Sessions are focused time blocks inside your working hours. They give your day structure, control when bookings can start, and let you set a different number of pets at a time for different parts of the day.
Three things work together. Schedules & Sessions sums them up as your hours, then sessions (blocks in your day), then pets at a time (how many at once):
Concept | Question it answers | Example |
Your hours | When am I open? | Mon-Fri, 9am-5pm |
Sessions | How do I chunk my day? | Morning grooms, afternoon express |
Pets at a time | How many at one moment? | 3 dogs at once |
Open a team member's or resource's week
Open Schedules & Sessions.
Optional: with more than one team member or resource, choose Team Members or Resources, or type in the search box.
Select Edit beside the team member or resource.
Each day reads Working or Day Off, and each session shows its times and Max pets At Once. A working day with no session reads No sessions and takes no bookings. You can also add and change sessions straight from the full list without selecting Edit.
Create morning and afternoon sessions
This example splits a day into a morning session and an afternoon session with a lunch break between them.
Open Schedules & Sessions and select Edit beside the team member or resource.
On a working day, select Add Session.
Set Start Time to 9:00 am and End Time to 12:00 pm.
Set Pets at a time, for example 2.
Optional: open Advanced options and enter a Label (Optional), such as Morning Grooms or whatever fits your day.
Select Add Session.
Repeat steps 2 to 6 for the afternoon: 1:00 pm to 5:00 pm, a Pets at a time that can differ from the morning, for example 3, and a label such as Afternoon Express.
Select Publish Changes, tick the box in Before You Publish, then select Publish Changes.
Bookings now fit only inside those two sessions: each appointment has to start and finish within one of them. The gap from 12:00 pm to 1:00 pm becomes your lunch break.
Pets at a time is not a daily limit
This is the most common misunderstanding. 3 pets at a time does not mean 3 pets a day. It is how many can overlap at the same moment.
With Pets at a time set to 3, a session from 9:00 am to 12:00 pm and services that take an hour each, the session fills like this:
Start time | Pets starting | Places in use |
9:00 am | 3 | 3 of 3 |
10:00 am | 3 | 3 of 3 |
11:00 am | 3 | 3 of 3 |
That is 9 dogs in one session, and never more than 3 at any moment. The number controls how many overlap at the same time, not how many come through the door that day.
Spot weights: larger dogs can use more spots
Some pets take up more capacity than others. By default every booking uses 1 spot, and a service can be set so that each booking of it uses 2.
With Pets at a time set to 4, a small dog groom that uses 1 spot and a large dog groom that uses 2 spots, 9:00 am could hold any of these:
Scenario A | Scenario B | Scenario C |
4 small dogs (4/4) | 2 large dogs (4/4) | 1 large + 2 small (4/4) |
Petboost counts the spots itself when it checks availability.
Set the spots a service uses
Each service has one Spots used value for every pet booked on it, so use separate services for small and large dogs.
Open Services, then Manage on the service and Manage Service.
Choose Team & Resources.
Open Advanced options and set Spots used under Places Used Per Booking. It shows once team members or resources are Required for the service.
Select Publish Changes, tick the box in Before You Publish, then select Publish Changes.
Edit one session
Open Schedules & Sessions and select Edit beside the team member or resource.
Select the session.
Set Start Time and End Time.
Set Pets at a time.
Optional: open Advanced options, enter a Label (Optional), and turn Show on booking page on or off.
Optional: turn on 24 Hours, set Same-family booking, or turn on Fixed start times.
Optional: under Services in this session and Which pets can book, limit the session to some services or pets.
Select Stage for Publishing, or Add Session when you are creating a new one.
Select Publish Changes, tick the box in Before You Publish, then select Publish Changes.
Same-family booking is how many pets from the same family can be booked side by side in this session. Without it, siblings are booked one after another. Fixed start times makes every appointment start exactly at the session start time, or not at all. With it off, Petboost prefers the start time but can start a booking straight after an existing one. Services in this session and Which pets can book (weight, age and breeds) use the defaults when left empty.
