Daycare
Run daily daycare sessions with capacity management, groups, and report cards.
How daycare sessions work
Each daycare day is its own session. A session has a date, a group (optional), and a capacity limit. Patients check in at the start of the day and check out at the end. Multiple sessions can run on the same day (e.g. a morning group and an afternoon group).
Daycare is billed per session, not per night. Rates are set in Settings → Daycare → Rates and applied automatically at checkout.
Booking a session
-
Go to Daycare → + New session
Click Daycare in the sidebar. The session grid shows today's sessions and how many spots remain in each group. Click + Book on the session you want to add a patient to.
-
Select the patient
Search for the patient. Daycare is available to all active patients. If the day (or the group) is already at your configured capacity, the booking is blocked rather than queued. Daycare doesn't have a waitlist the way calendar appointments do, so pick a different day or group.
-
Save
Click Book session. The patient appears on that day's roster. An SMS confirmation is sent to the owner if your clinic has SMS enabled.
Check-in and check-out
At the start of the day, open the Roster tab on the Daycare page and check in each patient as they arrive. At the end of the day, check out each patient. Check-out triggers invoice generation for the session charge.
Capacity management
Daycare capacity works at two levels: an overall daily cap for your clinic, and per-group caps you define as playgroups (by size, temperament, breed, or age band) in Settings → Daycare. With no playgroups defined, the board just groups dogs by size. Whichever limit is hit first blocks new bookings for that day or group. There's no daycare waitlist to queue behind it; that's a calendar-appointment feature, not a daycare one. Booking a recurring series simply skips any day that's already full rather than failing the whole series.
Report cards
Daycare report cards work the same as boarding report cards. From any active session, click + Report card to send a mid-day or end-of-day update to the owner. Include a note, demeanor tags, and a photo or video. Report cards appear in the owner portal and can be shared via a public share link.
| Daycare vs Boarding | Daycare | Boarding |
|---|---|---|
| Duration | Single day | Multi-night |
| Rate type | Per session / per day | Per night |
| Capacity model | Group-based, per-session cap | Kennel-based, one pet per kennel |
| Report cards | Yes | Yes |
| Waitlist | No: a full day/group blocks the booking | No: subject to kennel availability |
FAQ
Yes. Daycare and boarding are separate modules. A patient can have an active boarding stay and also be enrolled in a daycare session (e.g. on a day they're picked up early). Each is billed separately.
Go to Settings → Daycare and add playgroups (e.g. Small dogs, Large dogs, Puppies) with an optional capacity for each. Playgroups appear in the session booking form and on the session grid.
Yes. Select a patient and choose a repeat pattern (a set of weekdays over a date range). Each instance shows up as a separate session and can be cancelled individually. Any day that's already at capacity is skipped automatically rather than blocking the whole series.
No. That's specific to calendar appointments, not daycare. A full day or group simply can't take a new booking until capacity frees up (e.g. a cancellation), so check back or pick a different group/day.