Services define what you offer, how much you charge, how long appointments take and who can book them. You create a service in four steps, and Petboost saves it as a draft you finish on its own page before customers can book it. The link https://business.petboost.com/services?action=create opens the create wizard straight away, which is handy as a bookmark.

You create Initial, Regular, Stay and Add-on services on Services. Puppy school, scentwork and other multi-lesson group programmes are courses, and prepaid bundles are packages. Each of those is created on its own page, not with New > New Service.

Every service has one of four types, and the type cannot be changed after you create the service. The wizard shows each type with the line below.

An add-on cannot be booked on its own. It goes with a main service. It lengthens that service only when Add extra time with this add-on is on, and those minutes stay with the same team member and the same table. If clients also need to book that extra by itself, such as a drop-in nail clip, keep the add-on and create a separate Regular service. See Add-Ons.

An Initial service does not block anything by itself. A Regular or Stay service asks for it first when it names the Initial under Service Prerequisite, described below. An Initial service cannot be booked as a recurring series.

Two more things you sell are not services, and each has its own page.

Match what you are setting up to a type.

See the Service Types Guide.

Do not create a Regular service for puppy school, scentwork, obedience or any multi-lesson group class. Create a course template instead: open Courses, select New, then New Course Template. Publishing a course from that template creates the lesson service, and staff enrol pets from Courses, not from New > Appointment on Appointments.

Use a Regular service for a single appointment, including 1:1 training. See Courses versus services.

Create a service for each thing you sell at its own price or length.

Petboost creates the service as a draft and opens it. A draft is hidden from customers and your booking page until you turn on online booking for it, described below.

Apart from online booking, a new service follows your business settings until you change them on the service. Before you select Create Service, Follows your business settings on Team & Resources lists what it will take from your business: Instant confirmation, Notice period, Reminders and Cancellation policy. Notifications, deposits, pre-hold funds, auto-pay, the details customers must give and the automatic actions follow your business settings the same way. A cloned service keeps the settings of the service you cloned instead, and an add-on does not show the list.

On Team & Resources, Spots used sets how many places one booking takes; most services use 1 and a large pet service might use 2. For a service you deliver at the customer's place, switch on Require customer to provide a street address? under Enable Mobile Service. An add-on takes its team member and resource from the main service, so it offers only Optional and Not used. A Stay service uses resources instead of team members.

Tip: Name the service so customers know what they are getting, such as "Full Groom (Large Dogs)", "Small Dog Walking" or "Premium Spa Package". Avoid vague names like "Service 1" and internal codes customers will not understand, and add the size when the price or length depends on it.

Generate with AI sits beside Description and Short Description in the wizard, and beside Short Description and Full Description on a saved service. It opens Grazi with a draft written from the service name, up to 90 characters for the short description and 250 for the full one. On a field that already has text, the button reads Improve with AI and rewrites what is there.

Enter the service name first, because the draft is written from it and from nothing else. Review the draft and add details only your business knows. For a Full Groom (Large Dogs), a short description might read "The works: bath, blow, ear clean, pawdicure, full body & face scissor trim + 30 min brushing." and a full description "The works! Bath, blow, ear clean, pawdicure, full body and face scissor trim, plus 30 minutes of brushing knots. Prices are 'from' and final fee depends on size, time and coat condition."

Copying is quicker than starting again when a new service is close to one you have, such as a large dog version of a groom.

For a long list of services, start from Petboost's import template.

Services lists every service with its type, price, duration, a Self-Service or Staff Only badge, and its Rules, such as Vaccination Required.

The settings menu beside New holds Reorder, Pricing Assistant, Manage Categories, Bulk Update Services, Image Gallery, Export as CSV, Print Price List and Link Prefill Builder, and on a wide screen Bulk Edit Grid.

A saved service opens on a page of sections, each its own tab. Changes collect at the foot of the page under Pending Changes. Select Publish Changes, tick the box in Before You Publish, then select Publish Changes. Before You Publish lists each change under Applies to all appointments, Only applies to new bookings or Takes effect straight away, so you can see which bookings it reaches before it goes live.

To organise services into categories, such as Dog Grooming, Dog Boarding, Dog Daycare, Dog Walking, Cat Grooming, Pet Training and Pet Sitting, select the settings menu beside New on Services, then Manage Categories. Categories group related services, which keeps a long list tidy for your team and easier for customers to browse.

A new service stays a draft, marked Staff Only on Services, until you turn on online booking. Your team can book a Staff Only service; customers cannot see or book it.

The badge beside the service name changes from Draft to Published, and the service reads Self-Service on Services. While a service is unpublished, its summary beside the sections also shows Not published yet with Publish Now, which turns on online booking in one step. Online booking needs a plan with self-service booking.

These extras show when a customer opens the service on your Showcase page: the Value Feature Label under the price, the Key Features as a list of what is included, and the video.

With the Video Booster power-up, the field reads Service Video and you can choose Upload a video instead of Link a video. An uploaded video can be up to 60 seconds long, or up to 3 minutes on Video Booster Max, and uses minutes from your Video Booster pool. It plays silently on a loop on the service tile in your online booking and on your Showcase page, and a tap opens the full player with sound. A YouTube or Vimeo link works the same way it always has. See Video Booster.

