Automatic Holiday Rates

Time To Pet allows you to configure Automatic Holiday Rates for specific days of the year that will automatically be added to your client's invoices.

Creating An Automatic Holiday Rate

Navigate to Services > Holidays tab and click the “New Holiday” button.

holidays screen with red arrow pointing to new holiday button

Name the holiday, then enter the cost that should be added to events on this holiday. This can be a flat dollar amount or a percentage-based fee.

If you select the percentage option, you can choose what the percentage is based on from the following options:

holiday fee configuration screen with percentage of options expanded

Choose "How To Charge" this holiday fee from the following options:

holiday fee configuration screen with how to charge options expanded

Note: The "Once Per Client Per Day" option will result in the holiday rate only being applied to the first visit of the day, and the percentage will only be calculated based on the first visit's cost.

Select whether this holiday falls on the same date every year or if it varies by year, then enter the date(s) the holiday rate should apply.

holiday setup screen with changes each year setting expanded

Note: When using the "Varies By Year" option, we highly recommend setting up a few years ahead of time to save time in the future, then set a Task to remind you when it's time to add holidays again!

Manually Editing Holiday Rates

When scheduling services for a client, the holiday rate will be automatically calculated and added to each event based on the settings you configured in the section above. This also applies to services requested through the Client Portal.

However, you can override this value, or remove the holiday fee altogether, for any individual event in the "Edit Event" screen within the "Extras" section:

edit event screen with red arrow pointing to extras section and red box around holiday settings

Displaying Holidays On The Scheduler

When you add a new Holiday, Time To Pet will also display this Holiday on your Scheduler:

scheduler screen with arrows pointing to holidays

How Staff Are Paid For Holidays

IMPORTANT: Time To Pet does not pay your staff/users directly. The settings described in this article are simply tools that will help you calculate what to pay your staff outside of Time To Pet via your payroll processor or another preferred method.

You can set a default staff pay rate for holidays from the Services > Holidays tab:

holidays tab screen with red box around user rate for holidays

Note: If you set the staff/user rate for holidays to a percentage-based rate, the percentage is based on the holiday rate charged to the client. It is not based on what the staff/user would usually earn on the service.

You can also give each staff member a custom pay rate which will override the default staff pay rate you set above. To do this, visit the "Rates" tab in their staff profile:

screenshot of staff profile rates tab with arrow pointing to holiday rate setting

Note: For more information on configuring staff pay rates for Services, Extra Pets, After Hours, and Weekends, as well as info on Auto Fee Stacking, check out our article on Staff Pay Rates.

FAQs

Q: I just added a new holiday, but it's not showing up on my client's invoices.

Automatic Holiday Rates will only be added to events scheduled after the holiday is created. If you need to add the holiday rate to pre-existing events, you can use the Bulk Update tool to "Refresh Rates" on selected events.

Q: How can I pay my staff time-and-a-half for holidays?

In basic terms, there is no way to automatically pay staff 50% extra on holidays, aka "time-and-a-half”. This is because staff rates for holidays are based on what is charged to the client and not what the staff usually earns for a service. Whether their pay will equate to "time-and-a-half" or not will be dependent on what the normal service rate, the holiday rate, and staff pay rates are.

For example, let's say a service has a rate of $20 and a non-holiday staff pay rate of $12. It is scheduled on a holiday, and the holiday charges an extra $10 to the client. If you set the staff rate for holidays to 50%, that would give staff 50% of the $10 holiday rate that was charged to the client, or $5. If they are normally paid $12, time-and-a-half would equal an extra $6, one dollar more than the $5 rate they will be paid under these conditions.

Q: I created a holiday with no charge to the client; why is it still showing up on the client's invoice?

Even if a holiday isn't charged to the client, it will still be added to their invoice with a $0 charge. You can manually remove the holiday from individual events in the "Edit Event" screen. See Manually Editing Holiday Rates for more information.

Q: How can I charge a holiday rate for some services but not others?

There is no way to charge holiday rates for some services and not others. The holiday rate will apply to all events scheduled on a designated holiday. You can manually remove the holiday rate from individual events in the "Edit Event" screen. See Manually Editing Holiday Rates for more information.