Learning Hub · Policies
Client Registration
What does this policy do?
This policy runs the public sign-up form at yourbusiness.mysitters.app/register. While it is active, anyone can open that page, create their own account and give you their details, their pet and the service they want. You choose which questions appear, which are compulsory, and whether a pet that is not neutered, vaccinated or treated for worms and fleas is let through, warned or stopped. A new business starts with registration switched on, and the sign-in page has a "Register as a New Client" button, under the words "new here?", that opens the form. When it is off, the page says registration is not available and the server refuses any form that was still open.
Switching it on and sharing the link
The toggle saves at once
Click the Registration Active / Inactive box at the top of the editor to open or close the form; it saves straight away. Changing any other setting marks the policy active, and the Save Registration Policy and Save Service Area buttons always save it as active. To close the form, use the toggle.
Where clients find it
The form is /register on your portal. The sign-in page shows a "Register as a New Client" button that opens it, and you can share the link anywhere.
Only an admin can save it
Saving these settings needs an admin account.
Every plan has it
The policy sits in the General list on every plan and no plan locks it. A business on the Pet Sitter plan is handled differently in a few places: its new clients are Pending Review, never Meet & Greet; it offers Dog Walking only while the walking add-on is active; on the service choice its primary service is labelled "Pet Sitting" rather than "Boarding & Daycare"; and the client is not shown a boarding address.
A lapsed subscription closes the door
If your subscription has lapsed and the business is read-only, the form still loads, but the server refuses the sign-up and tells the client to contact you directly.
What the client is asked
Service first, if there is a choice
The options are the saved list, narrowed to the services you have active; Meet & Greet, Test Walk and Test Overnight Stay are never offered. If none of your active services matches an option, the saved list is used as it is. Boarding and Daycare appear as one card, "Boarding & Daycare". If only one option is left, the step is skipped and that service is assumed. The editor has no control for this list.
Your Details
Name, email and a password of at least 8 characters with a capital, a small letter and a number are always asked. Phone and address appear only if you show them, and are compulsory only if you tick "Require". An email that already has an account is refused when the form is sent, with a prompt to sign in instead.
Service area (not for Boarding & Daycare)
With Service Area on, enter your centre postcode and a radius (the field offers 1 to 50 miles). Once the map has found your postcode it lists the towns, villages and neighbourhoods it finds in range; remove the ones you do not cover, then save. The client sees a map of your zone with their address on it. Inside the radius is a green tick. Up to 3 miles beyond it is a warning that you will confirm availability, saved for you as an advisory. Further than that stops the form, and the server refuses it too. The decision is distance from your centre postcode alone; removing a town changes the drawn zone, not the decision. The check runs for Dog Walking, Dog Sitting and Puppy Care, and when no service was chosen — never for Boarding & Daycare or a Pet Sitter's Pet Sitting — and only once a centre has been found and saved.
Boarding & Daycare show your address instead
A client choosing Boarding & Daycare sees your business address, if you have saved one, your licence number if you have entered one, and roughly how far it is from their address once both addresses have been placed on the map. It is information only; nothing is refused. A Pet Sitter business does not show this block.
Dog Details step
Shown while "Show Dog Details Step" is on. The client picks the type of pet (a dog unless they change it), gives the name, which is required, the breed and the gender, and can add a note about the pet. Date of birth, the neutering question (for all pets, males only or females only), the vaccination question and the worm & flea question each appear only if you show them, and only for a dog, cat, rabbit or horse — a bird or reptile is never asked. The answers create the pet on the client's account.
Vet details, preferences, notes
A Vet Details step appears if you show it; with "Require vet details" the vet's name and phone are compulsory. Preferred start date, emergency contact and additional notes each appear only if you show them, on a Preferences step that also asks the client to confirm they are 18 or over and offers optional platform-news consents. That step exists only while at least one of those three is on or terms are required; with all of them off, nobody is asked to confirm their age.
Terms of Service
With "Require Terms Acceptance" on, the Preferences step shows a tick box with a link to your Terms of Service, and the server refuses a registration without the tick. The text is your "terms-of-service" agreement from Agreements; if you have not written one, a standard set of terms is used. Placeholders in the text — the cancellation, invoicing and sickness clauses — are filled in from those policies, and your active custom agreement sections are merged into its numbered sections; the standard text has both, your own text only where you put them. The acceptance and its time are stored on the client's record.
Checks that can stop or flag a registration
Neutering, vaccination, worm & flea treatment
Each question has an enforcement setting. "No enforcement" just records the answer. "Show warning" shows an amber note when the client answers No, lets them continue, and saves an advisory on their record for you. "Block registration" shows a red note, disables Continue, and the server refuses the form as well.
Breeds
Independently of this policy, a banned or restricted dog breed stops the Dog Details step on the form, and a watch-list breed shows the client a note and adds an advisory for you.
Advisories reach you
Every advisory — a warned answer, a watch-list breed, an address on the edge of your area — is shown on the client's card under Registration Advisories, with a warning icon in the Clients list.
After the client sends the form
Their account and status
The client gets an account and a membership of your business, their answers go onto their profile, and they are not asked to fill in the questionnaire again. On every plan except Pet Sitter the new client is given the Meet & Greet status, whichever "After Registration" option you pick: every saved policy carries a "Meet & Greet first" requirement that the editor cannot switch off. A Pet Sitter business's new clients are Pending Review.
Approving them
The client appears in Clients with a Pending Review or Meet & Greet badge and a banner naming the next step. "Approve (Full Access)" on a Pending Review client and "Grant Full Booking Access" on a Meet & Greet client both open a confirmation that sets them Active and skips the onboarding steps. A Pending Review client can also be moved to Meet & Greet, except at a pet-sitting business with no boarding licence, where that button is not shown.
Forms follow the service
Dog Walking sets the client's type to walking, and Boarding & Daycare (or Pet Sitting) to boarding; Dog Sitting and Puppy Care set no type. The forms they must complete come from your Forms configuration for that type — a client with no type gets your boarding forms if you have configured them — and, with no configuration, the standard forms for the service.
You are told
Every active admin gets an in-app notification, and a push if your Push Notifications policy and their own announcements setting allow it; the rest of your team is not notified. An email goes to the business email, or the first admin's, while "New client registered" is on in Email Notifications.
The client is told
The confirmation page shows your confirmation title and message, your expected response time (24 hours or more is shown in days; setting 0 does not hide it, the server falls back to 24 hours) and a Sign In button, so they can sign in at once and see their status. A Pending Review client also sees the standard "we will review your application" note; there is no field for a Meet & Greet note, so none is shown. A welcome email goes to them while "Welcome (self sign-up)" is on — a walking version if they chose Dog Walking.
Tips
To close the form, use the Registration toggle at the top; saving any other change switches it back on.
Untick "Require phone number" or "Require address" before you hide that field: a hidden field that is still required stops every registration, on the form and on the server.
Wait for the map to find your centre postcode before saving the service area — the check runs only once the centre is stored.
Removing a town from the map changes the zone the client sees, not the decision, which is distance from your centre postcode alone.
On every plan except Pet Sitter a self-registered client starts at Meet & Greet, so do not switch your Meet & Greet Scheduling policy off: a policy saved and then switched off means clients cannot book a Meet & Greet at all (one never set up lets them book any day).
If you require terms, write your own Terms of Service in Agreements; otherwise clients see the standard text.
If you have not set a directory area or a town, the directory works out your district from a postcode — your service-area centre postcode first, then your business postcode.
Gaia reads this policy when someone asks about vaccinations, worming, neutering, vet details or your area, so keep it current.
Learning Hub • Client Registration