Basic Info also holds the Service Image, shown in a 4:3 frame, so a 4:3 photo such as 800 x 600 pixels fits it best. Under Advanced options, Scheduler Colour sets the colour the service uses on the calendar in place of its category colour.

For a full groom, key features might read: complete bath with premium shampoo, professional blow dry and brush out, nail trim and ear cleaning, full body scissor trim, 30-minute coat de-matting included. For a dog walk: 1-hour neighbourhood walk, check-in and check-out with photo updates, fresh water provided, maximum 4 dogs per walker.

Tip: Use a label on one or two services per category at most, only where it is true, such as your real best seller, and keep it up to date. Make key features specific, such as "30-minute de-matting" rather than "grooming", say "includes" rather than "might include", lead with what customers care about most, and format them the same way across services. For the video, show your real work in under two minutes: a time-lapse of a groom, a tour of your space, your team, a before and after, or a walkthrough of the service. A phone video is enough; add captions for people watching without sound.

To make a new pet sit an assessment or first visit before a regular service, set the Initial service as the regular service's prerequisite. For example, a Regular "Full Groom" can require an Initial "First Visit Assessment" of 30 minutes at $25, training sessions can require a one-hour Behaviour Evaluation at $50, and overnight boarding can require a facility tour and meet-and-greet.

The rule is checked per pet. A pet that has not met the prerequisite is not offered the regular service online, and a pet that has met it books freely. Each service carries its own prerequisite. To let one household skip it, switch on Skip Service Prerequisites on the Settings & Overrides tab of the customer's profile. Your team can still book the service for a pet that has not met the prerequisite. See Service prerequisites for every option.

Automatic actions move a booking through its statuses without anyone touching it. Instant confirmation is on the service's Booking Settings tab, under Online booking, with its default for every service on Settings > Booking Settings. The other four are set for every service on Settings > Automatic Actions, and on the service's own Automatic Actions tab under Advanced options.

Deposits and Pre-hold funds are money settings on Pricing & Payments, not automatic actions. Pre-hold funds holds the funds on the card on file 72 hours before the appointment without charging them, which protects against no-shows and suits high-value services.

A service that keeps its own value is listed under the switch, and its own value wins.

To change Instant confirmation for one service, choose Booking Settings instead and switch it under Online booking.

Auto-pay invoices needs a card on file for the customer. A customer's profile can override Pre-Hold Funds, Auto-Pay Invoices, Deposit and Pay on Arrival for that customer, under Payment Automation on its Settings & Overrides tab. Each automatic action is recorded against the appointment.

Tip: Turn on every action for high-trust services with fixed prices. For variable pricing, such as grooming, use auto-start and auto-complete but leave auto-finalise and auto-pay off, so you can adjust the price before the invoice is final. If you are just starting out, begin with instant confirmation only and add the others as you gain confidence.

Each service has its own Reporting & Intelligence tab, with what it sold over a period you choose.

The tab shows how many were Sold or booked, the Booked value (every sale and booking, paid or not), the Paid part and the number of Customers. Who bought it lists each sale with the customer, the date, the quantity, the amount and how it was sold, with an Unpaid badge on a finished booking not yet paid and a Booked badge on one still to come. Cancelled bookings are left out. Select Export CSV to download the list.

A Stay service bills by the Pricing Mode you set on Pricing & Payments.

Every mode can add Extended Stay Discounts, so a longer stay costs less per night, day or 24-hour period. If you do not pick a mode, the service uses Duration-based.

Set arrival and departure rules on Duration & Timing, under Check-in & Check-out Windows. Windows bind pet owners, and staff can still override them on New Stay. Windows do not add a late fee. See the Service Pricing Guide, Stay Check-in and Check-out Windows and Stay Appointments.

Use "From" pricing where the final cost depends on the pet's size or breed, coat condition, time taken or add-ons, and adjust the price at booking. Use a fixed price for standard services such as group classes, set-length walks and standard daycare rates. For prices that change with the pet, see the Service Pricing Guide.

Set a duration that matches the real time needed, because scheduling conflicts come from durations that are too short. For preparation, check-in, cleaning or notes time, add Buffer Time on the service's Duration & Timing tab: Buffer Time Before for setup and check-in, Buffer Time After for cleaning up and check-out. Buffer time stops bookings running back to back.

A grooming business might start with these services.

A dog daycare might start with these.

A dog walker might start with these.

Start with your core offerings, five to ten services, and add more later. Too many services can overwhelm customers. Turn on online booking for most of them, use add-ons for optional extras, and switch on "From" pricing rather than writing "varies" as a price.

Yes, every setting except the service type can be changed at any time. Before You Publish shows whether each change applies to all appointments, only to new bookings, or straight away.

Yes, if the price or duration changes a lot by size. Use the weight rules on Who Can Book so each pet sees the right service.

An add-on cannot be booked alone; it goes with another service. A Regular service can be booked on its own.

Use "From" pricing and adjust the final price at booking for the pet, or create a service for each size.

Use categories throughout, and group size variants, such as Small, Medium and Large, inside a clear category structure.

Have questions about services? See these commonly asked questions: