Let me guess, you’ve just gotten access to Sitter and are wondering where to start.  Sitter is an expansive technology platform that provides you with the ability to book, manage, and get paid for your business’ jobs.  It has a lot of great features that we’ll walk through, but let’s start from the beginning and go through a few terms you’ll want to get familiar with.  We’ll start with service areas and services, then wrap up with client types. 

We have also created a business information form that you can start to fill out as we go through the different terms.  We’ll go through this in more detail in another article, but you can download it now and take a sneak peek.  Kudos for being an eager beaver! 

Download Business Information Form

Jump to: Service Areas

Jump to: Services, Categories, Types

Jump to: Clients and Members

These are the locations your business provides services to.  You can have one or more location and you can set up your payment structures to be the same or different for multiple locations.  As a rule of thumb, you typically want to set up multiple service areas if they are drastically far apart (San Diego v. Orlando), if they have different rates in each location, or if caregivers are only assigned to certain locations.  Otherwise, it may be easier to maintain a single location.

For example, the Sitter office is located in Denver, CO.  If we were a care agency, we could potentially serve clients in Denver and Boulder (45 minutes northwest).  We would want to set up the service areas in one of two ways:

• Used if the rates are different and/or caregivers only want to work in one location
• Provides flexibility in rates and caregiver assignments

• Used if the rates are the same and caregivers are willing to work in both locations
• Easiest to maintain

How you structure your service areas is completely up to you and you can add or change service areas as your business needs change.  

Each service area is based on zip codes.  If you need help identifying the zip codes in your area, this worksheet can be used: Zip Code List 

When you set up your services, you will be asked to define three important pieces of the service.  Below is breakdown of each:

Service Type indicates whether a job is for a single client or a business/group.  The details needed for each type is different, so it’s important the correct type is assigned to the service.

• Booking   These are traditional temporary care jobs, such as babysitting,  companion care, or pet sitting.  These jobs can be booked directly by clients in the app or in the admin system.
• Corporate/Group*   These jobs are used for corporate back-up care, events, or other corporate jobs (e.g. daycare center).  These jobs are typically invoiced and may require additional information, such as a case number or billing party. These jobs are not available for clients to book in the app.

*Only available in the ‘Build’ package and higher

Service Categories indicate the type of care that is needed.  The Sitter platform supports 5 different categories:

• Child Care
• Companion Care
• Pet Care
• Home Care
• Tutoring

The Service Category determines which type of ‘Special Considerations’ will be shown to clients during the booking process.

• For example, when a parent books a babysitting job, a few of the special considerations they will see are ‘Sick Child’ and ‘Infant Care’.  These considerations aren’t relevant to Pet Care or Home Care services and won’t be shown to clients booking these services.

Services are the individual types of jobs that your business provides.  A few examples include:

• Babysitting
• Newborn Care Specialist
• Dog Walking
• Companion Care Visit
• House Cleaning

Rates and payment processes are set at the service level and can vary by service.  Additionally, each service area can have different services that it provides and can have different rates by area as well.

Now, how do all of these work together?  Below are examples of a few different services and how they align to the service categories and service types.  You’ll have the ability to set up as many services in each category as your business offers.

You will also notice classifications for your clients.  Whether they are a member, corporate client, or don’t have any designation may impact their experience.  Here is a breakdown of how it works:

• Clients Anyone who books with your organization is a client.  They may book with you 1 time or 100 times and can be considered a client.  They may pay an annual membership fee or schedule an appointment while they are visiting your city and staying in a hotel.
• Members If your business has a concept of ‘member rates’ or ‘membership fees’, this designation can be assigned to people who have paid your monthly/quarterly/annual fees.  Anyone who has not paid this, will be charged a ‘Non-member surcharge’ if you choose to set this up in your rates.  For example: 
  • You may offer a membership that includes an annual fee of $100 and all jobs have a reduced booking fee of $15/job.  For people who don’t want to pay the membership fee, they may be charged a $25 booking fee per job. In this scenario, you would set a standard booking fee of $15/job with a $10 non-member surcharge.
• Corporate Clients If your organization supports corporate backup care, the clients who are being cared for will be flagged as a ‘Corporate Client’.  Because the corporate backup care company is booking on their behalf, you will still want their information in the system and they will be flagged so they aren’t responsible for the payment and instead the corporate company will be invoiced.

Let’s look at a few scenarios:

The Gibson’s have purchased your annual membership fee and are booking a pet sitting job for the weekend.  They will pay for their services, but won’t be charged any additional non-member surcharges for the job.

The Boyd’s are longtime members of your business and recently Julia Boyd’s company started using corporate backup care.  For their corporate care jobs, their company will pay the invoices and for their standard jobs they will pay the fees.

