Packages
Packages are a set of services that you often sell at a discount and upfront. For example, you might create a “Buy 10, Get 10% Off” package that offers ten sittings at the discounted rate of 10% off. The customer would pay you upfront and, in return, receive the discount.
Note On Bundling Services: If you're looking for a way to create "bundled" services, such as an overnight service with two daytime visits included at a flat rate, we highly discourage you from using Packages for this as it would require a separate service request and invoice for every single night of the reservation, which would be confusing and overwhelming for your clients (and you!). Instead, check out this section of our help doc on Best Practices For Scheduling Overnights & Boarding article: Creating Overnight Packages & Bundles
In This Article
Accessing Packages Configuration
Creating A Package
- Click the button labeled “+ New Package”.
A new screen will be displayed for the Package form that you can use to create your package.
- Modify the fields (descriptions of the fields immediately below) and click the button labeled “Save Package” to finish creating your package.
Package Form Fields
Package Name: The name of this package. This will be visible to your customer when they are redeeming services for this package.
Package Type: Packages can have two types. “Set Price” packages let you specify the total price for the package. “Discount Percent” lets you specify a percentage discount you want to offer off of the normal cost for the services that are part of this package.
Package Limits: You can limit when the services for this package can be redeemed. The options are “No Limits”, “Same Day”, “Same Week” and “Same Month”. As an example, if you choose “Same Month”, all services redeemed against this package would have to be in the same month.
End Date: The last date a service appointment can be redeemed against this package. For example, if you set the End Date to December 25, 2021, no services will be allowed on or after December 26, 2021. Services on December 25, 2021, will be allowed.
Total Cost: Only valid if Package Type is “Set Price”. The total price for this package.
% Discount: Only valid if Package Type is “Discount Percent”. The percentage discount to subtract from the original price of all services in this package.
Description: A short description of the package.
Services In Package: The services (and how many of each) that are part of this package. A package must have at least one service.
Adding Services To A Package
The heart of a package is the services that are a part of it and how many each can be redeemed. A package must have at least one service but other than that, there are no limits.
- Click the button labeled “+ Add Service To Package”.
A popup screen will appear for where you can select the service and how many of that service can be redeemed.
- Click the button labeled “Add Service To Package”. The new service will now appear for the package.
To remove a service from the package, simply click the button “Remove Service” next to the service you want to remove. To update the count for any service, simply edit the number in the text box for that service.
Note: Any modifications you make to the services for a package (including adding a new service) will not take effect until you click the button labeled “Save Changes”.
Adding A Package For A Client
- Visit the Customer’s Page in your Dashboard.
- Click on the “Services/Invoices” tab.
- Scroll down to "Packages".
Click the button labeled “Add Package For Client”. A popup window will appear:
- Select the package to add and whether or not to invoice the package.
- Click “Add Package”.
Note: If you uncheck “Yes, Invoice Package For Client” no invoice will be created for this package; in other words, the customer will not be charged for it. Otherwise, a new invoice will be added to the customer’s account.
How Clients Purchase Packages And Redeem Services
When a Package is marked selectable by clients, they are able to add them to their account on their own, which will create an invoice that becomes payable, and they can then request services from the Package.
Note: For this article, we will show screenshots of the Client Portal, but the process is nearly identical on the Client App!
From the home screen, the client will click "Scheduling"
Then, "Add Package":
Note: on the App, client's need to tap "New Request" first, then they will see the "Add Package" button.
A list of available Package options will be shown. The client will click "Add This Package" on the Package they want to purchase:
They'll be shown a message that asks them to confirm and explains Packages shouldn't be considered final until approved by the company:
After clicking "Yes, Add Package", the Package will be added to the client's account, an invoice will be created, and they'll be brought to the service request form where they can request to redeem services from the Package:
Note: Clients are not required to request services after adding a Package to their account. They can click "Cancel" to cancel the service request, or they can click any other button in the header of the screen to exit the service request form.
