Power Pet Sitter offers many features and options to help customize your experience and the experience of your clients and staff. This Overview will detail everything a business owner will see and will be able to do throughout the system.
You can find a downloadable Word docx copy of this manual here:
Brief System Overview for Admins – Video Demo going over what is listed here.
Other helpful links include:
How to Schedule an appointment
Creating your free 10 day trial
To create a free ten day trial, CLICK HERE . You will be prompted to enter your email address – this will send a confirmation email to that address. Clicking on the provided ‘Confirm Email Address’ button will redirect you to finish entering basic Company information.
Your email address will be your Username for the software!
You can use your company email address, or your personal email address, but whichever one is initially used to register will be your Username.
Once you have filled in and made all the field selections, you will be redirected to your Login page and asked to login.
Logging in for the first time
When you have finished the registration process, you will get a second email, confirming your Company name and personalized URL.
To get started, please set up your business. Our Getting Started with PPS Guide can be found following the link.
You will find all the pages available to you by clicking your name in the upper right hand corner. This will open a menu list for you.
Changing your Role and View
If you are both an Administrator and a sitter, or a sitter who is also a manager in a business, you will see a drop down box under your name on the upper right-hand side. This will let you toggle between your view and action flow as a sitter, and that of an Admin or Manager. Your login will default to your highest role set.
You can find our Sitter Guide to Power Pet Sitter here.
Using PPS as an Administrator
Landing Page
When you first login, you will see your ‘Landing page’. This is your ‘Appointments‘ page. This page will display all ‘Pending’ appointments by default, as well as all ‘Approved’ appointments, if they have not completed all 3 actions. The three actions needed for an approved appointment are as follows:
- Sitters are assigned to all visits
- Payment has been collected (Appointment must be approved to be charged or marked as paid)
- Emails have been sent out or marked as sent out.
As each of these actions are completed, their tiles will change color with a gold check to indicate this action has been completed.
Once all 3 tasks are completed, the appointment will fall off the default view. Find fully managed appointments by using your Search Filter, provided on the right hand side.
Business Settings
The Business Settings control all the optional functions and features that Power Pet Sitter offers, except your payment gateway and Quickbooks Online Connections. You will have seen most of this while setting up, but we will go over each option in detail.
To complete your business profile
Information such as your Company name, business email address, time zone and phone number will be displayed from your sign up form, but you can also add:
- Business Website – This puts your website information onto the footer of any business email, as well as on your login page, under your location information.
- Physical Address – This is shown in the footer of any business email as well as on your login page.
- Company Logo – Recommended size for Company Logo: 512×256 is the smallest size we recommend for logos, and for best image quality, you can go up to 768×384.
- Company Tagline – This will show on your login page, under your Company Logo.
- Email Tag – Upload an image to include in emails sent by the system for your business. If you would like the image to redirect to another website, provide the desired destination URL.
- Social Media Links – Information here will populate behind the platform appropriate icon on your login page, so you can connect with your clients via social media. Options provided are: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn
Coverage Area
Gone is the days of Zip code-based checks as so many businesses spread out to cover unique areas. Power Pet Sitter now provides you a ‘base’ zip code and the mile radius that your business functions within. Simply hit ‘Edit’ to edit and expand your coverage area. This feature will be tying into our Sitter Search, for our Pet Sitting Network to better help Independent Contractors find businesses that may be looking to hire more sitters!
(Coming soon!)
Time Blocks & Scheduling Restrictions
When your clients schedule, they will be scheduling in blocks of time, though they can request a preferred time of service within that block if needed. You will set your time blocks up here.
To create a new time block, click ‘Add New Time Block’. This will allow you to set a Time Block name, start time and end time.
To update a Time Block, click the stacked dot icon and select ‘Edit’.
You will only be allowed to delete a time block if no appointment has used it, either historically or currently. Please inactive used time blocks.
You will be able to freely inactivate time blocks without it affecting current appointments, if you don’t want to provide that timeblock for selection going forward.
Scheduling Restrictions
This area will control how soon clients can schedule appointments, how many hours are required before they can cancel appointments or visits, and how many days in the future a client can schedule.
If an appointment has already started, the client will not be able to cancel the whole appointment, but may go into their details and cancel visits in accordance with the rules set here.
Businesses can now allow same day scheduling with a cut off time custom to your set timezone. Select (1) minimum days required before start date to set how late in the day users can schedule that same day appointment.
