Dog grooming salon software: bookings by dog size, signed consent, and the six-week rebook

Dog grooming salon software has to know something a general booking app doesn't: a Chihuahua and a Newfoundland are not the same appointment. The right system times and prices each groom by size and coat, keeps a record the next groomer can read, gets consent and vaccination details signed before drop-off, handles repeat no-shows without punishing everyone, brings each dog back on its coat's schedule, and works out commission.

Below: how to set up each of those, with numbers you can borrow, what grooming software costs in Australia and the US, and where Wemu's dog grooming software fits (and where it doesn't).

What dog grooming salon software has to do

1. 1Time and price by size and coat, so a big dog is never squeezed into a small dog's slot.
2. 2A record for every dog: breed, weight, vet, vaccination status and handling notes.
3. 3Consent and vaccinations signed before drop-off, and kept on the owner's record.
4. 4No-show rules that target repeat offenders, not every client.
5. 5Rebooking on the coat's schedule, at checkout, with a reminder as the backup.
6. 6One till for the groom and the retail, with each groomer's commission worked out.

Setup tutorial: seven steps to a calmer salon

Step 1 — Time and price every groom by size and coat

A Chihuahua's bath and tidy takes about 45 minutes; a Standard Poodle's full groom can run past two and a half hours. Book a husky into a Maltese-sized gap and the whole afternoon runs late. Start with weight bands, time your own grooms for two weeks, and adjust:

Then price from time, not gut feel. Work out what a groomer hour must bring in to cover wages, rent, products and profit, and multiply: at $70 an hour (use your own figure and currency), a 90-minute medium groom is $105 and a 150-minute large groom is $175.

Keep clean-up time in the booking length, not the price, and charge dematting separately, per 15 minutes, agreed before you start. Prices stuck for two years? Here's how to raise them without losing clients.

In Wemu: set up Small, Medium, Large and Giant grooms as separate services, each with its own time, price and clean-up buffer. Owners only see times with room for the size they pick, and if they add a nail trim, Wemu checks the longer visit still fits. Add your hydrobath as a resource and link it to the services that use it, so two online bookings can't both claim it at the same time.

Step 2 — A dog grooming booking system owners use at 9pm

Owners notice the matting at night, long after you've closed. Put a booking link in your Instagram bio, on your Facebook page and on your Google Business Profile, and let owners pick their dog's size, a groomer (or whoever's free) and a time. Build the roster and set your opening hours first, so you know who can take which slots.

In Wemu: every plan includes a booking page to use for those links. Owners choose a size, a groomer or "Any available", and a time. Pick a groomer and times come from their rostered shift that day, or your opening hours if they have none; "Any available" uses your opening hours. Approved leave takes a groomer off the booking calendar.

Step 3 — A dog grooming consent form, signed before drop-off

A dog grooming consent form protects the dog, the owner and you. Send it before the first visit so it's filled in at home, not at the counter with a lead in one hand. Cover:

• Contacts and the dog: owner and emergency numbers; the dog's name, breed, age and weight.
• Vaccinations: in Australia, usually C5 (the core C3 plus kennel cough); in the US, rabies plus DHPP and Bordetella. Ask for the date of the last shot.
• Health and behaviour: skin problems, allergies, heart or breathing issues, seizures, recent surgery, senior frailty, bite history, fear of dryers or clippers.
• A matted coat clause: a badly matted coat may need a short clip for the dog's welfare, dematting may cost extra, and skin problems hidden under mats can show up afterwards.
• Emergency vet permission: which vet, and who pays.
• Photo consent for your socials, your cancellation terms, and a signature and date.

In Wemu: build the form from yes/no, date, consent and signature fields. When a new client books online, it goes out with the confirmation, or as a step in the booking, and the signed form lands on their record. Attach it to your grooming services with a validity window, such as 365 days, and the next online booking after it lapses sends it again. Tick "Required before check-in" and the client's record flags a form you've sent until it's signed. For phone bookings, send it from the client's profile (how forms work).

Step 4 — Dog grooming client records the next groomer can read

Your best groomer's memory isn't a system. After every groom, note the blade and attachments, the lengths and style, what the owner wants changed next time, handling quirks (the dog who hates the big dryer), anything on the skin or ears to mention rather than diagnose, and any reaction to a product.

In Wemu: switch on the Pets fields and each client record holds the dog's name, breed, age, weight, vet and vaccination status, plus handling notes, and you can add a dated note after each groom. One limit: it's one set of pet fields per client record, so a three-dog household keeps the other two in the notes.

