Services is one of the most important sections to set up. Every booking in Barclo is attached to a service, and every invoice reflects a service's price. Get your services right and everything else flows naturally.
To manage services: click Services in the left-hand menu, then New Service.
Step 1: Which service type do I pick?
The first question Barclo asks when you create a service is: what type of scheduling does this service use? There are four options. This is the single most important choice, pick the wrong type and the booking calendar won't work the way you expect.
- Timed session. Grooming, training, puppy classes, solo walks. A fixed appointment at a specific start time, with a set duration. Blocks out that time in your calendar. Use this for anything with a clock time and a known length.
- Day care. Doggy daycare, full-day care, dog spa days. The pet stays with you for the full day. Clients choose a date, not a specific time, flexible drop-off and pick-up. Priced per day.
- Overnight stay. Holiday boarding, overnight sitting, house-sitting. The pet stays overnight. Clients choose a check-in and check-out date. Priced per night, so a 3-night stay is billed at 3 × the nightly rate.
- Flexible visit. Cat pop-ins, medication checks, key visits. No fixed duration or time, you fit the visit around your day. Use this for ad-hoc visits where timing varies from booking to booking.
Group walks and walk slots: For group dog walks, choose Timed session and then enable the "Use walk slot scheduling" option within the service. This connects the service to your walk-slot templates (see Walk slots). Don't create separate services for "Morning Walk" and "Afternoon Walk". Instead, create one "Group Walk" service and use multiple walk-slot templates for the different times.
The 8 steps of the service wizard
After picking the type, Barclo walks you through an 8-step wizard. Here's what each step covers:
- Type. Pick one of the four service profiles: Timed session, Day care, Overnight stay, or Flexible visit (covered above).
- Name. Give the service a clear name clients will recognise, "Solo Grooming", "Group Walk", "Puppy Socialisation Class". This step also includes two important tick-boxes: Use walk slot scheduling (only meaningful for Timed sessions, turns this service into a group walk-slot service) and Show on client booking page (when on, clients can see and self-book this service through your portal; when off, only you can create bookings for it).
- Location. Where the service takes place. Options: at your premises, at the client's home, you travel with the pets, or either.
- Duration. For timed services, enter how long the service takes, e.g. 60 minutes for grooming. For boarding and daycare, duration is handled by the check-in/check-out dates.
- Price. Set a base price and choose how it scales. Three pricing models are available: per pet (price × number of pets), per household (one flat price regardless of how many pets), or per session (a fixed price for the whole group slot). You can optionally set a maximum number of pets and a multi-pet discount on the 2nd, 3rd and further pets from the same household. A live preview shows what the client will be charged as you adjust the settings.
- Team. If you have team members, specify which staff can deliver this service. This feeds into the booking wizard and the calendar's staff-column view.
- Add-ons. Add optional extras that clients can choose when booking, for example "Nail clipping +£8" or "De-shed treatment +£12". You can also add questions to collect at booking time, like "Does your dog have any medical conditions we should know about?" or "Preferred drop-off time."
- Review. A final summary of everything you've set up. Check it over, make any tweaks, then save.
Pricing models explained
Per pet, price × number of pets. Say you charge £20 for a walk and a client brings 2 dogs, the booking is £40. Great when more pets means genuinely more work.
Per household, one flat price regardless of how many pets. Suits groomers or trainers who work with one client at a time, even if they bring two dogs. No extra charge for the second pet.
Per session, a fixed price for the whole group slot, regardless of how many pets are in it. Common for group walk sessions where the slot has a set value.
Multi-pet discount
If you're using per-pet pricing, you can offer a discount on the 2nd, 3rd, and further pets from the same household. The first pet always pays full price. For example: charge £20 for the first dog and set a 10% multi-pet discount, the second dog costs £18. This is a nice touch for families with multiple dogs and makes you competitive without across-the-board price cuts.
Multi-session discount (walk-slot services)
This one's specifically for walk-slot services. If a client's dog joins two or more of your walk slots on the same day (say both the morning and afternoon walk), you can offer a discount on the combined booking. For example, if Bella's owner wants her in both the 09:00 and the 14:00 slot, a 10% multi-session discount makes that affordable and keeps the dog busy all day.
| Example: per-pet pricing with multi-pet discount | |
|---|---|
| Group Walk · Kira (first dog) | £15.00 |
| Group Walk · Mango (second dog, 10% discount) | £13.50 |
| Total | £28.50 |
Managing your services list
Once created, all your services appear in a list under the Services menu item, filterable by category (Walking, Grooming, Boarding, etc.). Each shows its type, duration, and base price. Hit Edit on any service to update its details. Changes apply to future bookings, not existing ones.
Build a realistic set of services. You don't need one for every possible scenario, a "Dog Boarding" service at £35/night covers all boarding bookings, regardless of the dog's size. Add price variations as add-ons if needed.