The Webb’s are visiting from out of state and hired a babysitter to watch the kids at their hotel.  They will be charged non-member surcharge fees (if applicable) and hotel fees (if applicable) in addition to the base rates.

The Hansen’s are employed by a company who partners with a corporate backup care company and are having a senior care specialist visit their mother-in-law.  The corporate backup care company will send you their information and pay for their job.

Now you’ve learned about service areas, services, and clients.  You’re ready to start talking about rates!  Learn more about rates here.

Your clients, caregivers, and potential clients can download the Sitter Pro App from the App Store and Google Play store.  It is free to download and then they will create their account in the app.  They will need to enter the email address they have on file with your business, create a password and then will review the information we have is correct.  Once they do that, we’ll verify their phone number and they will be all set to explore the app.

To create a booking, your clients can either tap the ‘Book’ button on the home screen, use the ‘Book’ button in the middle of their navigation, or if they are viewing your profile they can book from there.  The first time they book, they will be prompted to accept your Terms and Conditions, enter a brief bio, and provide their payment information (if it’s not already on file).

From there, they will select the category of service of they want to book (child care, pet care, etc.) and the service they need.

Then they will complete the booking information.

• Location If the location is at a hotel or vacation rental, it will prompt them to enter their room number
• Start/End Time If the client needs recurring bookings, they will be prompted to contact the business.
• Special Considerations These considerations will be used to determine who is qualified for the job and if additional fees should be applied to the booking.
• Notes for the Caregiver These will be shared with the caregiver when the request is sent.

Once their information is complete, they will review their request and can see an estimated cost.  After review, they will send the request to your caregivers.

When a job is sent to your caregivers, they will be able to see the job details and family information when determining if they want to accept the job.

They will have the ability to respond to the job request in 1 of 3 ways:

• Accept If the caregiver can take the job, they can tap accept and it will be assigned to them.  The first person to accept it gets the job and others will be notified it was taken.
• Decline If the caregiver can’t take the job, they can simply decline the job and it will continue to be available for others to take.
• Maybe If the caregiver can take the job under slightly different circumstances (i.e. can be there 30 minutes later than requested), they can tap ‘Maybe’ and provide details of their situation that will be sent to the agency admins.  The job will continue to stay open for others to accept, but if no one is able to accept the job as requested, the ‘Maybes’ can be reviewed and the admins can determine if they want to notify the client of alternate options.

Once a caregiver accepts the job, the family will be notified and will be able to view their profile.

On the day of the job, the caregiver manages the checkout process.  Once the job is complete, they will click ‘Checkout’ and confirm the details of the job (start/end time and number of children).

Once the caregiver confirms the information, the family will be notified that they can checkout.  They will also see the final details and can contact your business if there are any discrepancies.

If the service is set up to have the caregiver be paid in credit card, they will be shown a tip/reimbursement screen.  If the service is set up to be paid in cash, this screen will be skipped.  After confirming the booking details, the client will be prompted to review the caregiver.  This information will not be shared with the caregiver and will only be sent to agency admins.

Once the family has completed their checkout they will be sent a receipt for their payment.

For businesses who have multiple locations and rates, service areas are a key element for success.  For businesses who only have one location, service areas are just as important as you want to make sure you’re reaching your target audience.

We’ll start by discussing what service areas are and how they can be configured.  If you’ve already read our introduction article, this may be redundant so feel free to jump to the how-to section to learn about how you can set them up in the system.

These are the locations your business provides services to.  You can have one or more location and you can set up your payment structures to be the same or different for multiple locations.  As a rule of thumb, you typically want to set up multiple service areas if they are drastically far apart (San Diego v. Orlando), if they have different rates in each location, or if caregivers are only assigned to certain locations.  Otherwise, it may be easier to maintain a single location.

For example, the Sitter office is located in Denver, CO.  If we were a care agency, we could potentially serve clients in Denver and Boulder (45 minutes northwest).  We would want to set up the service areas in one of two ways:

• Used if the rates are different and/or caregivers only want to work in one location
• Provides flexibility in rates and caregiver assignments

• Used if the rates are the same and caregivers are willing to work in both locations
• Easiest to maintain

How you structure your service areas is completely up to you and you can add or change service areas as your business needs change.  

Each service area is based on zip codes.  If you need help identifying the zip codes in your area, this worksheet can be used: Zip Code List 

Once you’ve determined how you want to configure your service area(s), you can set them up in the system.  To get started, you’ll go to your Settings page (click the cog icon in the top right) and select Service Areas (1).  To create a new service area, tap on the red “+” icon in the top row (2).  If you already have service areas set up, you can also edit and update them at any time by selecting ‘Edit’ (3).

To create a service area, you’ll need to define a name for it (Denver Metro, Denver/Boulder, Front Range, etc.) and then add all of the zip codes that fall within that area (4).  If you need help identifying the zip codes in your area, this worksheet can be used: Zip Code List

Each zip code will need to be entered on a separate line.  Once you’ve added all zip codes, be sure to save the service area at the bottom of the page (5).

