This step-by-step guide helps you confidently enable self-service booking. By the end, you'll know:

"Can I confidently accept any booking that passes my configured checks?"

Hard constraints are non-negotiable safety and operational limits. These must be configured before enabling self-service.

Question: "How many pets can I physically handle at the same time?"

Where: Team Members → [Person] → Capacity tab, or Resources → [Resource] → Capacity tab

Question: "Do I need proof of vaccination for safety?"

Where: Services → [Service] → Policies & Paperwork tab → Require vaccination certificate toggle

Question: "Are there ages I can't or won't work with?"

Where: Services → [Service] → Who Can Book tab

Question: "Are there sizes I can't safely handle?"

Where: Services → [Service] → Who Can Book tab

Question: "Are there breeds I specialise in or can't work with?"

Where: Services → [Service] → Who Can Book tab

Question: "Do I have a realistic service area?"

Note: Suburb restrictions are configured per service, not globally. Each mobile service can have different service areas if needed.

Where: Services → [Service] → Who Can Book tab → Advanced options → Geographic Restrictions → Edit Areas

Question: "What's the minimum notice I need to prepare?"

Where: Services → [Service] → Duration & Timing tab → Booking Notice → Booking Notice Period

Soft constraints are preferences that improve operations but aren't critical for safety.

Question: "Do I need time between appointments?"

Where: Services → [Service] → Duration & Timing tab → Advanced options → Padding Before / Padding After

Question: "Do I want to control when certain services can be booked?"

Where: Schedules & Sessions

Question: "Should customers choose their preferred staff member?"

Business assigns does not spread bookings evenly. When two team members are free at the same time, the first one Petboost checks gets the booking.

Where: Settings → Booking Settings, Customers choose their team member

For anything not covered by rules, ask: "What do I need to verify manually?"

For businesses that need to assess new pets before regular booking:

This is a gate, not a barrier. Pets get assessed once, then flow into self-service.

Where: Services → [Service] → Who Can Book tab → Service Prerequisite

Before going fully live, test your configuration:

Run a Simulation from a customer's pet profile to see exactly what they see when booking. This is the fastest way to verify your self-service setup from the customer's perspective.

When you create an appointment with Magic Availability Check on, select See Availability Reasons under the calendar to see exactly what's affecting availability.

Based on your comfort level, choose how bookings are confirmed:

Best for: Services where your rules cover everything you need to check.

Best for: Services where you need human judgment before accepting.

What "Pending Approval" Actually Means — The Operational Reality:

Timing expectations:

Consider this operational overhead carefully. If you're using pending approval for all bookings, you're committing to actively managing every single booking request. For most businesses, the Initial Service pattern is a better choice—it gives you control for new pets while letting trusted pets book freely.

You can use instant confirmation for standard services and pending approval for:

Once you've completed the checklist:

If you are setting up before your opening date, block the weeks you are not trading and leave later dates open, so customers can book ahead for school holidays or Christmas while nobody can book before you open.

See Public Holidays for the same tool used for holiday closures.

Our recommendation: Start with fewer rules and add them as problems arise.

All settings are reversible. You can:

This is a safe approach if you're nervous. Start with pending, review bookings for a few weeks, then switch to instant once you're confident your rules work.

Use the Availability Troubleshooter to diagnose. Common causes:

Yes. Each service has its own booking settings. You might have:

Before enabling self-service booking:

Hard Constraints (Must Configure):

Soft Constraints (Optional):

Safety Nets:

Testing:

Go Live:

Account Health Check reviews your setup and recent booking behaviour, then lists what to fix first.

You can also open it from Reporting & Intelligence > Overview > Account Health Check.

Ready to go live? Enable self-service on your services and start accepting bookings automatically!