Today we are updating a new release that we have been working on for a while.  We are excited to get some of these new features out!  Thank you to everyone for your feedback and we are continually working on more features everyday!

Blocking a Customer From Messaging You

Previously you were able to block a customer from making a reservation with you.  We have added the ability for you to also block customers from messaging you.  When they are blocked, they will not be alerted that they are blocked, but the "Send Message" icon will be hidden from their home screen which will prevent them from messaging you.  To block a customer from messaging you access the owner card by clicking on the profile icon of the customer.  In the "Info" tab scroll to the bottom and you will see a "Block Message" check box.  Once selected and saved, that will block the customer from sending you messages.

New Staff Permission Settings

We have added a few new staff permission settings.  We added the ability for business owners to restrict their managers from modifying their own timeclock hours.  We have also added the ability to restrict staff from changing anything at checkout.  This will prevent staff from adding discounts that owners would prefer them not to add.  To enable/modify these settings, click "Staffing" then "Members" then "..." next to the staff member you would like to change the settings for and select which permission settings you would like, and then save changes.

New Minimum and Maximum Duration for Groom/Training Hard Start Times

We have added the ability for you to accept certain grooming/training appointments for certain hard start times.  This is particularly useful for groomers who want to take certain services at specific times.  For example "I want to take only small dogs at 930 AM" or "I want to take 4 nail trim appointments at 2 PM".  The set up for this can be complicated based on your businesses' settings.  Please contact Support@pawpartner.com and we can make sure that you are set up according top your preferences!

No Show Reservations Can Now Deduct Package Credits

When you click "No Show" when a customer does not show up for a reservation, a modal window will appear and you are able to deduct a package credit from their package if they have one.

New Package Setting to Only Show to Customers When They Make a Reservation

You are now able to restrict selling packages in the "Packages" icon in your customers "Home" page.  This will only present the package to be purchased when the customer is actually making a reservation.  This is particularly useful for trainers who don't want customers buying group training class packages unless they are making a reservation for the class.  To enable this click "Settings" then click "Pricing" then "Packages" then find the package you want to modify and click "..." then "Modify".  From here if you select "Reservation Create Only", this will enable this restriction and customers will no longer be able to buy this package if they aren't in the process of making a reservation. 

New Facebook and Google Ad Conversion Tracking

We have added the ability for you to add conversion tracking for your Facebook and Google ads.  You will need to have your " Google Analytics ID" and/or your "Meta Pixel ID".  Then go to "Settings" then "Integration" and scroll to the bottom of the screen and input those into the correct area.  This will help you know how many of your ads are successful with these ad companies.  This will embed your ID into your booking link that your customers create accounts on/login to.

Automated Notifications Can be Turned Off

You now have the ability to choose which automated notifications your customers will receive.  If you click "Settings" then "Messaging" you will see options for "Email Options", if you have text messaging enabled "Text Message Options" and if you have our custom branded app "Push Alert Notifications".  Clicking into those tabs you will see sub tabs for all of your automated messages that go out to customers.  You can choose which ones will get sent out to customers by unselecting any that you do not want to be sent out to customers.

Quickly Rename Group Classes After Modifying 1 Class

From time to time, trainers may need to move a class to a different day.  This can make the classes seem out of order if you modify class 2 to a new date at the end of the course.  We have added the ability to quickly reorder the class names to align correctly.  Click "Trainers" then the trainer you are working with, then click "Manage Courses" and click into the course you are working with.  If you have a class that is out of order because you modified one class to a later time you can now select all classes with the check boxes and click "Rename Checked".  This will bring up a modal window with all classes selected.  At the top of the screen you will see a new button that will auto reorder the classes for you.  Once you save changes you will have them back to the correct order.

Cloning a Training Course Will Now Use the Same Repeating Options Keying Off Selected Start Date

When you go to clone a group training class the system will now bring up a new window that will ask you to choose a new start date.  Once selected it will automatically use the same repeating options as the course you are cloning from.  This means if you are cloning a 6 week course, you will be asked a new start date and the system will create a 6 week course with the same parameters as the course you are cloning from (weekly, biweekly etc.).

Moving a Customer From One Group Class to Another

We have added the ability for you to move a customer from one group class to another.  When you click on the "..." next to the group class reservation for a customer you will see "Move Reservation".  You will want to use this if you ONLY want to move one class from the course.  After selecting this you will see a modal window where you can select another class to move it to.  Selecting "Move Here" will send that one class to the new course.

If you want to move ALL of a customers classes from one course to another, click "..." next to one of the customers reservations and select "Switch Course".  This will bring up a list of available courses.  You can select which course with the course selector at the top of the window.  NOTE: if you are switching to another course that has more or less classes than the customer has reservations for in the original course, the system will make the customer have the same number of classes as the course you are switching to.  For example: a customer is in a 6 week class and has already gone to 1 class and you are switching to another 6 week class, the system will automatically add one class so the customer has 6 classes for the new course they are switching to.  You can easily delete any of the classes you are switching to but by default the system will match the customers reservations to the course you are switching to.  NOTE: All packages credits and reservation deposits will be transferred with the customer.  IF the customer has reservation deposits for 6 classes and you move them to a course with only 5 classes, then one classes' deposit will be converted to user credit.  IF you have reservation deposits for 5 classes and you switch a customer to a course with 6 classes in it, the customer will only have 5 reservation deposits and will need to pay one more deposit.

