PocketSuite’s Icons feature lets a daycare tag every pet with size, temperament, and vaccination-status flags that show up at a glance across the calendar, client list, and check-in screen, so staff can build the right playgroup by eye in seconds instead of digging through notes. PocketSuite powers 7,000+ service businesses, including 1,000+ pet service businesses, whose clients have collectively processed nearly $1 billion in income and scheduled over 9.2 million appointments. Playgroup safety comes down to staff having the right information in front of them the moment they’re sorting dogs, and that’s exactly what a well-built icon set is designed to surface.
Icons Turn a Pet’s Key Traits Into a Visual Flag
Every Icons tag has three parts: the icon and color itself, which record it applies to (a pet’s sub-account, a booking, and more), and an optional trigger that applies it automatically. A single custom field like “Play style” with options such as “High energy,” “Low energy,” or “Needs one-on-one” can drive a different icon for each answer, so a front desk glancing at the calendar sees exactly which dogs need extra space before they’re ever walked into a play yard together.
Vaccination Status Can Flag Itself Automatically
Because icons support system triggers as well as custom ones, a facility can set a flag to appear the moment a vaccine record’s expiration date has passed, pulling directly from data PocketSuite already tracks rather than a separate spreadsheet. That same trigger logic applies to allergies, first-time bookings, and any other custom field a facility collects on intake, so the traits that matter most for grouping pets safely are visible without anyone having to remember to check a file first.
A single custom field can carry more than two options too, so a facility isn’t limited to a simple yes-or-no flag. A “Play group” field with choices like “Puppy socials,” “Adult general,” and “Senior/low-key” can each drive their own distinct icon and color, which means the sort staff see on the calendar already reflects a facility’s own actual playgroup categories rather than a generic size or energy label that still needs translating into a real group assignment.
The Same Flags Extend Into Boarding Too
A facility running both pet boarding and daycare out of the same PocketSuite account doesn’t need a second system for temperament and size flags — an icon set on a pet’s sub-account applies everywhere that record shows up, including its related bookings, so a dog flagged “Needs solo play” for daycare carries that same flag into a boarding stay booked under the same profile. A night-shift team member sees the same context a daytime daycare attendant already relied on.
Icons Can Reflect a Multi-Step Onboarding Process Too
A facility that runs new dogs through a temperament evaluation before their first daycare day can capture the result directly on that pet’s record and let it drive an icon from that point forward — “Evaluated: general population” versus “Evaluated: small groups only,” for example. That turns a one-time evaluation into a lasting, visible flag rather than a note that only lives in whoever conducted the original assessment’s memory.
Automating the Sort From Setup Onward
Tayata Thomas, owner of The Lovable Dogs Club, a pet grooming business that also runs daycare and boarding, described why she values automation in her own day-to-day operations. “I like the fact that things can be done automatically,” she said, pointing to how PocketSuite handles routine client updates without her team retyping the same information every day. The same principle applies to sorting a daycare roster: once temperament and size tags are set up, they surface on their own every morning instead of requiring a fresh manual review.
Priority Icons Show Up Where Staff Are Already Looking
A facility can set icons in priority order, and PocketSuite surfaces the top five on every calendar booking, the client list, and the dashboard — the places a busy front desk is already looking between drop-offs. Any additional icons beyond the top five still live on the pet’s individual record, so a facility isn’t limited to just five traits total, only five that show up automatically in the highest-traffic views. That same top-five view also appears on the PocketSuite mobile app, so a staff member walking the play yard, rather than sitting at the front desk, can still pull up the same flags on their phone before deciding where a specific dog belongs.
Deciding which five traits earn top priority is worth revisiting as a facility’s own operation evolves. A daycare that’s had a recent run of new, unfamiliar dogs might temporarily prioritize a “First visit” flag above a size flag, while a facility with a stable, well-known client base might prioritize temperament over anything else. Because priority order lives in Settings rather than being fixed permanently, a facility can adjust it as its own daycare population shifts from one season to the next.
Building a Playgroup Roster Each Morning
Picture a Monday morning with 20 dogs checking into daycare. A staff member scanning the Icons-tagged calendar can see at a glance which dogs are flagged “High energy,” which are “Senior/low-key,” and which have a “New to daycare” flag from a first-visit trigger — and sort the morning’s playgroups accordingly before the first leash comes off. That visual sort happens in the same screen staff already use to check dogs in, rather than a separate spreadsheet someone has to keep updated by hand.
Stacking Multiple Triggers for Sharper Icons
A single icon can carry more than one trigger stacked together, which lets a facility get specific without building a separate icon for every combination. A “Needs solo play” icon, for example, could trigger off either an “Aggression history” field or an “Unaltered” field, so two different underlying reasons both surface the same clear visual flag for staff sorting that day’s groups.
The Same Flags Follow a Pet Across Every Visit
Because icons live on the pet’s sub-account record, rather than a single day’s booking, a temperament or size flag set once follows that pet to every future daycare visit automatically. A dog that’s flagged “Prefers small groups” in March still shows that flag in October, without a staff member needing to remember or re-enter it each time the pet comes back.
Icons Support Safer Playgroup Decisions
The value of a visible temperament or size flag goes beyond speed at check-in: it also reduces the chance a new team member accidentally pairs a high-energy puppy with a senior dog that needs a calmer group, simply because that context wasn’t written down anywhere visible. A flag that shows up automatically on the calendar removes the guesswork a busy morning otherwise leaves to memory.
Setting Icons Up Takes One Trip Through Settings
Icons is available on PocketSuite’s Premium, Team, Facility, and Enterprise plans, and setup happens once in Settings, not per booking. A facility defines its icon library — size, temperament, vaccination status, whatever traits matter most for how it runs pet boarding and daycare — and from that point forward, every new booking and every returning pet inherits the same visual system automatically.
A new hire benefits from this the same way a veteran staff member does, which matters for a facility that turns over seasonal daycare help regularly. Rather than spending weeks learning which specific dogs need extra space or a calmer group by trial and error, a new team member reads the same visible icons everyone else already relies on, shortening the runway before they can sort a roster confidently on their own.
PocketSuite’s Icons feature automatically flags a pet’s size, temperament, and vaccination status wherever staff are already looking — the calendar, client list, and check-in screen — so a team can sort that day’s playgroups quickly using those visible flags.
Yes. Icons support triggers based on a custom field you or your clients fill out, or on data PocketSuite already tracks, like a vaccine record’s expiration date or whether a booking is a pet’s first. Once a trigger is set, the icon appears automatically wherever it applies.
Yes. Icons live on the pet’s own sub-account record, so a flag set on one visit stays visible on every future booking for that same pet.
A daycare’s playgroup sort will always need a human eye on the final call, but Icons removes the guesswork of remembering who’s who — the information that used to live in one experienced staff member’s head now lives on every booking, for every team member, every single day.
A visible, automatic set of temperament and size flags won’t replace a staff member’s judgment, but it does put the right information in front of them the moment they’re sorting a daycare roster. Start your 30-day FREE trial of PocketSuite and set up Icons for your own facility.
