Q: How often is the analytics data updated?
A: The backend pre-computes analytics data from your raw appointment records. You can see when it was last updated in the toolbar (e.g., "Updated 2h ago"). If you've made recent changes and need the latest numbers, use the Recalculate button to re-compute data for specific dates.

Q: Why do some tabs load instantly while deep dives take time?
A: The main tabs (Overview, Appointments, Customers, Team, Services, Financial) display pre-computed summary data that loads instantly. Deep dives (Appointments Deep Dive, Pet Demographics, Revenue Forecast, Map) fetch raw records and compute analytics in real-time when you trigger them. This takes longer but provides much richer, cross-dimensional analysis.

Q: What happens when I tap Recalculate?
A: It re-computes the pre-computed analytics from raw appointment data for the date range you specify (up to 7 days at a time). This is useful when you've recently completed appointments, processed payments, or issued refunds and want the numbers to reflect those changes. The recalculation range is independent of your viewing range. After recalculating, there is an 8-hour cooldown before you can recalculate again.

Q: Can I view data for more than one year?
A: The maximum date range is 365 days. If you have comparison or forecast periods active, the combined span (your selected range plus all comparison and forecast periods) also cannot exceed 365 days.

Q: What's the difference between the analytics recalculate button and automatic updates?
A: The pre-computed analytics data is generated automatically by the backend on a regular schedule. The Recalculate button lets you manually trigger a re-computation for a specific date range (up to 7 days) when you need the numbers updated sooner, for example after completing a batch of appointments or processing refunds. After recalculating, there is an 8-hour cooldown before you can recalculate again. The toolbar shows when data was last updated (e.g., "Updated 2h ago") so you can judge whether a manual recalculation is needed. See Filters and Controls for full details on the recalculate workflow.

Q: Why are there only 7 tabs? I was expecting 8.
A: The 7 tabs are Overview, Appointments, Customers, Team, Services, Financial, and Map. The deep dives (Appointments, Pet Demographics, Revenue Forecast) are embedded within their parent tabs rather than being separate tabs.

Q: Where is the deep dive content? I can't find it.
A: Deep dives appear as gradient-coloured cards near the bottom of their parent tab. Scroll down on the Appointments tab (for Appointments Deep Dive), the Customers tab (for Pet Demographics Deep Dive), or the Financial tab (for Revenue Forecast Deep Dive). The Map tab itself is entirely an on-demand deep dive.

Q: Do deep dive results disappear when I switch tabs?
A: No. Once you run a deep dive, the results persist even if you switch to another tab and come back. You only need to re-run if you change the date range or want to refresh the data.

Q: How do I access the deep dive analytics for a specific metric?
A: Deep dives are accessed from gradient-coloured cards near the bottom of their parent tab. Each deep dive focuses on a different area of your business:

Each deep dive generates its own set of insight cards with actionable suggestions and, in many cases, pre-written email templates. See the individual tab guides for full details.

Q: Why are some insight cards not appearing?
A: Insight cards only appear when the data meets certain thresholds. For example, team insights require at least 2 team members with appointment data. Revenue concentration only triggers when there's a measurable imbalance. If a tab shows no insight cards, it means nothing notable was detected for the selected date range.

Q: What do the insight card colours mean?
A: Green = positive (something is going well), Red = negative (needs attention), Grey = neutral (an observation), Amber = warning (a developing risk), Blue = tip (a suggestion or opportunity).

Q: What do the colour-coded insight cards mean for my business?
A: Each colour signals a different type of observation so you can prioritise your attention:

Many cards also have a help icon (question mark) in the top-right corner. Tap it to see exactly how the insight was calculated using your real data. See Understanding Insight Cards for full details.

Q: What is the help icon on some insight cards?
A: Some insight cards display a small help icon (question mark) in the top-right corner. This is the calculation explainer. Tap it to open a dialog that shows exactly how the insight was calculated, step by step, using your real data. It includes the evidence used, each calculation step, and a plain-language takeaway explaining what it means for your business. See Understanding Insight Cards for full details.

Q: What are the bars at the bottom of some insight cards?
A: When you have comparison or forecast periods active, some insight cards display period comparison bars: horizontal segments showing the value for each comparison period, the current period, and any forecast periods. This lets you see at a glance how the metric has changed across time.

Q: What does "Create Special Service" do on the demand imbalance insight?
A: When the system identifies consistently underbooked working days, it offers a guided 6-step plan to create a promotional service to fill those gaps. The dialog shows personalised steps based on your data: your quietest days, your top service to clone, a suggested capacity limit, and an example calculation for adjusting main service capacity to prevent overbooking.

