export my client list? above for full details.

Common Causes:

Solutions:

Common Issues:

Solutions:

Troubleshooting Steps:

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

Possible Reasons:

Solutions:

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.