Staff Planner Use: Daycare, Overnights and Boarding

Modified on Mon, 8 Jul at 10:29 AM

IMPORTANT:  A new version of the Planner is out now with additional functionality to view Staff capacity by Service Group!

To start using and configure the new Service Group Planner, please read Understanding The Service Group Planner and for existing users of the Staff Planner, Transitioning over from the existing Staff Planner to the Service Group Planner. 

The new Service Group Planner has the following increased functionality: 
Company Level Capacity for Service Item Groups
Staff Level Capacity for Service Item Groups
Color Coding to easily identify when a Service or Sitter has reached, or is over capacity.
Check-in and Check-out directly from the planner
Direct access to Client accounts from the planner
Vaccination flags

You can use the Planner in a number of different ways to help you quickly schedule, view staff availability and facility capacity. The Planner can track just one service or a few services at a time, depending on the configuration. Setting up the planner for each use is slightly different and you'll want to understand a Resource Cost before starting set-up.

More About the Planner

The Planner displays capacity and current scheduled services for a particular type of service, such as boarding, overnight and daycare services. The Planner is also helpful to identify which sitters provide services and to locate which sitter is available to accept a service, indicated by no work or work below capacity on their Planner.

How To Use the Planner?

Navigation: Scheduler > Schedule > Planner

Step 1

To set up the Planner, decide which services to display on the Planner.

You can choose to display both Overnights and Boarding services on the Planner if either different staff perform those services or if staff can only do either an Overnight or a Boarding service.

Next add only the staff that provide the services selected above to the Planner by setting the "Capacity" for the staff member to the number of services that staff can provide (typically one). This number displays in the Planner in the "CAP" column. If a Staff member does not provide these services, set that staff Capacity to 0 so that staff does not show on the Planner.
- To use the Planner for Daycare, add a Staff called "Daycare" then schedule visits to "Daycare." Set Capacity for Staff "Daycare" to the number of dogs you can book to Daycare each day.
- To set up social groups in a Daycare setting, create a staff record for each group and assign a specific name to the "Schedule Ref" such as "Small Dogs," "Medium Dogs" and "Large Dogs", then schedule visits to each group. Set capacity for each staff group to the maximum number of dogs you can book to each one each day.

Now set the "Resource Cost" for the service item(s). Typically the number is set per pet: "1" for 1 dog, "2" for 2 dogs, etc. The number you set displays in the Planner, beside the staff the service is scheduled to for that day. A Service Item with a Resource cost of "0" will not display on the Planner.

Tip: The Planner displays the current month. Change months using the forward and back arrows.

Note: "Capacity" is only an indication and does not prevent additional bookings from being processed when a sitter is over capacity.

See Capacity in the planner in pet sitting software

Step 2

If a staff member is on vacation during the month, this is indicated by a red dot on the dates they have time off.

See staff time off in the planner in pet sitting software

Step 3

Planner quantity indicators:

A number indicates a service scheduled to a sitter on the day listed.
Blank space indicates the staff member is not scheduled.
Clicking on a number displays the scheduled services below the planner.

See scheduled service detail in the planner in pet sitting software