To redeem services at a later time, they will return to the "Scheduling" screen:
Click "Request New Services":
Then "Redeem From Package":
If the client has multiple Packages on their account with available services, they'll be prompted to choose which one they want to redeem from:
They will click "Redeem Package" on the Package they want to redeem services from, and they'll be brought to the service request form. Once they've entered the date(s) they need services, they'll select the service type, which will indicate how many are left to redeem:
If they try to request more than what is available, they'll see this warning at the top of the screen when they try to submit the request:
Redeeming Services Against A Client’s Package
- Visit the Customer’s Page in your Dashboard.
- Click on the “Services/Invoices” tab.
- Scroll down to "Packages"
Find the package you want to redeem services against and click the button labeled “Redeem”.
The service order for the Package will open, where you can then add events to the Schedule and they will be "redeemed" from the Package.
Unredeeming Services From A Package
There are two ways to un-redeem services from a package depending on whether or not you want to charge the client for the services that you're un-redeeming.
Change a service's redemption status to "Not Counted". This leaves the service on the package so that the client is not charged extra for it, but does not count the service as one of the allotted visits included in the package. This might be used, for example, when a client cancels a service that was part of a package, and you do not want to charge them for it. To change a service's redemption status, open the "Details" screen of the client's package, and click "Full Report".
On the next screen, click on the visit's redemption status to change it from "Counted" to "Not Counted".
If you'd like to un-redeem an event from a package so that you can charge the client separately for the event rather than having it included in the package, you can do this by moving the event onto a new invoice. See our video article on Moving Services To A New Invoice for step-by-step instructions on how to do this.
Disabling a Package
Disabling a package does not delete it, but hides it from the Customer i.e. they cannot add it to their account. If the package was already added to the Customer’s account before disabling, it will still show up, and services can still be redeemed against it after disabling.
- Click the “Edit” button next to the package you want to disable.
To the top right of the package form is a button labeled “Disable Package”. Click it to disable the package.
- Click “Save Changes” to finish disabling the package.
A disabled service can be enabled by repeating the steps above, the only difference being the button will be labeled “Enable Package”.
Deleting a Package
A package can be deleted by voiding the invoice the package is attached to. Here is our help doc on How To Void An Invoice. This action is not reversible.
If a Package was not invoiced and needs to be deleted, you will need to adjust the package to be invoiced and then void the invoice. This can be done by navigating to the Services/Invoices tab of a client profile and scrolling down to the Packages section. Click "Details" with the non-invoiced package, and there will be an option to invoice the package.
Note: If your client has a partially redeemed package that you want to remove from their account, please follow the steps in our help article that goes over Best Practices For Removing Partially Redeemed Packages
Using Templates with Packages
Our Packages and Template tools aren’t integrated with one another, so there is no way to automate the process of using Templates with Packaged services. However, you can still use a Template to automate the process of scheduling recurring services and then use the “Claim Existing Services” tool to move events into a purchased Package invoice to count them against a Package. The process for claiming services into an invoice is outlined in this help article: Moving Services Between Invoices.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Can I combine package invoices or add other events to a package invoice?
Package invoices can only have one package per invoice. It's not possible to add additional events or additional packages to the same package invoice.
Q: How can I see which clients have purchased a package in a given time?
You can see a list of Packages and the dates they were added in the Packages Renewal Report. You can sort by the date added to see the most recent ones added first. Here is our help doc on this as well: Package Renewal Report
You can also run a report to see the Revenue generated by packages and the total number of packages sold in a specified period of time. This is found in Reporting > Financial:
Q: I voided a package invoice, and now there is an open payment that shouldn’t be there. What should I do?
In this case, the Open Payment was created because the Invoice was voided without first moving the services that were part of the package to a new invoice. Here is our help article that goes over Best Practices For Removing Partially Redeemed Packages. Since the Invoice has already been voided and the services deleted, the easiest way to remove the Open Payment would be to create an invoice with a custom line item with the amount of the open payment, then Apply The Open Payment to that invoice. Alternatively, you could re-schedule the deleted services, mark them as complete, adjust the prices in the invoice to equal the amount of the open payment, then Apply The Open Payment.
