Report cards are KennelBooker's daily updates for pet parents, and they replace postcards. A report card fills itself in from the Daily Care Log: meals and how much was eaten, medication doses, toilet breaks, water, walks, other activities, overnight checks, extras done and weight. Your staff add photos, the pet's mood, friends they played with, answers to your own questions and a few words about the day. The note can be written by staff or drafted with AI. The pet parent (owner, customer or client) gets a link to a page they can open without logging in, where they can react, reply to you and, if you allow it, share a photo card. Staff work on report cards from the Report cards tab of the Daily Care Log.
Where to find report cards
Report cards are in the Daily Care Log, which has its own item in the main menu, straight under Dashboard. Open the Daily Care Log and click the Report cards tab (under it: "Photos, notes, send"). The Daily Care Log used to be in the Dashboard's Quick Links dropdown; it isn't there any more.
Report cards are off until you switch them on. The first time you open the Report cards tab you'll see "Report cards are switched off for your business." with a Set them up link. That opens Report card settings, where you switch on Use report cards and click Save settings. Once they're on, the Settings button at the top of the Report cards page takes you back there.
Any staff member who can log in can write and send report cards. Only staff with the Settings permission (on their staff account) can open Report card settings. Everyone else sees "You need access to settings to change report cards." and doesn't get the Settings button.
You can rename report cards. In Report card settings, What you call them sets the name your customers see, for example Pupdate, Stay diary or Postcard. The page heading, emails, texts and the card itself all use your name.
What report cards do
List every pet on a checked-in booking for the day (and pets checked out that day), one report card each, for every service you've switched report cards on for.
Fill in each report card from what staff recorded in the Daily Care Log, with nothing to retype.
Let you upload a batch of photos and videos for the day and tick which pets are in each one. A photo with three dogs in it goes on all three report cards.
Let staff tick the pet's mood and energy, pick friends from the pets in that day, answer your own questions and type a few highlights.
Draft the note with AI, one report card at a time or every report card at once, in the tone of voice you choose. Staff read and edit it before it goes out.
Hold a report card back when something needs a person first, such as a refused meal or a missed medication dose, so nothing goes out until a member of staff has dealt with it.
Send by email, SMS and app notification, where the customer has opted in, and always add the report card to the customer's history in the Customer Portal.
Send automatically each day at a time you choose, but only report cards a member of staff has marked ready.
Show you whether the pet parent opened the report card, their reactions, and put their replies in your Chat inbox.
How to set up report cards
Open the Daily Care Log from the main menu and click the Report cards tab, then Set them up (or Settings if report cards are already on).
Under Report cards, switch on Use report cards. Change What you call them if you like (up to 40 characters).
Under Writing the note, leave AI notes on if you want staff to be able to draft notes with AI. Pick a Tone of voice and a Pet puns setting. Add Your own style notes if you want (up to 400 characters), for example "Call them guests, not boarders."
Click Write a sample note to see a note for a made-up dog called Bella, written with the tone and pun settings on screen, even before you save them.
Under What customers see, choose the Card colour and what to show. Your logo goes at the top of every report card.
Under Sending, choose how report cards are sent and whether to send them automatically.
Under Cards for each service, switch each service on or off, switch on the sections you want and number them in the order you want them.
Under Your own questions, add any questions you want staff to answer on each report card.
Click Save settings. You'll see "Saved."
How to write and send a report card
Record the day as normal in the Daily Care Log: rounds, other activities and weights.
Click the Report cards tab. The page shows today, with arrows to go back a day. You can open past days but not future ones. Choose your name in the Staff dropdown ("Who's doing this?").
To add photos, use Photos & videos at the top: choose the files and click Upload. You'll see "3 items uploaded. Now tick who's in each one." Under each photo, tick the pets in it, add a caption if you want, and click Save tags & captions. Use Show pets in (play area) and Find (pet or owner) to find pets quickly. Ticking Remove this photo and saving removes it from every report card.
Each pet has a row showing its run or room, service, owner, what's been logged (for example "Fed 2/2 · Meds 1/1 · Toilet 3 · Water 2"), the number of photos, the note and a status. Click Open on a pet's row to open its report card.
