Getting Started Guide

Whether you are brand new to pet sitting or have been running a pet care company for years, we have found that learning the basics is the best way to get started in Time To Pet. That’s why we’ve put together this Getting Started Guide.

This guide is meant to be a loose framework for navigating your free trial. We understand that everyone learns a little differently, so don’t hesitate to contact us for help in creating a tailored plan for your business. 

In this guide, we will walk you through the core features of Time To Pet including client management, creating services, scheduling events, and much more.

A couple of items to keep in mind:

Data Imports

If you currently use another pet-sitting software system or you have a list of your clients in a spreadsheet, let us know. We can usually import much of your existing data into Time To Pet. This typically includes client information, pet information, staff information, and even veterinarian information. There is no cost to our data import service! For more information on this process, check out our help doc on Importing Data Into Time To Pet.

Live Demo With Q&A

We conduct live software demos weekly. Signing up for a demo is a great way to see Time To Pet in action and to participate in a Q&A session with other pet care companies. You can sign up for a demo here, or you can watch our Getting Started Video below, which covers a lot of the same information:

Time To Pet is designed to simplify many of the complex tasks of managing your pet care company. Keep in mind that pet-sitting software can be complicated and there may be a learning curve, but eventually, you will hit the “aha!” moment where it gets much easier and you see the tremendous benefit our system can have on your business. Just keep at it and ask lots of questions. That’s what we are here for!

Now let’s get started!

Step 1 - Create a Time To Pet Account

You most likely already started your free trial, so congratulations! You are well on your way to finishing this guide. If you have yet to start your trial, you can do so by navigating to https://www.timetopet.com/register and signing up.

Step 2 - Add A Client

Every pet-sitting or dog-walking business needs customers. For this step, we highly recommend creating a “test client”. This is usually a customer with the name “John Doe” and with your personal email attached to them. You can add your own pets to this client, or you can add some test pets.

Check out our help article for Adding A Client for more detailed instructions.

Expert Tip - If you skipped sending the welcome email, you can always send it later. Here is our help article that goes over those steps:  Send Welcome Email Or Resend Welcome Email To Clients

Step 3 - Create A Service

After creating a test client, we recommend creating a new service. Having a service is required for scheduling events in our system. If you’re not quite sure about what services you will offer, you can create a test service like “Dog Walking” for now.

Check out our help article for Creating A Service for more detailed instructions.

Step 4 - Schedule An Event

Now that you have a client and a service, let’s schedule an event. Keep in mind that scheduled events are intrinsically linked to invoices in Time To Pet (we will review this more in our next step).

Check out our help doc on Scheduling An Event for more detailed instructions.

Step 5 - Review Invoicing In Time To Pet

In Time To Pet, Invoicing and Scheduling and intrinsically linked. This means that all scheduled events are automatically connected to an invoice when they are scheduled or approved. While this significantly decreases the amount of time required to invoice your customers, there may be a slight learning curve for someone brand new to Time To Pet.

Check out our help doc on Understanding Invoicing In Time To Pet for some great information about how this works.

Step 6 - Add A Staff Member

If your company has staff members, the process of adding a new staff member is very similar to adding a new client. You can add one of your real staff members or create a “test” staff member with the name “Suzy Staff” or something similar.

Check out our help doc on Adding A Staff Member to see more details on this.

Step 7 - Send A Message

One of the most powerful aspects of Time To Pet is our messaging system. You can send your client a message directly from their Client Profile. This message can be sent to your client via email, via text message, or sent directly to their Client App. Your customer can respond directly to the message and their response is immediately added to their profile.

To see more info on sending a client a message, check out our help doc on Using The Client Conversation Feed.

Step 8 - Add A Local Vet

Having up-to-date and accurate vet information is essential in cases of emergency. Depending on your clients to add this information isn’t always 100% reliable. That’s why Time To Pet allows each company to add their local vets and then clients can select which vet they use.

Check out our help article to learn how to Add And Manage Vets.

Step 9 - Create A Key

If your business manages client keys, Time To Pet has a system to make this process simple and transparent! You can generate a unique Key Code for each key, assign keys to different staff, add multiple keys for each client, and run reports to see exactly where the keys are.

Learn more about Client Keys in this help article.

Step 10 - Enable GPS Tracking

Time To Pet allows pet care companies to track GPS data when utilizing the Staff App. GPS is entirely optional but when enabled, you can track the check-in and check-out coordinates as well as the full GPS Route when staff members complete events. This information can be optionally shared with clients as well!

Read our help article on Enabling GPS Tracking to learn more about this feature.

Step 11 - Download The Time To Pet App

The Time To Pet App is available for both staff members and clients! You can download the App from the Google Play Store or from the Apple App Store using the links provided. For staff, the App is perfect for viewing their daily schedule, viewing important client/pet info, completing events, and sending updates to clients along with pictures and notes.

You can see more info on the Staff App here: Getting Started With The Mobile App

Step 12 - Complete An Event

After scheduling a test event and downloading the Time To Pet App, the next step is to complete that event. We recommend completing a visit using a test client and sending a “Post Visit Report” to the test client when you are all done.

We have a great help doc showing how to Complete An Event Via The Mobile App here.

Step 13 - Review Payments In Time To Pet

Getting Paid with Time To Pet is super simple. You can connect your account to our credit card processing partner and clients can make payments directly through the Client App or the Client Portal. If a client has a payment method on file and has given you authorization, you can submit payments for them as well!

Learn more about Credit Card Processing here.

Step 14 - Create A Template

If you have any regular, recurring clients (like your weekly regulars), Templates will become your new best friend. Templates allow you to create a recurring schedule that automatically invoices and schedules all of the events for your regular clients. While templates can be a little difficult to get started with, we’ve made sure to create an extremely comprehensive help article outlining exactly how this feature works.

Learn all about Templates here.

Step 15 - Login To The Portal As A Client

It can be helpful to understand exactly what your clients see in Time To Pet. That’s why we’ve built a tool that allows you to “log in as your client”. This tool will allow you to log in to your client’s portal to see exactly what they see.

You can learn more about how to Login As A Client in our help doc.

Step 16 - Review Reporting In Time To Pet

Understanding the metrics of your business is vital to understanding how to grow your business. Time To Pet provides robust and customizable reporting ranging from Client Reports, Visit Reports, Sales Reports, Revenue Reports, and much more.

To better understand some of our different reporting options, check out our Understanding The Different Financial Reports help article.

Step 17 - Get Familiar With The Knowledge Base

Here at Time To Pet, we are fully invested in your success. We want to do whatever we can to make our system easier while never compromising on building a comprehensive system that helps our clients more efficiently start, grow, and manage their businesses. The Knowledge Base is a tremendous resource as we have worked tirelessly to build clear help articles and informative best practice guides. Can’t find what you are looking for? You can always contact us with your questions!

Step 18 - Activate Account

The final step of the Getting Started Guide is activating your account. You can do this by adding payment info in the Billing Section. As always, if you have any questions, just let us know!