Q: Can I dismiss or hide insight cards?
A: Insight cards cannot be individually dismissed. They are generated automatically based on the current data. If the underlying data changes (e.g., you adjust staffing or fill quiet days), the insights will update accordingly.

Q: What are the mail icons next to items in insight card lists?
A: Some insight cards open entity list dialogs (e.g., "View Senior Pets", "View Top Clients"). Within these lists, items with a mail icon have a ready-to-use email template available. Tapping the mail icon opens your email client with a pre-written, personalised draft for you to review, edit, and send. Petboost does not send these emails automatically. There are 11 email templates covering scenarios like cancellation recovery, VIP thank-you, senior pet care, puppy welcome, rebook reminders, and more. See Understanding Insight Cards for the full list.

Q: What does "comparison" mean exactly?
A: Comparison overlays the average performance from prior periods of equal length onto your current view. If you're viewing the last 28 days and set 2 comparison periods, it averages the two 28-day periods immediately before your selected range (aligned by day index) and shows that as a dashed grey line on charts and "vs. prev. avg" on metric cards. See Compare and Forecast for full details.

Q: What does "forecast" mean exactly?
A: Forecast projects your metrics forward using a day-of-week weighted averaging method with trend detection. It extends trend charts with a dashed violet line and shows projected values on metric cards. On the Overview tab, you can tap the forecast badge on the Revenue Trend chart to see a full breakdown of how the forecast was calculated. See Compare and Forecast for full details.

Q: Is the page-level forecast the same as the Revenue Forecast Deep Dive?
A: No. The page-level forecast (via the Compare button) uses day-of-week averaging with trend detection from your current period. The Revenue Forecast Deep Dive (in the Financial tab) uses a different method: it analyses 3 prior periods of equal length, averages them day-by-day, and produces a forecast with a min-max confidence band. Both can be active at the same time without conflicting.

Q: How do I compare this week to last week?
A: Use the Compare and Forecast feature to overlay prior period data onto your current view:

You will now see a dashed grey line on your trend charts showing last week's performance, and "vs. prev. avg" comparisons on the metric cards in the Overview tab with green or red percentage deltas. You can set up to 3 comparison periods to see a broader historical average. For example, setting 2 comparison periods on a 7-day view averages the two weeks before your selected range. See Compare and Forecast for full details.

Q: Can I filter by both team member and service at the same time?
A: Yes. Both filters work together. You can, for example, view Sarah's Full Groom appointments specifically by selecting both the team member and service filters.

Q: What do filters affect?
A: Filters affect revenue totals, appointment volumes, trend charts, and rankings. However, status breakdowns, completion and cancellation rates, customer counts, and financial breakdowns always show full business data regardless of filters. An amber notice in the filter panel explains this when filters are active.

Q: Do filters affect deep dives?
A: The team member and service filters apply to the main tab views (which use pre-computed data). The on-demand deep dives fetch raw data independently and may not be affected by these filters.

Q: Can I get an end-of-day financial report?
A: Yes. Use the Email Summary feature to generate a comprehensive financial digest at the end of each day:

The email is ready to send to yourself or your team. For a more detailed financial breakdown, switch to the Financial tab first, which shows revenue by source (appointments, packages, sales), cancellation fees, refunds, and payment status. You can also tap Export to download the Financial tab data as a CSV file for your records. See Filters and Controls for details on what each email section contains.

Q: How do I see revenue broken down by service type?
A: There are several ways to view revenue by service:

For the most detailed service-level analysis, visit the Services tab. See Services Tab and Financial Tab for full details.

Q: Can I see which services generate the most revenue?
A: Yes. The Services tab is purpose-built for this. The Service Performance scatter chart plots each service by revenue (x-axis) and appointment count (y-axis), with bubble size representing overall impact. Services in the top-right are your strongest performers. The Service Details Table lists every service ranked with revenue, appointment count, average value, and revenue per hour. Insight cards such as revenue concentration, service efficiency, and revenue per hour ranking automatically highlight your top earners and flag when too much revenue depends on one or two services. The Category Breakdown section also shows which service categories contribute the most. See Services Tab for full details.

Q: What is the Outstanding Payments dialog?
A: When the Financial tab's payment success insight detects declined payments, it offers a "Manage Payments" action. This opens the Outstanding Payments dialog, which lists all appointments with declined or outstanding payments, grouped into "Card on File" and "No Card on File" sections. You can charge individual appointments or use bulk charge mode to process multiple payments at once. See Financial Tab for details.