On the report card, tick up to three moods under Mood & energy (Happy, Playful, Relaxed, Cuddly, Curious, Settled, Excited, Sleepy, Confident, A little unsure, Shy) and one energy level (Calm, Steady or High energy).
Under Friends today, tick the pets it played with. Only pets in that day are listed, with pets in the same play area first (shown with a dashed border).
Answer Your questions, if you've set any up. Unanswered questions are left off the report card.
Under Highlights, type a few words about real moments, for example "stole the rope toy, ran laps, napped in the shade". The AI builds the note around these.
Under Note from the team, type the note yourself, or click Write with AI. You can pick a different tone for this one note from the tone dropdown first. When it's done you'll see "Note written. Read it, change anything that isn't quite right, then save." Edit anything that isn't right.
Check the preview, which shows what the pet parent will see, and the From the care log panel, which lists everything logged for the day. On a wide screen they're on the right; on a phone or tablet they're below the form.
Click Send now to send it straight away, or Save & mark ready to send it later with Send ready cards or automatic sending. Save keeps your changes without marking it ready.
How to do report cards for every pet at once
On the Report cards page, tick the pets you want in the left-hand column, or tick none to act on every pet the button applies to.
Click Write notes with AI to draft a note for every report card that has something logged, a photo or highlights, and doesn't have a note yet. The number in brackets is how many it will write. When it's done you'll see, for example, "6 notes written. Read each one before it goes out."
Open each report card, read the note and change anything that isn't right.
Click Mark ready to mark the ticked report cards ready. Report cards with no note and no photo are skipped, and the message says which ones.
Click Send ready cards to send them. With no pets ticked, only report cards marked ready are sent. With pets ticked, every ticked report card that has a note or a photo is sent, ready or not.
Report cards on hold are always skipped by these buttons.
Report card holds: when a card can't be sent
A report card goes on hold when something needs a person to look at it before the pet parent hears about it. Usually the right thing is a quick call to the owner. A report card is held when:
a meal is marked "ate none" in the Daily Care Log ("A meal was refused")
a medication dose the pet's profile says is due hasn't been logged for a round that has finished ("A medication dose isn't logged")
an incident is logged for the pet that day ("Incident logged")
on a boarding, home stay or board and train stay, the pet's weight has dropped 5% or more ("Weight has dropped")
a member of staff ticks Something needs a call (holds the card) on the report card ("Staff flagged a concern")
A held report card shows "On hold" with the reason on the Report cards page. It can't be sent, marked ready or written with AI, by hand or automatically.
To clear a hold, open the report card. At the top, under "On hold: a person needs to look at this first", choose Owner contacted or Not a concern, type what was said or decided if you want (staff only), make sure your name is chosen in Staff at the bottom, and click Clear the hold. You'll see "Hold cleared (owner contacted). Notes written from now on are kept gentle, with no jokes." KennelBooker keeps who cleared it, when, and why.
What happens after you send a report card
The pet parent gets a link by each channel you've switched on and they've opted in to. The email has a short summary and a "See [pet]'s full day" link. The text message is short, for example "Bella's report card from Happy Paws is ready", followed by the link. The app notification says the same.
It's added to the customer's report card history in the Customer Portal, however it was delivered. If no channel could reach the customer, it still counts as sent and its channel shows as "portal".
What the pet parent sees is fixed at the moment you send. Later changes in the Daily Care Log don't change a sent report card. To change it, edit the report card and click Update the sent card: the link shows the new version marked "updated", and no new email or text is sent. Send again sends the message again.
Staff can see sent report cards on the Report cards page (status "Sent" with the time), in the Report cards section of the customer's page and the pet's page, on each booking's details page just above Customer Messages, and at the top of the booking's Postcards tab. Each row shows the status, when and how it was sent (email, SMS, app, portal), whether it was opened ("Opened 3 times" or "Not opened yet"), reactions and replies, with an Open link to edit it and a Customer view link to see what the customer sees.
Replies go to your Chat inbox as a message from the customer, starting with which report card it's about, for example "Re Bella's report card (22 Oct): ...". Answer it there like any other chat message.
