Feature Recap For Q4 2024!
What a whirlwind of a year – it's hard to believe how fast time flies! As we begin the start of a brand-new year, we want to take a moment to thank everyone in the Time To Pet family for your support, your thoughtful feedback, and for sticking with us! Whether you just joined us this year or have been with us since the beginning, we wouldn’t be anywhere without you! Please join us below as we recount some of the amazing new features and updates that our team rolled out in the last quarter of the year. From great new tools to game-changing improvements, here’s everything you need to know about what’s new at Time To Pet!
Time To Pet By The Numbers
Our favorite part of the year is when we get to recap all of the great accomplishments our customers had! From sending 3000 hours worth of cute pet videos, and providing care to over 650,000 pets, and to generating nearly a half billion dollars in revenue - check out all of the amazing data in our blog!
Automatic Tipping
The first update we’re excited to highlight introduces a much-anticipated feature: Client-Managed Automatic Tips. This new functionality gives pet parents the ability to manage their own tipping preferences directly through the Time To Pet Mobile App and the Client Web Portal.
In the past, clients could only add tips on a case-by-case basis, which sometimes led to missed opportunities to show appreciation for their pet care providers. Now, with this update, pet parents can set default automatic tips to be applied whenever they make a payment. Plus, they have the flexibility to adjust their tipping preferences at any time from the My Info section of their Web Portal. (Currently, they are not able to modify these preferences within the Mobile App.)
This feature simplifies the tipping process for your clients while making it easier than ever for them to express their gratitude to you and your hard-working staff members. To enable Automatic Tipping for your clients, navigate to the Settings > Client Settings > Portal Settings section of your account. Once enabled, your clients will be able to manage their tips seamlessly in both the App and Portal.
For more details on enabling Client-Managed Automatic Tips, check out our help articles here: Invoices On The Client App & My Info In The Client Portal. To see which of your clients have already added an Auto Tip to their account, check out our new “Clients With Or Without Auto Tip” filter in Client Reporting.
“No Pets” Service Option
We’ve introduced the option to schedule services without requiring pet details—perfect for companies who offer services like poop scooping, house sitting, or home checks! Clients can also select this option when booking through their Client Portal, ensuring seamless scheduling for property-focused services.
To enable this setting for your services, navigate to your company’s Services List and click “Edit” on the service you wish to modify. In the “Setup” tab of that service, locate the “Pet Required” option at the bottom of the “General” section and check the box.
If you own a poop scooping business and would like to learn some of the other ways Time To Pet can work for your business, please see our guide here for our top tips and suggestions: Best Practices For Poop Scooping Companies.
Local Pet Care: Complete Redesign For Better Connections
We’re thrilled to share that Local Pet Care has a fresh new look! This sleek redesign makes it easier than ever for pet care providers and pet parents to connect. If you aren’t yet familiar with Local Pet Care, we highly recommend checking it out! You get a free premium Local Pet Care listing with your Time To Pet subscription, allowing you to seamlessly attract new clients and grow your business.
Some of the key features added with our latest updates include:
- Customizable Profiles: Showcase your services, credentials, and photos to highlight the best aspects of your business to appeal to more clients.
- Free Applicant Tracking System: Simplify the hiring process with tools to manage job postings and keep track of qualified candidates.
- SEO Benefits: Boost your local visibility when pet parents search the web for pet care providers with profile backlinks to your website.
For more information on how Local Pet Care can benefit your business and manage your free listing, check out our help articles here: Managing Your Local Pet Care Listing & Using the Local Pet Care Applicant Tracking System (ATS).
Payroll Product Beta: Shape The Future
You may have already heard about the new payroll product we are building for Time To Pet, but we wanted to take the opportunity to share more information about this payroll solution and why we’re so excited to bring this to all of you, as we know there have been a lot of questions.
Our payroll product is being developed in partnership with a trusted provider specializing in payroll systems, already trusted by thousands of other businesses. By leveraging this expertise, Time To Pet is able to offer a reliable, fully built-out payroll solution with the added convenience of automatically integrating with the information already in our system.
This approach allows us to bring you the best of both worlds—a top-notch payroll system and continued focus on the platform enhancements you’ve been asking for.
As always, if you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to us at support@timetopet.com. Our team is always happy to help and answer any questions you might have. If you would like to join our beta test group to help influence the development of this product, please use the link here: Join the Time To Pet Payroll Beta.
Updated Rate Calculators
We’ve also updated our Rate Calculators, which you can find in the Free Tools section of our website! As former pet care business owners and operators, our team understands how difficult it can be to decide on your company’s service rates, know when to raise them, and strike a balance between keeping up with your competition and being affordable to your customers.
With our updated Dog Walking, Dog Sitting, Cat Sitting, and Pet Sitting Calculators, the decision-making process is easy! Our calculators display the average rates for the chosen service both within your local area and nationwide so you can see just what your fellow pet care business owners are charging. To see how your current rates compare, give our free calculators a try today!
Blog & Knowledge Base Updates
Just as our Development Teams have been hard at work this holiday season, our Support and Onboarding teams have been putting out some fantastic content that will help you navigate Time To Pet and advise you on how to run your pet care business more effectively!
We’re always updating our Knowledge Base articles to ensure they are up-to-date and will enhance the use of our products, but below you can find the links to some our newly published and most recently updated articles that we would highly recommend reviewing:
- Best Practices For Using Advanced Tools In The Message Center
- Best Practices For Scheduling Overnights And Boarding
- Tipping In Time To Pet
- Locating The Different Histories In Time To Pet
- How To Issue A Refund
- Editing Payments & Viewing Payment History
- Message Tags, Message Center, & Messaging Settings
As a team of former pet care business owners and operators, we understand how busy the beginning of the year can be for all pet care professionals. We have compiled some resources from our Blog and Academy that you can explore at the links below that are meant to help you navigate some of the challenges commonly encountered during the first quarter of the year:
- [How to Start a Dog Walking Business](How to Start a Dog Walking Business)
- Using Software To Grow Your Pet Care Business
- The Ultimate Guide to Setting Your Pet Sitting and Dog Walking Rates
- Raising Your Rates
- The Ultimate Hiring Guide for Pet Sitting and Dog Walking Businesses
- Maximizing Tips For Your Pet Care Business
- Understanding Pet Sitting Certifications
- Time To... Do Your Taxes
Thank you all again for your amazing support over the last year! Here’s to an incredible 2025!
