Client Agreement to Updated Policies, Service-level Tips and more
Nov 5, 2015
We hope that everyone is enjoying the beginning of the holiday season. Today we're adding a number of new updates so make sure and check them out!
Client Agreement to Updated Policies
When you're making changes to your policies in the system it's important that clients are aware of the changes. In addition to that, requiring them to agree to the updated policies can help prevent future questions and disputes.
- On the Resources > Policies page there is a "Require clients to agree to updated policies next time they login" checkbox whenever you are adding or editing a policy
- When you check that box before adding or saving the policy all clients with existing Client Logins will be flagged by the system so that they are required to agree to the policy updates
- After they next login they will be prompted to digitally sign in agreement to the updated policies before they can access the system
- Note that when clients are agreeing to the updated policies they will see all policies and not just the ones that have changed
Service-level Tips
Tips are important to the flow of running your pet care business. By keeping track of tips on a per-visit basis you can allow clients to easily add tips whenever they want (not just when they pay) and know the exact tip totals that each sitter is owed.
- Tips can be added to existing visits from the Master Schedule and My Schedule (if using a payment gateway) pages by selecting the visits to tip and using the "Tip" button or by manually editing a visit
- When using the "Tip" button choose from the listed percentages and flat tip amounts to apply that amount to each visit selected. Percentage tips are calculated by using the total client price for the visit. You can also remove tips from this screen.
- When there is a tip applied to a visit you will see the
icon - Service-level tips appear in the "Sitter Earnings Only" reports applied to the correct sitter
- When visits are invoiced, the tip totals are saved with the invoice (where they can also be edited if you need to make adjustments). When invoices are auto-charged the tip amount is automatically added to the payment amount
- Clients making manual payments automatically have the tip field filled in with the invoice tip total (they can made adjustments to the tip before submitting their payment).
*** Limitations ***
- Tips are only visible to clients if your site is connected to a payment gateway, otherwise there is no reliable way to ensure that clients will pay the tip
- Service-level tips need to be added BEFORE visits are invoiced or else the tip amount won't be passed on so it can be paid
- Tips can only be added to existing visits. We're still assessing whether you (and clients) should be able to add tips when visits are added/requested
- Clients can adjust the tip amount when submitting manual payments, which can result in the service-level tip numbers being incorrect
Time Off Visible on Master Schedule
When scheduling using the Master Schedule it can be helpful to know when your sitters have time off scheduled. Instead of needing to have the Availability page open in a separate window you can now see it right on the Master Schedule.
- While in Calendar view on the Master Schedule checkmark the "Show: Time Off" checkbox. The time off will be loaded at the top of each corresponding day
- Clicking on each time off entry will bring you to the Availability page where you can view the availability item in full
Additional Updates
- Sitters can tell when their GPS location has been found when a map icon is added to their "Arrived" and "Complete" buttons
- Sitters can now see journals from other sitters for the last 2 weeks when looking at the Client Profile (previously they could only see sitter notes)
- You can see the complete history of photos that have been uploaded to journals and pet profiles by going to Administrative > Tools > Photo Log
