Help & Tutorials
Learn how to use PetDesk with our step-by-step video guides
Click on any topic below to view the tutorial
Back to Home
Learn how to use PetDesk with our step-by-step video guides
Click on any topic below to view the tutorial
Back to HomeYour password is yours to change whenever you like — you don't need to ask an administrator.
Go to Settings and choose My Account, the first item in the list. It shows your name, email and role, and below that the password box.
Type it twice and click Update Password. It needs to be at least six characters. You aren't asked for your current password, so if you've stepped away from your desk, lock your screen.
You can't reach the page above if you can't log in — so use Forgot password? underneath the login form instead. Enter the email address you log in with and we'll send you a code.
Enter the code from the email along with your new password. The code lasts 5 minutes — if it expires, just request another.
For your security we don't confirm whether an address has an account, so you'll see the same message either way. If no code arrives, check the address is the one you log in with, and look in your spam folder. You can only request one code every 5 minutes.
Give someone their own login so their appointments show against their name and they only see what they need to.
Go to Settings and choose Staff Management, then click Add Staff Member.
You don't set a password for them. PetDesk emails an invitation to the address you enter and they choose their own. The colour is how their appointments appear on the calendar, which makes a shared diary far easier to read.
This is the important bit. There are three levels:
| Role | What they can do |
|---|---|
| Admin | Everything. Bookings, customers, settings, reports and billing. Give this to owners and managers. |
| Staff | Almost everything day to day — bookings, customers and animals — but no access to reports. The right choice for most of your team. |
| Accountant | A cut-down financial login. They see transactions and reports, not your customers' details. Ideal for an external or dedicated accountant who needs the numbers and nothing else. |
You can change someone's role later with the pencil icon, so start them lower if you're unsure.
Leave Custom Working Hours switched off and they're available across your normal business hours. Switch it on for part-timers so they're only offered for appointments on the days and times they actually work.
Click Create Staff Member. They appear in your list marked Invite Pending until they follow the email and set a password. If it never turns up, the paper-plane icon sends it again.
Services are the things you offer — a full groom, a nail trim, a consultation. Each one carries its own price and duration, which PetDesk fills in for you every time you book it.
Go to Settings and choose Services & Booking Types from the category list, then click Add Service.
Give it a name, a price and how long it takes. The colour is how it will appear on your calendar, which makes a busy day much easier to read at a glance. The description is shown to customers booking online.
Setting the price to zero hides both price and duration from customers booking online — handy for free first consultations or anything where the length varies.
Leave Assigned Staff empty and anyone can perform the service. Tick specific people and only they will be offered for it — useful when one groomer does hand-stripping and nobody else does. Primary Location sets a default if you work from more than one place, and can still be changed on individual bookings.
Set Status to Inactive to retire a service without deleting it. Existing bookings keep working; it just stops appearing on new ones.
Click Create Service and it joins your list, ready to pick when you make a booking. Use the pencil to edit one later, or the bin to remove it.
Species control what you can pick when adding a pet, so it's worth setting these up before you start adding animals.
Go to Settings and choose Animal Species, then click Add Species.
Choose from the common species — click as many as you need, they toggle on and off. Anything unusual goes in Other Species: type the name and add it.
Click Add Selected Species and they join your active list, ready to choose when you add a pet. Use the pencil to rename one, or the bin to remove it.
Only remove a species you've never used. If animals are already recorded against it, change them over first.
A closure blocks out time when the whole business is shut — bank holidays, the Christmas break, a training afternoon. Customers can't book online during a closure, and it's blocked off on your calendar.
Booking time off for yourself? That's not a closure — the business stays open. Use My Account to request leave, and Settings → Staff Holidays to approve it.
Go to Settings and choose Business Closures, then click Add Closure.
Give the closure a name your team will recognise on the calendar.
Choose One-time closure for a specific date or range. Choose Recurring closure for something that comes round on a regular schedule, so you only set it up once.
Pick a start and end date — use the same date for both if you're closing for a single day. Tick Partial day closure if you're only shut for part of it, such as a morning's training; the rest of the day stays bookable.
The closure appears in your list, with partial ones showing the hours affected. Use the pencil to change one, or the bin to remove it.
Everything lives on the Reports page in the top menu. Each report is a small form: set a date range, run it, read the results underneath.
Reports are for admins and accountants. Staff accounts don't see this page.
The main report at the top. It shows appointments that have happened and been marked complete, so it's your record of money actually taken. Filter by date, payment method, staff member or service.
Tick Include extras/products to count anything sold alongside the appointment, not just the service itself.
Click Generate Report and the results appear below, with a running total. Each row links to the booking if you need to check something. Print this page appears at the top right for a paper copy or a PDF.
Below that is a set of more specific reports, each with its own Run button:
Plans change. Here's how to move an appointment, swap the service or reassign the staff member — and let the customer know.