Nothing changes on the booking. Sending a report card doesn't change the booking, the calendar, invoices or prices.
What the pet parent sees on a report card
The pet parent opens the report card from the link. They don't need to log in. It shows your logo and colour, the pet's name and the day, the photos and videos, and the sections you chose for that service:
At a glance: tiles such as meals eaten, meds given, toilet breaks, water top-ups, walks, night checks and weight.
Note from the team, signed "From the team at [your business]", or with the staff member's first name if you switch that on.
Mood & energy, Playmates (first names and breeds only, never owners), Meals, Medication, Their day (a timeline), Extras done, Weight and Your questions.
What's next: on a stay going home in the next 3 days, a "Fresh for pickup?" prompt to book a groom (only if grooming can be booked online and none is booked); after a visit, a "Same again soon?" prompt to book the next one (only if that service can be booked online and nothing is booked in the next 60 days). A review prompt can also show on the last day; see Settings below.
Sections with nothing in them are left off. Under the report card the pet parent can:
Send some love: tap a reaction (love, laugh, wow or thanks). You see the reactions on the Report cards page.
Reply to the team: type a message and click Send. They see "Thanks! Your message is with the team, and they'll reply in your messages."
Share: only when the customer has Use Pet Images on Website & Social Media ticked on their customer page. They get a square photo card with the pet's name, the day and your colour, to share or open.
What report cards don't do
Report cards never send by themselves without a person. Automatic sending only sends report cards a member of staff marked ready. Drafts are never sent automatically.
Report cards never send while on hold, and the AI never writes a note for a held report card.
The AI doesn't see the pet's weight, incidents or your staff-only questions, and only uses what was logged, picked or typed for that pet that day.
Report cards don't cover sales or cremation bookings.
Report cards don't change bookings, invoices or prices, and don't charge the customer anything. SMS uses your SMS credits as usual.
You can't do a report card for a future day, or for a pet whose booking isn't checked in (or checked out) for that day.
A sent report card doesn't update itself when the Daily Care Log changes. Use Update the sent card.
Report cards don't move your old postcards anywhere. Old postcards stay where they are and are listed alongside new report cards in the customer's history.
The words on report cards and the report card pages (section names, moods, buttons) are in English only for now. The AI note is written in the customer's preferred language when it isn't English.
Videos aren't converted. A MOV video from an iPhone may not play in every Android browser, so MP4 is safer.
Settings that affect report cards
All of these are in Report card settings (Daily Care Log > Report cards > Settings).
Use report cards: on shows the report cards board and editor to staff. Off shows "Report cards are switched off for your business." Sent report cards stay visible to customers either way.
What you call them: the name customers see, for example Report card or Pupdate.
Replace postcards: records the date you switched from postcards to report cards (shown under the switch). Customers' old postcards stay in their history next to new report cards.
AI notes: on shows Write with AI and Write notes with AI. Off hides them, and staff write every note themselves.
Tone of voice: Warm and friendly, Fun and upbeat, Short and to the point, Super specific and detailed, Calm and professional, or In the pet's own voice. Staff can choose a different tone for one note.
Your own style notes: extra guidance for the AI. It can't change the facts or the rules.
Pet puns: Off (no puns or wordplay), Where they fit (at most one, only on a clearly happy moment) or Playful (up to two, same rules). Puns are never about food, medication, health, weight or nerves. The Calm and professional tone, and any day with a problem, always get none.
Card colour: the colour of buttons and highlights on the report card.
Show: Friends (other pets' first names and breeds, never owners), Medicine names (otherwise just "dose given") and Staff first names ("From Sarah at ...").
Prompts on the card: Booking prompts turns the groom and "book the next one" prompts on or off. Review prompt shows Google and Facebook review buttons on the last day of a stay or visit, only when a happy mood is ticked, the report card was never held, the customer has opted in to marketing, they haven't already clicked a review link or told you they've reviewed, and your Google or Facebook review links are set up for review requests. With no review links set up, no review prompt shows.
Send by: Email, SMS with the link (uses SMS credits) and App notification. See "Who receives a report card" below.
