DOGDESK
Staff Operations Manual

When you log in, the Dashboard is the first thing you see. It has quick actions and a capacity table across the top, then the status tabs below.

Top Row — Two Panels

Date Navigation on the Capacity Table

Each tab shows a count badge and loads notices or bookings when clicked. Changes you make update the dashboard; reload if another staff member's changes are not reflected yet.

Acting on a Booking Card

Each booking card in the tab shows the dog's name, owner, dates, service, and status. Action buttons appear on the card:

• Confirm — Move a pending booking to "confirmed"
• Check In — Record the dog's arrival on the premises
• Checkout — Prepare the itemized bill and collect any balance through a private payment link
• Complete — Record the dog's departure after the bill is paid or settled
• Cancel — Cancel the reservation (irreversible — use with care)

The ⚡ Quick Check In button on the dashboard opens a search modal. Use it when an owner walks through the door.

Opening the Bookings Panel

In the sidebar, open the Reservations accordion group, then click View all Reservations. You can also access it from the Reservations → New Reservation submenu to open the public booking form for a walk-in.

Filtering Bookings

At the top of the bookings panel, two filters let you narrow the list:

• Date filter — Pick any date to see bookings starting on that day
• Status filter — Filter by: All, Pending, Confirmed, Checked In, Completed, Cancelled

Click Today to jump to today's date. Click Clear to remove all filters and see all bookings.

Booking Status Lifecycle

Staff Checkout & Itemized Billing

On a reservation card, click Checkout. This prepares the bill; it does not charge the owner or mark the dog checked out.

1. Enter the bill: Add at least one charge line. Give each charge or discount a description, whole-number quantity, and unit price in dollars (for example, 85.00). Staff enter prices; DogDesk does not guess service rates or add taxes automatically. Review dates, add-ons, and any agreed discounts before clicking Save draft.
2. Check the credit and balance: The bill shows the subtotal, discounts, verified paid holiday deposit, and amount still due. An open deposit link is not a payment. If a paid deposit exceeds the charges, correct the bill or resolve the overpayment before sending; the system will not silently turn it into a $0 bill.
3. Finalize: Click Send payment link. This locks the bill and replaces unpaid deposit links. If the paid deposit covers the bill exactly, it is settled immediately and no new link is created. If an older checkout is complete but not yet confirmed paid, wait for its final status before trying again.
4. Share and verify: Copy the private link when it appears and share it directly with the owner; DogDesk does not text or email it automatically. The owner sees the itemized total before paying in the business's Stripe Checkout. The link expires after 30 days. Use Refresh Stripe status to confirm payment; a link being created or opened is not proof of payment. Once paid, the owner can view and print their itemized receipt from the private link.
5. Finish the visit: After the bill shows Paid or Settled, click Complete visit in Checkout (or Complete on the booking card). A draft or unpaid bill blocks completion. For an unpaid link that needs changes or replacement, click Void unpaid link to revise, edit and save the draft, then send a new link. A paid bill cannot be voided or changed; resolve refunds separately in Stripe.

Creating a Walk-In Booking

Click Reservations → New Reservation in the sidebar for walk-in customers or phone reservations. This opens your business's booking form in a new tab. A signed-in pet parent who books with the same email adds the reservation to their portal account. A guest booking creates a separate customer record even if the email matches an existing owner. Verify identity before reconciling duplicate records; an email address alone does not prove ownership of earlier bookings or documents.

Booking Reference Numbers

Each booking has a private reference code displayed when the request is submitted. Customers can look up their booking using their email address and this code. For a reservation enquiry, ask for the reference and email; do not share references publicly because they also allow portal sign-in.

Arrival and pickup notices: A pet owner with a confirmed near-term visit can mark “I’m on my way” from their booking lookup or signed-in portal. After staff checks the pet in, the owner can send a pickup notice. These notices are saved on the booking and highlighted on the staff dashboard’s Notices tab and booking cards. A notice is not a check-in or checkout: staff must still complete those actions, and the owner sees the updated visit status afterward. If a notice cannot be saved, the owner receives an error rather than a false confirmation.

Open from the sidebar: Reservations → Lodging Calendar, or from the Lodging Calendar shortcut on the dashboard.

Kennel Occupancy

Open Operations → Kennel Occupancy to create kennels or suites with a name, zone, and capacity. Select a date to see assigned reservations, available spaces, and reservations still needing an assignment. The allocated count includes pending, confirmed, and checked-in reservations; the checked-in count shows pets currently on site. Assign a reservation using its kennel selector. You can also use Assign room + on a Lodging Calendar row and enter an existing kennel name. The system rejects assignments that would exceed capacity on any overlapping day, and prevents deactivating a kennel while current or future reservations need it.

Staff Schedule

Open Operations → Staff Schedule to add staff members and plan their shifts by week. Each shift records a role, local start and end time, and optional notes. Overlapping shifts for the same person are blocked; overnight shifts appear on both affected days. This is a planning schedule, not a clock-in or payroll system. Remove future shifts before deactivating a staff member.