One more section down!  Great job!  You’ve created a service area and can create as many as you need.  However, keep in mind the more you create, the more you need to manage so make sure they’re set up in a way that is easy to maintain.

To help simplify setting up your services, Sitter Pro offers the ability to set a few default rates so you don’t need to enter the same information multiple times.  You can set defaults for your add-on fees (e.g. hotel fees, holidays) and policies (if you’re on the ‘Build’ package) and then you also have the flexibility to overwrite any of them on each individual service.  For example:

You  have a rate of $2/hour for each additional dependent after the 2nd child for most child care services.  However, on overnight babysitting you may have it as $1/hour for additional child after the 1st child.  You can set up your default rate to match your most common scenario($2/child after the 2nd) and then on other services change the rates or remove the add-on fee altogether.

We’ll walk through how to set up your default rates and then you can also check out this article on setting rates for each service.  For all of the rate settings, both the service and caregiver fees can be used and they can be set by hour, by job, or by day.

If you have the ‘Build’ package or higher, you will be able to set policies for your services.  You can set up all or none of these default policies, depending on what works with your business needs.   The following policies are available:

• Minimum Hours  This indicates the minimum amount of time a booking can be made for.  If this is turned on, you will need to determine how long you’d like your minimum hours per job to be. (3)
• Cancelation  This indicates how much a client will pay if they cancel a confirmed job within your set timeframe.  You can define how much they should pay to the business and/or the confirmed caregiver.  Additionally, you will set the timeframe for when jobs are canceled for the charge to be applied. (4)
• Last Minute Booking Fee  This indicates how much a client will pay if they make a booking with short notice of the start time.  Similar to cancelation fees, you can set if the fee is paid to the business and/or caregiver and you can set the timeframe that it will be applied. (5)

Similar to policies, you can set up any/all of the additional fees that apply to your business.  These include:

• Additional Dependent Fee  This is the additional charge for additional dependents who will be at a job.  For child care, this is for additional children.  For companion care, this is for additional adults who need care.  You can set the amount for each additional dependent, who receives the fee (can be both), and when it is applied. (6)
• Infant Care Fee  This is an additional fee for caring for infants and can be paid to the business, caregiver, or both.  (7).
  • Consideration: If you have a specific service of Newborn Care Specialist (or something similar), you may want to turn this fee off for that service as it may already include an increased fee based on the age of the child.
• Sick Care Fee This is an additional fee for caring for a sick dependent and can be paid to the business, caregiver, or both. (8)
• Hotel Care Fee  This is an additional fee for providing a service at a hotel.  This can be paid to the business, caregiver, or both.  (9)
• Non-Member Surcharge  This is an additional fee that non-members are charged for services.  If you don’t have a structure of members/non-members this fee may not need to be used. (10)
  • Consideration: If you have a hotel fee and a non-member fee, some clients may be paying both charges if they are both turned on for the service.
• Holiday Surcharge  This is an additional fee that all clients will pay on your designated holidays.  You will first define your holidays and then the additional rates paid to the caregiver and/or business. (11)

Your defaults are done!  You can still modify these for any individual service, but the heavy lifting is done.  Phew!

With Sitter Pro software, you have the flexibility to set up your services and rates in the way that best supports your business.  This includes creating your own service names and descriptions and setting the caregiver rates, the service fees, additional fees, and holidays.  There are 4 major configurations for each service, so we’ll go through each section: Service Details, Policies, Rates, and Caregivers.

The first pieces of information to be filled out comprise the Service Details.  This sets the definition of your service and how payments are to be collected.   The following fields need to be completed for each service (expand for definitions and more details):

If you have the ‘Build’ package or higher, you will be able to set policies for individual services.  You can either turn each policy on or off and use the default rates or set different rates.

• Turning Policies On/Off  Use the toggles (6) next to each policy to turn it on or off.
• Using Defaults or New Rates  Once turned on, policies will show the default rates you set in the ‘Default Policy and Rates’ section.  You can override any of these by selecting ‘edit’.  Once you edit the policy/rate, you can revert back to the default by selecting ‘use default’ (7).

Once you’ve set your policies, be sure to save the information before moving to the next section.

Your rates can be customized for each service area that you selected to provide the service.  Make sure you selected the service area you want to set up first before starting (8).

Once your caregivers are loaded into the system, you’ll see them listed on the last tab.  This table will provide a list of their qualifications, service areas, and service categories supported.  You can sort by any column to find the appropriate caregivers for the service and then select the check-box next to their name to assign them to the service (12).  Caregivers can also be assigned to services directly on their profile.

Now you’re all set!  You can set up more services or start booking.  Great work!