Controlling daycare capacity

Daycare is different from boarding. With boarding, each pet has one run for the whole stay. With daycare, pets arrive and leave on the same day. You must know how many pets you can accept without making the facility too full.

Petsoft allows you to set a daily limit for each daycare service. When a day is full, Petsoft removes it from the calendar in the Parent Portal.

Go to Daycare Availability in the left navigation. In the left navigation, Daycare Availability is its own item, separate from Services. On the editable calendar page itself, it still shows in the same tab row as the other Services pages (Rate Levels, Runs, Service Rates, Facility Services, and Fees) for staff with Manage Facility Services. Staff using the read-only view do not see this tab row.

What you need

• Manage Facility Services gives you the full, editable calendar.
• View Daycare Availability Settings (Read-Only) shows the same calendar, but you cannot select anything and there are no settings buttons.

important

Your daycare runs set the highest possible capacity. You cannot set more bookable spots than the number of daycare runs that have Automatically Assign turned on for that service. If you cannot increase a number, this is the reason. Petsoft shows this message: "Run count cannot exceed the total amount of Daycare runs with auto-assign enabled." To fix this, go to Runs.

Reading the calendar

In the Detailed view each day shows:

• Daycare Capacity (a number, blue) — the day is available for reservation for that many spots. If not, Petsoft shows Not Bookable (red).
• Booked — the total number of occupied runs. This number is split into Boarding, Daycare Department, and one line for each daycare service, for example Daycare 4/10. This line turns red when that service is full.
• Remaining — the number of spots left. This number is green when many spots are left, orange when the day is at half capacity, and red when the day is nearly full or completely full.
• An icon of two glasses marks a holiday.

A busy month in the Detailed view. It shows red Not Bookable days, an orange Remaining count of 7, and per-service counts that go over the limit. The info icons mark days where boarding is occupying the runs.

The Focused view replaces the breakdown with one Remaining / Capacity number for each day. Petsoft remembers your choice of view. Past days show what happened. You cannot edit past days.

The same month in the Focused view. It shows one Remaining / Capacity number for each day, with the Boarding and Daycare counts below it.

tip

The Remaining count includes runs that boarding pets occupy. If you see a low Remaining number on a day with few daycare reservations, check your boarding arrivals. They may be using the same physical space. An info icon on the day shows this message: "N run(s) occupied by non-daycare services".

Setting your weekly plan

Click the gear button (Daycare Availability Settings).

1. Select the Service. Each setting on this page applies to one daycare service.
2. Under Default Availability Settings, set a Run Count for each day of the week. This number is how many spots the service offers on a typical day.
3. Set Advance Booking Weeks. This number controls how far ahead pet parents can make a reservation in the portal.
4. Select Allow Daycare Booking On Holidays to keep holidays available for reservation for this service.
5. Click Save.

A new facility starts with every weekday at 0. No spots are available for reservation until you enter the numbers you want. Petsoft does not provide a starting plan. You must create the first plan yourself.

note

How far the "Advance Booking Weeks" window extends. The window always ends on a Saturday. Petsoft counts forward the number of weeks you set, then extends the date to the next Saturday. The next week becomes available on Saturday at 10:00 PM, facility time. If you set Advance Booking Weeks to 0, pet parents can reserve only through the current week, up to the coming Saturday.

caution

If you change the Service list, Petsoft reloads the page and removes any unsaved changes. Save your changes first. This also happens on the single-day editor and the range editor.

Overriding a single day

Some days are different from your normal schedule. For example, you may have extra staff during a school break, or fewer staff because some are at a conference.

Click any current or future day on the calendar. Select the Service. Then set the following:

• Bookable Runs — the capacity for that date only.
• Non Bookable — makes the day not available for reservation for this service. It also protects the day: "If set to true, this date will not be overwritten by range edits".

Bulk editing a date range

Click the pen button (Edit Daycare Availability Settings for Range). Use this for summer camp, winter break, or a month when you are remodeling part of your facility.

1. Select the Service, a Start Date, and an End Date.
2. In the Weekday Plan, select Use for each weekday you want to change, then set its Run Count. Petsoft does not change the weekdays you leave unselected.
3. Click Save.

Range edits do not change days you marked Non Bookable. This means a single-day closure stays in place after a bulk change.

What pet parents see

In the portal, pet parents can select only daycare dates that are available for reservation and have open spots. These dates must fall within your Advance Booking Weeks window. The portal also follows your holiday setting. When a day becomes full, including when boarding stays occupy the runs, Petsoft removes that day from the parent's calendar.

What if you want to go over capacity?

You cannot. Petsoft does not let you save a reservation over the limit; it shows a capacity error instead. This applies to both staff and pet parents. There is no way around this limit.

Staff skip some of the other checks the portal makes before a reservation. Staff cannot skip the physical run capacity check. If you need one more spot, increase the day's Bookable Runs. This is why the single-day override exists.

If this happens often, your limits may be too low, or you need more physical space.

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Capacity management methods compared

Method	Best for	Effort	Duration
Weekly plan	Standard operating schedule	One-time setup	Ongoing default
Single-day override	Holidays, special events, staffing changes	Per day	Until deleted
Range edit (pen button)	Seasons, camps, renovations	One-time for range	Covers date range

Override decision flow

Troubleshooting booking issues

Symptom	Check	Likely cause
Day shows unavailable	Capacity	Limit reached; check Remaining
Day shows unavailable	The day itself	Marked Non Bookable
Day shows unavailable	Advance Booking Weeks	Beyond the window, which ends on a Saturday
Low remaining with few daycare bookings	Boarding arrivals	Shared physical space
Capacity won't go higher	Runs	Not enough daycare runs with auto-assign enabled
A pet cannot be selected in the portal	The pet	The pet is banned, inactive, deceased, or its species is not accepted

note

Vaccination status does not stop an online reservation. Petsoft marks a pet with an out-of-date vaccination for your staff to see, but this does not stop a parent from making a reservation. If a parent cannot select a pet, the reason is one of those listed in the table above. It is not because of the vaccination record.