Automatic alerts: what pet parents receive and when

FurKisses can message pet parents on WhatsApp at the moments that matter: when a booking is confirmed, when their pet checks in, when the groom is finished, when a vaccine is due. You decide which alerts go out in Settings → Alerts for pet parents (/app/settings/alerts).

Who can do this: anyone with "Business settings, services, rooms" can open the page. Only Owners, Admins and Managers can change it. Everyone else sees it read-only.

How an alert travels

1. 1Something happens: your team changes a booking's status, or a reminder falls due.
2. 2FurKisses writes the message and puts it in the queue.
3. 3If WhatsApp is connected, it sends by itself. If not, it waits in the Outbox for a one-tap send. See The Outbox.

Each alert is sent once per booking, vaccine, invoice and so on. You won't send the same reminder twice by accident.

Bookings

• Booking confirmed (on by default): sent as soon as an upcoming booking is confirmed, whether your team books it or you confirm an online request.
• Reminder the day before (on by default): sent 24 hours before the appointment.
• Reminder 2 hours before (off by default): a second, same-day reminder.

Stays

• Pre-arrival check-in form (on by default): sent 2 days before a boarding or daycare stay, with a link to the form for food, medication and pick-up people. It isn't sent if the parent has already filled the form in.
• Daily report card (on by default): one message a day for each pet staying with you, sent after your Daily report card time (6:00 PM unless you change it). It includes a short summary of the day and a link to the photos.
• Incident report (on by default): sent when a manager shares a reviewed incident report with the parent.

Live status

• Checked in (on by default): sent when your team checks the pet in.
• Service started (off by default): sent when the booking is marked as in progress.
• Ready for pick-up (on by default): sent when your team marks the pet as ready for pick-up.
• Checked out (on by default): sent when the booking is completed, with a link to photos, report cards and the invoice.

Health

• Vaccine due in 30 days (off by default): an early heads-up, 30 days before the due date.
• Vaccine due in 7 days (on by default): 7 days before the due date.
• Vaccine due today (off by default): on the due date itself.
• Vaccine expires before a stay (on by default): sent 3 days before a boarding or daycare stay when a vaccine runs out before the stay ends, asking for an updated certificate.

Vaccine alerts stop once a newer dose of the same vaccine is recorded on the pet's profile.

After the visit

• Feedback request (on by default): sent 2 hours after check-out, with a link to rate the visit. It isn't sent if feedback has already been given.

Come back

• Time for the next groom (off by default): sent 42 days after the last grooming visit, if nothing else is booked.
• We miss you (off by default): sent 60 days after the last visit of any kind, if nothing else is booked.
• Pet birthday (off by default): sent on the pet's birthday, using the date of birth on the pet's profile.

Money

• Package expiring soon (off by default): sent 7 days before a prepaid package expires.
• Payment reminder (off by default): sent 3 days after an invoice was issued, if it is still unpaid.

Who never receives alerts

• A pet parent whose customer profile has Send WhatsApp confirmations & reminders unticked. Their profile shows WhatsApp updates: Opted out.
• A customer with no phone number.
• Anyone, for an alert you have switched off.

When alerts are queued

• Live-status alerts (booking confirmed, checked in, service started, ready for pick-up, checked out) are queued instantly by the database when your team changes a booking. It doesn't matter which screen the change was made on.
• Time-based alerts (reminders, the check-in form, vaccines, daily report cards, feedback, come-back nudges, package and payment reminders) are queued by an hourly job. They can arrive up to an hour after the time you set.

For whoever hosts your FurKisses: the hourly job is the endpoint /api/cron/reminders. It needs the CRON_SECRET environment variable and an external scheduler that calls it once an hour with the header Authorization: Bearer <CRON_SECRET>. Without it, time-based alerts are never queued. Live-status alerts still work.

Good to know

• To change what an alert says or when it goes out, see Change alert wording and timing.
• Most alerts include the parent's private link, where they see booking details, photos, report cards and forms.