Track my walk

Tap Start walk (from a booking’s “Start walk” button, or the walk screen) to record the route and drop 💧/💩 pins along the way (it works offline). The first time you start a walk, your phone asks to allow location — tap Allow. The route is always recorded; the live map is off by default to save battery — flick the “Live route map” switch on the walk screen to watch it plot as you go. You can also take photos during the walk — the camera, or one already on your phone, whichever suits. When you finish, a pop-up offers to email the owner a summary with the route map (and your photos), and you can also share a private live map link over WhatsApp.

Example

You tap Start walk, allow location when your phone asks, track the route in the park, snap a couple of photos, and when you stop you choose to email the owner the map, distance, time and photos.

FAQ

Can I post the day’s photos to social media?
Yes. On the app home screen tap “📸 Share photos”. Pick a day (today by default), check the photos, edit the text, then tap “Share to socials” — on a phone your share sheet opens with the photos attached and the text copied, so you can post to Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, X or any app. There are quick WhatsApp/X shortcuts too. On a computer, tap “Make one image” to build a collage to download and post. Set the default text on the Socials admin page.

The route only recorded from when I unlocked my phone.
A phone with its screen off cannot record GPS in a web app — the browser stops it, and no setting can override that. So Pet Central now asks your phone not to sleep while a walk is running, which keeps the route recording with the phone in your pocket. If you lock the screen deliberately, or your phone overrides it to save battery, the route will have a gap. It picks up again the moment you come back to the app.

What are the dots on the map?
One for every location fix. The line alone hides how the route was recorded — a smooth curve looks the same whether it came from a fix every five seconds or one every two minutes with the corners guessed. The dots show you the sampling, and any gap where the phone slept, before you send the map to a customer.

What happens to a booking after the walk?
It moves to To invoice — the work is done and nobody has been asked for money yet. Raise an invoice and it becomes Invoiced; when that invoice is paid it becomes Paid & completed, however it was paid. It only ever moves forwards, so reopening a walk on a booking that is already invoiced or paid will not drag it back.

The customer is on a package.
The credit is drawn as the walk finishes and the booking is marked Package paid — not Paid, because no money moved today and it should not appear in a day’s takings twice. It is left out of invoicing entirely, so nobody is billed for a walk their package already covered.

The customer paid before the walk.
It is marked Prepaid, so there is nothing to invoice and nothing to chase. A part payment does not count: a deposit with a balance still owing stays as To invoice, because there is still money to collect.

Where do I see what I am owed?
Staff app, the Money tab on the home screen. One card per state the work is in, in the order the question is actually asked: what you are owed, what you have asked for, what has come in. The badge at the top is the total still outstanding. Tap any card to see the bookings behind it, and tap one of those to open it.

Why are only some cards coloured?
Amber is money you are still waiting for, green is money that has come in. If every card were tinted none of them would stand out and the screen would be decoration. Free and cancelled are plain, because there is nothing to act on.

Can I change a status by hand?
Yes, and it changes nothing else. A status says what state a booking is in; it does not raise bills. To invoice means the work is done and waiting to be billed, however it got there.

A dog in for a groom and a teeth clean.
One booking. Pick the main service, then tick the extras under Also doing. The price and the time are added together and the invoice lists each treatment separately — “Full groom £45, teeth clean £8” rather than a single figure the customer has to ring up about.

Can I charge a different price for the pair?
Yes — type a price on the booking and it is used as it stands. The treatments are only added up when the price is left blank, so a bundle rate is just a number you type.

Settling a job on the doorstep.
Finish up on any job offers three kinds of answer. Take payment now — card on the device, a card reader, cash or bank. Use a package credit, which draws one down and marks the job Package paid; the button shows how many are left and only appears when there are some. Put on account, which marks it To invoice for your next billing run. Every service can do all three.

Why is the package button not showing?
Either the customer has no credits of the right kind, or the job is already settled. Walkers draw walk credits and trainers draw one-to-one sessions; groomers and sitters bill per job, so there is nothing to draw.

So when is the invoice actually created?
Three ways, and you choose. Automatically, if you switch on auto-invoicing in Settings — weekly on a Monday or monthly on the 1st, one invoice per customer covering everything unbilled. From a customer’s record, with Invoice from bookings, when you want to bill them now. Or from a single booking, using the button on the booking itself. Most walkers use the first: twenty-two separate invoices for a month of walks helps nobody.

