Automated notifications keep customers informed about their appointments through SMS and email. Configure when and how customers receive updates, reminders, and custom messages.

Three things can override these switches, and the page says so at the top:

Included in Business Pro, Business Flex, and Business Max

Send automatic notifications when appointments are booked, changed, or cancelled. The Booking Created, Booking Updates and Booking Accepted / Declined stages list each message with a switch and a Preview button.

New accounts start with these switches off.

Booked:

Changed:

A team member change on its own does not message the customer. It emails the assigned team member when Email assigned team members is on.

Cancelled:

Enable both SMS and email for maximum customer communication:

Send automatic reminders before appointments to reduce no-shows.

If you are on the 14-day trial, Petboost does not send automatic appointment, Friday, vaccination or rebooking reminders. Booking confirmations follow their switches. You can still send a reminder from an appointment with Send Reminder Notification. Automatic reminders start when the subscription leaves the trial.

The reminder switches sit under First Reminder in the Pre-Appointment Reminders section.

Email the customer: reminders emails the pet owner before the appointment, at the Reminder Time. It is the default for every service. A service can change it on its Notifications tab.

Enabled - Send email reminders

Disabled - No email reminders

Text the customer: reminders texts the pet owner before the appointment, at the Reminder Time. It needs a plan that includes SMS. A text due between 11pm and 4am, business time, is not sent. The email reminder still is.

Enabled - Send SMS reminders

Disabled - No SMS reminders

How long before the appointment to send reminders

Time Configuration:

Choose Weeks, Days, Hours and Minutes. Minutes go in 5-minute steps. The line above the dropdowns shows the total, for example 1 day. A reminder time longer than 72 hours shows This reminder may not land in time to be effective.

Common Settings:

Example: If set to "2 hours", customers receive a reminder 2 hours before their appointment time.

When the reminder time has already passed:

If you book or reschedule an appointment that starts sooner than the Reminder Time, a Reminders panel appears under Notify customer? on the booking form. Each reminder that can no longer go out on time shows Won't send - reminder time already passed. Turn on Send now to send that reminder when you save. If you leave it off, Petboost does not send that reminder for this booking.

Best Practices:

Send an additional reminder at a different time before the appointment, giving you two touchpoints to reduce no-shows.

How to enable:

Channel options:

Timing configuration:

The second reminder uses the same duration picker as the first reminder: Weeks, Days, Hours and Minutes, with minutes in 5-minute steps.

Per-service override:

The second reminder can be configured differently for individual services. Navigate to a service's Notifications tab to override the business-level second reminder settings. This is useful when some services need closer follow-up (e.g. a full groom) while others don't (e.g. a quick nail trim).

Best practices for spacing:

Avoid setting both reminders too close together (e.g. 3 hours and 2 hours apart), as customers may find this annoying rather than helpful.

This switch sits under Reminder Rules. It is off by default. When it is off, appointments in a series that repeats every day or every week get no reminder. Series that repeat less often, such as every two weeks, always get reminders.

Enabled - Remind about recurring bookings

Disabled (default) - No reminders for daily or weekly series

When to enable:

When to disable:

Add a note that Petboost includes with confirmation and reminder emails, and on the pet owner's booking card.

Exact label in the app: Pre-Appointment Message (under Custom Messages on Settings → Notifications). This is not on Settings → SMS.

Included in confirmation and reminder emails, and the pet owner's booking card.

If you also want that same note on texts:

When that switch is on, Petboost appends the message to the booking confirmation SMS and each reminder SMS (including a second reminder if that reminder is on). The page shows how many SMS segments the confirmation and reminder would use. One emoji or other Unicode character can switch the whole text to Unicode (70 characters per segment) and increase the segment count.

This is not the SMS Confirmation Reply (Y/N) / Confirmation Message setting (that appends a Y/N prompt to SMS reminders only - see below). Per-service default notes for appointments live under Services → [service] → Notes Templates. Only Internal Notes and the Customer-facing Notes in Business Notes are added to new bookings.

Under Pre-Appointment Reminders on the same Notifications page:

What each reply does:

Each text Petboost sends back uses an SMS credit.