New Cash Change Calculator

Based on many businesses wanting a cash change calculator, we have added that to this release.  When you check out via "Cash" you will see a new modal asking you to input the amount of cash received.  If you input an amount higher than the amount due, it will automatically calculate how much you should return to the customer. If the customer pays with the exact amount due you will just see "$0.00" as change.  Either way pressing "Continue" will complete the checkout.

Update Your Customers Profile Picture

Many of our businesses require their customers to have their profile pictures so they know who to release the pets to.  We have added the ability for you to upload your customer's profile picture for them.  Just click into the owner card to access.  Then in the profile picture you will see "Change Image" where you will be able to upload a picture directly into their profile for your business.

As always we are ever grateful to have the best customers we could ever hope for.  Thank you for all of the feedback that helps us make all of these features possible.  See the "Updates" section in your Paw Partner account to see a full list of the new features released today.  We will continue to work on all of the features you have requested.

If you have any questions or see anything off from today's release please contact us at Support@pawpartner.com

Thank you!

Paw Partner Family

New Staff Notification Settings

With todays release we have created many new triggers for staff to be notified when actions are done in Paw Partner.  To access and set these new notification settings please click "Staffing" -> "Members" -> "..." next to the staff member you want to edit, then click "modify".  From here you can easily select which actions you want the staff member to be notified about.  You can also select how the staff should be notified by email, push notification If your business has our custom branded app, or text if you have our text integration set up.  Note: If you don't have our text integration or our custom branded app then email notification will be the way your staff can be notified. You can also select to notify the staff "only when clocked in" or "Always."  If you have any actions you would like to add please let us know at support@pawpartner.com

Block From Creating Reservations Too Near Or Far From The Start Date

With this new update we have created the ability to stop customers from submitting reservations too close to the reservation start time or too far into the future.  For example you can now stop customers from submitting reservations within 24 hours of the reservation start time, or you can prevent them from making a reservation more than 6 months in the future.  Of course staff can override these settings.  To update these settings you can click "Settings" -> "Services" and find the service you want to add this block for.  Next to that service click "..." then "Modify".  At the bottom of the settings for that service, you will see "Block Creating" and "Allow Creating" as options to select.  If you select your preference and save changes it will now prevent customers from submitting reservations based on your preference.  If you need help modifying your services, we are here to help!  Just reach out to us at support@pawpartner.com

New Future Revenue Forecast Report

We have just released a new future revenue forecast report.  This report will show you your expected total income for a future date range.  This will show the expected revenue based on what is currently reserved with your business. Note that this report does not include deposits, customer credit, or discounts.  To access this report click "Manager" -> "Reports" -> "Sales" -> "Revenue Forecast".  You can select a future date range and it will display your gross revenue based on your reservations.  The default is to "all" service types but you can tab through each service type as well:

Upcoming Release

Thank you to all of our customers who have submitted feature requests to our team.  You can submit any feature request to us at support@pawpartner.com.  We decide our next features to build based off of how many votes a feature gets to build, and the utility of that feature to our broad customer base.  

We have finished building and are testing some great new features that will be released in the coming weeks:

* Requiring saved credit cards on file for making a reservation.

* Requiring a customer to have or buy package credits to reserve a certain service

* Requiring a customer to have or buy a membership to reserve a service.

* Ability for customers who have package credits to bypass having to leave a deposit for a service

* Training updates.

Thank you to all of our amazing customers!

Paw Partner

New Prerequisites Feature!

One of our most requested features has been for prerequisites.  We are very excited to release this new feature!  You are now able to create required services to be completed before a customer is allowed to book a certain service.  This is particularly useful for boarding and daycares that require assessments to be completed or for trainers who would like training courses to be completed before a customer moves onto the next level.

To set new prerequisites, you can do so by clicking "Settings" -> "Services" then click "prerequisites" in the top left corner of the screen.  From there you can create a new prerequisite and select from many options.  Please see this video for how to set up an "Assessment" prerequisite for boarding or daycare:

You can also set up prerequisites for your group classes as a trainer.  Here is a video of how to set up prerequisites for training classes that must be completed before the next level is reserved:

When you set up prerequisites it will limit your desired service from being reserved by them until they have met the requirements.  We do allow staff to override prerequisites, but do label them when the prerequisites have not been met for staff.  Here is a video of what your customers will see when they are booking an assessment with a prerequisite set up:

Many businesses will have groups of customers who they would like to add previously pass requirements and allow them to skip the set up prerequisite.  You are able to update a pet to have "passed" the prerequisite in two ways.  First, you can update them directly in the pet card by clicking the pet picture anywhere in Paw Partner.  In the opened pet card, you can select in the top right options menu the drop down selection of "Prereq config" and this will pull up a window that will allow you to set up a pass for that pet.  The second way for you to add a pet to "bypass" the prerequisite is a new tool.  Click "manager" -> "tools" -> "reservation prerequisites".  In here you can easily search for pets and set up bypasses for them to skip the prerequisite.  See this video on how to do this:

New Optional Feature: Require Vaccines/Agreement/Questions For A Pet To Be Checked In (No Exceptions)

We have also released a new optional requirement for pets to be up to date on Vaccines, Agreements, or Questions to be completed before the pet can be checked in.  To be clear: there are no overrides or exceptions on this feature, so this tool would best be used by businesses who absolutely require these to be complete before the customer can check in.  If the customer is missing these the system will prevent your staff from checking them in until the missing information is inputted.  The default for this is for the requirements to be off so this will only be enabled if you go an enable it.  Just remember if you enable it, the system will fully block staff from checking in a pet if it has missing information.  To enable this feature click "Settings" -> "Business" you will see "require at check in" and you can select which of the check boxes you want to absolutely require before the pet is checked in.  Here is a photo of where to enable this feature:

If this feature is not enabled, Paw Partner will continue working exactly as it was before.  Your staff will be alerted with a modal window asking for them to confirm they want to bypass the alerts that are presented to them.

Upcoming Releases

* Marketing and CRM. We are currently in an open BETA testing of our new email marketing and CRM.  We have had some great feedback from our businesses and are still working on updates as we finalize all of the features.

* Other training roster updates

*Additional reporting updates

We are excited to release some features we have been working on over the past few months.  These updates range in a wide area of the platform and should help with business operations!

Blocking A Pet Owner From Making Reservations

We now have the ability to block pet owners from making reservations.  To do this you can access the "Owner Card" by clicking on the owner icon in the customer browser or within the pet card.  In the "info" tab of the owner card if you scroll to the bottom, you can now select the check box that says "Block Reservations", then click "Save".  Note this this will block the owner from submitting any of their own reservations.  They can still message the business and see past reservations.  Your staff can also override but there are numerous flags and pop up windows warning staff about the owner being blocked.  See this video for how to use this new feature!

Blocking A Pet From Making Reservations 

We also made a new block pet feature similar to the block owner feature above.  This feature is useful if a pet fails an assessment or if you do not want to book a pet for any future reservations but the owner has dogs you want to still be able to make reservations for.  To block a pet from making future reservations, click the pet icon to access the pet card.  Click the "info" tab and scroll to the bottom and check the "Block Reservations" checkbox.  When a customer goes to make a reservation their pet will be grayed out and unelectable for them to make a reservation.  Your staff can override this but will have numerous flags and windows alerting them they are making a reservation for a blocked pet.  See this video for how to use this new feature!

Updates To The Pet And Owner Cards

In both the pet and owner card we have replaced the icons in the top right corner to a drop down select with writing.  This makes it more clear and allows us to add more actions.  In the owner card (accessed by clicking the owner icon) we added "Send Message" in that drop down menu.  This allows you to send messages to the owner in many more places throughout the platform.  In the pet card we added a "Info" tab.  You can now easily update basic pet info directly in the pet card instead of having to click into the pet profile.  This will save a lot of time when making simple updates to the pet.  See this video for how to use this new feature!

Making Multiple Classes At One Time

From some great feedback from our pet trainers we have added the ability to make multiple classes of a course at one time instead of individually.  You can access this by going to the trainer dashboard and clicking "manage courses".  If you click "Add New Start Date".  When entering in your first class information, when you scroll down you will now see "Optional: Create Multiple Class Dates".  When you click this you can enter your repeating options and it will make all of those classes at one time instead of making each individually.  See this video for how to use this new feature!

Cloning A Class And Adding Current Customers To The New Class 

We have added the ability to clone an existing course by clicking the clone icon where the course appears in the "Manage Courses" area of the trainer dashboard.  Now when you clone a course it will show a list of current customers in that course.  You can select some or all of them to add to the new cloned course.  This makes it much faster and easier for classes that are on going and the same customers continue taking the same course.  See this video for how to use this new feature!

Upcoming Release

Along with these new features we have been working on some other big features over the last couple months and they are almost ready.  Here are some of the additional new features we have built and are testing before we get them released out.

• Customer Communication and Marketing.  We are finishing testing this but have an open BETA test.  If you would like us to enable this for you and send you some training on how to use it email us at Support@pawpartner.com and we will enable it for you.
• Pre-requisites for reservations.  The ability to require assessments before booking boarding or daycare.  Also the ability to require completing one training before booking another trianing.
• Training and Roster Updates.  From feedback from some of our great trainers we are working on some updates to make it easier to operate.

As always thank you wall for your continued feedback and support!  If you have any questions about this release feel free to contact us at support@pawpartner.com