Click the appointment on your calendar. You can also reach it from the customer's page, or from the pet's booking history.
You'll find it in Quick Actions on the right, alongside the options to take payment, copy the booking, mark it complete or cancel it.
Change the service, duration, price, staff member, date, time or location. The customer and pet are shown at the top for reference but can't be changed here — if the booking is against the wrong pet, cancel it and create a new one.
Scroll down inside the window for the home visit and prepaid options, then click Save Changes.
If you changed the date or time, PetDesk offers to text the customer the new details. It only asks when they're actually reachable by text — if there's no mobile on record, or they've opted out, the change just saves quietly.
The booking updates straight away and the new time appears on your calendar.
Moving an appointment to a busy day? The edit window doesn't show you that day's other appointments. If you're not sure what's already booked, check your calendar first.
PetDesk can't know what matters to your particular practice — coat condition, gait score, kennel number, whatever you record every time. Custom fields let you add your own, and they then appear on every booking, animal or customer.
Go to Settings → Custom Booking Fields. The three tabs decide where your field shows up: on each booking, on an animal's record, or on a customer's. Pick the tab first — a field belongs to one of them.
Use Template offers ready-made sets for common practice types, which is quicker than building from scratch.
Give it a label and choose a type. There are seven: single-line text, multi-line text, number, slider, dropdown, a yes/no checkbox, and a date picker. Choosing a sensible type keeps entries consistent — a dropdown of four options is far easier to report on than free text.
Picking Dropdown? Its choices go in Field Options in the format shown on screen: {"options":["Option 1","Option 2"]}. Display Order sets where it appears, and you can make it required so it can't be skipped.
Tick Show with internal notes or Show with customer notes and the field's value is carried into the booking's previous-session history — so next visit, whoever picks up the appointment sees last time's reading alongside the notes.
Saved fields appear in your active list, and immediately on the records you attached them to. Edit or remove them any time with the pencil and bin.
Something not working, or not sure how to do something? Raise a ticket from inside PetDesk and it comes straight to us, with your practice details already attached.
Go to Settings → Support Tickets. You'll see anything you've raised before, open or closed, so you can check whether you've already reported something. Click New Ticket to start a fresh one.
Give it a short subject, then describe the problem properly in the box below.
The detail is what gets it fixed quickly. Tell us what you were doing, what you expected, and what happened instead — plus any error message, and a booking or customer reference if it's about a specific record.
Click Submit Ticket. It appears in your list, and you'll see replies against it there as we work through it. There's no need to raise a second ticket for the same thing — adding to the existing one keeps the history together.
Booking an appointment for a customer, from start to finish. The whole booking lives on one page, so you can fill it in whatever order suits you.
From your Dashboard, click New Appointment. You can also start from the calendar, or from Schedule Appointment in the Quick Actions on any customer's page — they all open the same form.
Type either the pet's name or the customer's name. Each result shows the animal, its breed and species, and the owner on the right — so if a customer has several pets you can pick the right one in a single click.
New customer? They need to be added under Clients first — see Adding a Customer and Their Pet below. You can jump straight into a booking from their page once they're set up.
The search collapses into a summary of the customer and pet you picked. Chose the wrong one? Click Change to search again.
Pick the service and PetDesk fills in the duration and price from your Services settings. Both stay editable, and changing them here only affects this booking. Assigning a staff member is optional, and the location defaults to your main premises.
As you change the date, Schedule for this day shows what's already booked — so you can spot a clash before you create one.
Use Notes at the bottom for anything the person doing the appointment should know — a nervous dog, a coat that mats, where to park for a home visit.
Click Create Booking and PetDesk asks whether to send a confirmation text. If you take deposits, you can attach the payment link to the same message.
If the customer has no number, has a landline, or has opted out of texts, PetDesk tells you which and creates the booking anyway.
The booking opens straight away and appears on your calendar. From here you can take payment, generate an invoice, mark it complete, or copy it to make a repeat booking.
Every booking belongs to a pet, and every pet belongs to a customer — so a new customer starts here.
Open Clients from the top menu and click Add Client.
Only the name is required, but a mobile number is worth having — it's what lets PetDesk send booking confirmations and reminders. An address helps if you do home visits.
Phone numbers must be unique. If you get a warning that the customer already exists, search for them — they're probably already on your books.
Saving takes you straight to the customer's page. Click Add Animal to add their first pet.
The owner is filled in for you. Name, date of birth and species are required; breed, colour, weight and any medical notes or allergies are optional but worth adding while you've got the customer in front of you.
Got more than one pet to add? Repeat from Add Animal — there's no limit.
The pet now shows on the customer's page. Use Schedule Appointment to book them in without searching for them again.
The appointment's done. Here's how to add anything extra the customer bought, settle up, and close the booking off.
Find it on your calendar and scroll to Booking Items & Total. The service is already listed at its booked price.
