Scheduling Appointments for Pets

You may run a business that helps care for your Customer's Pets. The AppointmentPlus NextGen scheduling system enables you quickly set up and manage Pet profiles, associated with the parent Customer, Services and more.

The Pet feature of the Appointment system offers extended functionality for the Customer information. A Pet is created and associated with a Customer and Appointments can be scheduled for a specific Pet. In this article, we'll review this feature and how your scheduling system is customized for these types of Appointments.

If you require Pets for your scheduling system and this is not already enabled in your account, please contact our Client Services department or submit a Support Ticket through your account if you need the Pet scheduling functionality enabled for your scheduling system.

Required Customer Login

Enabling the Pet scheduling functionality automatically requires Customers to log in prior to making appointments. This means that Customer View Preference #3 will automatically be enabled, and then hidden within the Preferences section when the Pet Scheduling Functionality is enabled.

Pet Appointments

Whether you are using the Single or Multiple Appointments calendar style, you can easily create Appointments for Pets (of your Customers). Each Pet has its own profile and, therefore, its own Appointment History information. Let's review how the Appointment booking process changes when you include Pets.

After clicking on an available calendar space to Book a new Appointment, you'll view the Appointment information form. If you are creating an Appointment for an existing Customer, you may search for the Customer from the existing profiles. After searching for and finding the correct profile, choose to add it to the Appointment. Alternatively, enter Customer information into the empty and required fields.

After you filled in the Customer, you'll see on the right side of the form a field to Select or Create Pet. In this field, you'll see available Pets to choose from, or you can create a new Pet. After you've completed this field, choose the other Appointment details (Staff Member, Service and/or Add-on) and then confirm or adjust the date and duration. When you are done, Book the Appointment. On the calendar, the Pet's name will display alongside the Customer's name. 

NOTE: Due to the functionality for scheduling Children and Pets being so closely related, it is not currently possible to have both Children and Pets in the same account.

Adding Pets to Customer Profiles

You may have an existing Customer to which you need to add a Pet. While you can do this when you are making an Appointment, if a Customer gives you information on a new Pet, but is not making an Appointment, you can access the Customer's information and add the Pet directly to their profile.

Visit the Customers section and search for the profile you need. From the Search by field, choose how you want to search. Enter your Customer's information and press Enter or click . From the list of results, click the item you need.

Upon opening the Customer's profile, click Pets. On this page, you can view the existing Pets or Create New. On the Pet profile, complete any required fields, add optional information as available and Create. The Pet is now saved in the system and available for future Appointments.

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Article updated May 3, 2019

Supports Single & Multiple Appointments version - Available on all pricing tiers