This guide will cover manually adding bookings to your calendar for series, individual, and group services. Note that for your clients to self-book into group services or series, you must first add them to your calendar to create the slots. Your customers can create the bookings themselves for individual services. For more information on client self-booking, see our guides on Configuring Self-Serve Bookings and The Client Self-Booking Process.
In this guide we'll walk you through a few steps:
Blocked dates and times do not prevent users from scheduling bookings.
For more information on automatically generating daycare bookings on a preset schedule check out the Schedule subsection of our Configuring Self-Serve Bookings help guide.
Opening a New Booking Form
Start by clicking the "+" button in the top-right corner of any page in BusyPaws, then select "Add Booking".
This will bring you to the New Booking form. There are three cards that are important to take note of:
Service | Here you can select the service you're booking, its price, who will provide the service, and the location/room/kennel (if any). |
Schedule | Here you can select the day(s) and time for the booking. It will also display a calendar showing you if you have anything else already scheduled on the same day that you've selected for the new booking. |
Add-Ons (for individual services only) | This option appears only if you have selected an individual service for which add-ons are available. Here you can choose which add-ons (if any) are to be included with the booking. |
Customer/Pet (for individual services only) | Here you can select the customer and pet(s) to associate with the booking. Additional client information may show here. |
Selecting the Service to Book
The service card has a few items for you to select from, depending on how your account it set up.
Service | All of the services and series you have set up and are currently active will be shown here for you to select from. Note that series will all be listed at the bottom of the list with "[Series]" before their name. |
Price | When you select a service/series, the default service price will populate for that selection. You can manually adjust the price for the specific booking here. For boarding services, this is the nightly price. |
Pet Limit (Group Services Only) | When you select a group service/series, the default capacity will populate for that selection. You can manually adjust the maximum limit for the new booking here. This setting will cap the number of clients that can register for this booking. |
Provider(s): Primary Provider | For accounts with more than one user, you can select the team member to associate with this booking. Users cannot be assigned to boarding services.
Note: This field will not populate when manually booking daycare-type services. |
Provider(s): Secondary Provider | For accounts with more than one user, you can assign one or more team members as secondary providers on the booking. An optional setting, not required to schedule a booking.
All secondary providers will be listed on the booking's information page, have the booking synced to their personal calendar, and have the booking taken into consideration when determining their availability for other appointments. |
Booking Location | The address that will be associated with the booking. Can be set as your facility address, no address, a custom address, or (for individual services only) the customer's address. |
Facility | If you have multiple facilities they will be shown here. Selecting one will assign the booking to that facility. If you have rooms set up for your facilities, the selection made here will dictate the rooms available for the booking.
Every booking must be assigned to a facility. |
Room/Kennel | If you have rooms/kennels configured they will be shown here. Selecting on will assign the booking to that room/kennel.
Note that boarding services are assigned to kennels while all other services are assigned to rooms. |
Scheduling the Booking
Once a service has been selected, a calendar will appear for you to select the date and time for the booking. The scheduling options available will differ slightly depending on the type of service being booked.
Calendar | Use the calendar to select the day on which this booking will occur. You can use the arrows at the top of the calendar to scroll through the months and/or type in a different year if need be.
When scheduling daycare, grooming, training, or other type services users, select a single date from the calendar. When scheduling boarding bookings users select both the start and end date. |
Start Time (Daycare/Grooming/Training) | This field allows you to set a start time for your new booking. Use the drop-down menu or manually type the time. |
Duration (Daycare/Grooming/Training) | This field sets the length (in minutes) of your booking. When a service/series is selected, the default duration for that selection will populate. You can manually adjust the duration of the booking one minute at a time by using the up/down arrows, or simply type the duration into the field.
Note that selecting one or more add-ons with extended time will affect the duration for individual service bookings. |
Check In (Boarding) | This is the time that the pet will be checked in on the first day of the booking. |
Check Out (Boarding) | This is the time that the pet will be checked out on the last day of the booking. |
If you are booking a series, you will be able to select "Recurring" or "Manual" scheduling.
If you select "Manual" a set of scheduling options will be shown for every step/service within that series. Set the date, time, and duration for the first step then repeat for each component in the series, clicking on the steps where they are listed at the top of the card to navigate between them.
For more information on the "Recurring" scheduling option, check out the subsection below on Scheduling Repeating/Recurring Bookings.
Next Available Option (Individual Services)
When an individual service is chosen at the service-selection step, the schedule display next to the date-selection calendar will have an added "Next Available" tab. This tab shows a list of upcoming available appointment times for the selected provider, service, and room. Note that times will only appear if at least one user schedule has been assigned to the selected service.
The times shown are the same as would be available for customers self-booking through the service's direct link. This means that the displayed times will depend on a combination of the following factors:
The chosen provider's availability for the selected service, including their schedule and any existing bookings already on their calendar. If no provider is selected it will search across all providers who are scheduled for that given service.
