Understanding Service Items

Modified on Thu, 19 Dec at 10:11 AM

A Service Item is a description of a service you provide, such as dog walking, pet sitting, daycare, boarding, overnights, dog training classes, etc.

Services are set for a time and date, and are assigned to a staff member. You must have services to populate the Schedule and create Service Orders so you can invoice your clients.

They will also appear in the Client Portal so your clients can select them for online booking if you want them to.

Services aren't always something that is charged for. They can be anything you want to appear in the Schedule, such as a "Meet & Greet" which may not have a charge.

Tip: In Managing Service Items, learn how to add, edit, copy, and delete services. Plus how to make a service inactive.

Once you've set up your services, you will want to add some Price Rules so you can automate and discounts or surcharges you want to apply, for example, on certain public holidays. Also set up some Staff Pay Rules that will automatically calculate the correct level of pay for staff for each service. In addition, you can set Service Items to be pet specific by setting a Service Item Pet Type.

Short and Long Descriptions

Each service needs both a short description and a long description. It is essential that you understand these notes before creating your services.

The Short Description is limited to 20 characters.
It is used internally on ADMIN & Sitter schedules, NOT on quotes or invoices.
Short descriptions appear in Column and Compact Schedule Views. When they are too long, the schedule is cluttered and harder to use. See Column View Entries Explained.
The service Long Description is REQUIRED and is what the client sees on quotes and invoices as well as in the Client Portal Schedule and Service Requests. It also appears in service item drop downs when adding services to orders and on Reports.

Client Price

This is the price that you charge your client.

You can adjust this price for certain clients by applying "Price Rules" which will give them either:
- a surcharge, eg. on public holidays, evenings or weekends.
- a discount, eg. for grandfathered pricing, regular clients, special offers.

Staff Pay

This is the amount you pay your staff member for the service.

You can adjust the staff pay for certain roles which will give them either:
- a higher amount, eg. for senior staff or managers.
- a lower amount, eg. for a junior member of staff.
You can choose to pay a set amount or a percentage of the client charge.

Groups

Set Service Groups before you create Service Items, then code each Service Item to the appropriate Service Group.

Ordering Service Item groups allows you to choose how your services are displayed when a client "Requests Services" in their Client Portal.

In the schedule, you can filter by Service Group. For example if you offer Daycare, Training and Overnights, you can filter your schedule to view just one of those groups at a time and importantly, you can then edit those services or email select clients with just the type of service on the schedule for the dates you are viewing.

Color

Giving services a different color enables you to see them as separate groups within the Schedule. For example, it can be helpful for scheduling admins to see all the "Walking" group services in one color, and all the "Home Visits" in a different contrasting color.

Choose a color from the palette, or enter a hexadecimal color of your choice.

Pet Type

Set pet types for a Service Item that the service applies to.

Example:

30 Minute Dog Walk - Can be configured to apply only to Pet Type of "Dog".

30 Minute Cat Visit - Can be configured to apply only to Pet Type "Cat".

Categorizing your services by one or more Pet Type(s), also allows you to configure your system to enable Clients Requesting Services from within their Client Portal, will only be offered the Services that apply to the types of pet they have registered in their portal. Service Pet Types are also used in conjunction with Vaccination Flags when a client sends in a Service Requests.