Send automatically: on sends report cards marked ready shortly after the time you set (17:30 unless you change it), each day. Only that day's report cards are sent.
Cards for each service: switch report cards on or off per service, and choose the sections and their order. For boarding and home stay you can choose One a day or One for the whole stay. Other services get One per visit. You can add an optional line under the photo, for example "Here's today at the farm".
Your own questions: types are Yes / No, Count, Scale 1-5, Faces (5), Pick several, Pick one, Short text and Long text. Each can be for all services or one. Switch off Customer sees to make a question staff only. Hide when No leaves a Yes / No question off the report card when the answer is No. Pick one and Pick several need at least two choices.
Who receives a report card, by email, SMS or app
Email: Email is on in Report card settings, and on the customer's page (Communication Preferences) both Booking Notifications and Postcards are ticked under Email Notification. They need an email address that isn't marked as failing. Their secondary email address is copied in. A customer who unsubscribed from postcards doesn't get the report card email.
SMS: SMS is on in Report card settings, Send text messages to customers is on in Settings > SMS Settings, the customer has Booking Notifications ticked under SMS Notification, they have a mobile number, and you have SMS credits.
App notification: App notification is on in Report card settings, New pet postcards is on in Settings > Push Notification Settings, the customer has Postcard Notifications ticked under Push Notifications, and they use the pet parent app.
Customer Portal: every sent report card, whatever happened with the other channels.
Troubleshooting report cards
"Report cards are switched off for your business."
Report cards haven't been switched on. Click Set them up, switch on Use report cards and click Save settings. You need the Settings permission to do this; otherwise ask the account owner.
"No pets are checked in for this day."
The Report cards page only lists pets on bookings that are checked in for that day, or checked out that day. Check the pet in, then refresh. Also check that report cards are switched on for that service under Cards for each service.
"This pet isn't on the board for that day (not checked in, or report cards are off for the service)."
The report card link is for a day the pet wasn't checked in, or report cards are switched off for that service. Open the Report cards page for the right day.
The Write with AI button is greyed out
The report card is on hold ("Clear the hold first"). Clear the hold, then write the note. If there's no AI button at all, AI notes is switched off in Report card settings.
"No cards need a note: they already have one, are on hold or sent, or nothing has been logged yet."
Write notes with AI only writes for report cards with no note yet that aren't on hold or sent, and that have something to write from: a Daily Care Log entry, highlights or a photo. Log the day first, or open the report card and write it yourself.
"The AI note didn't meet the rules (...). Write it yourself or try again."
KennelBooker checks every AI note, for example that it doesn't repeat phrases from this customer's recent report cards or use a pun on a day with a problem, and tries once more if it doesn't pass. If the second try also fails you see this message with the reason. Click Write with AI again or type the note yourself. "The AI service didn't answer" means the AI couldn't be reached; try again in a minute.
"Choose who you are (Staff) before clearing a hold."
Choose your name in the Staff dropdown at the bottom of the report card, then click Clear the hold again.
"Saved, but it can't be marked ready while it's on hold."
Clear the hold first, then click Save & mark ready.
"Saved. Add a note or a photo before marking it ready." or "has no note or photo yet"
A report card needs a note or at least one photo before it can be marked ready or sent.
"No cards are marked ready." or "None of the ticked cards can be sent yet."
With no pets ticked, Send ready cards only sends report cards marked ready. With pets ticked, it sends ticked report cards that have a note or photo and aren't on hold. Mark them ready, or add a note or photo, or clear the hold.
"[Pet] is on hold (...)" when sending
The report card was held when you tried to send it, for example because a meal was refused after you opened it. Open the report card, deal with the reason and clear the hold.
The customer didn't get the email or text
Open the report card from the customer's page. If the channel shows only "portal", none of the channels could reach them: check their Communication Preferences (Email: Booking Notifications and Postcards; SMS: Booking Notifications; Push: Postcard Notifications), their email address and mobile number, your SMS credits, and which channels are on under Send by. Messages such as "SMS not sent: no credits." show when you send.