The presence of any existing bookings scheduled for the selected room.
The service's set time slot interval (15 minutes, 30 minutes, 1 hour).
The duration of the new booking and any chosen add-ons with extended time.
Select any of the listed times to assign that date and time to the new booking. Once a time has been selected, the date on the calendar and the start time will automatically adjust.
Likewise, when a date is selected from the calendar at the left, the list of next available times will adjust to display times starting from that date, or from the next date and time available after that date.
Click the "Find More Available" button at any time to view more available time slots.
Click the "Calendar" tab at the top of the list to preview the booking on your calendar along with any other bookings already scheduled. From that view, simply select the "Next Available" tab to navigate back to the list of available time slots.
This functionality is not available for group services, series, or boarding services. Since user availability is used to generate the next available time slots, the selected provider must have a schedule assigned to the chosen service to use this feature.
Scheduling Repeating/Recurring Bookings
When booking a grooming, daycare, training, or other type service, the "Schedule" card will have a "Schedule" field listed below the booking duration field. This field has two options, "Does Not Repeat" and "Repeats". By default, new bookings will be set to "Does Not Repeat", meaning only the one booking will be scheduled.
Selecting "Repeats" allows you to schedule multiple of the same booking (i.e. same service, duration, start time, etc.), repeating on a specific schedule. This feature is not available for boarding bookings.
Note that, for series bookings, this option is instead found at the top of the Schedule card and is called "Recurring".
Setting a booking to "Repeats" or "Recurring" populates menu options for setting the frequency and end date for the set of bookings.
The "Repeat" menu allows you to set the frequency with which the booking will recur.
Daily | Schedule the bookings at the same time every day. |
Weekly | Schedule the bookings at the same time weekly. |
Biweekly | Schedule the bookings at the same time every other week. |
Monthly | Schedule the bookings at the same time on the same day once a month. |
Selecting "Weekly" or "Biweekly" opens a sub-menu, allowing you to select the day(s) of the week on which the booking will occur. For example, if you select Biweekly, then Tuesday and Friday, the booking will be added to every other Tuesday and Friday starting from the date on which the first booking is set.
The last step for recurring bookings is setting the end date. The "Ends" menu lists two options, "Date" and "Times". Selecting "Date" allows you to choose the date from which to further bookings will be scheduled.
When scheduling series bookings using the recurring functionality, the end date indicates the date after which no more series will start. If the end date chosen is partway through a series, the system will complete that booking set then not schedule any more.
i.e. A 4-step series scheduled weekly set with an end date of 29 December. If the first date was chosen such that a step 1 booking is scheduled 15 December, steps 3 and 4 will be added to the calendar despite landing on 29 December and 5 January (after the chosen end date).
Selecting "Times" allows you to choose the total number of repetitions. Use the up/down arrows to adjust the Occurrences or manually type in the number of times this booking should be repeated until it stops. For example if, including the initial booking, you want a total of 5 bookings for this service, set the occurrences to 4. This will schedule the first booking and then set it to repeat 4 times, resulting in a total of 5 iterations.
When scheduling series, this setting controls how many additional full series sets will be scheduled.
i.e. When scheduling a 4-step series if the Occurrences field is set to 0 the system will schedule only the initial set of 4 bookings. If set to 2, the system will schedule the initial set of 4 followed by 2 more full series (totalling 3 sets of 4, or 12 bookings overall).
It is important to keep in mind that a repeating group service booking is not the same as a series. A repeating group service booking allows clients to register or be registered for a single session within the set of repeating bookings, or may be used to schedule open enrollment classes. In contrast, clients registered for a series booking will automatically be registered for every step within that series, starting and ending on a preset schedule. Check out our Creating a Series guide for more information on how to set up a series.
Applying Add-Ons (Individual Services)
If you have set up any add-ons and have selected an individual service to book, the Add-Ons card will populate. This section includes a list of all available add-ons that may be selected for the chosen service. Note that some add-ons may affect only the booking price while others will affect the price and duration.
Select one or more add-ons to assign them to the booking. Clicking a selected add-on a second time de-selects it, removing it from the booking.
If a group service/series or a service without associated add-ons has been selected to book, this section will not display.
Selecting a Client/Pet for Individual Bookings
If the service you selected is an individual service, the Customer/Pet card will populate at the bottom of the page. This section lets you do a number of things important for individual service bookings.
Clicking on the "Select a Customer" field opens the drop-down menu used for client selection. Type a name into the search box to find an existing client or create a new customer file by selecting the "+ New Customer" option.
After choosing the client any pets listed on their account will be displayed. You may select one or more pets to associate with this booking or click "Add Pet" to add a new pet profile.