Q: How do I give my client 20% off her package?
You can actually add a 20% discount right on the package invoice, and this will take 20% off the package price. To do this, open the invoice the package is on and then scroll down to the "Discount" area. There you can enter 20% and click the checkmark to save the discount:
Q: Is there a way to set legacy rates for a client package and have all new clients pay a new/higher rate?
There is not a way to set custom rates for packages, so there is not a way to set legacy package rates. What you could do is make separate packages for the new and legacy rates, make the legacy package not selectable by clients, and add it to client accounts yourself for the legacy rate clients.
Q: Can a client purchase a package on their own through the portal without having to request services at the same time?
Absolutely! When clients add a Package to their account, they are prompted to request services from the Package, but they can simply leave the request screen and request services later when they're ready.
Q: Is there a report I can run to see what has been scheduled against packages for the next year? I need to know if we have visits approved for next year on packages.
We don't have a report for this, but the Packages Renewal Report can help here by sorting purchased packages by the Date Added so that you can see the most recent packages purchased and when the First Visits on those packages are, which may help to find any that have events scheduled for next year.
Q: We are increasing our rates on the 1st of next year, and packages purchased now are at the old rates. If a client schedules against it for next year, I need the staff member to still be paid based on the old package rate. Is there a way to set that up instead of me having to go in and manually change a staff member's rate every time something is scheduled on a package?
There is no way to automatically "lock in" user pay rates for specific events based on dates of service or package purchase dates. Whatever the user pay rate is within each service (or set as a custom rate) at the time their user invoice is generated is what will be used to calculate their pay for the events within that time period. If they should be paid differently based on when a package or event was purchased, you would have to manually update each event when generating user invoices.
Q: My business offers discounts where clients receive a lower rate when scheduling multiple walks per week. We also offer a discounted rate if they buy a package of walks all at once. Does the app have a feature to keep track of packages?
We have a package feature and also a frequency discounts feature that can be used to give discounts to clients for purchasing a certain number of services. Packages allow you to offer a discount on a set number of services that the client can then book as needed - for example, the client pre-pays for a package of 20 walks. While frequency discounts allow you to offer discounts when the client schedules a certain number of visits or more within a specified time range - for example, booking three or more walks in one week or ten or more walks in one month.
Q: How do I see all packages on the client's Services/Invoices tab on their profile? I only see some.
By default, the Packages List in the "Services/Invoices" tab of a client's profile only shows packages that have not yet been fully redeemed. You would need to change the dropdown to "All" or "Fully Redeemed" to view it in the list.
Q: Is there a way to set an expiration date through Time To Pet on these packages?
There is no way to set packages to expire based on the purchase date automatically. One way to do this would be every time a client purchases a package, set the End Date for that package to 90 days later and then disable the package so no other clients can purchase it and create a new package to replace it for future clients to purchase.
Q: A client just paid for a package but wants to switch to a different package now. Nothing from this new package has been redeemed.
You void the invoice of the package that they don't want to remove the packages from their account. Here is our help article on How To Void An Invoice.
Q: If I "disabled" packages, will my clients who still have packages on their accounts be able to use them?
If you disable packages, clients with existing packages on their accounts will still be able to use them.
Q: I want to delete a package from the package list, not just disable it.
It's not possible to completely delete a package; it's only possible to disable them.
Q: Can I have a package where I mix and match services? For example, 5 Dog Walk events and 5 Boarding events, but I only want them to get 5 events in total.
Unfortunately, it's not going to be possible to create packages where the client can choose to mix and match different services. It is possible to create a package that is a combination of different service types, but you'd have to choose how many of each service type is included in each package as a whole. For example, if there are 5 dog walk services included and 5 boarding events included the client would be able to request 10 services total (5 of each service).