GroomBox FAQ and setup guide

Start with your business details, opening hours, services, staff members and staff rotas. After that, add your first client and pet, then create a test appointment on the calendar.

The checklist helps you complete the basics that make the calendar work properly. It marks each step complete automatically when the right data exists for your business.

Starter covers the core client, pet and appointment workflow. Grow as You do adds online booking, deposits, SMS allowance, advanced analytics and AI Assistant access. Elite adds more staff, priority support, WhatsApp and AI Assistant access. Platinum adds unlimited staff and locations.

Yes. Use the pricing or Billing area to choose a different plan. If billing setup is incomplete, GroomBox will show that no payment was taken.

Saved opening hours tell the calendar which days and times are normally available. Closed days and out-of-hours slots are shown as unavailable, and the appointment form warns or blocks bookings outside hours depending on your booking settings.

Only if your Calendar & Bookings settings allow it. If outside-hours booking is disabled, GroomBox prevents the appointment from saving and shows a clear warning.

Add the client's name, phone, email and any notes that help your salon. Client detail pages show their pets, appointment history and grooming history.

When adding a pet, choose Dog or Cat first. The breed dropdown then shows matching breeds. Mixed breed and Other are available when the exact breed is not listed.

Open Calendar, click an empty time slot, then choose the client, pet, service, staff member, status and price. The selected slot fills the start time automatically.

GroomBox uses the price and duration configured for the selected service and pet breed in Pricing & Services. If that combination is not configured, the appointment must be configured there first unless you intentionally override the individual appointment.

Staff rotas define when each staff member works. If you assign staff to an appointment, GroomBox checks the appointment against that staff member's rota and warns or prevents bookings outside their working hours.

Appointments use the assigned staff member's colour where possible. If no staff member is assigned, the calendar falls back to the normal appointment status colour.

A public booking request is an enquiry from a customer. It does not automatically create a confirmed appointment. The business owner can accept, reject, contact or convert the request.

Your public booking page uses the booking slug saved in Business Details, for example /book/happy-paws-grooming. Online booking is available on Grow as You do and Elite.

Email reminders are sent before appointments when the secured hosted cron processes them and an email delivery provider is configured.

SMS confirmations are sent immediately when appointments are booked or created. SMS reminders are sent before appointments through the hosted cron and respect your SMS balance. WhatsApp is manual click-to-chat: GroomBox opens a prefilled message but does not send it automatically.

Customer deposits through Stripe are not available yet. GroomBox will not automatically charge customers.

Stripe subscription foundations are in place for GroomBox SaaS plan billing. Business customer deposits and salon payment collection are planned separately.

Use Billing in Settings and choose Manage billing. If Stripe Customer Portal is unavailable, GroomBox shows a clear billing setup message.

Stripe webhooks update the business subscription status. GroomBox currently shows warnings for cancelled or past-due accounts rather than fully locking the app.

Use the Support page inside the app to open a ticket. You can send a subject, category and message, then reply in the same thread when GroomBox responds.

All plans get standard support. Priority support is included on Elite only, and non-Elite businesses will see an upgrade prompt instead of the priority option.