Appointment Detail

This standard governs the actions that may be taken on a single appointment from its detail view: the twelve status actions, the operational actions, and the day-of flow from arrival to departure. It applies to front desk staff, who run the actions, and to groomers and managers, whose commissions and fees those actions trigger. Everything done to an appointment goes through the actions function, and that function is strict: every action is a real record write, with a status history entry and an audit entry, or it does not happen. The status vocabulary itself is stated in Appointments.

The status actions

Each status action sets the appointment's status to its target

The operational actions

• Reschedule: requires the new start time. The old slot is captured before the change so the reschedule email shows old to new. Sends the email.
• Duplicate: copies the appointment. Use it for the "same thing next time" booking, not for fixing a mistake on this one.
• Send reminder: sends the reminder email now, outside the automated schedule.
• Follow up: records a follow-up against the appointment.
• Add to waitlist: moves the customer to the waitlist, under Appointments.
• Take payment: records a payment: it requires a positive amount, writes a payment record with a generated payment number, and updates the appointment's amount paid. If no payment method is configured, it fails with a plain error rather than taking money into a void.
• Confirm service type and confirm payment method: set the confirmation flags. These are milestones, not statuses: they do not move the pipeline; they record that a person verified something.
• Pickup notification, payment processed, and thank you: stamp their respective sent-at timestamps and trigger the send. The enriched appointment view reads these as the communications audit trail: if a customer says nobody told them the dog was ready, this is where to check.
• Add service and set service: attach service lines, priced from the service's default price under the same snapshot rule as booking.

Every action performs three writes: the appointment update, a status history entry (from-status, to-status, reason), and an audit entry. Missing the appointment identifier produces a refusal; a missing appointment produces a not-found response. Nothing is silent.

The two actions that move money

Complete. Completing an appointment with a status change fires commission accrual. One earned entry is created per performed service, at the performing staff member's profile commission rate. The performer is the groomer recorded on the service line, falling back to the appointment's assigned groomer. The rules that protect payroll

• Only commission-bearing pay types accrue: commission, salary plus commission, and hourly plus commission. Pure hourly or salary staff never accrue, by design.
• No rate on the profile means no accrual and no invented default. The gap is reported back: no groomer assigned, or no commission rate: so it stays visible instead of silently underpaying someone.
• Accrual happens once per appointment, service, and staff member. Completing the same appointment twice never double-pays, and re-carrying an already-completed booking does not re-enter it.

If a groomer says their commission looks short, check three things in order: was the appointment actually completed: the status, not just done in real life; does their staff record carry a commission rate; and is their pay type commission-bearing.

No-show and cancel. These fire the booking-fee machinery. Inside the location's cutoff window, the fee becomes a real open invoice owed by the customer: never a silent card charge: with any held deposit applied first, under the rules in Appointments. The fee invoice carries a record tag; re-firing the transition finds it and charges nothing twice. Marking no-show is therefore a financial action, not only a calendar action. Staff shall be sure before tapping it, and if it is tapped by mistake, fix it promptly; the invoice it creates is visible to the customer.

Check-in, in-service, and the day-of flow

The day runs on the status pipeline: waiting check-in, checked in, in service, completed. At check-in, staff shall verify the service type and payment method flags; confirming them here is what keeps a "slot confirmed but service not confirmed" appointment from becoming a mid-grooming surprise. Staff shall collect anything the Needs Attention feed flagged: unsigned documents, expiring vaccinations: while the customer is present; it is the cheapest moment to do it.

Hold is the pressure valve: customer running an hour late, dog needs a break mid-groom, dryer queue backed up. It pauses the appointment without cancelling it; the history keeps the full story and the appointment stays on the board. Staff shall not use cancelled for a pause; cancelled fires the fee machinery.

The day-of runbook

For a single appointment, from arrival to departure, staff shall follow these steps. The status the appointment should show at each step is given in parentheses

1. Before arrival (confirmed, waiting check-in). Verify the three points: service type confirmed, payment method confirmed, deposit down. Pull the Needs Attention signals for this appointment; unsigned documents and expiring vaccinations are collected now, not mid-groom. Read the pet handling notes. If there is a caution, confirm the assigned groomer has special handling in their specialties.
2. Arrival: set checked in. Confirm the dog matches the registry pet, allowing for the reused-name problem described in Customer Profile. Collect anything outstanding from step 1. Note late arrivals on the appointment: "running 15 minutes late, called ahead" protects the groomer's schedule and the record.
3. Start of work: set in service. If the customer is waiting nearby, this is when customer-visible notes receive their pickup-time estimate. The pickup notification later stamps its sent-at time; that is the communications audit trail.
4. During: set hold if paused. Record notes on the grooming record for anything the next groomer needs: behavior, coat condition, what was done differently.
5. Finish: set completed. This fires commission accrual, which is why the status shall be set even if everyone knows the work is done. An appointment left in service overnight accrues nothing and sits on tomorrow's board. At completion, the groomer's "recommend next visit" goes in before the customer leaves, under Rebooking and Automation.
6. Payment: take payment for the balance. The payment writes a payment record and updates amount paid. If the customer disputes, the payment number is the key. The payment processed action stamps its timestamp.
7. After: the thank-you action sends the follow-up. Its sent-at stamp closes the communications trail.

Every step writes its own evidence: status history, audit entry, timestamps, notes. When a customer disputes anything: the fee, the cut, the pickup time: the evidence is already there.

When an action fails

• A refusal stating that the appointment identifier and new start time are required (or similar): the request was malformed. The screen should have prevented it; if it appears, something is wrong with the form, not the appointment.
• "Appointment not found": the identifier does not exist for this location's records. Record scoping is strict: an appointment belonging to another location's records, or a mistyped identifier, reads as not found, not as a permission error.
• A booking error after creation: the appointment was created but the pet or service links failed, under Appointments. Fix the link; do not re-create.
• "No payment method available" on take payment: configure a payment method in the financial settings first. The function refuses to record a payment it cannot tag with a method.
• Audit failure: the audit write is protected so that its failure does not fail the action. The appointment still updates; the audit gap is recorded on the system side. This is non-fatal by design.

Controls

• No-show and cancel shall be used only when certain, because both move money.
• Commission shall never be adjusted by hand to compensate for a missing rate or an incomplete status. Fix the status, the rate, or the pay type instead.
• Hold shall be used for a pause; cancelled shall not.

Records

Each action creates an appointment update, a status history entry, and an audit entry. Completion creates commission entries; no-show and inside-cutoff cancellation create fee invoices; take payment creates a payment record with its payment number and updates amount paid; notification actions stamp their sent-at times. These records are kept in the customer record system.

Escalation and review

Managers review failed actions, disputed fees, and missing commissions. A fault that the store cannot resolve shall be reported to support@aapawz.com. Legal process concerning an appointment, fee, or commission record shall be directed to legal@aapawz.com.