Confirmation Reply needs an active dedicated number (Communications Booster). Without one, reminder texts go out without the Confirmation Message and replies do not reach Petboost. The setting applies to the whole business. This does not edit confirmation email copy. Use Pre-Appointment Message for that, and turn on Also add to confirmation and reminder texts if you also want that note on SMS.

Receive a notification when a customer adds or edits notes or attachments on their upcoming appointment through the Pet Owner App. This keeps your team informed of special requests, updated instructions, or photos sent ahead of the visit.

When a customer adds a note or attachment to an upcoming appointment, Petboost can notify your business via email, SMS, or both. The notification includes the pet owner's name, pet name, service, appointment date, and a direct link to the appointment in your dashboard.

Customer Note Alert (Business)

Enabled - Receive email alerts. New accounts start with it off

Disabled - No email alerts for customer notes

Customer Note Alert SMS (Business)

Disabled (default) - No SMS alerts for customer notes

Enabled - Receive SMS alerts

These settings can also be overridden per service with the Email you: customer note alerts and Text you: customer note alerts rows in Per-Service Settings on the same page. For example, you might enable SMS alerts for boarding appointments (where last-minute instructions matter most) but keep only email alerts for grooming.

When a customer books, reschedules, updates or cancels online, Petboost emails your business address a confirmation addressed to your team. This is on by default. It only sends while Email the customer: booking updates is also on, so turning that switch off stops both.

Enabled (default) - You receive a confirmation addressed to your team, with the customer's booking details and a link to the appointment in Petboost

Disabled - No business copy. Pet owner confirmation emails are unchanged, and Text you: new booking alert is unchanged.

This setting is business-wide. It cannot be overridden per service.

Petboost can email the pet owner on Friday with next week's bookings. The Friday email follows Email the customer: reminders until you change it.

You can also set this per service from the same row, or from Services → [service] → Notifications.

Petboost emails the pet owner 74 hours before the appointment, 2 hours before the pre-authorisation hold. This is on by default.

Petboost emails your business address when a pre-auth or payment is declined. This is on by default.

Customer copies of those emails follow Email the customer: booking updates. Payment-declined texts always send.

Petboost emails your business address at 6:30am, business time, with every appointment for the day: pet, owner contact details, service, time, team member, notes, attributes, custom fields and intake form responses, each with a View button. This is on by default. Nothing is sent on a day with no appointments.

Enabled (default) - You receive the morning run sheet at your business email

Disabled - No run sheet email. Text you: daily run sheet is unchanged.

This setting is business-wide. It cannot be overridden per service.

Petboost texts your business number a one-line summary at 6:30am, business time, when there are appointments. This is off by default. It needs the SMS feature and uses your SMS allowance. Nothing is sent on a day with no appointments.

Enabled - You receive a one-line summary of today's pets, bookings and anything that needs attention

Disabled (default) - No run sheet text. Email you: daily run sheet is unchanged.

This setting is business-wide. It cannot be overridden per service.

Petboost emails you hourly when a customer starts a booking but does not complete it, or leaves their profile unfinished.

When Email you: abandoned bookings & unfinished profiles is on, you receive both the abandoned-booking digest and the unfinished-profile alert. When it is off, neither email is sent.

Abandoned Booking SMS texts your business number. Auto Recovery SMS texts the customer. Auto Recovery SMS shows a Communications Booster badge until that add-on is on.

Petboost emails your business address when a client fills in an intake form. Completing a form on a client's behalf does not send this email.

The toggle is on by default. When it is on, Petboost emails you each time a client fills in an intake form. When it is off, no intake-form email is sent.

When an intake form is auto-sent with a booking, Petboost emails and texts the pet owner. Both are on by default.

Sending a form yourself from Forms still emails and texts them, even if these toggles are off.

Completing a form on a client's behalf emails and texts them only when you tick Notify client. There is no setting to turn that off.

If you sell memberships, Membership Notifications appears on Settings → Notifications.

The same section also has a Payments group: Recurring Payment Receipt, Payment Failed (Member), and Text you: payment failed.

A rebooking reminder is a text to a customer when one of their pets is due for its next visit. It is off until you turn it on, it needs a dedicated number, and each text uses an SMS credit.

Reminders go out at 10am, once a day. A pet is never texted twice inside 30 days, whatever the interval says, and a pet with an upcoming booking is skipped.

