Service intakes can be used for situations where animals are coming into your shelter from an owner or partner organization for some type of appointment, event, or service (like spay/neuter, vaccinations, boarding, seized custody, etc.), and then the animals will subsequently be returned to their owner or your partner organization after that service or appointment is complete.

Processing a service intake is very similar to other intake types. Learn more about how to complete a service intake in this article. For service intakes, your shelter will likely want to give these animals a specific, service-dedicated status, intake subtype and, possibly location. See below for more details on setting these up.

If you have the shopping cart enabled for service intakes, you'll be directed right into the shopping cart after completing the service intake form where you can process a payment for that service from the owner. See below for more details on how to configure the shopping cart flow as part of service intakes. 

Service intake contracts are also an option if you'd like to use them. These contracts will be found in two places - in the shopping cart if you're processing the intake via a transaction, and from the record of the animal that was serviced in. See below for more details on where you can configure the service contract. 

Configuration Notes (for users with configuration permissions): 

You likely will want a status specifically for services for which animals are coming into your shelter. A dedicated status for these services will help make it clear to staff and volunteers which animals are in your care for a service vs. all other animals in your care. This will also help make these animals much easier to find via a filter from your in-custody animal list. If you are processing service intakes as pre-intake records, please note that microchips added to these animals will not be included in any auto-uploads to microchip registries until the intake is completed. Learn more about statuses in Shelterluv here.

If these service intakes go to a certain location in your shelter (for example, perhaps service intakes that are coming in for boarding stay in a special hallway of your building), you will also want to make sure you have those specific locations configured so you can put animals in these locations in the software as you process the intake. More information on setting up your shelter's locations can be found here. 

You will likely also want a service intake subtype that corresponds to the different services for which animals are coming in (for example, separate intake subtypes for boarding, clinic appointment, spay/neuter appointment, etc.). The service intake form AND your service intake subtypes can be configured via Configuration > General Shelter > Intake and Outcome. More information on configuring your intake forms can be found here.

As noted above, if you often take payments for service type intakes, you can enable the shopping cart flow so that your users are taken right to checkout after completing a service intake form. You can enable or disable the shopping cart flow via Configuration > General Shelter > Intake and Outcome > Intake Forms > Service Intake.

If you'd like to use a contract for service intakes, that can be configured via Configuration > General Shelter > Contract Manager.