Invoicing one booking on its own.
There is a button on the booking, under the status, with a tick to email it. It only appears when there is something to bill — not on a booking already invoiced, covered by a package, free, or without a customer — because a button that would refuse if pressed teaches you the screen is lying to you.

Will it invoice twice if I save again?
No. The invoice is only raised when the status actually changes, and a booking that already has one is linked to it rather than given another.

A free walk or a meet & greet.
Marked Free, and it stops there. Nothing is owed, so nothing moves it on to invoicing on its own — you can still change it by hand if something was chargeable after all.

Why not just say Completed?
Because completed suggests there is nothing left to do, and there is. Work done but unbilled is the number that decides whether a small business can pay itself this month, and it deserves to be visible rather than hidden inside a status that also covers jobs already paid for.

I closed the app with a walk running.
Today shows it in green, with how long it has been going, and buttons to continue or stop it. The walk keeps recording as long as the app is open; stopping from there opens the walk and finishes it properly so the route and tallies are saved.

How often does it take a location fix?
Your choice, on the walk screen above the map: every 5, 10 or 30 seconds, or once a minute. A park full of corners wants 5 seconds or the route cuts across gardens; a long straight road is fine on a minute and uses far less battery. Changing it takes effect immediately, mid-walk.

What happens if I finish a walk with no signal?
The walk is kept whole on your phone — route, times, wees and poos, photos — and uploaded when you are back in range. The Email button is hidden while you have no signal, because it could only fail. Today then shows the walk as one whose owner has not been told, in amber, until you open it and send the summary. It stays there until you do.

Can I take photos on a walk?
Yes. Tap “📷 Photo” on the walk screen and you are asked whether to take one now or pick one already on your phone. “Take a photo” opens the camera on the back lens; “Choose from gallery” opens your pictures, which is what you want when you are filing a shot against a particular dog after the event. Photos appear as thumbnails you can tap to view full-screen or delete. On a group walk, each dog has its own 📷 button so the photo is filed against the right dog, and there’s a separate “📷 Photo” at the top for shots of the whole walk. That matters when you email the owners afterwards: a photo filed against a dog goes only to that dog’s owner, while a photo taken against the walk goes to every owner on it. Photos are shrunk on your phone before uploading so they stay small. If you have no signal the photo is kept on the phone and uploaded as soon as you are back in range — the “to sync” counter on the walk screen tells you how many are still waiting. The same happens if your session has expired: nothing is lost, and closing and reopening the app sends them.

Where are photos stored, and won’t they fill up my server?
Photos are stored on your own website (never a third party). To keep storage under control, go to the Socials page → “Walk photo storage” and set auto-clean to delete photos older than 7 / 14 / 30 / 60 / 90 days automatically (default 30 days). If it’s set to “Never”, a warning reminds you that photos build up over time; you can also clear old ones any time with “Purge photos now” on that page.

Does it ask before I close or end a walk?
Yes. If you close the walk screen while a walk is still running, it checks first (and reminds you the walk keeps running in the background — use “Stop walk” when you’ve actually finished). Ending a walk also asks you to confirm, since finishing saves the route and offers the owner email.

How do I change a stat from 3 to 2?
Press and hold the button to remove one. Tap adds one, hold removes one — the same on every stat button (Pee, Poop, and, when enabled, “Met dogs” and “Water”). There’s no separate Undo button any more; hold whichever button you tapped by mistake.

I logged Water by mistake — can I undo it?
Yes. Press and hold the “Water” (or “Met dogs”) button to remove one — the extra-event buttons work just like Pee and Poop.

Choose what the owner’s email includes?
When you finish a walk (or tap “Email owner”), the dialog lets you choose. By default the email has just the route map, distance and time, plus any photos. Tick “Include wees, poos, water & dog meets” to add those tallies. Untick “Include photos” if you’d rather not send them.

When does it ask for location?
The moment you first tap “Start walk” — that’s the action that turns on tracking and triggers your phone’s location prompt. Tap Allow. Your phone remembers it after that.

Where’s the map and the walk history?
Tap “Start walk” / “Continue walk” on the booking to open the full walk screen with the live route map. For a finished walk, tap “🗺 View walk & map” — it opens the saved route on the map on-screen with the distance, time, wees and poos, without starting the walk again. (If you do want to record more, the “Reopen walk” button is inside that screen.) “View route map” opens the shareable route page in a pop-up with a close (✕) button, so it no longer takes over the whole app.

