Daycare services are unique in that most clients booking with you likely will not have their pet stay for the entire duration of the booking. Since daycares very often have many dogs coming and going throughout the day, it can be quite useful to have an idea of what time pets are being dropped off and when pet parents will be coming by to pick them back up again.

BusyPaws makes it easier to track all the pets coming and going from your daycare business by enabling each registered pet to be listed with their check-in and check-out times. In this guide we will explore everything you need to know about check-in and check-out times for your daycare services.

To allow clients booking your daycare service(s) to select their own drop-off and pickup times, start by locating the service on your main Services page. Click the service's name or select the gear icon at the right side of its list entry to open its settings page.

Locate the "Check-In and Check-Out" section under the Client Self-Booking Settings. This section includes the options for configuring drop-off and pickup times for client self-booking. By default, this setting will be disabled.

Clicking the "Collect on registration" toggle turns it on (purple). When enabled, this setting results in clients being required to select their drop-off and pickup times during self-booking.

After enabling this setting, use the Check-In and Check-Out fields to control the time frame for drop-off and pickup. The drop-off window is measured from the start of the booking, while the pickup window is measured from end.

i.e. If daycare bookings are scheduled from 8am to 6pm, Check-In is set to 2 hours, and Check-Out is set to 3 hours, clients will be able to choose drop-off between 8am and 10am, and pickup times between 3pm and 6pm.

For more information on setting your services up for client self-booking check out our help guide on Configuring Self-Serve Bookings.

Once check-in/out selection has been enabled, your customers will be able to choose their desired times during self-booking. These selections are made at the date/time selection step of the booking process and are available in 15 minute increments.

After a customer has chosen the service they wish to book and selected the booking for which they wish to register their pet, fields for check-in and check-out will populate.

Clicking the "Check-In" and "Check-Out" fields opens drop-down menus from which the customer can choose the drop-off and pickup times for their pet. Note that, when check-in/out time selection is enabled customers are required to choose times before continuing with their booking.

Once they have chosen their times the client can proceed with their registration. For more information on what the registration process looks like for your customers, check out our help guide on The Client Self-Booking Process.

Once clients are registered for their daycare booking, your team can easily reference their drop-off and pickup times from the booking's information page. All check-in and check-out data for registered pets is listed on the "Schedule" tab of your daycare bookings.

This tab lists registered pets organized by their selected check-in time. Note that those pets with no chosen times (i.e. those registered manually by users whose drop-off/pickup times have not yet been edited) will appear at the end of the list. Each pet is listed by name along with the name of their associated customer profile, a check-in/out button, their payment status, add-on information, vaccine status, and any custom pet tags. They are also listed with their chosen check-in and check-out times for the booking.

To edit or add drop-off and pickup times for a registered pet click the ellipses next to their registration then select "Edit Check-In/Out" from the resulting menu.

Use the Check-In and Check-Out fields to adjust the drop-off and pickup times as needed, then select "Update Times" to save your changes. Click the "X" at the top-right corner of the pop-up to cancel your selections.

That's it! You are now ready to begin using check-in and check-out times to make tracking the pets coming and going from daycare even easier.