Two weeks after the Autumn Update, we are closing out Q3 with another batch of features that solve real, daily operational problems. No fluff. Every feature here came directly from conversations with groomers, daycare operators, and mobile pet professionals across Australia.
1. Vaccination Alerts on the Scheduler
The Problem
A dog arrives for its groom. The groomer starts prepping. Halfway through, someone checks the file and realises the C5 vaccination expired two weeks ago. Now you have an awkward conversation, a disrupted schedule, and a pet owner who wishes someone had flagged it earlier.
The Solution
Vaccination alerts now appear directly on appointment cards in your scheduler. If a pet's vaccination is expired or approaching expiry, you see a visual badge on the appointment card before the pet even arrives.
The alert shows which vaccination is affected and when it expired. Your team can see at a glance, across their entire day, which appointments have vaccination concerns. No clicking into individual records. No checking a separate screen.
Why It Matters
This is proactive compliance. Instead of discovering a vaccination issue during an appointment, you discover it when reviewing tomorrow's schedule. That gives you time to contact the owner, request updated records, or flag the appointment for your team.
For businesses with vaccination requirements as a booking eligibility condition, this catches the edge cases: vaccinations that were valid when the appointment was booked but have since expired.
2. Public Holidays Management
The Problem
Every state and territory in Australia has a different set of public holidays. Remembering which days to block, checking whether the Queen's Birthday is in June or September for your state, and manually creating blocked time entries for each team member and resource is tedious and error-prone.
The Solution
Petboost now automatically populates Australian public holidays by jurisdiction. A new Public Holidays page shows a visual week grid of upcoming holidays for your state. Select the holidays you want to observe, choose your team members and resources, and apply the blocks in one action.
Holiday presets also appear when creating blocked time from anywhere in the app: select a holiday from the list and the date, time, and label are pre-filled.
The system supports all eight jurisdictions (NSW, VIC, QLD, SA, WA, TAS, NT, ACT) with both national and state-specific holidays.
Read the full Public Holidays deep dive
3. Played With Pets Tracking
The Problem
Daycare businesses manage playgroups throughout the day. Owners ask "Who did Bella play with today?" and the answer is usually a verbal recollection or, at best, a quick note in the appointment. There is no structured record of pet-to-pet interactions across sessions.
The Solution
A new Played With feature lets you record which pets played together during a daycare or group session. From any appointment, search and select from all pets checked in for the day. The interaction is saved to the appointment record, building a social history over time.
This gives daycare operators a structured way to track playgroup compositions, identify compatible play partners, and provide pet owners with richer updates about their pet's day. It also helps when forming groups: you can see which pets have a history of positive interactions.
Why It Matters
For daycare businesses, this is a differentiator. Pet owners care deeply about who their dog spends time with. Being able to say "Bella played with Max, Luna, and Charlie today" with a structured record behind it is more credible and more valuable than a generic "had a great day!" update.
4. SMS Appointment Cancellation
The Problem
A pet owner receives a reminder SMS and realises they need to cancel. Currently, they have to call, log in to the portal, or send a message and wait for you to process the cancellation manually.
The Solution
Pet owners can now cancel their appointment by replying to an SMS reminder. The system evaluates cancellation eligibility in real time: is the appointment within the cancellation window? Do cancellation fees apply? Is the appointment part of a recurring series?
If the cancellation is eligible, it is processed automatically. If fees apply, the system handles that according to your policy. If the appointment is not eligible for cancellation (too close to the start time, for example), the pet owner receives a clear explanation.
This complements the SMS confirmation reply shipped earlier this month. Together, they mean pet owners can both confirm and cancel appointments entirely via SMS, no app or login required.
Why It Matters
Reducing friction for cancellations might sound counterintuitive, but it protects your business. When cancellations are easy, they happen earlier, giving you more time to fill the slot. When they are hard, pet owners just no-show instead.
5. Enhanced Pet Notes & Attachments
The Update
Notes and attachments are no longer limited to individual appointments. You can now add care instructions, behavioural observations, dietary requirements, or important documents directly to a pet's profile.
This means information that applies across all appointments (a dog that is nervous around other dogs, a cat that needs medication, a grooming preference that should always be followed) lives on the pet record where every team member can access it, rather than being buried in a single appointment's notes.
The existing appointment-level notes and report cards remain unchanged. This is an additional layer of documentation at the pet level.
6. Smarter Blocked Time Overlap Detection
The Update
When creating blocked time, the system now checks for overlapping appointments and existing blocked periods before saving. If conflicts exist, you see a clear warning with the details: which appointments are affected, which blocked periods overlap, and what action you might want to take.
This prevents the common mistake of blocking a day without realising existing appointments need rescheduling. Combined with the new public holidays feature, it ensures that holiday closures never accidentally orphan booked appointments.
The Quarter in Review
This closes Q3 FY2025-26 (January to March 2026). Looking back, the quarter included:
- 2-Way SMS & Messaging Pro with dedicated numbers and threaded inbox
- BoostGPT AI assistant
- Simulation Mode for walking in your customers' shoes
- Care Colouring Mode for visual appointment management
- Quick Command Centre with Cmd+K search
- Photo Gallery & Map View in the pet owner portal
- Cancellation fee collection with SMS payment links
- Convert to Recurring for one-click series creation
- Communication preferences with consent management
- Sibling booking capacity for intelligent household scheduling
- SMS confirmation and cancellation by reply
- Public holidays management with jurisdiction-aware blocking
- Vaccination alerts on the scheduler
- Played-with-pets tracking for daycare playgroups
- And a stack of improvements to conflict detection, blocked time, pet profiles, and mobile performance
That is a lot of shipping. Q4 (April to June) is already being planned, with waitlist management, service bundles, and the enhanced pet owner portal on the roadmap.
Related Petboost Features
- Scheduling & Booking: Capacity management, conflict detection, and recurring series
- Communications: 2-way SMS, reminders, and notification management
- CRM & Pets: Pet profiles, breed data, and customer management
- Mission Control: Your daily operational command centre