Reading the Calendar Grid

The calendar shows a Monday–Sunday week. Each row is one boarding stay. The columns are the days of the week. A colored block in a cell means the dog is present on that day.

Navigation

Filters

• Show All — Every boarding reservation this week
• Occupied Only — Only stays that are active this week
• Vacant Only — Do not use this to decide whether a kennel is available; it currently filters reservation rows, not kennel spaces, and may show “All stalls occupied” even when space is available. Check Operations → Kennel Occupancy for actual availability.

Viewing All Pets

Go to Owners & Pets → View all Pets in the sidebar. The Pets panel lists every dog registered in DogDesk, sorted alphabetically.

Each pet card shows:

• Dog name, breed, age, sex, weight
• Owner name
• Total visit count and date of last visit

Searching Pets

Use the search bar at the top of the Pets panel to filter by dog name, breed, or owner name. The list updates as you type — no need to press Enter.

Viewing All Owners (Customers)

Go to Owners & Pets → View all Owners. The Customers panel lists the following for each owner:

• Name, email, and phone number
• Date added and booking count

For dog records use View all Pets; for reservation details use View all Reservations or Reports & More → History. The Owners list does not display emergency contacts, linked-dog lists, or full booking histories.

Dog Profile Information

Every dog record in DogDesk stores the following. This information is collected at booking time:

Importing Existing Records

Open Owners & Pets → Import CSV to preview a CSV before importing it. Required columns are owner_name, email, and dog_name. Optional columns include phone, breed, size, age, and Rabies/DAPP/Bordetella expiry dates. For booking history, also include service, start_date, and legacy_reference. Dates must use YYYY-MM-DD; the limit is 1,000 rows or 2 MB. Review the preview and any errors before clicking Import these records. Existing owners and dogs are matched by email and name; imported booking history is matched by its original reference.

Report cards are saved to the selected booking and can be viewed in the pet-parent portal. For an owner with a phone number who opted in to texts, an SMS notification is queued; delivery requires a connected SMS provider. There is no photo attachment control.

Creating a Report Card

Filtering Report Cards by Date

Use the date picker at the top of the Report Cards panel to filter cards by visit date. Click Today to see today's cards, or All to see all records.

Open from Reports & More → Reports in the sidebar.

The Nine Key Stats

Top Services Breakdown

Below the stats grid, the Top Services table shows which services (Boarding, Daycare, Grooming, Training, etc.) have the most bookings. Use this to understand demand and plan staffing.

Staff Announcements

Announcements are stored for your business and visible to authorized staff on the admin dashboard. They appear in the Notices tab. Open Reference → Announcements in the sidebar or use the dashboard shortcut.

Posting an Announcement

Staff Notes

The Staff Notes panel is a shared notepad for your business's authorized staff, not a browser-only note. Use it for shift handoffs, daily observations, or reminders. Open from Reports & More → Staff Notes. Click Save Notes after editing; it does not save automatically.

SMS Communications & Reminders

Open Reports & More → SMS Communications to check the provider status, recent messages, and vaccine expiry reminders. Booking confirmations, report-card links, and next-day check-in reminders can be queued. Staff opening the dashboard prepares due reminders. Queued does not mean delivered: SMS needs a connected provider and customer opt-in. Email reminders are not sent until email delivery is configured. Use Refresh & check reminders to update the panel.

Open from Admin → Settings in the sidebar.

Changing the Admin PIN

Branding Settings

The Settings panel also lets you update:

• Business logo URL — Link to your logo image (hosted externally)
• Primary and accent colors — Hex color codes for the booking page theme
• Business description — Short text that appears on the booking page

Click Save Branding after making changes.

Booking Payments & Holiday Deposits

DogDesk subscription: The business owner manages the DogDesk subscription in Settings → Subscription & Billing. New businesses can use the 14-day trial without an activation code. After the trial, verified subscription payment enables new bookings and staff changes. If a renewal fails, a seven-day grace period gives the owner time to update the payment method. After that, staff can still sign in and view existing records, but new bookings and edits pause until billing is resolved. Ask the owner to use Manage subscription / payment method in Settings; do not send them to the business's booking-payment Stripe connection for DogDesk billing.

The Settings → Booking payments area shows your business's Stripe connection status. Each business must finish its own Stripe onboarding before it can receive booking payments. The business's customer payments are separate from any DogDesk subscription billing.

When live operations are enabled, staff can set an optional non-refundable holiday boarding deposit amount (disabled at $0) and an inclusive date range, then click Save deposit rule. Disclose any deposit terms to the owner before taking payment. A booking request does not charge a card or send a link automatically. Review existing payment requests and their statuses here; use the booking card's Checkout button to create the final itemized bill and private balance link. Only a deposit confirmed paid is credited against that bill.

Booking Page Link

At the bottom of the sidebar, click ← View Booking Page or ← View Pet Parent Portal to open the relevant customer page in a new tab. Confirm with your manager that you are sharing the live business link, not the demo.