Booking for one van, run from your phone

What a one-van day looks like in FurSlot

Clients open your booking link, pick the breed and service, and see the time and price before they choose a slot. They pay your deposit by card into your own Stripe account, and the card stays on file for a no-show fee. A reminder goes out by text or email before each appointment, with a link to move or cancel it.

On a phone the calendar opens on today, and between houses you can:

• Mark a groom complete and enter the final price, if the coat was worse than booked.
• Mark a no-show when the client is not home, and choose to charge the fee or let it go.
• Move a booking when a client calls to push it back. They get an email with the new time.
• Add a walk-in, like the neighbor who flagged you down, with the price shown as you type the breed.
• Check the dog's notes, allergies and last cut before you knock.

Everything works from the phone

FurSlot's pages resize to fit the screen, so you get the same pages on a phone as on a laptop, and nothing is desktop-only. A bar along the bottom holds Home, Calendar, Clients and Settings, and a More menu holds the rest: your breed price list, your booking page, reports and client import.

The calendar opens on the day view on a phone, because seven columns will not fit. Lists such as your clients turn into stacked cards instead of a table you scroll sideways, and a dog's photo taken with the phone camera saves onto its profile. It all runs in your phone's web browser, so there is nothing to install.

Deposits matter more when you drive to them

A no-show at a salon costs you an empty table, and on a house call it also costs you the drive there and on to the next one.

• A flat deposit you set. The client pays it when they book online, through your own Stripe account, and it counts toward the groom. FurSlot takes no percentage.
• A no-show fee you set. Each time you mark a no-show, FurSlot asks you whether to charge it. You can also tell FurSlot to charge a particular client without asking, or never to charge them.
• A cancellation window you set. A client who cancels before the window pays no fee, and inside it the fee is your call.
• Refunds from the phone. If you are the one who cancels, a flat tire or a sick day, refund the deposit from the booking in a tap.

Read more in deposits and no-show fees, keeping a card on file and your own Stripe account.

Setting a travel radius

If you sign up as a mobile van, or as more than one kind of business, setup asks how far you travel, in miles. For now FurSlot only saves that number. It does not check any address against it, and the booking page does not ask clients for an address at all.

Get the address the way you do now, and put it in the dog's notes with the gate code and where to park.

What a van groomer won't find in FurSlot

• No route planning. FurSlot won't put your stops in order or work out drive time or miles between houses.
• No gaps for driving. You get no buffer between appointments, so to leave road time between dogs, add it to the groom times in your breed price list.
• No client addresses at booking. The booking page does not ask for a street address, and nothing checks a client against your radius.
• No multi-van scheduling. One groomer profile has one calendar and one dog at a time. The Team plan gives up to 5 groomers their own calendars and booking pages, but there is no shared calendar and no way to assign a booking to a van.
• Nothing to download. There is no FurSlot app for iPhone or Android; the browser on your phone is all it needs.
• No card reader or tap to pay. FurSlot does not charge the balance at the end of the groom, so you collect the rest the way you do now.
• No on-the-way message. Clients get a reminder before the appointment, not a text when you set off.

FurSlot suits the groomer with one van who plans the route in their head. If you run several vans and need dispatch, a routing product will serve you better, and the comparison page is a fair place to start.

Running a van on FurSlot

Does it plan my route for me?

No. FurSlot does not order your stops, work out drive time or show miles between houses, and the booking page does not collect addresses. It books one dog at a time into the hours you set. If you want travel time between appointments, add it to the groom times in your breed price list.

Is there an app for my phone?

There is no app to download, for iPhone or Android. FurSlot is a website built to work on a phone: the calendar opens on today, lists turn into cards, and a bar along the bottom holds Home, Calendar, Clients and Settings. Open it in your phone's browser and add it to your home screen if you want an icon.

Can I take a card in the van?

Only through the booking page. A client who books online pays the deposit you set by card, through your own Stripe account, and the card stays on file for a no-show fee. FurSlot has no card reader or tap to pay and does not charge the balance when you finish, so collect the rest the way you do now. Walk-ins you add yourself carry no card and no deposit.

Can I charge more for a house call than a shop groom?

Not as a separate charge. FurSlot prices by breed and service, with no travel fee or house call line on top. If all your work is house calls, set your breed prices at your mobile rates, since you can edit any price in the list. If you do both, the same breed and service cost the same, though you can change the final price when you mark a groom complete.