A vaccination check should not happen at the grooming table.
It should not happen when the dog is already in the play yard. It should not happen after the owner has driven 30 minutes to drop off. By the time you discover an expired vaccination during an appointment, every option is bad: turn the pet away (angry owner, lost revenue), proceed anyway (liability risk, safety concern), or have an awkward conversation while the pet is mid-groom.
Petboost now surfaces vaccination alerts before any of that happens.
How It Works
Turn on Vaccination certificate for a service (or Require vaccination certificate for the whole business) and Petboost checks each booked pet's certificate against the appointment date. In Mission Control, the appointment card shows a No Vax badge with a red icon when the certificate is missing, incomplete or expired, Review vaccination while an uploaded certificate waits for your approval, and Vax rejected after you turn one down.
The Attention Required panel lists:
- Pets with no valid vaccination for a service that requires one, and what is missing
- Certificates expiring within 30 days, with the vaccination name and the days left
- The pet's name so you can quickly identify who needs attention
For a missing or invalid certificate, one tap texts the owner a request to upload a new one. Open the appointment and the same alert sits at the top.
You do not need to click into each appointment to check. When you are reviewing tomorrow in Mission Control at the end of the day, you can scan for vaccination badges in seconds.
The Edge Case It Solves
Most pet businesses check vaccinations when a pet is first registered or when a booking is made. The problem is time.
A pet owner books a groom three months in advance. At booking time, their C5 is valid. By the appointment date, it has expired. The booking system did not re-check because the validation happened at booking time, not at appointment time.
Vaccination alerts solve this by evaluating vaccination status against the appointment date, not the booking date. If a vaccination will be expired by the time the appointment happens, the alert appears. This catches the gap between "valid when booked" and "still valid when the appointment arrives."
Who This Is For
Dog Groomers
Many grooming salons require up-to-date vaccinations before accepting a dog. The alert lets you contact the owner days before the appointment to request updated records, rather than discovering the issue at check-in.
Dog Daycare
Daycare environments have the highest vaccination compliance requirements because dogs are in close contact with each other. A single unvaccinated dog in a playgroup is a risk to every other dog present. Mission Control's badges make it visible across your entire daily roster.
Pet Boarding
Boarding facilities often require vaccinations as part of their intake process. For repeat customers on recurring bookings, vaccinations can lapse between stays. The Mission Control alert catches this before the pet arrives.
Dog Walkers
Group walkers who require vaccination compliance for their walking groups can see at a glance which dogs on today's walk have current vaccinations and which need follow-up.
Practical Tips for Using Vaccination Alerts
Check tomorrow before you close. Make it a habit to move Mission Control on to the next day and scan the appointment cards for No Vax badges. That gives you time to call or message the owner that evening.
Pair with SMS reminders. When you spot a vaccination alert, use the Attention Required button to text the owner for a new certificate, or with Communications Booster send your own message by 2-way SMS: "Hi Sarah, we noticed Buddy's C5 vaccination expires before his groom on Thursday. Could you send through updated records?" This is a professional, proactive interaction that builds trust.
Set vaccination as a booking eligibility requirement. If you have not already, you can require current vaccinations as an eligibility condition for online booking. This prevents most issues at the source. The Mission Control alerts catch the edge cases that slip through.
Use it as a value-add for pet owners. Some businesses message pet owners when they notice a vaccination approaching expiry: "Just a heads-up, Bella's C5 expires next month. Your vet can update it before her next groom." This is not a sales tactic. It is genuine care, and pet owners remember it.
Available Now
Vaccination alerts are live in Mission Control today. Once a service requires vaccination certificates, alerts appear automatically on upcoming appointments where a certificate is missing, expired or close to expiry.
The alerts work from the vaccination certificates already on your pet profiles.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need to enter vaccination data for this to work?
The alerts read the vaccination certificates on each pet's profile, and they only run for services that require vaccination certificates. For those services, a pet with no certificate on file is flagged as missing.
Can I set which vaccinations trigger alerts?
You choose which services require vaccination certificates. A pet passes when it has at least one complete certificate that is still valid on the appointment date.
Does this block the appointment from being created?
No. Vaccination alerts are informational. They flag the issue on the appointment card but do not stop you creating the appointment. If you want online bookings to need a current certificate, turn on Require vaccination certificate in Settings, Policies & Paperwork (or on the service).
Can pet owners see these alerts?
No. Vaccination alerts are visible only to your team, in Mission Control and on the appointment. Pet owners see their vaccination records in their own profile but do not see the badges.
Related Petboost Features
- Scheduling & Booking: The core scheduling engine with capacity and conflict management
- CRM & Pets: Pet profiles with vaccination records, breed data, and care notes
- Smart Booking Rules: Eligibility requirements and booking conditions