Pet Grooming: Pet Card, Log and Appointments¶
The Pet Grooming module (called Tiersalon in German) is made for dog salons and similar businesses that groom animals: every pet has a pet card with the important details and a log that records visits and observations. Appointments are booked for the pet. At the end, the appointment becomes the visit with a report and a checkout – all inside DiKAS, with no second program and no index cards.
How to get the module: It is added to your existing plan. Booking appointments requires the Reservations & Appointments module, see Resources & Booking Calendar.
Activation: Admin → Settings → Operations → tab Operations → section Reservations & bookings → tick Pet grooming (pet card, log) and save. Without a licence the checkbox does not appear.
Feature Overview¶
| Feature | Description |
|---|---|
| Pet card | Name, breed, birthday, sex, weight, coat, chip number, vet, vaccination valid until, allergies, behaviour notes, photo |
| Warnings | Behaviour, allergies and an expired or soon-to-expire vaccination appear as a banner at the top of the pet card, on the appointment tile and when the pet arrives |
| Log | Timeline per pet: visits, notes, notices, vaccinations, photos – with date and author |
| Appointment for a pet | Choose the pet, then service, time, duration and place; the appointment tile shows pet name, breed and service |
| Online booking | Customers enter the pet, preferred day and time on the booking page; the salon adopts the pet with one click |
| Phone call | Find the caller, see their pets and book an appointment for a pet right away |
| Visit day | “Arrived” shows the warnings, “Done & check out” records the visit and opens the till |
Setting Up¶
- Switch on reservations (Admin → Settings → Operations → Operations → section Reservations & bookings) and tick Pet grooming (pet card, log). We also recommend the business type Salon & Studio (terms for bookings): tables are then called “places” and reservations “appointments”, see Resources & Booking Calendar.
- Create the grooming tables as resources (Admin → Resources): each grooming table, the bathtub and the drying room as one resource each. When booking you later choose the place.
- Create services as articles (for example “Bath & blow-dry”, “Full groom”, “Nail trimming”) with a price. Care products such as shampoo are created as normal articles and sold at the till.
- Release online appointments: If customers should book themselves, tick Online buchbar (bookable online) on the resources, see Online appointments.
The Pet Card¶
Pets always belong to a customer. Open the customer under Admin → Customers and choose the Pets tab. Each pet appears as a tile with photo, name, breed, age and – if there is something to watch out for – a warning symbol.
Add pet adds another pet. Only the name is required; the remaining fields are under More details. The more the card contains, the more useful it is later. Clicking a tile opens the pet card, Edit changes the details. The photo is taken with the camera symbol on the picture or chosen from a file.
The warning banner sits at the top of the pet card. It shows one line per notice:
- Behaviour – for example “Bites at paws – treat with muzzle only”
- Allergy / medication
- Vaccination expired on … or Vaccination expires on … (30 days in advance)
Next to it you find the Next appointment, the date of the last visit and the Profile. Book appointment creates an appointment for this pet directly.
In the Status field of the pet card (Edit) a pet can be set to Inactive or Deceased. It can then no longer be booked, but its history stays readable.
Always fill in behaviour notes
The notes appear when the dog arrives and on the appointment tile. A substitute immediately sees what to watch out for.
The Log¶
Below the warning banner is the pet’s timeline, newest entries first. The filters (All, Visit, Note, Notice, Photo, System) narrow it down.
An entry is created in two ways:
- By hand: choose the type (Note, Notice or Vaccination), type the text into the field “Note about name …” and save with Enter (Shift+Enter starts a new line). The camera symbol attaches a photo, for example before and after. JPEG, PNG, GIF and WebP up to 10 MB are allowed.
- Automatically: DiKAS makes entries itself when an appointment is booked, moved or cancelled, when someone does not show up, a dog arrives, a visit is completed or an invoice is created. For a completed visit, duration, cut length and blade are part of the entry if they were recorded.
Entries cannot be changed. They can be neither edited nor deleted. A mistake is put right with a new note; the original entry stays. That keeps it traceable what was said and done when – for example if a dog has an injury after the appointment.
Internal: Entries saved with the internal checkbox (lock symbol) can only be seen by users with the administrator role, for example for remarks about payment behaviour.
Booking an Appointment for a Pet¶
At the till or in the back office¶
- Open the pet card and choose Book appointment – customer and pet are already filled in. Alternatively, go to Appointments at the till, click New appointment, find the customer and tap the pet.