Reminders are on for every customer unless they turn them off. A customer's marketing choice makes no difference either way: someone who declined marketing still gets their reminder, and someone who accepted marketing has not thereby asked for reminders. Two things stop a reminder:

A customer is asked about reminders once, the first time they book with you. Yes, remind me is preselected. An existing customer is not asked again; they can change the choice at any time under Communication Preferences in their profile, and you can see it on the customer's Consent Declaration card.

The business setting is the default. A service can set its own cadence under the service's Notifications tab, and a pet can be set individually from the pet's profile with Use the business setting, Based on previous appointment history, After a set number of weeks, or Off for this pet. The most specific setting wins: a pet set to Off for this pet is never reminded, whatever the business or service says.

Petboost can email and text the pet owner before a vaccination is due. Both reminder toggles stay off until you turn them on.

Petboost sends the reminder about 30 days before the expiry date. If the certificate has a Date Administered but no expiry, Petboost sends the reminder about 11 months after the Date Administered.

A certificate stored without a Date Administered or expiry (for example a photo imported from another system) gets no reminder unless you also turn on Ask for missing certificate dates. With that on, Petboost sends one message on the channels above asking the owner to upload a complete certificate.

The SMS and the email button open the vaccination upload in the pet owner app.

To download every pet's vaccination row, use Quick Export: Vaccinations on Customers & Pets. See How do I check vaccination expiry dates across all pets?.

When you reject a vaccination certificate, Petboost always emails and texts the pet owner so they can re-upload. There is no setting to turn these off. The SMS and the email button open the vaccination upload.

Before enabling notifications for a service, you can preview what your customers will see. The notification preview shows the exact SMS or email content with sample data, helping you verify the message is correct before it goes live.

For email notifications, a full-screen preview dialog lets you see the exact email your customers will receive, rendered with your business logo, brand colour, and contact details. You can:

To open the email preview, click the preview button next to any email notification template in Settings > Notifications. The preview uses sample data and does not send any real emails.

Your SMS allocation depends on your plan (500/month for Business Pro, 700/month for Business Flex, 1,000/month for Business Max). For detailed information on monitoring your SMS usage, purchasing SMS Power-Up Packs, and optimising your SMS spend, see the SMS Credits guide.

Use SMS for:

Use Email for:

Use Both for:

Consider:

Avoid:

Do:

Don't:

Appointment SMS use {{DateTimeRange}} for the when line. A same-day booking shows the start date and time. A Stay booking, or any booking that ends on a later day, shows both the start and the end date and time.

When Also add to confirmation and reminder texts is on, confirmation and reminder SMS include the Pre-Appointment Message on its own line. When the switch is off, that line is omitted.

The examples end in (no-reply). Petboost adds it only when your business has no active dedicated number.

Q: Do SMS notifications cost extra?
A: SMS notifications are included in your plan at no extra charge:

If you exceed your monthly allocation, SMS Power-Up Packs are available for purchase.

Q: Can customers opt out of notifications?
A: Yes, customers can reply "STOP" to SMS messages to unsubscribe. Email notifications include unsubscribe links.

Q: What if a customer doesn't receive notifications?
A: Check that their phone number and email are correct in their profile. Verify they haven't opted out. Check spam folders for emails.

Q: Can I send a notification manually?
A: Yes, you can send custom messages from individual appointments or use the broadcast messaging feature.

Q: What time are reminders sent?
A: Petboost checks for due reminders every 15 minutes, so a reminder goes out within 15 minutes after its reminder time. For example, a 10 AM appointment with a 24-hour reminder sends between 10:00 and 10:15 AM the day before. A text reminder due between 11pm and 4am, business time, is not sent; the email still is.

Q: Can I customise notification content?
A: You can add a Pre-Appointment Message, edit the Confirmation Message, and edit the rebooking reminder Message. The rest of each template is fixed.

Q: Do I get notified about customer bookings?
A: Yes. Under Booking Created, Email you: new booking copy emails your business address a confirmation addressed to your team when a customer books, reschedules, updates or cancels online, and Text you: new booking alert texts your business number when an appointment is created.

Have questions about notifications and communications? See these commonly asked questions: