OpenDog questions, answered
Clear answers before you trust OpenDog with a grooming day.
Start with the questions that affect the route, the dog, the client, the money, and the next appointment. These answers separate what OpenDog does now, what needs business or provider setup, and what is still planned.
- Current product screens
- Request-first route control
- Email live; SMS Coming Soon
One complete stop
Does OpenDog keep the whole appointment together?
Yes. This current product view keeps the client, dog, service, address, route status, care notes, deposit, invoice, and suggested next visit close to the work. The data is illustrative, not a customer result.
Answers with product context
Check the workflow behind the answer.
These are current OpenDog screens populated with sample grooming data. They demonstrate the product workflow without claiming customer adoption, revenue, ratings, market position, or guaranteed business outcomes.
Can a request change my calendar?
No. A new request stays unconfirmed while the business reviews the client, dog, service, address, timing, notes, availability, and route fit.
Will the groomer see useful dog context?
The working dog record keeps the owner, breed, care context, handling alert, and grooming history available before and during the visit.
Can the owner reconcile the day?
Owner reports separate appointments, dogs, service rows, invoices, recorded payments, balances, deposits, tips, unfinished work, and exports instead of presenting one vague sales total.
Start with the shape of the business.
OpenDog is built first for solo mobile groomers, house-call groomers, and small or growing mobile teams. It connects request review, customers and dogs, services, schedules, route context, groomer and van assignments, invoices, payment status, reports, and rebooking. A grooming salon can use relevant workflows, but the product’s center of gravity is the mobile day.
- Use one workspace for the operating context around each appointment.
- Test the exact owner, manager, staff, and groomer roles the team will use.
- Bring a real route day and one complete dog-and-visit example.
- Keep specialist accounting, payroll, emergency, and veterinary work in the systems and hands responsible for it.
Keep route and booking decisions human-controlled.
OpenDog helps review a mobile grooming day with addresses, service areas, drive context, customer windows, appointment length, buffers, groomers, vans, and stop order. Clients submit requests rather than taking any open time. A person decides whether the work fits and what changes the live schedule.
- A request is not a confirmed appointment.
- Route suggestions do not silently move confirmed work.
- Maps and drive estimates depend on the configured mapping service and usable addresses.
- The business still decides service areas, timing, exceptions, and safe route changes.
Know what communication is live today.
Appointment confirmation and reminder email workflows are live when email sending is configured and the client can receive email. SMS, two-way texting, automatic ETAs, and on-my-way texts remain Coming Soon. OpenDog not be purchased today on the assumption that planned texting is already available.
- Preview the current email workflow in the product tour.
- Keep the message tied to the correct client, dog, and appointment.
- Record a client’s text preference without treating that as an SMS launch.
- Retain a safe communication fallback for the live grooming day.
Separate invoices, payment status, and provider activity.
OpenDog connects invoices, deposits when enabled, payment links, receipts, recorded payments, tips, refunds, and balances to the appointment workflow. Supported online card entry and processing use Stripe after the business completes its required setup. Stripe controls its own onboarding, processing, payouts, disputes, and provider decisions.
- An invoice total, payment, deposit, tip, refund, and balance are different facts.
- A recorded paid status does not by itself prove processor settlement or accounting reconciliation.
- Never place complete card numbers or security codes in notes, email, text, support requests, or CSV files.
- The business chooses its prices, deposit rules, cancellation policy, and authorized payment actions.
Treat setup, import, and switching as reviewed work.
OpenDog includes guided setup and a review-first CSV import path for supported record types. Import results depend on the source export, structure, identifiers, duplicates, and data quality. Historical records do not automatically recreate future appointments, routes, invoices, balances, payment-provider activity, reminders, or client conversations.
- Start with services, staff, service areas, roles, policies, and one sample day.
- Use current templates and a small representative import before moving more records.
- Verify several owners, dogs, services, notes, and historical visits after save.
- Keep the previous system available until future work and retained records are reconciled.
Test the product, price, support, and exit together.
Use the current product tour and a trial to verify the workflow on the phones and computers the business will actually use. Compare the published plan, required setup, connected-provider costs, migration effort, support path, exports, and fallback needs as one decision—not as separate sales claims.
- Score only what you can see or verify now.
- Check long names, addresses, notes, and real mobile widths.
- Existing customers should use the signed-in Help Center for tracked requests.
- No public 24/7 support or fixed response-time promise is made on this page.
Workflow
Choose the next answer you need.
See the workflow
Follow current request, route, dog, appointment, invoice, report, and rebooking screens with sample grooming data.
Compare the full cost
Review the published plan, trial, included workflow, setup work, connected providers, and switching needs together.
Ask one focused question
Send the exact route, setup, import, payment, privacy, or account question that remains after reviewing the public pages.
FAQ
Common questions from grooming businesses.
Product and fit
What is OpenDog?
OpenDog is software for the mobile grooming day. It connects customer requests, clients and dogs, services, appointments, route context, groomer and van assignments, invoices, payment status, reports, and rebooking in one business workspace.
Who is OpenDog built for?
OpenDog is built first for solo mobile groomers, house-call groomers, and small or growing mobile grooming teams. Grooming salons can use relevant workflows, but route-aware mobile work is the product’s primary focus.
Is the product shown on this page current?
Yes. The screenshots are current OpenDog product views populated with sample grooming data. They demonstrate workflow and are not testimonials, customer counts, revenue results, review scores, or market proof.
Can I inspect OpenDog before talking to someone?
Yes. Start with the self-guided Product Tour, review the current screens on this page, compare published plans, and use a trial when you are ready to test your own setup.
Scheduling, routes, and requests
Does OpenDog support mobile grooming routes?
Yes. OpenDog brings appointment timing, addresses, service areas, route status, drive context, customer windows, buffers, groomers, vans, stop order, and follow-up into the daily workflow. Mapping results still depend on the configured provider and usable addresses.
Does OpenDog automatically move confirmed appointments?
No. OpenDog can help compare route order and recalculate when route tools are configured, but a person chooses what to apply. Confirmed appointments do not move silently.
Can clients book any open time?
No. OpenDog is request-first. The business reviews the dog, service, address, service area, route fit, timing, availability, and notes before creating or confirming an appointment.
Can I manage recurring clients?
Yes. OpenDog keeps recurring-appointment and suggested-next-visit context with the client and dog. A suggestion does not silently book the next appointment; the business reviews and confirms it.
Clients, dogs, and the field visit
Can one client have multiple dogs?
Yes. A household can have multiple dog records, and the visit can keep the relevant dogs, services, notes, invoice context, and follow-up together.
What can a dog record hold?
OpenDog can keep the owner relationship, breed and identifying details, grooming and service history, care context, handling notes, owner preferences, and permitted photos. The business should keep notes factual, necessary, and appropriately restricted.
Does OpenDog diagnose health or verify veterinary facts?
No. OpenDog records business and owner-provided context; it does not diagnose a condition, replace veterinary guidance, or automatically verify vaccines, medical claims, handling safety, or grooming suitability.
Does the phone view contain the working appointment?
Yes. The phone workflow can show the next stop, client and dog, service, address, route status, care notes, invoice context, and next action without requiring an owner-sized dashboard. Test it on the devices the team will carry.
Email and texting
Which client messages are live today?
Appointment confirmation and reminder email workflows are live when email sending is configured and the client can receive email. Current emails can remain tied to the correct customer, dog, and appointment.
Are SMS reminders, two-way texting, or on-my-way texts live?
No. SMS, two-way texting, automatic ETAs, and on-my-way texts remain Coming Soon. A recorded text preference is not proof that OpenDog can send texts today.
Does OpenDog guarantee email delivery?
No. OpenDog can prepare and send supported email through the configured path, but delivery also depends on the recipient address, receiving provider, spam filtering, and connected email service. Keep a fallback for time-sensitive changes.
Invoices and payments
Can OpenDog create invoices and track balances?
Yes. OpenDog can keep invoices, payment status, eligible deposits, payment links, receipts, recorded payments, tips, refunds, and balances connected to the appointment workflow.
How are online card payments handled?
Supported online card entry and processing use Stripe after required business setup. Stripe controls its onboarding, processing, payouts, disputes, and provider decisions. OpenDog keeps the appointment, invoice, amount, status, and provider references needed for the workflow.
Does OpenDog store complete card numbers?
Supported card entry uses Stripe-hosted or Stripe-controlled flows. Staff should never place complete card numbers or security codes in OpenDog notes, email, text, support requests, or CSV files.
Is OpenDog an accounting or payroll system?
No. OpenDog reports operational and appointment-linked money context available in the account. The business must reconcile processor settlement, accounting, tax, payroll, and bank activity in the systems and with the professionals responsible for them.
Setup, import, and switching
What does setup cover?
Setup can guide review of business details, hours, service areas, staff and roles, services, durations, prices, policies, request pages, routes, payment readiness, imports, and a sample launch day. The owner approves the operating decisions.
What can OpenDog import?
The current review-first CSV workflow supports customers, dogs, postal-code service areas, services, inactive staff profiles, and matched historical appointments using the provided templates and required sequence. Each preview still needs human review.
Will an import recreate my whole old system?
No. Results depend on the source export and data quality. Historical records do not automatically recreate future appointments, routes, invoices, balances, payment-provider activity, reminders, messages, custom automations, or every field from another product.
Can I switch from paper, calendars, texts, spreadsheets, or another grooming system?
Yes, with a reviewed transition. Inventory the source tools, clean the active records, rebuild services and policies, protect upcoming work, test a normal route day, reconcile the result, and keep the old workflow available until the new one is proven.
Plans, security, and support
Where can I see current pricing and plan limits?
Use the OpenDog Pricing page for the current published plans, trial, billing period, included workflow, limits, and common provider boundaries. Confirm the complete first-year cost before changing the live business.
How does staff access work?
OpenDog uses authenticated roles and shop-scoped access for restricted business workflows. Owners should give each person an individual account, test the exact role, review active sessions, and deactivate access promptly when it is no longer needed.
Where should an existing customer ask for help?
Sign in and use the Help Center when possible. It provides workflow guides, a tracked request form, recent request status, and business context that a public message does not have.
Does OpenDog promise 24/7 support or a fixed response time?
No public 24/7 coverage or fixed response-time promise is made here. Describe the exact workflow, last successful step, safe record reference, approximate time, and what is blocked, and keep a safe fallback for the live grooming day.
Still deciding? Test the exact grooming day you run.
Use the self-guided tour first. Then compare the current plan or send one focused route, setup, import, payment, or account question.