MY DOG DESK
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. The selected tab is dark green with light lettering; unselected tabs are neutral. Identify a tab by its name and count, not an old color key. 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 a pending or confirmed reservation before check-in (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.

Viewing All Pets

Go to Owners & Pets → View all Pets in the sidebar. The Pets panel lists every dog registered in My Dog Desk, 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.

Dog Profile Information

Every dog record in My Dog Desk 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.

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

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. 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.

On a reservation card, click Checkout to prepare the bill.

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). 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. If a paid deposit exceeds the charges, correct the bill or resolve the overpayment before sending.
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.
4. Share and verify: Copy the private link when it appears and share it directly with the owner. The owner sees the itemized total before paying in the business's Stripe Checkout. 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). 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. Resolve refunds separately in Stripe.

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.

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. Overnight shifts appear on both affected days.

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 — Filter reservation rows displayed in the calendar

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.

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. Use it for shift handoffs, daily observations, or reminders. Open from Reports & More → Staff Notes. Click Save Notes after editing.

SMS Communications & Reminders

Open Reports & More → SMS Communications to configure scheduled appointment and vaccine reminders and inspect delivery status. The scheduler runs every minute while the server is running, without dashboard visits. Use Refresh status to read the latest results; refresh does not trigger sends.

Choose SMS, email, both, or off for each reminder type; set appointment lead time (1–7 days), vaccine lead time (1–90 days), a send hour (0–23), and your facility's IANA timezone, such as America/New_York. This timezone is shared with Floor operational settings. Both reminder types default to off. Owners can enable or revoke SMS consent and reminder email in Pet Parent Portal → Profile & my dogs → Reminder preferences. Email starts disabled. Vaccine reminders are one per dog, vaccine, expiry date and channel; booking reminders are one per arrival date/time and channel. Updated dates create new reminders; cancellation, consent revocation and timezone changes invalidate or recalculate unsent work.

A missed scheduler run catches up only before the arrival time or vaccine expiry. Daylight-saving transitions use the facility timezone. With no arrival time, appointment reminders expire at the end of the arrival day. Reminders already accepted by a provider cannot be recalled. No no-show fee is charged automatically.

Provider setup: an operator must configure Twilio's account, auth token and sending number, or Resend's API key, verified sender and webhook signing secret. Configure a public HTTPS callback base, Twilio status and STOP callbacks, and signed Resend delivery events. Live scheduled delivery stays disabled until REMINDER_DELIVERY_ENABLED=1 is deliberately enabled after controlled provider testing. See docs/reminder-operations.md for exact configuration and test steps. Neither provider is connected or test-delivery verified here yet.

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.

Bookkeeping payment CSV

In Reports & More → Reports → Payment export, choose a start and end date and download the generic CSV. Only Managers and Admins can export their own business's records. Employee sessions, customer portal sessions and the public demo cannot export financial records. An empty range downloads column headings only.

Basis: one row per positive, recorded Stripe-verified payment request marked paid. Gross USD amounts are receipts, not revenue earned or bank deposits. Unpaid, expired and cancelled payment requests, bill drafts, imported balances, package credits and My Dog Desk subscription payments are excluded. A paid payment remains included even if its booking is later cancelled; cancellation alone is not evidence of a refund. The export reads saved payment status without contacting Stripe or reconciling open links. Refresh payment status in Settings or the booking bill first if a payment has recently completed.

Dates and timezone: both selected dates are inclusive UTC calendar days, not the facility timezone. New payments use the first time My Dog Desk verifies paid status (payment_verified_at), which can be later than the actual charge. Older paid records without that timestamp use the request creation date and are marked legacy_request_created_at; their verification timestamp is blank. These older dates are not receipt dates. Check them against Stripe before posting accounting periods. Booking start dates are references only and never determine the export range.

Reconciliation: deposits and final balance payments each appear once at their actual recorded amounts. Bill totals and deposit credits are not additional receipts. A $25 deposit plus a $75 final balance exports $100, not $125. A bill ID is a reference to the related bill, not a further charge. Keep payment IDs when tracking exports; overlapping exports include the same records again.

Unavailable details: external Stripe refunds (including partial refunds), disputes, processing fees, net receipts and payouts are not synchronized. Their CSV fields contain UNKNOWN, not zero. The file is not a complete net-cash or tax ledger; reconcile gross receipts and any refunds with Stripe's own reports. It does not include cash or other offline payments that were never recorded by these payment flows.

Format: UTF-8 CSV with a byte-order mark, headings and decimal USD amounts (two places, no currency symbols). Each row includes payment, booking and optional bill IDs; payment kind; ledger date and date basis; verification and request creation UTC timestamps; customer, pet and service references; booking date and status; gross amount; Stripe payment/session references; and unavailable refund, fee, net and payout fields. Customer-supplied text that could be interpreted as a spreadsheet formula is prefixed with an apostrophe for safety. This is a generic file for your bookkeeper to review and map, not a validated QuickBooks import format, native integration or automatic synchronization. Store downloaded files securely because they contain customer and financial information.

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

My Dog Desk subscription: The business owner manages the My Dog Desk subscription in Settings → Subscription & Billing. Ask the owner to use Manage subscription / payment method in Settings if a renewal needs attention.

The Settings → Booking payments area shows your business's Stripe connection status. Customer booking payments and the My Dog Desk subscription are separate.

