Learning Hub · Policies
Dog Walking Retainer Policy
What does this policy do?
A retainer holds a regular walking slot for a client who books fewer walks than agreed. You set a minimum number of walks a week. Each Monday-to-Sunday week is checked once it has ended. A client who booked at least the minimum is fine. A client who did not first spends a week of their holiday allowance; once that is used up, a retainer fee is added to the first month you have not yet invoiced, worded so they can see which week it is for. After a run of weeks below the minimum beyond the allowance, the fee stops on its own and the client is flagged for your decision. It applies to dog walking clients only, and it is sold with walking from the Walker plan: Walker, Pro, or a Sitter or Boarder with the dog walking add-on. Starter walks without it, and a business whose plan does not include it is never charged, even if a policy was saved under an earlier plan. Your team is not involved: only admins see the preview and the report, get the monthly reminder, or can take a fee off.
How a week is judged, and what happens next
The preview, the report, the monthly reminder and the charge all work from your clients' real walk bookings rather than a stored counter, so a wrong week cannot be baked in. An hourly tidy-up re-checks every fee not yet invoiced and takes off any the rules no longer support.
The week
Weeks run Monday to Sunday and each is checked once, after it has ended. Only weeks from your "Count holiday weeks from" date are looked at; leave it blank and counting starts from each client's first walk.
Who is checked
Every client with a dog walk on their record, on a booking that is pending, confirmed, in progress or completed, except those on the exempt list. There is no cut-off for how long ago the last walk was. A client who has never had a walk is not a retainer client, whatever else they book.
What counts as a walk
A walk date in that week on a booking that is pending, confirmed, in progress or completed. A cancelled walk counts only if a cancellation charge was made for it; a free cancellation does not.
New clients
The grace period runs from a client's first walk. Those weeks are not judged at all: they spend no holiday and never count as absence.
A week with another service
If the client boarded, used daycare, had a home visit or any other service with you that week, or paid a cancellation charge on one, the retainer does not apply to that week: nothing is charged, no holiday week is spent, and the week neither adds to nor resets the run of weeks away.
The holiday allowance
A week below the minimum spends one week of the allowance, counted per calendar year (the screen offers no other basis), oldest first. The whole allowance is free: with six weeks, the sixth week off is free and the first fee comes on the seventh. The weekly check does write a fee for the sixth week, and the tidy-up that runs straight after it takes that fee off before it can be invoiced. The notice days are a term of the agreement; the software does not take holiday notices.
The fee
Switch it on and choose how it is priced. "% of walk price" charges that share of the client's current walk price for each missed walk. "Fixed amount" charges your figure. "Capped amount" is described in the agreement and the preview as the lesser of your figure and the client's usual walk for each missed walk, but the weekly check charges your figure in full, as a fixed amount does. "Per week" charges once for each missed week; "per month" charges once in an invoice month however many weeks were missed. A fee that works out at nothing is never written.
Where the fee lands
It goes on as a line of the first month your business has not yet invoiced, starting from the month the missed week began and looking up to three months ahead. When that month's invoices have already gone out it is carried forward, and if every month in reach has been invoiced nothing is written. The line names the week, what was booked, the minimum, the allowance used and the rate. The client sees it on their own invoice screen at once, marked RETAINER, and it is taxed like any other line.
When the fee stops
After more than the set number of weeks in a row below the minimum once the allowance is spent (holiday, grace, waived and other-service weeks do not count), charging stops and the client is flagged "slot at risk" for your decision. The run counts those weeks whether or not a fee was written for them. The software does not send the written notice or release the slot; that is yours to do.
Waivers and exempt clients
A waiver covers one client for a dated period, for a reason you have ticked under exemptions (or "other"): those weeks are not charged, spend no holiday and never count as absence. The weekly check does not read waivers itself; a fee it writes for a waived week is taken off by the tidy-up that runs straight after it. An exempt client is outside the policy altogether, with no minimum and no fee, and their agreement says so in place of the rules. The exemption tick boxes on their own change no charge.
A fee that stops being due comes off by itself
If the client books into that week later, or you add a waiver, the fee is removed automatically as long as no invoice for that month has gone out. A fee already on a sent invoice is left alone and shown in the Retainer Report as one that would not be charged today; your Remove button on the invoice or in the report takes it off both your copy and the client's. A fee a payment has landed on cannot be removed until that payment is. A removed fee is never charged again.
The monthly check
Three days before your invoices go out automatically (the 25th if you send them by hand), while the policy is on and at least one fee is still waiting to be invoiced, every admin gets an email listing those fees, with any that may no longer be due at the top, plus an in-app notice and a push with the count and total. It goes once a month.
What the client agrees to
While the policy is active its wording sits in the dog walking agreement. Change the wording while it is active and a revision is recorded on that agreement (unless you have taken the retainer section out of it) and every client gets an in-app notice of what changed; a change made while it is off records nothing. Add or remove an exempt client and that client gets an in-app notice; no re-signing is needed.
Tips
Save the policy, then press "Check now": it reads the saved settings, works whether the policy is on or off (and says so when it is off), and shows who would be charged for the last complete week, why, how much and on which invoice. Looking charges nothing, and nothing is charged until the policy is on.
"Past, present & projected" shows every week the weekly check has already decided, the last complete week, and the eight weeks after it as a projection from the walks already in the diary. Analytics → Retainer Report keeps every fee charged, invoiced or paid, even after you switch the policy off.
Use a dated waiver rather than the exempt list for illness or bereavement: give it an end date and it ends on its own, and the holiday allowance is untouched either way.
Switching the policy off stops new charges and the monthly reminder. Fees already written stay: the tidy-up still takes off un-invoiced ones the rules no longer support, and those on sent invoices stay until you remove them.
A client who boards or uses daycare instead of walking is not charged for those weeks, and they do not count towards the slot-at-risk flag; they do not reset the run either, so weeks away before and after a stay add up.
As an admin you can ask Gaia "who is the retainer charging this week?" and the same sweep runs in the chat; ask "what is my retainer policy?" and Gaia explains your own numbers.
Learning Hub • Dog Walking Retainer Policy