Set up your grooming business

Choose Groomer sign up, review the platform agreement and verify your email. Then use Groomer sign in. An invitation to join an existing business is separate from creating your own company.

Marketing emails are an optional, separate choice at sign-up. After your first email verification, your welcome email includes the groomer setup guide and feature sheet. Change your marketing choice in Communication preferences at any time; account and appointment messages continue.

Create your company in the dashboard. Its profile and new customer bookings start off while you prepare it. For UK businesses (including Northern Ireland), Full is £20/month and Lite is £5/month. For Republic of Ireland businesses, Full is €25/month and Lite is €6.25/month. Full includes the diary and customer bookings; Lite includes a public profile, manual diary, gallery, team access and external booking links. One membership covers three active sites; each additional site costs £5 or €6.25 per month, prorated for its active time. The registered business country determines pricing and invoice currency. Each company has a 14-day trial. Business owners can enter a membership discount code in Billing. Offers reduce the monthly membership by 20% or 50% for three months, six months, one year or permanently, depending on the code; codes cannot be combined. Approved pilot waivers remain permanent.

In Settings, enter your business name, registered address, town, postcode or Eircode, description and public contact details. Check the registered country chosen when creating the company; Republic of Ireland companies use euros and UK companies use pounds. Review your website and external booking links. Add your business logo in Settings, then check your public profile before using Go live.

For Full, also review accepted dog sizes, excluded breeds, booking access and Accept new customers. Choose public, PIN or approved-regular access to suit your business. Published businesses remain searchable with these restrictions. Customer groomer choice can be set to Any available groomer only.

Open Team to add the groomers customers can book. Keep only available groomers active. Invite colleagues to use their own verified accounts; a team login and a bookable groomer are separate settings.

Choose Manager for all business sites or Staff for one assigned site. Staff can see prices and handle normal diary, visit and collection actions. Managers also configure services, prices, settings, billing, refunds and access. In Settings, Your business sites lets a Manager add, archive or restore a branch. Use All sites in this business for a combined diary, then filter by groomer. New branches inherit the original Stripe connection unless a Manager chooses a separate one.

On Full, open Services & extras and choose Recommended or Manual pricing. Both setups are saved. Recommended provides five shared dog types with four sizes for full groom, bath, puppy full groom and puppy bath. Enable the bands you offer and enter their prices and durations. Manual lets you configure your own services using the same automatic breed groups. Expand the breed list to see which breeds are included. Puppies six months and under on the appointment date keep their breed group and can also choose an offered puppy version. Review your puppy descriptions. Mark extras as optional, included or unavailable and set their prices by assigned size. In Matted dog, set and enable a separate price and extra time for light, medium, heavy and extremely heavy matting. Customers choose one level. Book on its own gives other extras their own appointment price and duration.

Open Breeds to exclude listed or unlisted breeds, add an additional cost per groom or set additional time per groom in whole minutes. Cost and time supplements are added once to each dog’s groom or bath, including puppy versions. Additional time extends the appointment and blocks the corresponding diary space. Optional and standalone extras use their own prices and times. Excluded breeds and sizes cannot be selected for that business. Review unknown or mixed breeds in the same section: assign one of the five dog types and an accepted size, or decline. Approval lets the customer review a quote and book; it does not reserve a visit or take payment.

During a groom, open the appointment and use Send extras for approval. The customer sees the additional cost and new total, then chooses Yes or No. Approval adds the charge and any extra time that fits the diary; refusing or an expired request adds no charge. Matting upgrades credit the original matting price. In Your release form, review the agreement for your business and save it. Existing signed copies keep their original wording. Review payment, deposit and cancellation wording in Settings as well.

Open Hours & blocks to set working days, opening times and holidays. Keeping your existing calendar? Set the optional Accept bookings from date during setup or in Settings. Customers can book now for appointments from that date onwards; earlier dates are blocked and the notice disappears when the date arrives. You can change or clear it in Settings. There is no fixed daily appointment limit: active groomers, working hours, appointment start times, service durations, preparation time and existing bookings determine capacity. Three groomers with five usable slots each can take 15 appointments. Short services fit wherever enough time is available. Review your timings and minimum booking notice, then check your booking page.

In Settings, choose the payment methods you accept on collection. Connect Stripe if you want online deposits or balance payments. Stripe opens its own secure verification and payout setup. Online payments require completed setup; Stripe processing fees are separate from your GoGroomPets plan.

The ready-for-collection update lets the customer choose from your accepted methods. Choosing cash or a card terminal records their intended method; record payment only when it has actually been received. Check the paid or outstanding balance before completing collection.

Email and app notifications have no extra fee. On Full, open Messages to enable app notifications on your device and use Send test notification to check that an alert appears. Enable each device separately.

Email and app notifications remain available and included. SMS and WhatsApp selections are greyed out as Coming soon and cannot be activated or charged. Manual WhatsApp links open your own app for you to send the message.

Lite and Full have a diary and one-off calendar imports. Select the receiving site and groomer, open Import your previous diary, name the source and upload an ICS or structured CSV file. Preview up to 1,000 entries across 180 days, deselect conflicts and review duplicate or clock-change warnings. A Manager reviews imported appointment prices. Importing creates no accounts, payments, signatures or outgoing messages. Undo eligible entries removes only records still unchanged since import.

In a visit's private dog notes, add before/after photos with an optional caption. These use private storage with current team access: Staff at the assigned site and Managers across their business. Customers and public visitors cannot view them. Use Gallery separately for public photos.

On Full, open Follow-ups & waitlist. A Manager can enable one email/app rebooking follow-up after the last completed groom, normally six weeks, set service/dog intervals and pause a dog. Each customer must opt in separately for that site. New bookings, opt-outs, pauses and current exclusions are checked before sending. SMS is excluded and WhatsApp remains Coming soon.

For a waitlist opening, enter the date/time and check customers who fit. The team chooses whom to offer it to; offers create no reservation. Booking rechecks current availability, duration and care rules. In Settings, an optional External review link is offered after eligible completed visits independently of the customer's star score. Verified customer ratings require a real completed recorded visit; imported events do not qualify.

Add business photos in Gallery. At the top of Settings, Your business links has copy buttons for your public profile and booking links. Check the service, quoted price, date, care agreement and payment wording from the customer's view.

Try the complete visit flow before inviting customers: confirmation email, calendar download, diary entry, agreed payment and collection update. Use the fictional demo to practise without sending messages or taking money. When ready, choose Go live at the top of Settings, confirm your setup review and publish your business. Switch it off whenever needed to hide your profile and stop new bookings through shared links; existing visits, payments and reminders remain available. Your membership and trial continue while switched off.