- Set Service, Date, Time and Duration. Where a duration is known for the service, a suggestion appears below (“Suggested: 60 min”); you can overwrite it.
- Choose the place, for example a grooming table or the bathtub, and Save.
In the schedule, list and calendar the appointment tile shows pet name, breed, service and the warning symbol. An appointment can be moved or extended like any booking.
An appointment can only be booked for a pet of the same customer. Deceased and inactive pets are shown disabled (“deceased – cannot be booked”). An appointment always covers one pet; if a family brings two dogs, two appointments are booked.
Online Booking by Customers¶
On the salon’s booking page (called Book a grooming appointment in the Salon & Studio business type) customers need no account. They enter in four steps:
- Your pet – only the name is required; breed, weight and “Good to know” (behaviour, allergies) are optional,
- the day,
- the time,
- the contact details (name, e-mail, phone, remark).
The appointment is then pending; the salon confirms it and the customer receives an e-mail. Customers never see existing pets on the booking page – they type in the details themselves each time.
Adopting the Pet¶
In the appointment list an online request carries the label Pet details from guest. Two ways lead to the pet card:
- Adopt & confirm (button in the list): creates the pet for the customer and confirms the appointment in one click. The confirmation e-mail names the dog.
- Adopt pet (in the opened appointment): creates the pet but does not confirm anything by itself.
If the appointment does not belong to a customer yet, it is assigned to a customer with the same e-mail address or phone number – otherwise DiKAS creates one from the appointment details, or you pick the customer by hand. Only after adopting is there a pet card and log for this dog; before that, “Arrived” says: “First ‘Adopt pet’, then ‘Arrived’.” Adopting requires the permission Edit customers.
Phone Call: Customer, Pet, Appointment¶
When a customer calls, the telephone symbol with magnifier at the top of the till (“Find caller”) searches for the customer by phone number or name. The result shows the address and all active pets of the caller, each with a Appointment for … button; with two pets there is also Appointment for both – after saving the first appointment the form offers Next: appointment for … for the second pet. Customer card opens the master data. Several customers with the same number are offered for selection. For an unknown number, New customer creates the customer with the phone number prefilled – then add the pet and book the appointment right away.
If caller recognition is set up (see Hardware), the same selection appears as soon as a call comes in.
The Visit Day¶
- When the pet arrives, tap Arrived in the appointment list. The window “Name has arrived” shows the dog’s warnings – or “No warnings for name” – and offers a quick note (Enter saves). Later closes the window, Continue to “Done” goes straight to the wrap-up.
- During grooming, record notes and photos in the log as needed.
- At the end choose Done …. In the window “Name is done” you can adjust the services and record cut length (mm), blade, a report and a photo. The total is at the bottom.
- Done & check out creates the log entry Visit, completes the appointment and opens the till with the services. A paid deposit is credited as balance. Further articles such as shampoo can be added at the till before paying.
Completing takes effect once: a second click creates no second entry and no second booking. “Done” requires the permission Edit customers.
Data Protection¶
Pet card and log are part of the customer data.
- When a customer is deleted, their pets are anonymised: the name becomes “[gelöscht]”, behaviour and health details are emptied, the log texts and visit reports are made unreadable and the photos are deleted. Timestamps are kept. Invoices are not affected; they must be retained.
- Log entries marked “internal” can only be seen by administrators.
Frequently Asked Questions¶
Can I change or delete a log entry? No. Write a new note; the old entry stays.
The dog has died – what happens to the card? Set the pet to Deceased in the pet card (Edit). It can no longer be booked, the card stays readable.
The “Pets” tab is missing on the customer. The module must be licensed and the checkbox Pet grooming (pet card, log) must be ticked in the operations settings.
Why can’t I book an appointment for this pet? The pet is inactive or deceased, or it belongs to another customer.
Where do I see that a vaccination is about to expire? In the warning banner of the pet card and as a warning symbol on the tile and the appointment. The date is in the profile.
“Arrived” shows “First adopt pet”. The appointment comes from online booking and has no pet card yet. First Adopt pet or Adopt & confirm, then Arrived.
How do I book an appointment for two dogs? It takes two appointments. The quickest way is Find caller and Appointment for both: after saving the first appointment, DiKAS offers Next: appointment for ….