Updating pet info through the portal

One of the biggest time-savers in Petsoft is letting your customers update their own pet information. Instead of your staff typing in feeding notes over the phone, the customer does it themselves. The portal lets them manage almost everything about their pets without calling you.

What customers can update

When a customer logs into the portal and clicks on a pet, they see tabs for different categories of information:

Basic info

Name, breed, weight, color, birthday, and microchip number. Customers can fix typos themselves. If they got the breed wrong when they first signed up, they can change it without bothering your front desk.

Weight is especially important if you charge by size. Ask customers to update the weight every few months, or after a vet visit. A dog that was fifty pounds last year might be sixty-five now, which could bump them into a different rate level.

Feeding instructions

Customers can write detailed feeding notes. What brand of food, how much, how often, and any special instructions like "mix with warm water" or "add the supplement powder."

These notes sync directly to the daily feeding report. When your staff print the report each morning, they see exactly what the customer wrote. There is no need to guess or transcribe anything.

Medications

Customers list medications, dosages, and schedules. They can also note whether the medication needs to be given with food, or whether it should be hidden in a treat.

When the customer books a stay, these medications automatically populate the reservation. Your staff can review and adjust them at check-in, but they do not have to start from scratch.

Personality and behavior

This is where customers tell you things that do not fit in a medical form. Does the dog hate thunderstorms? Is the cat shy around men? Does the dog resource-guard their food bowl?

These notes show up on the occupancy board next to the pet's name. Your staff see them without clicking into the profile.

Uploading vaccination documents

Customers can upload photos or PDFs of vet records right from their phone.

1. They pick the vaccine from the list you configured
2. They type the date given and the expiration date
3. They snap a photo of the vet certificate or upload a PDF
4. They hit submit

The document goes into your verification queue. You will see a notification on your dashboard. Open the document, check that the dates on the photo match what the customer typed, and click Verify.

tip

Do not verify documents without looking at them. Customers sometimes guess expiration dates or upload the wrong certificate. A rabies tag photo is not the same as a rabies certificate.

Pet photos

Customers can upload photos of their pets. These show up on the reservation details page, the daily schedule, and the kennel card report. A photo helps your staff identify the right pet quickly, especially in a busy facility where three golden retrievers might be staying the same week.

You can also upload photos from the admin side. If you take a cute picture of a pet during their stay, add it to their profile. Customers love seeing those.

What happens when records expire

If a vaccine expires, the portal shows a red banner on the pet's profile. The customer sees it every time they log in. They cannot book a new stay until they upload current records and you verify them.

Existing reservations are not automatically canceled when a vaccine expires. If a customer uploaded valid records when they booked, but the vaccine expired before the stay starts, the system warns you on the dashboard. You decide whether to honor the reservation or ask for updated records.

Some facilities have a grace period policy. They accept records that expired within the last thirty days if the customer promises to get a booster during the stay. Petsoft does not enforce this automatically. You have to track it manually or set up your own reminder.

Managing multiple pets

Customers with multiple pets can manage each one separately. Vaccination records, feeding notes, and medications are stored per pet, not per customer.

When a customer books a stay, they select which pets are attending. The system checks vaccination status for each pet individually. If one pet is current and the other is not, the customer can book for the current pet but not the expired one.

What customers cannot change

There are a few things customers cannot edit through the portal:

• Incident records
• Medical notes added by your staff
• Vet clinic information (unless you allow it in settings)
• Rate levels or billing categories

These restrictions exist for liability reasons. You do not want a customer deleting an incident record or changing their pet's weight to get a cheaper rate.

If a customer needs to update something they cannot access, they have to call you. Your staff can edit any field from the admin side.

What customers can update vs. what staff controls

Information	Customer can edit	Staff can edit	Why the restriction?
Name, breed, weight, color	✅ Yes	✅ Yes	Customers fix their own typos
Feeding instructions	✅ Yes	✅ Yes	Syncs to daily feeding report
Medications & dosages	✅ Yes	✅ Yes	Auto-populates reservations
Personality & behavior	✅ Yes	✅ Yes	Shows on occupancy board
Vaccination documents	✅ Upload	✅ Verify only	Liability & accuracy
Pet photos	✅ Yes	✅ Yes	Helps staff identify pets
Incident records	❌ No	✅ Yes	Liability protection
Staff medical notes	❌ No	✅ Yes	Clinical accuracy
Vet clinic info	❌ No*	✅ Yes	*Unless enabled in settings
Rate levels / billing categories	❌ No	✅ Yes	Prevents rate manipulation

Vaccination upload flow

Managing expired records