Portal Settings

The Portal Settings page allows you to change various settings that affect how your clients interact with the Client Portal and App. All of the settings are listed below with a description.

Client Portal Tag

This is the URL that your clients will use to access their Client Portal. You can leave this blank, and clients can simply log in via https://www.timetopet.com/portal. However, your company Theme and information will not be shown on the general login screen. Most customers will set their client portal tag to match their business name and add this as a link to their website, usually within a “Client Login” button in their Header section. For detailed information on adding your Client Portal tag to your website - review our Adding The Client Portal Tag To Your Website help article.

Allow Clients To Create Accounts

By default, clients are unable to create their own accounts. Opting for "Yes, Accounts Require Approval" enables clients to create their own accounts, but the accounts remain pending until approved by an administrator. Alternatively, selecting "Yes, Auto Approve Accounts" gives clients the ability to create and access their accounts instantly without the need for administrator approval. Such accounts are automatically added to your Client List, ensuring immediate access upon submission of the New Client Form.

Private Messaging Enabled

When enabled, Admins can send and view “Private Messages” to clients not visible by staff members. Review our Private Messaging help article for more information.

Show Sitters To Clients

When enabled, clients can see who their assigned staff member is for upcoming events.

Portal Notification

When enabled, Time To Pet will show your clients a banner notification at the top of every page in their client portal or app. This is most commonly used for announcements you would like to make to all customers, such as “Please request holiday services ASAP.”

Portal notifications have three states:

Not Shown – Will not be displayed in the Portal.

Visible – Visible in the Portal forever.

Visible With Expiration Date – Visible until the specified expiration date is passed (the message will be displayed on the expiration date, but not after).

When visible, the Portal Notification appears like this:

Pet Parent Onboarding

Our Pet Parent Onboarding tool lets you build a customized onboarding experience for your clients. This tool helps guide your new clients as they create their accounts and complete the information important to your business. When the options below are enabled, new pet parents will be directed to complete all the required information as they are activating their account for the very first time. For more information (including how this is shown to pet parents), please review our help article on Pet Parent Onboarding.

Sign Agreement - If you have Client Agreements enabled, your clients are prompted to review and e-sign any required agreements your business has created.

Update Info - This step prompts your clients to review and update the client fields you have enabled. This information normally includes contact information, address information, etc.

Add Pet - This step prompts clients to add pets and update pet information. Clients can add multiple pets during this step.

Payment Method - This step prompts your clients to add or update a payment method.

Welcome - This final step allows you to create a custom “Welcome Message” shown to your clients at the end of the Pet Parent Onboarding tool. A link to download the Time To Pet client app is also included here.

Show Paid Invoices In Portal

When enabled, clients can access their “Paid” invoices in the client portal. If payments and tipping are enabled, clients will be able to add tips to their “Paid” invoices as well.

Show Unpaid Invoices In Portal

When enabled, this will determine which unpaid invoices are shown to Clients. To learn more about Invoice Statuses, review our help article.

Show All Unpaid Invoices - All unpaid invoices will be shown to Clients.

Show Only Due Invoices - Only invoices due today or in the past will be shown. Note - Emailing an invoice through Time To Pet will also make it visible with this setting.

Show Only Emailed Invoices - Only invoices emailed through Time To Pet will be shown.

Never Show Unpaid Invoices - Unpaid invoices will never be shown to the Client.

Show Open Payments + Credit In Portal

When enabled, clients can see open payments (have a balance remaining) that can be applied to future Invoices as well as their Credit Balance if above $0. This will be labeled "Available Payments" in the Portal. Review our Understanding Open Payments And Credits In Time To Pet, help article to learn more.

Show Prices In Portal

When enabled, clients will be able to view the prices of your services when submitting a service order request.

Allow Tipping In Portal

To enable or disable your clients' ability to add tips, navigate to Settings > Client Settings > Portal Settings. When enabled, clients will have the option to add a tip to an invoice when making a payment, or they can add a tip to paid invoices. For more information, check out our help article on Tipping In Time To Pet.

Force Required Fields For Scheduling Requests  

It can be hard to pet sit when you don’t know a client’s address. This option allows you to force your clients to fill out required profile information before any scheduling requests can be submitted. By default, in Time To Pet, only the client’s name is required. You can, however, make any field required in the Custom Field configuration.

No - Missing required fields will not be checked.

Yes, Client Info Only - The system will only verify that the required fields are all filled out in the My Info section.

Yes, Client & Pet Info - The system will verify that My Info and each pet have all required fields filled out.

Yes, Client/Pet Info & Require at least 1 pet - Not only will the system verify that all required fields are filled out, it will also verify that the client has at least one pet on file.

When requesting services and the required checks fail, your client will see a notification similar to this:

Customize Additional Details Field

By default, the service request form includes a text field titled "Additional Details". You can customize this field to ask for specific pieces of information, such as "Are there any medications to be administered?" or "What time is your departure and return?".

To customize this field, navigate to Settings > Client Settings > Portal Settings and scroll down to the "Scheduling" section. In the "Customize Additional Details Field" option, select "Yes".

The "Title" field is for entering the name/label of the notes field. The "Description" field explains in more detail what information should be submitted. For example:

The above example would display to the client this way on their client portal and app: 

Require Payment Method To Request Services

If set to Yes, this setting will require a client to have a credit card on file before requesting services. This setting will only take effect if your company has  Credit Card Processing enabled.

Show Fees And Discounts In Portal

When enabled, clients will be able to see a complete breakdown of an individual service's cost when requesting services through their Client Portal and Mobile App. As they reach the final step of the requesting process, they can use the "Cost Details" button on each service to see an itemized list that will include the service's base rate and any fees or discounts that have been applied.

For clients using the Mobile App, they can tap "Show Details" with each service to view fees that may apply to your services.

Additionally, this setting will include additional charges (such as After Hours Fees, Extra Pet Rates, Holiday Fees, and Weekend Fees) and incorporate frequency discounts into the overall estimated cost of the services the client is requesting.

Require Pet Vaccinations To Request Services

If set to Yes, this setting will require a client to have all of their Pet Vaccinations up to date before they can request services for that specific pet. This setting will only take effect if your company has  Allow Clients to Manage Vaccinations (found in Client Settings > Vaccinations) enabled.

Client Service Request Limits

You can prevent customers from submitting service order requests without enough advance notice by using the tool.

Change/Cancellation Request Type

This setting controls whether your clients can make change and cancellation requests on specific visits (which then have to be approved in Dashboard) or if they have to send you a general message describing the change they would like to be made.

Client Sends General Message 

This setting will show a text box when the client makes a change or cancellation request in the Client Portal or Mobile App. The client can include the details of their request within this box to be sent to the admin to review. 

Client Makes Requests Against Specific Visits

When selected, additional configuration options will populate for change and cancellation requests. This setting enables clients to select specific events in the Client Portal or Mobile app that they'd like to make changes to or cancel. The request is then sent to the admin to approve or deny. 

Change/Cancel Request Limits

These settings allow you to prevent customers from submitting change or cancellation requests to existing visits without enough advance notice. Limits can be configured as no requests for the same day after a specified time, no requests for tomorrow after a specified time, or no requests earlier than a certain amount of hours in advance.

Auto Approve Cancel Requests

This setting allows you to optionally automatically approve cancellation requests.

Next Help Article: Schedule Blocks