Scheduling Events

After you have Added A Client and Created A Service, you are ready to start scheduling events for your clients! Whether you need to schedule a single event, multiple events over several days, or ongoing services for your daily clients - this article will show you how!

The Link Between Scheduling & Invoicing

Before we get started, it's important to understand that in Time To Pet, all scheduling is intrinsically linked to invoicing. That means whenever you are scheduling services for your client, you are also creating the invoice for those services at the same time. Check out our help article on Understanding Invoicing in Time To Pet to learn more about how this works. 

Scheduling A Single Event

To schedule a single event, navigate to the Scheduler from the sidebar:

In the top right corner are three buttons. Click "Schedule Client":

Select the client for which you'd like to schedule events:

If your client has any open invoices, Time To Pet will ask if you want to add the events to one of the open invoices or if you want to create a new invoice:

Click "Continue", and you'll be brought to the service order for the invoice you selected. From here, click "Add Event" to add schedule a new event:

This will launch the Edit Event screen. From here, you can select the date and time of the visit, select the service, add add-on services, select the staff, which pets should be included, add or edit extra fees, change the status of the event, and add any notes:

Click "Save Changes", and the event will be scheduled and added to the service order/invoice:

Scheduling Multiple Events Using The Trip Tool

Pet sitters and dog walkers often need to schedule multiple events at one time, such as when a client is taking a vacation and needs their pet(s) visited three times a day for a week. Time To Pet makes it simple to schedule all of those events at one time instead of each event individually. Check out our help doc on using the Trip Tool to schedule multiple events at once: Scheduling A Trip

Scheduling Multiple Events Using The Repeats Tool

If you have a client that usually works from home but is going into the office every day for a particular week, you may need to quickly schedule some walks for those days. Or, maybe you have a client that needs a midday dog walk every Wednesday in June. Instead of using the Trip Tool, which is best suited for clients that need multiple events each day over a period of time, you can use the "Repeats" tool on the event to repeat it once per day according to the schedule you specify.

To use the Repeats tool, follow the steps above to schedule a single event, and in the edit event screen, click the "Repeats?" checkbox:

This will expand the repeating event configuration options, where you can select how you want this event to repeat and when it should stop repeating:

After clicking "Save Changes", the repeating events will be scheduled and added to the service order/invoice:

Adding Events To An Existing Invoice

To add events to an existing service order/invoice, you'll first need to open the service order you want to add events to. You can do this in a couple of ways; the first is to click on an event in the Scheduler, then click the three-bar icon on the quick info window:

You can also click the calendar button next to an invoice anywhere it appears in Time To Pet. For example:

With the service order open, you can Add A Single Event or use the Trip Tool to add multiple events at once.

Scheduling Ongoing Events Using Templates

Imagine you have a client that has the same services scheduled week after week after week. A walk at 12:30 PM every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. Scheduling this client manually every week would be tedious and time-consuming, especially if you have multiple clients on a similar ongoing schedule.

This is where Templates come in. With a Template, you can create a set of services once and then have those services automatically (or with the click of an "approve" button) added to the schedule for you. You will never again have to ask yourself if you remembered to schedule Fluffy's walks for next week!

Check out our help doc on how to create and use Templates to schedule ongoing services for your clients!

Adding Events To The Pending Requests Queue

There may come a time when your client has requested services by sending you an email, text message, or phone call (instead of requesting the services through Time To Pet), and you don't yet know if you can accommodate the request and need some more time before you will be ready to approve or deny it. In this case, you may want to add the request to your pending request queue so that it isn't forgotten and you can easily process it when you are ready.

The only way to add events to the pending request queue is via the client-facing portal, so to do this, you'll need to log in as the client from the Quick Actions menu on their profile:

From there, follow the steps outlined in this client help doc on Requesting Services.

FAQs

Q: I need to schedule an event, but I don't want it to be invoiced. Can I do that?

Yes! When you are choosing a client to schedule, check off the "Do Not Invoice These Services" box before proceeding to the next step. This will add the events to the schedule and service order but will not add them to an invoice.