Troubleshooting & Common Fixes

This guide provides instant solutions for common operational issues and technical questions encountered by your staff.

Common Quick Fixes

• How do I resolve overlapping daycare and boarding?
• How do I refund a gift certificate to store credit?

Reservation Issues

How do I resolve overlapping daycare and boarding bookings?

If a pet shows up in both sections for the same day, they likely have overlapping reservations.

• Fix: Check the Run Overview. If the pet is boarding, they should not have a separate daycare reservation. Cancel the daycare reservation and add "Daycare Session" as an Add-on Service to their boarding stay.

Billing & Invoices

How do I refund a gift certificate?

Payments made via Gift Certificate cannot be refunded to a credit card.

• Fix: Refund the amount to Store Credit. This keeps the value within the system and allows the customer to use it for future services.

Why are my SMS charges so high?

Petsoft charges for SMS based on segments. A long message (over 160 characters) counts as two or more segments.

• Fix: Encourage staff to keep automated reminders concise to minimize costs. You can review segment counts under Organization > Billing > SMS Usage.

Reporting Discrepancies

Why doesn't the AM/PM Report match the Run Overview?

The Boarding AM/PM Report calculates run occupancy based on checkout times. If a dog is scheduled to depart in the afternoon, they may not show up as "PM" occupancy even if they are still on site.

• Fix: Use the Run Overview for real-time staffing and feeding plans, and the AM/PM Report for financial occupancy auditing.

How do I fix missing data in CSV exports?

If a custom CSV export is missing data (e.g., "Food" items not showing up), it may be due to item consolidation.

• Fix: Ensure all variations of a service (e.g., 'Food', 'House Food', 'Kibble') are mapped to the correct Department Type in your settings.

System Performance

How do I stop reports from timing out?

Large reports (like the Credit Card Revenue report covering 3+ years) may occasionally time out. Reports are generated and exported (Excel/PDF) synchronously, so a very large date range can be slow to return.

• Fix: Run the report for a smaller date range (e.g., month-by-month) to keep generation fast.

Issue → Symptom → Fix matrix

Issue	Symptom	Quick fix	Prevention tip
Overlapping daycare & boarding	Pet appears in both sections	Cancel daycare; add Daycare Session as add-on	Review Run Overview daily
Gift certificate refund	Refund button disabled for GC payment	Refund to Store Credit instead	Inform customers upfront
High SMS bill	Unexpected messaging charges	Shorten reminder templates	Review SMS Usage report monthly
AM/PM vs Run Overview mismatch	Different occupancy counts	Use correct report for the job	Train staff on report purposes
Missing CSV data	Food items absent from export	Map all variations to Department Type	Audit department mappings quarterly
Report timeout	Spinning wheel on large export	Shrink date range	Run large reports in smaller batches

Report selection guide

What you need	Use this report	Why
Real-time staffing & feeding	Run Overview	Live occupancy based on who's checked in
Financial occupancy audit	AM/PM Report	Calculates based on scheduled checkout times
Credit card revenue	Credit Card Revenue Report	Reconciles payments by processor
SMS costs	SMS Usage Report	Breaks down by segments and campaigns
Custom data export	CSV Export	Configurable columns and date ranges