Automatic sending didn't send a report card
Only report cards marked ready, not on hold and for today are sent automatically, after the time set under Send automatically. Drafts are never sent automatically. A ready report card from an earlier day isn't sent automatically; open it and click Send now.
"not a photo or video we can use." or "too big (25 MB max)." when uploading photos
Report cards take photos (JPG, PNG, GIF and other common types, up to 25 MB each) and MP4 or MOV videos up to 100 MB each. Photos are resized and location data is removed. If a file "couldn't be read or uploaded", try saving it as JPG.
The customer says the link says "This card isn't available"
The link is incomplete (often cut off when copied), or the report card hasn't been sent yet. Open the report card and use Copy under Customer's link to send them the full link.
Report cards: frequently asked questions
Do report cards replace postcards?
Yes. Report cards are the new version of postcards. Switch on Replace postcards in Report card settings to record the date you switched. Old postcards aren't deleted: customers see them in their history alongside their new report cards, marked "Postcard".
Can I call report cards something else, like Pupdates?
Yes. Set What you call them in Report card settings. Customers see that name on the report card, in the email and text, and in their history.
Does the pet parent need to log in to see a report card?
No. Each report card has its own private link that opens without logging in. Every sent report card is also in the customer's history in the Customer Portal.
Is a report card sent automatically when staff record something in the Daily Care Log?
No. Nothing goes to the pet parent until a member of staff sends the report card, or marks it ready and automatic sending is on. Recording in the Daily Care Log never sends anything by itself.
Does the AI make things up?
The AI only uses what was logged in the Daily Care Log, the mood, friends, answers and highlights staff picked or typed for that pet that day. It never sees weight, incidents or staff-only questions. Staff should always read the note before sending, and can edit it. The report card shows whether a note was an "AI draft", "AI, edited" or "Written by staff".
Can I write report cards without AI?
Yes. Switch off AI notes in Report card settings and staff type every note. Even with AI on, staff can type the note themselves.
Can I stop the AI using puns or jokes?
Yes. Set Pet puns to Off, or use the Calm and professional tone. Report cards also switch puns and jokes off by themselves on any day with a problem: a hold (even once cleared), a meal only partly eaten, a weight drop of 2% or more, or an overnight check that noted something.
Why is a report card on hold?
A report card is held when a meal is refused, a due medication dose isn't logged for a finished round, an incident is logged, weight drops 5% or more on a stay, or staff tick "Something needs a call". It can't be sent until a member of staff clears the hold as "Owner contacted" or "Not a concern".
Can I send one report card for the whole stay instead of one a day?
Yes, for boarding and home stay. In Report card settings, under Cards for each service, choose One for the whole stay. Other services get one report card per visit.
Which services can have report cards?
Boarding (including board and train), daycare, nightcare, home stay, grooming, training, walks, drop-ins, generic and universal services. Sales and cremation can't. You can switch report cards on or off for each service.
Can I change a report card after it's been sent?
Yes. Open it, make your change and click Update the sent card. The pet parent's link shows the new version, marked "updated", and they don't get another message. Send again sends the message again.
Can pet parents reply to a report card?
Yes. They type a message under Reply to the team on the report card. It arrives in your Chat inbox as a message from that customer, starting with the pet's name and the day.
Can pet parents share the report card on social media?
Only if the customer has Use Pet Images on Website & Social Media ticked on their customer page when the report card is sent. Then the report card has a Share button with a square photo card. Otherwise there's no Share button.
Are other customers' names shown when I pick friends?
No. Friends show only the other pets' first names and breeds, never the owners. You can switch friends off under Show in Report card settings.
Does sending a report card cost anything?
There's no charge per report card. Text messages use your SMS credits like any other text.
Does the report card work on a phone or tablet?
Yes. Staff can upload photos and write report cards in the browser on a phone or tablet, and the pet parent's report card is designed for phones.
Where can I see report cards we've already sent?
On the Report cards page for that day, in the Report cards section of the customer's page and the pet's page, on the booking details page above Customer Messages, and on the booking's Postcards tab.
Can report cards be in another language?
The AI note is written in the customer's preferred language if it isn't English. Everything else on the report card, such as section names and moods, is in English for now.
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