Q: Why does the Map tab require me to run an analysis?
A: Unlike other tabs that use pre-computed data, the Map needs to fetch full appointment records, extract customer addresses, and geocode suburbs via a mapping service. This is computationally intensive and done on-demand.

Q: Why are some customers missing from the map?
A: Geographic Intelligence requires the suburb field on customer profiles to be populated. Appointments for customers without address data are excluded. The more complete your customer profiles, the more comprehensive the map analysis.

Q: What are the 5 map modes?
A: Revenue (bubbles by suburb revenue), Customers (individual customer dots colour-coded by recency), Team (team members at business centroid), Weekday (day-of-week patterns by suburb), and Boundaries (suburb boundary polygons shaded by revenue with weekday filtering). See Geographic Intelligence for full details.

Q: How do I use the geographic map feature?
A: The Map tab provides five different ways to visualise your business geographically. To get started:

Once loaded, use the radio buttons above the map to switch between the 5 modes:

Below the map, a ranked table lists your top 15 suburbs by revenue. Insight cards highlight geographic concentration, high-value suburb opportunities, and growth areas. Note that the map requires customer address data (specifically the suburb field) to be populated on customer profiles. See Geographic Intelligence for full details.

Q: What does the CSV export include?
A: It exports the analytics data for whichever tab is currently active. Each tab exports different columns: for example, the Overview tab exports Date, Revenue, Appointments, Active Customers, and New Customers, while the Services tab exports Service, Category, Revenue, Appointments, Avg Value, and Avg Duration. Export is available on 6 tabs (not the Map tab). See Filters and Controls for the full column breakdown per tab.

Q: What does the email summary include?
A: It generates a comprehensive plain-text email with sections covering Overview, Appointments, Customers, Team, Services, and Financial metrics, plus relevant insights and recommendations. If comparison or forecast periods are active, those sections are included too. The email opens in your email client for you to send. Deep dive cards also have individual email buttons that open a top-level summary plus the detailed deep dive analysis in your email client. See Filters and Controls for full details on what each email contains.

Q: How do I export my client list?
A: Client list exports are not currently available as a self-service feature within Reporting and Intelligence. The CSV export on each tab exports analytics data (aggregated metrics, revenue totals, and performance summaries), not individual client records. If you need a full client list export with names, contact details, and pet information, please contact the Petboost support team and they can assist you. This is a feature we are actively working on bringing to the platform as a self-service option.

Q: Can I email myself a weekly report summary?
A: You can generate an email summary at any time by setting your date range and tapping the Email Summary button (mail icon) in the toolbar. To create a weekly summary:

The email is ready to send to yourself, your business partner, or your team. There is no automatic scheduled email at this time, but you can use this workflow at the end of each week to produce a consistent report. Deep dive cards also have their own email buttons if you want to include a deeper analysis of a specific area alongside the top-level summary.

Q: How do I check my team's utilisation rates?
A: The Team tab includes a dedicated Team Utilisation section that shows how effectively each team member's available hours are being used:

Each team member is listed with a progress bar showing booked hours versus available hours, a percentage badge, and the raw hour figures (e.g., "32h / 40h"). The percentages are colour-coded: green for 80% and above, amber for 50-80%, and red for below 50%. Members are sorted by utilisation rate, highest first.

Utilisation is calculated from each team member's configured working hours template, so it accurately accounts for part-time workers and different schedules. A part-timer who works 3 days a week and is fully booked will show high utilisation, not low.

The staff utilisation insight card (when it appears) goes further by calculating how many extra appointments could be booked without adding hours. It includes a calculation explainer showing exactly how utilisation is derived. See Team Tab for full details.

Q: Can I track no-show rates by customer?
A: Yes, through the Appointments Deep Dive. The deep dive includes a no-show rate metric as one of its 12 blindspot analytics, showing the overall no-show rate for your business during the selected period. To access it:

The deep dive also includes repeat canceller detection, which identifies clients with multiple cancellations, and a cancel-and-rebook vs. cancel-and-gone ratio that shows whether customers who cancel tend to rebook or leave entirely. Insight cards with "View" actions let you see lists of specific customers exhibiting these patterns, and many include pre-written email templates (e.g., the No-Show Follow-Up template) that you can send directly from your email client. See Appointments Tab for full details on the deep dive.

Q: I can't see Reporting and Intelligence in my sidebar. Why?
A: Reporting and Intelligence is available on eligible subscription plans. If it's not visible, check your plan details or contact support about upgrading.