The New booking wizard

The first item on the Bookings menu. It asks the five things a booking actually needs, in the order you would ask them on the phone, and then opens the finished booking so you can add anything else.

The five steps

1. Type. Single or group. A group is several animals in the same slot — they do not have to share an owner, and each owner is invoiced for their own. If you run more than one service type, you also pick which one here, and that decides which services are offered and whose hours the free times come from.

2. Who. For a single booking, choose the client and then the animal — the list narrows to their own. For a group, search by name and click to add; the owner is shown beside each one so you can tell four Bellas apart.

3. Service. The list is filtered to the service type you chose, and the length and price are shown against each one. Underneath, anything else at the same visit — tick as many as you like. The one chosen above is the main treatment and decides the slot; the ticked ones go on the same booking and the same bill, and the length and price cover all of them.

4. When. Pick a date and the free start times appear. You can narrow them to one member of staff or one table first. Or tick “use a time that is not on the list” and type a start date and time yourself — see below.

5. Finish. Repeat weekly or fortnightly, request a deposit, add a note — and check it over. The summary is itemised: every treatment with its price, the total (multiplied by the animals in a group), how long it takes, when it is, and what deposit applies. It updates as you tick things, so the deposit figure answers the box above it rather than describing what you chose two screens ago. The total and the deposit appear a moment after the treatments do — they wait for the real figure rather than showing a guess first.

Booking a time that is not offered

The list of free times is what your Availability settings allow. It is not a limit on what you are allowed to do. Somebody ringing at eight to squeeze a dog in at half seven tomorrow is an ordinary Tuesday, so the wizard lets you type any start date and time instead of picking one.

An overridden time is booked exactly as typed. Opening hours, minimum notice and capacity are not checked, and no table is assigned automatically. The booking screen still warns you if it clashes with something already in the diary.

What the wizard does not do

A hand-typed price, the matting assessment and everything else live on the booking itself, which opens the moment the booking is created. The wizard sets an opening price from everything chosen plus the coat; the booking recalculates it whenever you save.

What the figures on the last step mean

Once the animal is known, the last step asks the same thing that prices the booking a moment later, so what you read there is what the booking will be created at. It lists every treatment and every allowance — the coat, the weight — with what each is worth in money and in minutes, and they add up to the total exactly. Since 2.632.0 a treatment can be set not to price by the coat or the size at all, in which case neither line appears. Since 2.631.0 each allowance says its own figure and its own extra time — Double coat +£8.00, 18 min longer — rather than naming a multiplier. On a group booking there is no single animal to price by, so the list prices are shown and the screen says so.

The prices earlier in the wizard say “from”, and mean it. When you are choosing a treatment there is no animal chosen yet, so nothing on that step can know the coat, the weight or a size band — and a treatment priced by band has no single price to show at all. Those figures are a starting point for choosing between treatments. A sale price is a property of the treatment rather than the animal, so sales are shown there. Since 2.629.0 the total and the deposit on the last step stay blank until the real figure arrives, rather than showing a sum of list prices for a moment first.

Example

Mrs Okafor rings wanting her two spaniels done together on Saturday. You open New booking, choose Group, add Suki and Nell, pick Full groom, tap the 10:30 slot, tick fortnightly for six visits, and finish — six linked appointments, and the booking screen open in front of you to add the nail trim.

FAQ

Why does the chooser say “from £50”?
Because nothing on that step knows which animal is coming. The coat, the weight and any size band are what turn a starting price into a real one, and none of them are known until you have picked the animal. The last step asks the booking engine itself and shows the figure that will actually be charged.

Does the chooser show sale prices?
Yes, since 2.629.0. A sale belongs to the treatment rather than to the animal, so it is knowable before an animal is chosen. Before that the chooser showed the pre-sale price and the review showed the sale price, which is a difference you could read out to a customer before seeing it corrected.

The total and deposit take a second to appear.
On purpose, since 2.629.0. They used to be filled in immediately from list prices and then replaced with the real figures — two different numbers, neither marked as provisional, and the wrong one on screen long enough to be read down the phone. The treatments still list straight away; only those two figures wait. If a quote cannot be reached at all, the list figures are shown and the screen says so.

Where is it?
The first item under Bookings in the main menu, and as a button beside Add New on the bookings list.

Can a group mix households?
Yes. That is the normal case for a group walk. The booking records the first animal’s owner as its client, and each owner is still invoiced for their own animal.

Why is a time I want not in the list?
It is outside your opening hours, inside your minimum-notice window, already taken, or on a blackout date — all set on the Availability screen. Tick “use a time that is not on the list” to book it anyway.

Nothing at all is offered for a date.
The wizard says which of the two it is: a blackout date you have set, or nothing free within your hours. A blackout is changed on Availability; a full day needs the override or a different day.

The client has no animals on record.
The wizard says so and leaves the field empty rather than insisting on something you cannot supply. Add the animal to their record first, then come back.

Can I book two treatments at once?
Yes. Choose the main one, then tick the others under “anything else at the same visit”. They go on one booking, one slot and one bill, and the slot is made long enough for all of them.

Do the free times allow for the extra treatments?
Yes. The times offered are gaps the whole visit fits into — the main treatment, everything ticked, and the extra minutes this animal’s coat and size earn. Tick or untick one and the times are worked out again. Before 2.583.0 they were gaps the size of the main treatment alone, so a groom with an hour of add-ons could be booked into an hour it did not fit.

The review shows one treatment and I ticked four.
Fixed in 2.583.0. The ticked treatments were being dropped from the summary — and only from the summary; they were always saved onto the booking. If you are on an older version, open the booking after creating it and the extra treatments are there.

Does the deposit tick always charge one?
It requests one using the service’s own deposit rule, or your general rule, once the price is known. If neither produces an amount, nothing is requested. Large bookings still get the usual automatic deposit whether you tick it or not.

How many repeats can I make?
Up to 26. Each visit is a separate booking, invoiced on its own, linked by a series so the customer sees the whole run.

Do I have to use it?
No. Add New on the bookings list still opens a blank booking, and the calendar still creates one when you tap a slot.