Session labels replace the start time
With Show on booking page on, the session label replaces the start time. A Saturday session labelled Drop-off from 9am shows that label, not 9:00 AM and not the service's drop-off wording. The finish still follows the service.
The session label wins over A message instead of a time on the service. To use one message for every session of a service, leave Show on booking page off and set the message on the service:
Open Services, then Manage on the service and Manage Service.
On Duration & Timing, under How the time reads (previously Times customers see or Service Windows), select A message instead of a time.
Fixed start times on the session pins bookings to the session start. With Show on booking page on, customers still see the label, not the clock.
Split a session
You can split a session from the session editor or from the split dialog.
From the session editor
Open Schedules & Sessions and select the session.
Turn on Split Session.
Under Sub-Sessions, set Start Time, End Time and Pets at a time for each part.
Select Split Session.
Select Publish Changes, tick the box in Before You Publish, then select Publish Changes.
From the split dialog
Open Schedules & Sessions and right-click the session on the day you want to split.
Review Original Session:. The dialog title reads Split, the day's name and Session, such as Split Monday's Session.
Under Sub-Sessions, set the parts.
Check Split Preview.
Select Split Session.
Select Publish Changes, tick the box in Before You Publish, then select Publish Changes.
Pointing at a session shows Click to edit and Right-click to split.
Add a session for set dates only
A special date replaces the team member's or resource's normal day for the dates it covers.
Open Schedules & Sessions and select Add Session on the day.
Set the session's times and Pets at a time.
Turn on Special date only.
Set Start Date and End Date.
Choose Keep the normal day and add this session or Only this session on these dates.
Select Add Session.
Select Publish Changes, tick the box in Before You Publish, then select Publish Changes.
Special date only shows while you are adding a session. Dates another special date already covers are greyed out. Inside a special date, Copy Hours from Another Day copies a session's hours from a normal weekday or another day in the same special date.
Change one session on one date
Start from the normal day so the sessions you did not change still run.
Open Schedules & Sessions and select Edit beside the team member or resource.
Choose Special Dates.
Select New special dates.
Set Start Date and End Date.
Select Copy default hours.
Change the session.
Select Stage for Publishing.
Select Publish Changes, tick the box in Before You Publish, then select Publish Changes.
Repeat special dates
A repeat makes a run of special dates in one go, such as every second Friday. It always ends, after a number of times or on a date.
Open Schedules & Sessions and select Edit beside the team member or resource.
Choose Special Dates.
Select New special dates.
Turn on Repeat these special dates.
Set First Start Date and First End Date.
Under Repeat every, choose Every Week, Every 2 Weeks, Every Month or Custom.
Under Ends, choose After and enter how many times, or choose On a date and pick the last date one can start.
Check the preview. A date that already has special dates is skipped.
Optional: change the Special Date Label. Every date in the run gets this name, and the name is what keeps them together.
Select Next: Configure Schedule and set the hours.
Select Next: Check bookings. Petboost lists every booking that would fall outside the new hours.
Choose what happens to those bookings, then select Create with the number of dates.
A repeat saves straight away, without Publish Changes.
Change or delete a run of special dates
Special dates that share a name are one run.
Select any of them on the calendar.
Under Change which dates?, choose This and the N after it, or All N called the name when you opened the first one. Just this one changes only that date and waits for Publish Changes.
To change the hours or the name, select Next: Configure Schedule, change them, then select Next: Check bookings. To delete, select Delete with the number.
Choose what happens to bookings outside the new hours, then select Save or Delete with the number.
Deleted special dates go back to the normal week. A run saves straight away, without Publish Changes.
Bookings outside new hours
When a run of special dates is created, changed or deleted, Next: Check bookings lists the bookings on those dates that would fall outside the new hours. Closed means that date has no session; Outside hours shows the new hours. Select a booking to open it in a new tab. Then choose one:
Leave them booked: they stay where they are at the booked time. Nothing changes for the customer.
