This guide is for organizations who have received access to a real Shelterluv account.

If you have not upgraded to a real account yet and would like to, please visit www.shelterluv.com/activate and we'll get you set up!

Welcome & Import Guides

Both of these items were sent via email to the administrator(s) of your account in a welcome email. If you are the administrator and did not receive this email, please check your spam folder.

Important Note for Larger Organizations

We highly recommend putting together a cross-functional team to assist with configurations - a least one point person from each department or program (medical, financial, intake/outcome, adoptions, etc.).

Anyone who needs to run regular reporting should also be involved during this setup phase because the decisions made in configurations will directly impact the data they will be pulling.

Configuring Your Shelterluv Account

Only users with configuration permissions will be able to access this module.

Intro Video:

Setting Up Users

User Permissions Overview

Important Configurations

General Shelter > Partners

Before you get started, please read: Adding partners
If you are importing data: Your partners will be imported, so please skip this step if you are doing an import of your current inventory and there is a "Partner" or "Agency" column in your file.

General Shelter > Location Management

Before you get started, please read: Adding/editing shelter location
If you are importing data: Your locations will be imported, so please skip this step if you are doing an import of your current inventory and there is a "Location" column in your file.
If you are a foster-based rescue: Please do not set foster parents' homes as locations. Foster parents should only be created as people records (this should be done after the import if you have practice data in your account that you want us to wipe ahead of the import). When an animal is recorded as going to a foster parent, the system will automatically update the animal's location to that foster parent. More about that here.
However, if your animals sometimes stay at non-foster sites such as a Petco Adoption Center, a boarding facility, or a vet, we recommend setting these up as locations.

General Shelter > Intake and Outcome

Subtypes allow you to be a little more descriptive about why an animal has come into your custody and how they left your custody. We recommend making decisions on your subtypes based on what you will need to know for reporting purposes.
Your intake and outcome forms are configurable to fit your operations, so it's important to review which fields should be shown, hidden, or marked as required.
Before you get started, please read: Setting up your intake forms / Setting up your outcome forms
If you are importing data: Your intake and outcome subtypes will be imported, so please do not configure subtypes if you are doing an import of your current inventory and there is an "Intake Subtype" and "Outcome Subtype" column in your file.

General Shelter > Uploads and Integrations > My Organization's Website

You can automatically push your adoptable pets to your existing website to keep it up-to-date at all times. It's as easy as copying/pasting a snippet into your website's code.
Before you get started, please read: Uploading animals to your own website
- If you'd like to see all "publishable" animals, no matter their intake type, keep the "Any type of intake" field as is with the default "Select" option.
- Our iframe cannot be customized; some organizations decide to build their own listings with our API: Using Shelterluv's API for available animals
- CAUTION: Do not make this change to your website until all your adoptable animals are in Shelterluv with photos and bios.
Many of our other integrations also use our API to communicate. See this article for more information: What other services integrate with Shelterluv?

General Shelter > Uploads and Integrations > Aggregators of Adoptable Animals

You can automatically push your adoptable pets to your accounts on Adopt-a-Pet, Petfinder, and RescueGroups so you don't have to manage them separately. Petfinder can sometimes take a bit longer to respond so we recommend emailing them for your credentials right away.
Before you get started, please read: Uploading animals to aggregators and microchip registries
CAUTION: Do not enter the FTP credentials into Shelterluv until all your adoptable animals are in the software with photos and bios. Once you turn on auto-upload in Shelterluv, it will overwrite any animals you currently have in these aggregators.

General Shelter > Uploads and Integrations > Microchip Registries

Shelterluv can be configured to automatically upload your animal records to a microchip registry. We currently have integrations with AKC Reunite, Found Animals, PetLink, and SmartTag. We encourage you to find the company that best fits your needs.
Review this article for more information: Uploading to microchip registries

General Shelter > Contract Manager

Before you get started, please read: How do I configure my contracts?

General Shelter > Processing > Attribute Manager

Before you get started, please watch: Status & Attribute Overview (video) (or read: Using attributes)
Attributes are incredibly powerful. In addition to adoption matching (good with kids, etc.), you can also use them for adoption disclaimers.

General Shelter > Processing > Status Manager

Before you get started, please watch: Status & Attribute Overview (video)
We provide you with some default status types, but it’s important to make sure that animal status types match your organization’s needs.
For your list of In Foster Statuses, we recommend adding the word “Foster” to the status name if you also have similar In Shelter Statuses set up.
If you are importing data: Your statuses will be imported, so please do not configure In Shelter Statuses if you are doing an import of your current inventory and there's a "Status" column in your file.

General Shelter > Application Builder

Accepting applications through Shelterluv allow you to track each one closely while keeping your whole team on the same page. You can also create a person's record directly from the application and save time on data entry!
Before you get started, please read: Building your applications

General Shelter > Kennel Card Builder

Kennel cards can be printed from an individual animal record's documents section, or in bulk from the main animals list using the printer icon.
Before you get started, please read: How does the Kennel Card Builder work?

Medical

Before you get started, please read: Basic medical configuration overview

Medical > Treatments and preventatives > Quick fill templates

Enter treatments more efficiently: How do I use quick fills in treatments?

Medical > Vaccines > Quick fill templates

Enter vaccines more efficiently: Vaccines configuration

Shopping Cart > Adoption Groups

Before you get started, please read: Setting up adoption price groups

Recommended Configurations

General Shelter > Animal Population

Here you can select the species and breeds of animals that you will likely have in your care. You can always modify this list later as needed.
Please read: How to configure your species and breeds

General Shelter > Email Templates

These templates are populated when you accept or reject applications. You will be able to further personalize each email before sending it.

Shopping Cart > Non-Adoption Items

Before you get started, please read: Setting up non-adoption shopping cart items

Shopping Cart > Edit Receipt Footer

This will be included at the bottom of every emailed and printed receipt. You can use this space to provide more information about your organization to the public.

Shopping Cart > Department, Fund, and Cash Drawer

Please read: Best Practices for Accounting and Shopping Cart Configuration

Looking for the Shelterluv New User Training Guide? It has moved here.