Shelterpay was designed to make your checkout process simple and paperless. Shelterpay's donation boost has generated millions of dollars in donations directly to organizations like yours! This article will walk you through the adoption process with Shelterpay and answer all of your key questions.

Completing $0 Adoptions

Shelterluv believes every adopter should have the same equal opportunity to donate to your organization, regardless of whether the adoption fee is waived.

This is why all adoptions priced at $0 are processed through Shelterpay only, and the non-Shelterpay payment options are not visible.

Here are just a few reasons why you would want to process your $0 adoptions with Shelterpay:

• Paperless, digital adoption contract signing (great for remote adoptions!)
• Receive donations! (71% of adopters donate an average of $20/donation through this feature!)
• Ensure the adopter sees and signs all the necessary waivers and disclaimers needed to set them up for a successful adoption. This is especially important with harder-to-adopt animals.
• Easily email all of your adoption documents, such as medical history, digitally signed contract, receipt, disclaimers, and Digital Adoption Packets, to the adopter at the end of the transaction. Save time and paper!

Step 1: Add the Animal and Send the Checkout

All adoptions start from a person record. If the person already exists in your account, you can search for them using the search box in the menu bar or click the People tab on the main dashboard.

Once you are on the adopter's record, follow these steps to add the animal to your shopping cart:

1. On the person record, click the green Add Animal Event button and then click the Adoption button.
2. From here, you will see a list of all your in-custody animals in a status configured to be adoptable. Check the box next to each animal you need to adopt, then click the green Adopt button.
3. Complete your configured adoption outcome form and click the green Continue button.
4. [Optional] In your shopping cart manager, add any additional items or animals, assign a cash drawer, and add a transaction memo if needed.
5. Once your shopping cart is ready, choose the Shelterpay checkout method you want to use (see details on each here), then send the checkout using the green button in the bottom right corner.

Step 2: Adopter Completes the Checkout

Once you send the Shelterpay checkout to the adopter, they can complete it on their device. You can find a walkthrough of what the checkout process looks like for your adopters in the linked video at the top of this article.

Step 3: Finalize the Transaction

Once the adopter completes the checkout on their device, follow these steps to finalize the transaction and adoption outcome:

1. In the Shopping Cart Manager, click the Complete Transaction button.
2. If you received a donation, assign the appropriate Department and Fund for your financial reporting.
3. Send all the important documents to the adopter, such as the adoption contract, receipt, medical history, etc.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I still use Shelterpay if I'm processing an adoption at PetSmart using AME?

AME does still allow their customers to process payments outside of AME (for example, through Shelterpay), so you should not need to process any adoption payments directly through AME, which will affect your Shelterpay percentage.

When selecting the payment method for each adoption in AME, you'll simply choose the option for "Cash or Payment Outside AME." That way, once the adoption process is completed within AME, you can complete the payment in Shelterluv like normal.

In order to provide the best adoption experience, we always recommend processing the adoption transaction entirely through Shelterpay. That way, you'll have your digitally signed contract and the donation opportunity from your adopters, and the adopter can receive their emailed coupon book.

Presently, PetSmart has not requested an integration with Shelterluv to allow person and animal data transfer or payment processing

Foster-to-adopt Use Case Examples

My adopters sign the contract and pay the fee upfront, but the animal isn't adopted yet. How do I do this in Shelterluv?

First, configure an adoption outcome subtype to indicate the foster-to-adopt flow.

Next, configure an attribute called "Foster-to-Adopt" and have that published as a disclaimer on the animal's adoption contract. You can add your own language in the stored text, and your adopters must agree to that disclaimer when they sign the contract. If you want to better track the animal during the trial period, you can put the animal back in your care in Shelterluv, with an intake subtype that is configured to not count toward your intake numbers.

Lastly, you can set up a custom report to return adoption outcomes of animals with the attribute, and you can use that list to see which animals require follow-up. After the trial period, or once the adoption is finalized, you can remove that attribute from the animal's record so that they no longer show up on this custom report

My adopters pay the fee upfront but don't sign a contract until the adoption is finalized. How do I do this in Shelterluv?

For this, we recommend processing an adoption hold. Configure an adoption hold price group called "Pre-Adopt" with the amount of the regular adoption fee so that you can collect the payment when you process the hold.

Next, configure an adoption price group for $0, also called "Pre-adopt". After pre-payment of the adoption fee is taken, you can update that animal's adoption fee to that Pre-Adopt $0 group, which will automatically be applied when you process the adoption later.

Lastly, once the trial period is over and you're ready to adopt, release the adoption hold and process the $0 to get the contract signed.

My adopters pay the fee and sign the adoption contract at the end of the trial period. How do I do this in Shelterluv?

We recommend leaving the animal in foster care during the trial period in a status used specifically for your foster-to-adopt period.

This status should be configured as Adoptable = Yes and Publish = No, so the animal doesn't show up online anymore but can adopted when ready. Once the trial period is up, you can then process the full adoption along with paperwork and payment.