Booking Engine holds the choices that decide how your days fill up. Each row shows what is set now. Open a row to change it. Nothing reaches customers until you publish, and your team can always book any time.

Which times customers see online, When a customer picks Anyone, Daily pet limit, Multi-Pet Scheduling and Which times we suggest first apply to the whole business. New clients rules need a plan with online booking.

Which times customers see online changes what customers see only when you choose All times, best first, Reduce gaps or Next available only. Every account starts on All times. The setting shapes online booking only, and your team can still book any time. To offer only the first available time, or to stop bookings landing in random gaps, this is the setting to use.

The table compares the four options.

This example day shows the difference. One team member works 9:00 to 3:00, with bookings 10:00 to 11:00 and 1:00 to 2:00, a 60-minute service, a 30-minute Booking Interval and no buffer time.

A gap is too short to sell when it is shorter than Smallest gap you can sell. Blank means the shortest thing that team member or resource can be booked for online, buffer time included. The field sits under the example day and appears once you choose one other than All times.

Smallest gap you can sell lists what has been booked in the last 90 days for the online services this setting reads, shortest first, with each service's share of booked lines. It suggests a length: the first service length that, with everything shorter, reaches a tenth of what you sell. As you try a value, the counts under it follow it, before anything is published.

Trap: With Smallest gap you can sell blank, one short online service weakens Reduce gaps for every longer service that team member takes, because any gap that long counts as one you can sell. When the shortest service is no longer than your Booking Interval, Reduce gaps hides almost nothing. The amber alert A short service weakens Reduce gaps names your shortest service when it is half your usual service length or less, and Open service takes you to it. To hide more, set Smallest gap you can sell, make that service an add-on, or take it offline.

Each service is judged on what its schedule depends on: its team member, a resource, or both. A start must fit all that apply. A resource is judged when it has its own hours and room for one booking at a time, such as a groomer's table with a schedule. A shared space that takes several pets at once, such as a daycare area, stays limited by capacity, because a gap means nothing there. So does a resource with no hours of its own.

Trap: When all your online services run in shared spaces or on resources with no hours of their own, the card says the setting will not change your online times.

These modes can offer a start outside your booking interval, such as 11:10 AM after a booking that ends at 11:10 AM. All times never does.

Customers see the times on offer. They are not told why other times are missing or why one comes first, and a time that stops fitting reads as no longer available. When a day has times but none of them fit this setting, the booking form says the day has no times that fit and suggests the next fortnight, another session or a different team member. A day that is full says it is fully booked, and a day with no roster or a notice rule in the way says it has no available times.

Some bookings are not affected:

A booking with several pets or services must fit as a whole, so it can see fewer times than a booking for one pet. With Next available only it sees one time per session.

Each team member's sessions are judged on their own. Leave, blocked time and course sessions split a session in two, and each part keeps its own start and end. A pending booking counts as a booking, so if it is declined the bookings next to it stay where they are.

If any option but All times is on, a Best match badge on the staff booking form marks the times the setting would offer a customer, and on All times, best first the times that keep the day tightest. Each badge says why, such as the booking it sits against or the session end. Under Anyone it also says why that team member gets the time, when you use Choose who gets Anyone bookings. Your team can still pick any time. Best match is not Best Fit, the Multi-Pet Scheduling mode.

The owner sets this under When a customer picks Anyone on Booking Engine, and on each team member's Capacity section. It applies when a customer does not choose a team member, or when your business does not let them. Staff bookings do not change, and a customer who picks someone by name keeps that person.

Nothing here hides a time. Petboost only chooses between the team members who can take that time.

Petboost checks them in that order. If team members are still level, the one booked least recently gets the time. With all of these left as they are, team members take turns across the day's times.

The Daily pet limit applies only when you set one. It is off for every business until then, and blank means no limit. It is the most different pets your whole business takes in on one day, across every team member and resource.

The limit keeps a day inside what your team can take. The cost is bookings on your busiest days, including a small booking that would have fitted. It suits a business limited by staffing, shared space or insurance, and does less for one already held back by Pets at a time. Choose the number from your staffing, shared space and insurance, not only from how much table, pen or van space you have.

Petboost counts each pet once a day, however many services it has that day, and a stay counts on every date from check-in to check-out. Once the day reaches the limit, it disappears from online booking for any pet not already booked that day, and customers see that you are fully booked. Pets already booked that day can still add services. When your team books past the limit, Petboost shows Daily pet limit reached and Override and book records the override on the appointment. Days already over the limit when you set it stay as they are.

Before you publish, a chart shows the pets booked on each of the next 28 days against your limit, with the days at or over it in amber, and the busiest day in the last 4 weeks.

To cap one session instead, set Session pet limit on the session in Schedules & Sessions. A team member or resource can also have its own Daily pet limit (optional) on its Capacity page. Every limit applies on its own: a booking must fit the business limit and the limit of each team member and resource it uses. To limit only pets carrying an attribute, such as reactive dogs, use the attendance limit on Pet Attributes.

Multi-Pet Scheduling decides what happens when one household books several pets in one go.

Reduce gaps and Next available only apply to multi-pet bookings too. The whole booking must fit, so a multi-pet booking can see fewer times.

When a booking has more than one service, Which times we suggest first decides which options appear at the top. Every time stays bookable either way.

Tightest booking offers the shortest overall visit first, so a groom is suggested inside a daycare day rather than added on to the end. An account that has never chosen uses it. Soonest start offers the earliest start time first, even when that makes the overall visit longer.

The New clients rules apply only to online bookings by a new client. A new client is a customer with no completed visit at any of your locations and without Skip Service Prerequisites. Every import switches that on, so customers you brought across from your old system count as returning from day one. A visit counts once it is checked out: Appointment Completed, Ready to Pay, Paid and the refund statuses all count, while Pending, Confirmed and cancelled bookings do not. Bookings your team makes are never affected. Each rule is off until you switch it on.

The table shows what each rule gains and costs.

A new client sees a Booking as a new client note on the booking page that says which rules apply before they book.

A customer's own settings come first. On the Settings & Overrides tab of their profile, Instant confirmation on confirms their bookings straight away, Book Without Card on lets them book without a card, and a Deposit set for them is charged whether or not they are new.

Trap: A customer with no checked-out visit counts as new unless they were imported. To treat one as returning straight away, switch on Skip Service Prerequisites on their Settings & Overrides tab, or set their own Instant confirmation, Book Without Card or Deposit on their Settings & Overrides tab.