Move them to another team member (or resource): same date and time, assigned to the one you pick. The customer is not told.
Cancel them: choose Send notification or Cancel silently. No cancellation fee is charged and package credits go back.
The hours save first. If they do not save, no booking is touched.
Special dates at the top of Schedules & Sessions shows every special date on one month beside the normal hours. See Managing Rosters & Schedules.
Which sessions take bookings
A service is booked on a team member when Team Members are Required for it, or on a schedule when Resources are Required for it. A session on the other one reads Not used for booking and does not open or close that service.
Common mistakes and how to fix them
No availability is showing online
Each line below gives a cause, then its fix:
A special date covers that day and has no session for the service: edit or delete the special date.
The session is shorter than the service plus its buffer time: lengthen the session, or set the buffer time to 0 on Duration & Timing.
The pet is missing a badge or a prerequisite the service needs: add it on the pet, or change Who Can Book.
The service needs a resource and the linked resource assigned to the booking is closed that day: give every linked resource the hours.
Pets at a time is 0: set it to at least 1. A session set to 0 shows Zero Capacity Warning.
To see the reason for one service on one date, select Check a date on the team member's or resource's page. Choose the service, a pet and the date, then select Check Availability.
Bookings are landing in random gaps
Likely cause: the working day is one long session, so a booking can start at any time inside it.
Fix: open Booking Engine and choose Reduce gaps under Which times customers see online. Customers then see times next to existing bookings or at the start and end of each session. Choose Next available only to offer one time per session. Use Fixed start times on a session where every booking must start at the session start, because that wins over both modes.
I set 3 pets at a time but I'm only getting 3 a day
Likely cause: the session is too short for services to rotate through. If the session is 1 hour and each service takes 1 hour, you only get one rotation.
Fix: make the session longer or the services shorter. 3 at a time over 3 hours gives you up to 9 dogs with 1-hour services.
Large dogs are still booking alongside small dogs
Likely cause: large and small dogs book the same service, which has one Spots used value.
Fix: create a separate service for larger dogs and set its Spots used, as in Set the spots a service uses.
I want different services in different sessions
Each session can limit which services can be booked in it, under Services in this session in the session's Advanced options. See Edit one session.
A service you add later is not on those lists. Linking it from the team member's or resource's Services section offers to add it to their sessions, and the service's Team Members & Resources tab shows Add to sessions for anyone whose sessions leave it out. If a booking lands in a session that does not take its service, the booking form says so under the service, for example "Not on Bath Station's session list", with Add to sessions. That opens the working hours in a new tab, so the booking stays as it is.
To run those sessions over the same hours, see Run two sessions at the same time.
Run two sessions at the same time
Two sessions on one team member or resource can cover the same hours when each session is limited to different services.
A 9:00 am to 5:00 pm session limited to full day daycare can overlap shorter sessions limited to a 2 hour daycare. A customer booking full day daycare is offered the long session. A customer booking the 2 hour daycare is offered the shorter sessions.
Both sessions use that team member's or resource's Pets at a time. A full day booking and a 2 hour booking in the same hour count towards that one total.
Open Schedules & Sessions and select the session, or add a new one.
Set Start Time and End Time. Times another session already uses can be selected.
Turn on Runs at the same time as another session. It sits under the times when the day already has a session.
Open Advanced options. Services in this session and Which pets can book are listed there when you add a session and when you edit one.
Under Services in this session, choose the services for this session.
Open the other session and choose its services. A service cannot be on both.
Select Stage for Publishing, then Publish Changes, tick the box in Before You Publish, then select Publish Changes.
If the other session is open to every service, limit that session to its own services first.
The appointment has to start and finish inside the session that offers its service. A 2 hour daycare needs a session at least 2 hours long.
Before you finish
Working hours are set, the container
At least one session is created, the structure
Pets at a time is set on each session
If you use spot weights, Spots used is set on each service
Check: Create a test booking and check the times it offers.
Need help? Select Get Help in your dashboard or email [email protected].