When live operations are enabled, staff can set an optional non-refundable holiday boarding deposit amount and an inclusive date range, then click Save deposit rule. Disclose any deposit terms to the owner before taking payment. 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.

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.

For a small pilot, open Admin → Pilot feedback, copy your booking link, and share it personally with a couple of customers. My Dog Desk does not send invitations for you. After making a booking, each customer can use their email and booking reference to enter the Pet Parent Portal and leave feedback. Use the same Pilot feedback area to add your team's observations and review both sets of responses together. Only this business's staff can view the combined feedback; customers see only their own entries.

Open Your Business's Floor

Open /floor/{your-business-slug} using the link from your manager. From the My Dog Desk homepage, Log In opens a dialog: enter your business slug or its Floor link, then choose Continue to Floor. This takes you to your business's existing sign-in screen; it does not sign you in automatically.

1. Enter your own Staff ID and PIN, then choose Sign in to My Dog Desk Floor.
2. Check the account menu at the top right to confirm your name, role and business before recording care. Managers create individual accounts in Staff access.
3. An authorized business admin can leave Staff ID blank and use the business Admin PIN. Staff should use their personal account so saved care is attributed correctly.

Start With Today

Your personal sign-in opens Today. The greeting and date use the facility's configured time zone. Summary cards show Dogs Present, Expected Arrivals, My Tasks, Needs Attention and Upcoming Pickups. Select a card to open the dog/task view or jump to the relevant section.

Start with Needs Attention: due care, overdue medication, open incidents, dogs marked for attention and owner pickup notices. My Tasks means tasks assigned to your own staff ID, not the whole team's work. Unassigned work is separately labeled as shared tasks. Pickups show dogs checked in and departing today, with their owner, service and recorded pickup time; missing times are not invented.

Use Dogs to search present dogs instantly by name, owner or breed. Choose All records when you need a dog that is not checked in. Open a dog for care instructions, behavior notes, friends, dogs to avoid and large quick-care buttons. Employee views do not show billing, packages, balances or profile-management tools. Playgroups and Help are secondary links on Today.

Search & Your Account

On phones, the search button may show a return-arrow symbol and Notifications an exclamation mark instead of the full words. The account name may be hidden until you open its menu. On desktop and tablets, navigation is on the left; on phones it runs along the bottom and can be swiped horizontally.

Know Which Tools Your Role Can Use

Employee navigation has just Today, Dogs, Tasks and Incidents. Managers and admins can select Manager mode to use the existing Floor board, Playgroups, Operations, Intelligence, Closeout, Staff access, Import, Settings and Business Admin shortcuts. Staff accounts cannot enter Manager mode. Use Employee mode to return to the simple Today workspace. Permissions remain enforced when saving; do not use another person's account.

The manager shortcuts Bookings and Customers open their existing Admin panels. The Floor shortcut labeled Reports opens the Admin report-card panel. For the statistics described in Section 11, use Admin → Reports & More → Reports instead.

Record Care, Complete Tasks & Prepare Pickup

1. Review Today's counts and Needs Attention. Open the dog's card to confirm the correct dog, visit, care instructions and playgroup.
2. Use the available dog-card actions to record feeding, water, potty, notes, photos or an incident. Record what actually happened; care entries remain associated with the dog and signed-in team member.
3. Tasks separates Overdue, Due Now (the next 15 minutes), Upcoming and Completed work. Select Done for ordinary tasks: the screen and counts update in place, while the server records your name and completion time. A failed save restores the task for retry.
4. For medication, use the dog's Medication action or the assigned task. Review the dog, medication, dose and instructions, then select Confirm dose. A dose is only shown as recorded after the server confirms it. A general care note does not complete a medication dose. Completed medication tasks cannot be edited or reopened.
5. Use Expected arrivals on Today, or Dogs → Expected arrivals, to find today's pending and confirmed visits. Choose Check in, verify the exact dog, owner and visit in the confirmation, then confirm. Attendance changes only after the server confirms. Vaccine override is manager-only; staff should ask a manager when check-in is blocked.
6. Use Dogs present on Today or Dogs → Dogs present to check out any dog currently on site, including dogs not listed in Upcoming Pickups. The dog's card also shows the handoff action for its current visit. Confirm the exact dog, owner and visit before saving. If the server reports that manager approval is needed, no checkout is recorded; ask a manager, refresh attendance status, and retry only after verifying the visit.
7. All active records remains available in Dogs for lookup, but historical or future bookings cannot be used for a staff check-in. Upcoming Pickups remains a preparation list and also provides a checkout shortcut for today's departing dogs.

Report an Incident Quickly

From Incidents → Report incident, or the dog's Incident button, select the dog, type and severity, describe what happened, and choose Save incident. Additional details are optional. Photos can be JPEG, PNG or WebP up to 3 MB; videos can be MP4, MOV or WebM up to 8 MB. Dictation is available where the browser supports it; otherwise use your device keyboard's dictation if available.

The report saves the time, signed-in employee, dog, type, severity and review status. Moderate and Serious incidents are flagged for manager review. Old reports keep an unspecified severity until historical information is known. If an attachment fails after the incident saves, select Retry attachment rather than reporting the incident again. Notification checkboxes record an action; they do not actually send messages.

Read status labels and care timestamps rather than relying on color alone. The operating feed refreshes while the workspace is idle, without interrupting an open form.