To allow your clients to schedule same day services with no cut off time, set the Minimum days to 0. Clients will be allowed to schedule same day services with no restrictions.
Services and Pricing
This page is where you will create, customize and reorder your services and their add-ons. This is also where you will set what percentage of tax you want to collect on services, if any. If you opt to not charge tax, no tax line will be shown on emails or in the scheduling portion of the software.
You can reorder your created services by dragging and dropping the grid like icon on the left.
Descriptions will be show via hover text on the yellow/gold question mark beside the Service name. Click the tile to expand it and click the stacked dot menu icon to select ‘Edit’ to see all the options you had before!
Options provided for Services & add-ons are:
- Service Name (*required)
- Service Description (*required)
- Price (*required)
- Additional Pet Price
- Time blocks it applies to (*required)
- Minimum Service time
- ‘Is this service Pet Specific’
- ‘Are discounts allowed’
- ‘Is there a Holiday& Weekend Surcharge’
- ‘Is this service Private’
- ‘Is this service taxable’
- ‘Is this service Active’
Creating an Add-on
Open the service you want to create the add-on and click on the stacked dot icon. This will provide you with two options: Edit the Primary Service or ‘Add a New Add-on’.
This will allow you to set the terms and values of your add-ons, as detailed above, the same as setting up a primary service. Once you hit ‘save’, you will see it populate inside your Service Tile.
Pet Types
The pets that are set up here are the options that are provided in the Pet’s profile for Pet Type selection. You will see that we have already created ‘Cat’ and ‘Dog’ for you – You may edit, delete or use these as you like.
To add a new Pet type, click ‘Add New Pet Type’ in the upper right-hand.
Client and Pet Questions
You are able to set up custom questions that will show in your client’s profile or their pet’s profile, respectively. Setting either up will be the same process. Start by clicking the ‘Add New Question’ button.
Simply enter your question, decide if you want to require an answer, if this answer will require elaboration, and the type of answer style you want to provide. Then you can decide the display order that will be shown in the Client and Pet’s profile.
Business Policies
The Business Policies page will allow you to enter custom text for a few areas of the software, as well as allow you to put additional policy information, such as cancellation policies and your general Registration Policy Agreement.
Appointment Creation: This message will be viewable when a user while they are creating an appointment. You can find the text after clicking ‘View Business Policy’ in the Appointment creation page.
Appointment Review: This text will show on the Checkout Summary, after clicking ‘business policy’
Appointment Cancellation/Confirmation email: The text here will show on the appropriate email, underneath the appointment information. If you have set an Email tag, that image will display under this text.
Too Late to Cancel: Enter Text for a custom response when a client tries to cancel a visit or appointment without enough notice. Without text added, users will see this: This appointment cannot be cancelled. Please contact us if you have questions or need further assistance.
Registration Policy Agreement: This is where you will put the Business Policy agreement, and also where you will indicate if you want to require clients to agree to it before being allowed to join your business.
Login Instructions: This text shows under ‘Login instructions’ on your login page!
Surcharges
Power Pet Sitter allows you to set up surcharges that are automatically applied to services that allow for a surcharge to be applied.
Weekend Charges: The indicator is a quick way to see if the Weekend charge is active or not, for either day. You can edit the active flag, or surcharge charge total by clicking the stacked dot menu and selecting Edit. Set your amount, if it allows a discount, and if it is an active surcharge.
By default, only Active holiday dates will show. You can add a new holiday by clicking ‘Add New Holiday’. Set up is simple:
- Title your Holiday
- Enter its date
- Select the amount you want to charge
- Select if it allows a discount to be applied to the surcharge.
Any Holidays you no longer need, you can mark as inactive via the same dot icon. Once inactivated, they can be reactivated by the same action in the stacked dot icon menu.
Preferences
Power Pet Sitter provides various options for notifications and features. These will control what kind of notifications you receive, whether Chat or Check in is enabled, as well as if the software sends out a receipt to your client when you charge them.
Email Notifications:
Notify when visits are not checked in by end of time block – This will send out an email notification to the Admin and Sitter when a visit is not checked in by the end of a time block.
Notify when visits are not completed by end of time block – This will send out an email notification to the Admin and Sitter when a visit is not completed by the end of a time block.
Notify when visits have no met minimum service time – This will send out an email notification to the Admin when a visit has not met the minimum service time set in the Service.