Note that each pet's vaccination status will be shown next to their photo. A green icon indicates that their required vaccinations are up to date, yellow indicates a vaccination coming up on expiry, white indicates missing or unknown vaccine information, and red indicates at least one expired vaccination.
Selecting the "+ Add Pet" button allows you to add a new pet to the selected client's profile. This function populated fields for basic information about the new pet. More information about this pet, including birth date and vaccination status can be added through the client's profile later.
Additionally, if you're making this booking from your desktop or laptop computer, more client information will be listed on the right side of the Customer/Pet card. This will include information like their most recent bookings, any credits they have available, any notes on their account, and their address (if available).
Finalizing Your Booking
When all the relevant information has been added to the booking, use the "+ Add Booking" button at the bottom of the page to save the booking and add it to your calendar. Be sure to read through the next two sections of this guide for a better understanding of the additional steps required for scheduling recurring or individual bookings.
If desired, you may instead click the arrow icon at the right side of the "Add Booking" button to open a menu with the options "Add and Duplicate Booking" and "Add and Create New Booking". The first option will add your new booking to the calendar and open another New Booking form with the same settings (i.e. same time, date, service, etc. as the booking you just created). The second option will add your new booking to the calendar and open a new, blank New Booking form.
When booking an individual service you may notice "Reserve Credits" and "Invoice Now" toggles listed above the "Add Booking" button. Note that while the invoice option is available when booking any individual service, the "Reserve Credit" option will only appear if the selected client has one or more available credits for the service being booked.
Selecting "Invoice Now" prompts the system to generate and send an invoice for the booking as soon as it is added to your calendar.
If there are credits available for the selected Service, toggling the "Reserve Credit" switch on prompts the system to apply them to the booking as soon as it is added to your calendar. Any available credits for the selected client will be listed under the Credits tab on the right side of the Customer/Pet card. If no credits are available, the "Reserve Credit" toggle will not be present on the form.
If a client has a cash credit available, it can only be redeemed after the service has been booked by processing a manual payment on the invoice. Only credits specific to the booked service will be redeemable using the "Reserve Credit" function here.
Adding Clients/Pets to Group or Series Bookings
For group or series bookings, customers/pets can be added only after the service has been booked into the calendar. To manually add clients to an existing booking, start by hovering your mouse over the Schedule icon in the left-hand menu bar and selecting "Calendar" from the menu.
Find the booking on the calendar and click on it to open its info page.
The info page for the booking will list the name of the service, the price (per step for series bookings), the date(s) & time(s), the assigned team member(s), the associated facility, the room, and the location of the booking. It will also show which clients are already registered and whether any invoices are currently outstanding. If invoices have already been sent out for the booking, there will be a third bar indicating the number of completed payments.
Use the "Add Clients/Pets" button to manually add customers to the booking.
Type the client's name into the search bar in the pop-up window, then select the pet you would like to add to the booking. Note that you can also search using the pet's name.
If you want to add multiple pets at the same time, you can select one then use the search bar to find and add more. When you're done, click the "Add Pets" button to add the pet(s) to the booking.
For series bookings, this will add the client(s) to each step in the series.
For repeating group service bookings, the pop-up window will have "This Booking" and "Recurring" menu options listed just above the client search bar.
Selecting "This Booking" will add the client(s) to a single occurrence of the booking on the selected date, while "Recurring" will open a sub-menu with additional options for adding the chosen pet(s) to multiple bookings in the set. These options include "Schedule", "Consecutive", and "All Future Bookings".
Schedule | Allows you to choose a specific schedule for the bookings to which the customer will be added. Select the days of the week then choose the frequency (i.e. every week, every 2 weeks, etc.) and set the number of weeks.
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Consecutive | Allows you to add clients to a set number of bookings in the set in a row.
If "Next X Bookings" is chosen, you can select a specific number of additional bookings for which the client should be registered. If "Until Date" is chosen you can select the date after which they will no longer be registered. |
All Future Bookings | Adds the client to the selected booking and all others going forward in the repeating set. |
Once a client has been added to at least one booking in the repeating set they can be added to any other booking by clicking the "+" button under the desired date.
As your booking starts to fill, the Attendance tab will list all of the pets currently booked into any selected date/time slot for that booking, as well as their invoice and payment status. From here, you can delete pets from a booking, check their vaccine status (unknown, up to date, expired, or coming up on expiry), and check their invoice status for the booking.
Selecting the grey "IN" button for a specific pet allows you to check that pet in, selecting it again checks them out, and selecting it a third time resets their status. Each successful change in status will be marked by a green message box at the top right corner of your screen, confirming the update.
This feature can help you track the attendance of your bookings and gauge how many pets are still expected to arrive for that date/time slot.
For more information on client self-booking, see our guides on Configuring Self-Serve Bookings and The Client Self-Booking Process.