Scheduling for a grooming day, from booking to pickup

Four ways to look at the calendar

• Day. Hour by hour, with a column for each groomer. A phone opens here.
• Week. Seven columns, one per day. A laptop opens here.
• Month. The number of bookings on each day, per groomer, with closed days shaded. Click a day to open it.
• Agenda. The week as a list, each booking with its time, dog, client, service and status.

Closed hours are shaded, and the hours already past today are greyed out so nobody books into them. A filter narrows the calendar to one status, such as confirmed or no-show, and on a Team account to one groomer. Each booking shows the dog, the time, the client, the service and a status badge.

Booking, moving and stretching an appointment

Point at an empty part of a day and a ghost block shows the time, snapped to 15 minutes. Click it and New appointment opens at that time, where you pick the client, the dog and the service, and the length and price come from the dog's breed in your price list.

To move a booking, drag it to another time or day, pressing and holding first on a touchscreen. Drag its bottom edge to change how long it runs. Every drag goes through the same checks as booking by hand, so FurSlot refuses a move into closed hours, onto another booking or into the past. If the time changes, the client gets an email with the new time, and their reminder is set again for it. A small menu on each booking opens it, reschedules it, or copies it into a new appointment.

In the Shop: the dogs here today

In the Shop is the page to keep open during the day. Each dog booked today sits on a card with its time, breed, client, service and price, a call and a text button for the owner, and one large button for the next step:

• Arrived at drop-off.
• On the table once you start.
• Done, ready for pickup at the end. This marks the groom complete and, if you turned pickup texts on, texts the owner that the dog is ready.

Cards split into dogs here now and dogs still to arrive, and a Finished tab holds the ones you are done with. A dog whose time has passed without an arrival gets a Did not show up link that marks the no-show. The calendar shows the same steps as Arrived and In Progress, so anyone looking at it can tell where each dog is.

If appointments from earlier days were never closed, a banner offers to mark them done at the booked price, so Reports and follow-ups count them. Nothing goes out to clients when you do.

Book again before the dog goes home

Every finished dog has a Book next visit button. It opens New appointment with the dog chosen and the date set six weeks out, or the gap you recommended in the visit report, never earlier than today. Each dog's profile has the same link beside its groom history, and the client list tags anyone past 60 days with nothing booked as Overdue, so the clients drifting away are easy to find.

Bookings, the list of every appointment

The Bookings page shows appointments as a table, with tabs for the ones coming up and earlier ones. Search by dog, client or phone, filter by status, and see each booking's deposit and price, plus its groomer on a Team account. Bookings clients made online carry a small online tag, so you can tell them from the ones you added.

Hours, days off and reminders

Each groomer has weekly hours, and the account owner can add whole days off on the Groomers page, which closes those days to new bookings. Your booking page offers only open times, so clients cannot book into a day off.

Each confirmed appointment gets one reminder before it, by text to clients who agreed and by email when you have an address. You set the lead time on the Reminders page, and the page on appointment reminders covers how the timing works. To see bookings in your phone's own calendar, Connections gives you a calendar feed to subscribe to. It only sends bookings out, so make changes in FurSlot.

Taking the balance at pickup

Deposits and no-show fees run through your own Stripe account, and you collect the rest at pickup. If clients pay you by Venmo, Cash App or Zelle, add your details on the Connections page, with the QR code your Zelle app gives you. The appointment page then shows a Get paid card with the balance, Venmo and Cash App buttons with the amount filled in, and your Zelle details and QR code, and the client's booking confirmation lists the same options. These apps do not tell FurSlot when money arrives, so check your app the way you do now.

What scheduling in FurSlot leaves out

• No recurring appointments. Book each next visit with Book next visit.
• No booking two dogs in one appointment. Each dog gets its own booking.
• No two-way sync with Google Calendar. The feed only sends bookings out.
• No blocked time between grooms beyond whole days off. Build cleanup time into your groom lengths.

Scheduling questions from groomers

Can I see every groomer's day side by side?

Yes, on a Team account with up to 5 groomers. The Day view puts each groomer in their own column, the Month view counts each groomer's bookings per day, and a filter shows one groomer at a time.

Can I move an appointment by dragging it?

Yes. Drag a booking to a new time or day, or drag its bottom edge to make it longer or shorter, pressing and holding first on a phone or tablet. FurSlot checks your hours and your other bookings before it saves the move, then emails the client the new time.

Do clients see my calendar?

They see open times only. Your booking page offers the slots that fit your hours, your days off and the length of the groom for their dog's breed, and it shows nothing about who else is booked.

Can I book the next appointment at checkout?

Yes. Every finished dog on In the Shop has a Book next visit button, which opens a new appointment for that dog six weeks out. From a visit report, it uses the number of weeks you recommended instead.