Grooming waivers your clients sign on their phone

Writing an agreement in your own words

An agreement has a name, the text the client agrees to, and up to 20 questions. You can add a note to yourself about when you use it, such as doodles that come in matted, and each question is one of six kinds:

• Checkbox, for a line the client ticks to accept.
• Short answer, for a phone number or the name of their vet.
• Long answer, for health history or what makes grooming hard for the dog.
• Multiple choice, with two to ten options, such as how much an emergency vet may spend.
• Date, for the last rabies shot.
• Initials, for the lines you want the client to slow down and read.

You can mark any question as one the client must answer. Every agreement ends the same way: the client types their full name and ticks a box saying they have read it and agree, and that typed name is the signature.

Two switches sit under each agreement. One, labelled New clients sign this, makes it required, so a client who has not signed it shows it as owed on their page. The other turns the agreement off, which takes it out of signing links and leaves the signed copies alone.

Six starter agreements to edit

If you would rather not start from a blank page, FurSlot has six plain-language starters written for grooming shops. Adding one puts your shop's name into the text and makes it your own copy, so you can change any word, question or setting afterwards.

• Grooming consent and handling release. How you handle the dog, the small nicks that can happen even with care, when you stop a groom, and what the shop is responsible for.
• Health, age and behavior form. Conditions, medicines, age, bite history and the last rabies shot.
• Matted coat and shave-down consent. Why a matted coat may need a short shave, with a choice of shaving right away, calling first, or calling and waiting.
• Emergency vet authorization. A vet spending limit the client picks, their regular vet and a backup contact.
• Booking, deposit and no-show agreement. Your deposit, the free-cancel cut-off and the late cancel or no-show fee.
• Photo and social media permission. Whether you may post the dog's photos, with or without its name.

Four of the six come set for every new client. The matted coat and photo forms are meant for when they apply, and you can switch any of them either way.

How a client signs

Each client has one private link holding every agreement they still owe you. Open the client's page and send it one of three ways:

• Email link. FurSlot emails it for your shop, at most once a minute, while something is still waiting.
• Text link. This opens a message on your own phone with the link written in, so it goes from your number and uses none of your plan's texts.
• Copy link. For anywhere else, such as a chat you already have going with the client.

The link opens in the client's phone browser with your shop's name at the top, and asks for no login and no app. They read each agreement, answer its questions, type their name and press Sign. A client with nothing left to sign sees that they are all set, with a button to book.

Signed copies keep the wording the client saw

Editing the text or the questions of an agreement saves it as a new version. Clients who signed the old version keep exactly the wording they read, and their page marks the agreement as changed and ready to sign again. If you edit while a client has the page open, FurSlot stops them signing the old text and asks them to reload.

On the client's page, each signed copy opens to show the full text, every answer, the typed name, the date and time, and the version number. The database refuses any later change to a signed copy, and deleting an agreement leaves the signed copies in place.

A starting point, not legal advice

The starter agreements are not legal advice. Rules on waivers, releases and electronic signatures differ from state to state, and FurSlot cannot tell you what yours allow or how a court would read a signed form. Have a local attorney check your agreements against your state's rules before you send them to clients, and change the starters to match what they tell you.

What Agreements leave out

• No drawn signature. The client signs by typing their name and ticking the box.
• No automatic send after a booking. FurSlot shows who owes a signature, and you send the link from the client's page.
• No PDF of a signed copy. You read it on the client's page.
• No signed copies in the Download my data files in Settings. Ask through the contact page if you need them exported.
• Only the account owner writes and edits agreements. Groomer profiles on a Team account work from the same list.

Signatures, versions and your own wording

Is a typed name a real signature?

FurSlot records a signature as the typed full name plus a ticked box saying the client read the agreement and agrees, saved with the date, time, version and exact wording. Electronic signature rules are set by your state, so ask a local attorney how far a typed signature carries for your shop.

Can I use my own waiver instead of the starters?

Yes. Paste the wording you hand clients on paper today into a new agreement, add the questions you ask, and switch on New clients sign this if everyone should sign it. The starters are optional, and one you add becomes yours to rewrite.

What happens to signed copies if I change the waiver?

They stay as they were. Changing the text or questions starts a new version, and each signed copy keeps the version and wording that client read. The client page marks the agreement as changed, and the next link you send asks for a signature on the new version.

Can clients sign before their first appointment?

Yes, and that is what the link is for. Send it from the client page as soon as the client is in FurSlot, by email, by a text from your phone, or by copying it. It opens on their phone with no account to create, and their page shows the signing date once they finish.