Your first week with PetDesk

1. Fill in your business details

Go to Settings and choose Business Profile. Your name, address, phone number, opening hours and logo all feed your public website and appear on what your customers receive, so it's worth ten minutes now rather than wondering later why a confirmation looks half-finished.

2. Check your web address

Also under Business Profile. You were given one when you signed up. If it isn't the name you want customers to see, change it now — before anyone has bookmarked it or you've printed it on anything.

3. Add your species

Settings → Animal Species. This controls what you can pick when adding a pet, so it has to exist before the first animal does. Add only the species you actually work with — the list is a dropdown your staff will use dozens of times a day.

4. Add your services

Settings → Services. Every appointment is a service, so nothing can be booked until you've created at least one. Give each a realistic duration — that's what decides how much of the diary an appointment takes up and which slots customers are offered online.

5. Add your staff

Settings → Staff Management. Give each person their own login rather than sharing yours: appointments then show against the right name, the diary colour-codes by staff member, and you can limit what each of them sees. You don't set their passwords — they're emailed an invitation and choose their own.

6. Set your closures

Settings → Business Closures. Bank holidays and the Christmas break are the ones people forget. A closed day can't be booked by you or by a customer online, which saves the awkward phone call later.

7. Connect your payments

Settings → Payment Settings. Linking SumUp is what lets you take card payments, deposits and online payments through PetDesk. You can leave this until you're ready to take money — everything else works without it.

Then start adding customers

With services and species in place, you can add your first customer and their animals and make a booking. You don't have to move your whole client list across in one go — most people add customers as they come in, and the list builds itself over a few weeks.

If you already have a customer list in a spreadsheet, don't start typing it in by hand. Raise a support ticket and ask — it's a common request.

Worth doing, but not this week

• Your website — it already works from your business details. Customising it can wait.
• The customer portal — let customers see their own bookings and request appointments once you're comfortable with the diary.
• Reminders — automatic texts before an appointment. Easy to switch on later, and worth understanding your allowance first.
• Custom booking fields — for anything you need to record that PetDesk doesn't ask for as standard.