📖 Guide

What the account types mean, and how the platform works. Takes about five minutes.

Choosing your account

There are three kinds of account. They're not price tiers — every one of them is free to use. Pick the one that matches how you work.

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🐶 If you're a pet owner

1. Finding your business

There are two ways in, and both work the same once you're here. You might have been sent a link by a walker, groomer or boarder you already use — that opens their page straight away. Or you can browse business listings and search by service and distance to find someone new, with a green Verified badge where our team has checked a document.

Either way, once you've booked with someone — or tapped Save to my dashboard on their page — they'll be waiting on your dashboard, so getting back to them next time is one tap.

2. Add your pets

Breed, age, any special needs, and your vet's details. There's no rush — you can do this after you've booked. Businesses caring for them see it once a booking is confirmed, so the more you add the better prepared they are.

3. Add your postcode

In your profile. It's how the site works out who's near you. Only the area — like "M20" — is ever shown publicly, never your full postcode or street address.

4. Book

Check their availability and send a booking request — they'll accept or decline and you'll get an email either way. Nothing suits? Ask for a time they haven't listed and they can accept it or suggest another.

5. What happens next

Message them any time through the site. You'll get a reminder the day before, and afterwards they can send you a write-up of how your pet got on, often with a photo. Pay however suits you both — cash, bank transfer, or by card through the site.

Use Sync to calendar to subscribe your phone or laptop calendar once. Bookings then appear in it on their own, and disappear if one is cancelled — you never have to add or remove anything by hand.

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⭐🏢 If you offer pet services

This applies to both Solo-Trader and Multi-User accounts. Multi-User has one extra step at the end.

1. Build your profile

Your bio, photo, the services you offer and the animals you cover. Add your Facebook and TikTok if you have them. Add your postcode — clients search by distance, so without one you won't appear in their results at all.

2. Bring your clients across, or find new ones

You get a short link to your page — something like mypetcare.pro/b/your-name — on your profile edit page. From there you can also invite your clients by email, up to 25 at a time, with a note explaining you're moving your bookings here. And you're listed in business listings, so people looking for someone new can find you.

In a hurry? Use Reserve to add a customer from just an email address. It's confirmed on the spot, and we set up an account for them with the booking already in it — their email invites them to finish setting it up, and to fill in anything you didn't know.

No booking to make yet? Clients → Create adds someone on its own. Same idea: an account is set up for them and they're emailed to finish it off, with an optional note from you explaining you're moving your bookings here.

3. Add your credentials

Insurance, DBS checks and qualifications. Upload the documents and our team reviews them — verified ones get a green badge on your public profile. Documents are stored privately and are never shown to other users.

4. List your availability

Everything runs from Bookings — your diary, your availability and your clients in one place. Hit Create to add a slot people can book. A one-off slot is a single date and time; a recurring one repeats weekly for up to four months and creates each date for you, so you can cancel or fill an individual day without touching the rest. Group walks take several clients at once — set how many places there are — while single walks and home visits are one-to-one.

The month calendar at the top shows the whole picture at a glance, with a coloured line on each day for what's on. Tap a day to open it hour by hour.

5. Boarding, if you offer it

List each kennel or pen by name with a nightly price, and set your drop-off address and times. Clients book a date range and only see pens genuinely free for those nights, so you can't be double-booked.

6. Handle bookings

Requests arrive by email and appear in Bookings. Accept or decline, and the client is told automatically. Their contact details and full address unlock once you confirm. If someone books you directly rather than through the site, use Reserve so your numbers stay right.

Need to call a walk off? Cancelling it also cancels everyone booked onto it and emails them for you, so nobody turns up to something that isn't running. If anyone has already paid, you'll be told so you can refund them.

Accounts, on your dashboard, is your client book and your ledger: everyone you deal with, ordered by who owes you most. Open someone to see every job you've done for them. It also lists people who've saved you to their dashboard but haven't booked yet.

7. After the job

Mark it complete, then send the owner an update on how it went with a photo if you like. On a group walk one update goes to everyone on it. Invoices are there when you need them.

8. Getting paid

However suits you both. Cash or bank transfer costs you nothing and doesn't involve us at all. If you'd rather take card payments through the site, set up payouts and we'll send the client a secure link — card processing plus a 2% platform fee comes out of that payment.

9. Multi-User only — bring your team on

In Manage Staff, invite people by email. They set their own password and get their own login, then work from the same diary, bookings and inbox as you. Assign who's covering each walk or stay and they're emailed automatically. Clients only ever see your business — the rota stays behind the scenes. There's no per-person charge, however many you add.

If someone leaves, removing them hands back anything they were covering and turns their login into an ordinary Solo-Trader account. Their account stays theirs — it was never yours to delete.

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⭐ Pro membership — optional

Everything above is free, including adding staff. Pro is a separate, optional upgrade for businesses who want more room and more visibility:

• Unlimited availability slots (free accounts get 20 active at a time)

• A Pro badge on your profile and browse card

• Priority placement in search results

It costs £5.99 a month for a Solo-Trader and £19.99 a month for Multi-User. The difference isn't extra features — they're identical — it's that a whole team's photos and uploads cost more to host. Cancel any time.

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Anything else?

Email Support@southbyte.co.uk and we'll help. See also our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.