Step 5 — Reduce no-shows in dog grooming without punishing every client

Grooming slots are long, so no-shows hurt: a 150-minute large-dog groom that doesn't arrive is a third of a groomer's day. MoeGo, a grooming software vendor, says grooming businesses see 8–15% no-shows without systems, and below 5% with automated reminders and policies in place. Run your own numbers: 60 grooms a week at a $100 average loses $600 a week at 10%, over $31,000 a year. Cut that to 4% and you win back about $18,700 a year. Four fixes, in order:

1. 1Remind them the day before, with a link to reschedule. Woofspark, an Australian grooming blog, says reminders cut no-shows by up to 40%.
2. 2Make changing easy, so a change of plans frees the slot instead of wasting it.
3. 3Write the policy down: the notice you need (24 to 48 hours is common) and what a no-show costs, shown at booking.
4. 4Warn, then deposit, then decline. After a first miss, a friendly warning. After the second, ask for a deposit. After the third, stop taking their bookings.

On fees: Australian salons commonly charge A$25 to A$100, or part of the groom, and Australian Consumer Law expects a fee to be reasonable and agreed before booking. In the US, rules vary by state, so check local rules. Our no-show guide covers six policies in more detail.

In Wemu: the day-before reminder goes by email, and by text too once you switch texts on (texts use SMS credits). Owners can reschedule or cancel from the Manage booking link in their confirmation, up to your cutoff. You mark a no-show on the booking, and clients are flagged on your rules, such as two in 180 days. Switch on deposits and only flagged clients are asked for one when they next book online. Card deposits need card payments connected.

Step 6 — How often should a dog be groomed? Rebook on the coat's schedule

A dog on a six-week cycle is about nine grooms a year. A dog booked "when it looks shaggy" is often four or five, and more matted each time. As a general guide:

Rebook at checkout, while the owner's happy: "same again in six weeks?" with a date ready. Then set a reminder as the backup.

In Wemu: set a time-to-book reminder on the client's record in 2, 4, 6 or 8 weeks, or on any date. It can repeat, it's skipped if they've already booked, and it only sends between 9am and 8pm.

Step 7 — Checkout, retail and groomer commission

Put the shampoo you wash with on a shelf by the till: "this is what we used on her" is the easiest sale in retail.

Commission is where Australia and the US split. In the US, groomers are often paid 40–60% of the groom price, sometimes on commission alone (employees must still earn at least minimum wage). In Australia, groomers employed by a grooming business are generally covered by the Miscellaneous Award 2020, so commission sits on top of at least the award wage; check Fair Work's guidance for pet groomers for your situation. Keep it simple: one rate on grooms, a smaller one on retail, like 5%. More in our salon commission guide.

In Wemu: ring up the groom and the treats together on the tablet POS. Commission is worked out at the percentage you set, with its own rate on any service or product. On the tablet POS you can tag the groomer on each line, so the groom earns for the groomer even when the front desk rings it up; lines you don't tag go to whoever is signed in. Retail earns commission only on products you give a rate. Timesheets feed pay summaries (you still run payroll in your payroll software), and low-stock alerts and overnight draft purchase orders (you review each one before it goes to the supplier) help keep the shelf stocked.

How much does dog grooming software cost?

Most pet grooming software is priced per location per month. Here's what the main options publish:

Then check the extras: text caps, per-groomer seats, card processing and currency. If you're comparing dog grooming software in Australia, most tools, Wemu included, are priced in US dollars, so the bill moves with the exchange rate.

On Wemu, texts are prepaid credits (packs from US$19 for 500 credits). Credits are charged per 160-character part: 1 per part to a US number, 4 to an Australian one, and a day-before reminder with its Manage link usually runs to two parts. Core is US$29 a month for one location with up to 3 staff. Once you add a fourth groomer or a second salon, Growth is US$49 per location per month with no staff limit (see the pricing page).

Grooming-only tools vs all-in-one: an honest comparison

• Mobile vans: you need travel time between stops and route planning, which Wemu doesn't do. Start with MoeGo, Groomer.io or Time To Pet.
• Boarding or daycare: overnight stays and kennel capacity aren't in Wemu. Gingr and DaySmart Pet are built for them.
• General booking apps: Square Appointments has no built-in pet profiles or vaccination tracking; you can add custom fields to the customer record. Fresha has pet profiles and deposits, priced per bookable team member.

Wemu's dog grooming software fits grooming salons, pet spas and dog washes with a team, a roster and a retail shelf that want bookings, forms, pet records, the till and commission in one place. The limits: one set of pet fields per client rather than a profile for each dog, a vaccination status rather than expiry reminders, and no way for owners to upload a vaccination certificate themselves (staff can attach a photo or PDF of one to a note). If those matter most, a grooming specialist will suit you better.

Why a grooming salon might choose Wemu

Frequently asked questions