We have made some substantial styling improvements to the Staff Dashboard and Staff Activity Report, plus onboarding new clients is becoming easier all the time as we extend and enhance the capabilities of the New Client Registration process.
There are also some additional exciting new features and bug fixes.
Restyled and improved Staff Dashboard
In this release, the staff dashboard has been much improved so it now reflects Version 7 in its look and feel. Another icon has been introduced to the bottom of the dashboard screen which now connects you directly with the client schedule, removing the need to use the menu navigation to get there.
NEW! Extra features in the Staff Activity Report
The staff activity report has been much improved so it now reflects version 7 in its look and feel. Additional functionality means you can do far more without having to leave the staff activity report.
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- Clicking on a service item in the staff activity report will drill down into the service, meaning an Admin can clear check-in and check-out times, edit the service, reschedule items, etc. The big benefit is that administrators can now do far more in the staff activity report without the need to leave the program and use the schedule.
- By clicking an item listed in the staff activity report, an Admin can drill into the staff view of the service itself (as if you were in the staff dashboard). This is useful if you want to see the staff perspective of the data.
Merging Staff Dashboard & Monitor settings
- Staff Dashboard and Staff Monitor Settings have now been merged into a single "settings" page which is more intuitive. See Admin > Settings > Staff Dashboard & Monitor.
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- When you switch “Check in / Check out” ON and OFF, it is now more obvious which settings are affected by this.
- "Show Timecard Export" - Especially useful for staff paid hourly. There is a new setting “Show Timecard Export” which now optionally shows the timecard export on the Staff Dashboard. This provides essential information for anyone who has “hourly” staff that need access to their own hourly pay information.
Improvements to the New Client Registration process
The onboarding process has been significantly improved to control how you allow new clients to register themselves in your system.
Note:
This process is NOT used for clients that you have already created a client account for, although when these "existing" clients log into the Portal they will still have to complete any "required" fields before they can progress to requesting services.
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There are three possibilities when it comes to managing your new client registration business process:
- Scenario 1: I do not want my clients to be able to register online (at all!).
- Scenario 2: I want to invite certain clients to register online but only if I invite them (register by invitation).
- Scenario 3: I want anyone to be able to register online (even if, as a business, we know nothing about them).
Pet Sitter Plus now caters for all three of these scenarios.
- Scenario 1: I do not want my clients to be able to register online. Simply go to Admin > Settings > Client Portal Settings > Registration and set "Allow new Client Registration" to OFF. No one will be able to register for service with your pet sitting business online, even if they are sent a link to the process via email.
- Scenario 2: I want to invite certain clients to register online but only if I invite them first (register by invitation). Maybe you want to prevent new clients from registering online until you have had a chance to find out more about their requirements. You might want to invite certain clients to register for service after you have vetted them and after you have agreed to take them on (ie register by Invitation). To set this up Go to Admin > Settings > Client Portal Settings > Registration and set "Allow new Client Registration" to ON and then also set "Show registration link" to OFF. When your system is configured in this way, the option to register for service will not appear on your client portal login screen which means that no one will be able to register for service unless you first email a registration link to them. This puts you in control of who can register. The Registration Link that you need to email to your clients is displayed on the settings page (see Admin > Settings > Client Portal Settings > Registration).
- Scenario 3: I want anyone to be able to register online (even if, as a business, we know nothing about them). To configure your system to enable anyone to register for service with your company Go to Admin > Settings > Client Portal Settings > Registration and set "Allow new Client Registration" to ON but also set "Show registration link" to ON.
- Set your Service Area Radius: It is better to define where you do business to prevent people from outside your area trying to register with you, wasting your time and theirs. You can now create a "service radius" inside which new clients are able to register for service. If they are outside the service radius, they will be presented with a message and a form to complete, eg. to tell you if they are moving into your area.
- What if you offer National or Global coverage? If you offer national or even global service, the service area restrictions might not work for your business model. If this is the case please contact support@petsitterplus.com and we can remove this restriction for you which will mean that your clients will be able to register for service wherever they are in the world.
Help Center & Support Widget
In order to restrict the use of our support desk to Admins only, the Help widget is now only visible to staff with Admin permissions. You can choose whether to "show" the widget on your mobile screen as you may feel that it takes up too much space and hides the content on a small screen. You can set this preference in Admin > Settings > Company Settings.
Show icon labels in the menu
Each staff member can now go to their Staff Profile > Preferences and choose whether to switch ON labels under the icons in the menu, which can be very useful while learning Pet Sitter Plus or simply because you prefer to read icon labels. Also, staff can select different background colour density to give them better screen contrast if this is helpful.
Fixed: VET record can now be "hidden"
Where you previously designed your own Vet page in Custom Fields, and so wanted to "hide" the standard vet screen, the option to do this has now been fixed.
- Use either the “Hidden” function in Custom fields to hide the standard vet record “everywhere” or the “Hide in Portal” function to hide the “Standard Vet” record in the client portal.
Important!
If you have explored this function previously in Custom Fields and changed the status of the vet record to "Hidden" you may find it has now disappeared. If you now want to "show" it, go to Admin > Custom Fields > Vets and switch OFF the toggle for "Hidden".
Fixed: Sorting the Key list columns
Fixed: "Required" fields in the Client Portal
Previously, the onboarding process did not correctly warn your client that a "yes / no field" was “required” to be completed, so your client might have some detective work to do before they could complete registration. This has now been resolved. Required fields are set in Custom Fields.
Future Releases: Messaging and the App to follow after the release of Version 7....
We have created downloadable App's for Clients and Staff and we have also created our own messaging service right in the heart of Pet Sitter Plus. The idea is that it will feel like we have integrated “Facebook Messenger” or “WhatsApp” into Pet Sitter Plus. However, we are still working on these modules which we plan to be testing later this year.
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