Email Preferences:
Days included in nightly schedule – This will determine how many days’ worth of visits are populated into a Sitter’s night schedule, emailed directly to them. Admin’s will still receive a 7-day schedule.
Email Credit Card receipts to Clients – This setting will determine if the system automatically sends out an email to the Client letting them know that they have been charged and for how much. This will include Credit balances applied to totals, so Clients can see when a credit is consumed.
Show rate of pay in sitter confirmation emails – This setting will determine what your Staff members see on their confirmation Email. If you’re a larger business that does not want your Staff to see the rate you’re charging the client, select this setting. If selected, the Staff member will see what they are being paid for the visits instead.
Email Completed Visits to Clients – When using our Check-in/Check-out feature, you can control if the system sends a ‘Your Visit has been Completed’ email to the Client. This email will include GPS information, if it’s collected. Set this to NO if you don’t want that email to be automatically generated.
General:
Show Register Link – Determines if you show a register link on your login page.
Enable Check-in – This determines if your sitters see and can ‘Check in’ to a visit. If not selected, Sitters will be able to ‘Mark Complete’ instead. Emails will only be sent to the client when the visit is checked in and completed.
If check in is enabled, Sitters must check in before they can check out!
Enable GPS Tracking for visit check in and check out – Determines if PPS asks the user for permission and collects their GPS location data. This works on computer browsers as well as mobile devices. The email generated to the Client will show the GPS and timestamp information for these actions.
Enable Chat Messaging – This determines if your sitters can chat with their clients and be chatted with in return.
System Notifications
Power Pet Sitter now offers System Notifications to show to Sitters or Clients as chosen, with your custom message for whatever date range you would like. This can be used to remind Clients to schedule for upcoming Holidays, to remind Sitters to turn in their Service Summary Report, or any other type of message you’d like!
- Select your User Group – Sitters or Clients
- Set the start date the message should display
- Set the end date that the message will stop displaying
- Enter the message you want to display. 200 character limit
User Profile
The User Profile is your personal Admin profile and will echo in the User Management page. If you also work as a sitter, you will be able to update additional information into your Sitter Profile by changing your view via the Role Dropdown provided under your name in the upper right hand corner.
This is also where you will update your username, which is your email address, and your password, if needed.
To Change or Add a role to your Profile, use Business Settings. This page allows you to adjust your Sitter Type from Employee to Vendor, add or adjust roles through the system, or adjust your start date.
Accounts And Connections
This page will hold your Power Pet Sitter Account information, your Authorize.net information, if any, your QBO connection if selected.
Subscriptions and Billing
The first page you see will detail what your currently selected package is, and it’s base cost. If you need to upgrade or downgrade your package, this is where you will do it. Power Pet Sitter also offers a la carte sitters, or Sitters on the Side, that you can purchase for $14 a profile, limit of two.
Selecting a new package and clicking ‘Use’ or by clicking ‘Billing’ will take you to a payments page where you can confirm your package and enter your credit card information.
Upgrading or downgrading your package will automatically prompt our billing system to credit back any remainder of your previous payment and apply it to your new package total, updating your billing date to the date of change. Packages do not overlap
Payment History
This page will let you see the statements of billing, directly from our billing processor Chargify.
If you have any questions about your billing with Power Pet Sitter, please reach out to us at info@powerpetsitter.com.
Payment Integrations
This page controls and holds your Authorize.net and Quickbooks Online connections.
Simply enter the connection information supplied to you by Authorize.net and hit save.
QuickBooks Online Connection
If you would like the Power Pet Sitter Software to move Client information, Staff information, invoices and payment instances into Quickbooks for you, please reach out to us at info@powerpetsitter.com to be connected. Find our connection information here.
Once you’re connected, your menu will also hold a ‘QBO Transaction’ option. This page is where all invoices, vendor bill, payment and client/staff profile updates move through on their way to your QBO account.
User Management
The User Management page will be the most important for your navigation around Client and Staff information in the software. It is where all your client and sitter profiles live, with all the options provided there for each profile type. Just like the landing page, this page has a search filter on the right hand side, found under the Search Filter Icon.
You can opt to filter by User Role, User Status and Name. Use ‘Clear Filters’ to return to a default, show all state. You will be able to easily identify roles via these icons:
Each of the two basic role types will have different options under the stacked dot icon.