Search your products to add a stocked item, or use Add Custom Item for a one-off that isn't in your list. Type a name and price, then click the + to add it.
You can also add a second service, or apply a discount to the whole booking.
The total updates as you go, splitting out the booking price from any extras.
Click Mark Complete (Paid) in Quick Actions. If you'd rather take a card payment through PetDesk, use Go to Payment at the bottom of the items panel instead.
Choose cash, card, bank transfer, or prepayment if they'd already paid in advance. This is what your takings reports are built from, so it's worth getting right.
The booking is marked Completed with the payment method recorded against it. Need to undo it? Mark Unpaid puts it back. Generate Invoice produces a PDF for the customer.
The customer portal lets your customers see their appointments, manage their pets and settle payments. There's no single "sign up" step — there are a few ways in, and the right one depends on where the customer is standing.
| Situation | Use this |
|---|---|
| They're with you now, in the salon or surgery | QR code — they scan it and they're in |
| They're not with you, but you have their mobile | Copy the link and send it to them |
| They found your portal themselves | They sign up with their mobile number |
| They're already on your books but have never logged in | Same as above — PetDesk matches them by number |
Open the customer's page and click Generate QR Login in Quick Actions.
Turn your screen round and let them scan it with their phone camera. They go straight into the portal without typing anything, and can set a password once they're in. Not with you? Copy URL gives you the same link to text or email them.
The link works once, and lasts 24 hours. As soon as it's used it stops working, and generating a new code replaces the old one. Treat it like a key — anyone holding that link can get into that customer's account until it's used. If they need to get back in later, they log in normally or you generate a fresh code.
Your portal lives at your-name.app.petdesk.co.uk. Customers enter their mobile number, receive a code by text, and they're in.
This one screen handles every case. If the number is already on your system, PetDesk recognises them and links them to their existing record — their pets and history are all there. If it isn't, they're walked through creating an account. Either way they set a password at the end, and after that they just log in with their number and password.
Every route except the QR code depends on a working mobile number, because that's how the code reaches them. If a customer can't get in, check the number on their record first — a landline or an old number is the usual culprit. That's also why the QR code is the reliable option when someone's standing in front of you.
PetDesk can hold money for a customer to spend later, in two forms. Credit sits on a named customer's account. A gift card belongs to nobody — it's just a code, so it works for someone buying a present. Both are spent the same way: they come off the total, they can be part-spent, and whatever's left stays there until it's used.
How PetDesk counts your income
You earn money when you do the work, not when it arrives.
So gift card sales no longer show up in your shop income. Your till figures still show everything that went through them, so cashing up is unaffected.
In Quick Sale, click Sell Gift Card at the top. Pick one of the quick amounts or type your own.
The card drops into the basket like any other item and is paid for however the customer likes — cash, card, bank transfer or a SumUp reader. There's no quantity box: each card needs its own code, so sell them one at a time.
The code appears the moment the sale completes. Print puts it on your own branding, and Copy Link gives you something to text or email. Print Gift Card + Receipt puts both on one sheet rather than wasting two.
The code is printed on the receipt too, so a “£30 gift card” line can always be traced back to the exact card.
The link shows the card on your branding with its balance, and it stays accurate — whoever holds it can check what's left at any time. Gift cards never expire.
In Quick Sale, click Redeem Gift Card and enter the code. It takes off as much as its balance allows, and anything still owing is paid as normal. If the card covers the lot, the payment step becomes a single Complete Sale — Paid by Gift Card button.
Open the booking and look in Booking Items & Total. If the customer has credit you'll see a green banner offering it; if they've turned up with a card, use Redeem Gift Card. Both only appear while there's still something to pay.
Anything applied shows as its own line, and the total breaks down so you can see exactly what's been covered and what's left.
A customer with a few pounds left on a card is far more likely to spend it if it's sitting on their account. From their page, Redeem Gift Card moves the whole remaining balance across as credit and empties the card.
You don't need a card to give someone credit. Apply Credit on their page adds any amount — useful as a goodwill gesture. A reason is required, and it's kept with the record along with who gave it, so there's always an explanation months later.
If someone has paid in advance and then cancels, PetDesk asks what should happen to the money before it lets you continue. You can hold it as credit, record that you're refunding them, or forfeit it under your terms.
If they only want to move the appointment, don't cancel it. Close this and change the date instead — the payment stays attached and there's nothing to sort out.
Under Reports you'll find Credits & Gift Cards. Client Credits shows who's still holding a balance and every movement; Gift Cards shows every card, what's left on it, and where it was spent.
Every active card has a Void button in the Gift Cards report. It asks you to confirm, tells you how much is still on the card, and once voided it can't be spent — though its history stays. Use it for a card sold in error, or one you've refunded outside PetDesk.
A card shows as Active while it still has value, Fully used once it's all been spent, and Void if you've cancelled it.
Can't find what you're looking for? Our support team is here to help you get the most out of PetDesk.