Does it work without signal?
Yes — the route, and every 💧/💩 you log, are captured offline and upload automatically when you reconnect. Each log is saved on your phone the instant you tap, with their real time kept, so nothing is lost in a dead zone. If any are still waiting, the walk screen shows a small “⏳ N to sync” note; it clears once they’ve uploaded.

Can I save battery on long walks?
Yes — quite a bit. The biggest saver is already on by default: the live map stays off during a walk (the route is still tracked), so the app isn’t constantly redrawing the map and downloading map tiles. On top of that, each phone can pick a GPS mode under the app’s Settings → “Walk GPS tracking (this phone)”: Best accuracy tracks continuously (heaviest), Balanced takes a sharp fix every 45 seconds (the recommended default) and Battery saver takes a rough fix every couple of minutes for the longest battery life. That choice stays on the phone and survives app updates; leave it on “Use business setting” to follow the business default (set under Settings → Bookings → “Walk GPS tracking”). Minimising the walk while it keeps running helps too.

Is my walk still tracked if the live map is off?
Yes. The route and every 💧/💩 pin are recorded whether or not the map is showing — the map is only a picture of what’s already being tracked. Leaving it off is the recommended, battery-friendly setup; turn on “Live route map” on the walk screen whenever you want to watch the route draw. Turning the map on or off (or going full screen, or minimising) never pauses tracking.

Keep the screen awake while walking?
There’s an optional “Keep screen awake while walking” switch in the app’s Settings (off by default, per phone). When it’s on, the screen stays lit for the whole walk so tracking never pauses and you can pop the phone in your pocket without it sleeping. It turns off by itself the moment you end the walk. Leave it off if you’d rather the screen sleep as normal — the walk still tracks either way.

Can I log other things, like meeting dogs or going in water?
Yes — the walk screen always shows 💧 Water and 🐕 Met dogs buttons right next to Pee and Poop (same size). On a solo walk the four sit together as a 2×2; on a group walk they’re on a “Whole walk” card below the dogs. Tap to add one, hold to remove one. Their running counts show above the buttons in the header tally, just like Pee and Poop (🌊 water and 🐕 dogs), and are included in the owner’s summary when you choose to send stats.

Add a note to the walk email?
When you tap “Email owner” on a finished walk, a box pops up so you can add a personal note (e.g. “Bella made a new friend today!”) before sending — it appears at the top of the owner’s summary email. Leave it blank to send just the summary.

Only one dog on the walk?
The multi-dog controls are hidden automatically on a solo walk (or a group walk with one dog): both “Select several” and the “x selected / Pee / Poop / Won’t mix” bar above the map stay off, keeping the screen clean. They’re also hidden once a walk is completed (when the button shows “Reopen”), since selecting is only for logging during an active walk — this gives the buttons at the top more room.

Email the owner at the end?
Yes — when you stop a walk a pop-up offers to email the owner the summary (route map, wees & poos, distance and time). Edit the wording in Settings → Emails → “Walk summary with map”.

Can the owner see the map?
Yes, via a private link — no login needed. It’s in the email and can also be sent on WhatsApp.

No location prompt / the map is empty?
Tracking needs the app opened over https:// and location allowed for the site. If no prompt appears when you tap Start walk, location was likely blocked or previously declined — allow it for this site in your browser settings and reload. The walk screen shows the exact reason (blocked, no https, or timed out).

Can I reopen a finished walk?
Yes — the upcoming list shows the real status (Start walk / Continue walk / Walk finished). Open a finished walk and tap “Reopen walk” to continue it; your pee/poop log is kept and tracking resumes.

How do I email the owner a finished walk again?
Open the finished walk (tap “🗺 View walk & map”). Next to “Reopen walk” at the top there’s an “✉️ Email owner” button — tap it to send the walk summary. You no longer have to start and stop the walk again just to get the email option.

The owner’s email is wrong — can I fix it from the app?
Yes. On a finished walk, tap “✎ Edit owner” next to the Email button to correct the owner’s name, phone, email or address, then send the summary — no need to go into the admin. You can also edit these from any booking: open it and tap “✎ Edit owner details” under the contact section.

Does the owner’s email show the route?
Yes — the walk summary email includes a picture of the route map with the distance, time, wees and poos, and an “Open the full interactive map” link underneath. The image is generated on your server from OpenStreetMap (no API key needed). You can switch it off under Settings → Emails → Walk emails to send just the link.