How to Add a Client manually
You will be able to manually create a client profile if, for some reason, the client is unable to register themselves. To create a client profile, simply click the ‘Add Client’ button found on your User Management page.
This will open a window on your screen where you can input the client’s information. The system will do a check based on email – you are not allowed to have duplicate email addresses on file. If the email address in question has already been used, you will see an error saying as much.
Client profiles that are created by the business will indicate that the email on file has not been validated. To send validation, either the Admin or the Client themselves, can edit the client profile and click the provided blue text to send a new verification email to the address on file.
Options/Actions provided under stack dot icon for Clients
- Add Appointment – This is where you will click if you want to add an appointment for a Client. You will be redirected into an empty Appointment upon clicking.
- View Profile – This allows you to see the client’s profile information, including:
- name
- email address
- phone number
- home address
- time zone
- Account balance – Now viewable by the client
- Active status
- Client notes and Admin notes
- Residential Codes
- additional information
- Emergency contacts
- Client Questions
- Staff Assignments
- Service Rates – You can set Client’s with a Custom rate if they are going to be charged more or less than the default Service Price, specific to every service and addon. If you are not charging your clients a different amount than what is set at default, you do not need to put anything in these fields.
- View Pets – This takes you to a Client’s Pet page. Inactive pets are shown in a dark grey. Clicking on a Pet will open that Pet’s information. You can now independently track vaccinations, as well as multiple medications.
- Key Audit – This page allows you to see, update and add a new Key Entry. This page does not connect to Resident Access codes but does connect to the Key Audit of the same name in the Reports tab. This is where you will add keys and track their ‘ownership’ as they are moved through Sitters and service is supplied.
- Payment Info – This allows you to see any payment options on file. Credit Card information is securely encrypted according to PCI compliance laws. Power Pet Sitter does not hold this card information – we transfer it to Authorize.net and function using connected secure ‘tokens’ to charge the connected card
Once entered, you will only be able to update the billing address connected with a card. If the card was entered incorrectly, please delete it and re-enter it.
Options/Actions provided in the stacked dot menu icon for Sitters
While approved Sitters will share the same icon as Clients, Sitters that are pending your approval will display with this icon:
Pending sitters can only update their own information and upload a picture when in a pending state – you will not be able to assign them until they are an Active Sitter.
- View Profile – This is where you will view the Sitter’s information, including:
- Picture
- Name
- Display name
- Email address
- Tag line
- Phone Number
- Address
- Time zone
- Coverage area
- Exception hours
- Ratings and Reviews
- Business Settings – This tab will allow you to add Admin notes, adjust their start date, Roles, Sitter type, as well as their status. This is where you will approve a sitter application by setting them as ACTIVE or rejecting a Sitter Applicant by setting them as ‘Rejected’. Once a sitter is Rejected, they must register again to be displayed. Sitters that have been rejected from your staff list will be sent an email letting them know that you have declined their help or contract.
- Service Rates – This page allows you to set your sitters with their rates of pay. All rates of pay and the dollar/percent selections will have been migrated over with your other business information. Sitters that are not set with a rate for a service will not show on the Assign Sitter page for selection. This will allow you to more easily see which sitters are available to do a specific service.
- Appointments – This will show you all the visits that a Sitter has assigned to them and allow you to mark visits off as complete on their behalf. You can further narrow down this list with the search function to the right. Filter by date, Client name, Appointment ID, or status. You will also be able to read their chat messages, though you will not be able to chat with the Client yourself.
Time Block Overbooking – We know that Sitters cannot do more visits than a time block allows for, so this will let you set how many visits a Sitter can be scheduled in a time block per day before you are notified that they are overbooked.
If set to 0, the system will not display a message when a sitter is assigned to the given time block.
Recurring Appointments
You or your Clients may choose to schedule a recurring appointment. Recurring appointments happen on a weeklong scale. Once the initial schedule is made, Recurring appointments will display in this page.
To schedule a new instance, simply click the stacked dot icon and select ‘Schedule.’ These appointments will continue to be there to populate until you come into this page and cancel the recurring appointment.
The software will automatically schedule recurring appointments at 9 AM 3 days before their start dates if unscheduled at that time. 3 day count starts and includes the current day.
If you want an appointment to span a month, simply create three additional instances to go with the first appointment and merge them!
Reports
Follow the provided link for more details on all the reporting PPS offers.