Please note. In petBASE 9S's settings, the word 'services' can be replaced by a word of your choice, eg 'grooming'. The changed word will then appear throughout the program.

07/07/20: V9.04 

(1) Minimise (-) function added to all large forms (eg main menus), thus providing an alternative to left-clicking the associated taskbar icon. 

(2) Debit/Credit an Account: If you selected Payment Method = 'Cash', an error occurred.

(3) Multi-User program, Password Protection: If form already opened by another user message appeared & you clicked Return, the General main menu was frozen. 

(4) Maintenance changes.

10/04/20: V9.03

(1) Added List Tomorrow's Bookings to Bookings main menu. This includes a Reminder function, which enables you to e-mail an appointment reminder to selected customers.

(2) Maintenance changes.

20/03/20: V9.02

(1) Help pages. Added Find text function, which enables you to enter some text and see all occurrences of it highlighted in blue, which is particulary useful if there's a lot of text on the page. If the help page was opened from the Filter/Search Help function, the previously-entered search text will be automatically highlighted.  

05/02/20: V9.01 

(1) In lists, applicable cells are now directly ticked or unticked by left-clicking the column cells. In version 9.00, the cells were ticked or unticked by first selecting the required row, then left-clicking the column heading. 

(2) Maintenance changes.

01/10/19: V9.00

(1) Program now referred to as petBASE 9S (was petBASE 8S) and installs to C:\petBASE9S.

(2) New Zoom function enables you to alter the display size to suit your screen resolution. The default display, with Zoom Factor = 100%, is  designed to fit a screen with 1366 x 768 pixels resolution, but you can increase or decrease the Zoom Factor to correspondingly increase or decrease the display size (maintaining the aspect ratio) without loss of definition. The previous display size was based on 800 x 600 pixels screen resolution.

(3) Multi-User option. Improved system introduced to check whether the same data is potentially being changed by another user, as follows:-

(a) Change booking, customer, invoice, supplier, transaction: form can't be opened if already opened by another user. Previous system didn't always work correctly and, in some cases, caused an error. 

(b) Change account details, password protection, login system, manual backup, add a year to calendar, peak periods, closed periods, opening times and available staff: form can't be opened if already opened by another user.

(c) You can't delete a booking, customer, invoice, supplier or transaction if the corresponding details are being changed by another user. 

(d) All other types of changeable forms, which are used for both viewing and changing data, eg settings, etc: if form already opened by another user, option given of abandoning, or opening form in read-only mode. 

(3) Delete a Customer: Deletion is prevented if any bookings, invoices or transactions exist for the customer. Previously only prevented if current bookings or unpaid invoices exist.

(4) Delete a Supplier: Deletion is prevented if any transactions exist for the supplier. 

(5) Printed booking form: If the balance has been paid, the payment date is shown (as with on-screen form). 

(6) Add/Change Customer: Any blank spaces removed before the customer's surname and pets' names and ensures that the first character is upper-case and remaining ones lower-case (if name consists of more than one word, first character of each word is upper-case). This ensures that customers are listed in alphabetical order.

(7) Add/Change Supplier: Any blank spaces are removed before supplier's name and ensures that the first character is upper-case and remaining ones lower-case (if name consists of more than one word, first character of each word is upper-case). This ensures that suppliers are listed in alphabetical order. 

(8) Customer Reference Number: This is automatically assigned when a customer is added but previously remained hidden; this is now shown in Customer Details, Customer Lists and Invoice Details.

(9) Customer surname field length increased fom 14 to 20 characters.

(10) General Booking Settings: Added option to exclude Booking Notes from printed booking form.

(11) Maintenance changes.

(12) Program now runs under dBASE PLUS 12.3.1.

24/02/18: V8.16

(1) At startup:-  

(a) Improved checking for corrupt data files. 

(b) If the last session was terminated by an error, message 'petBASE IS EITHER ALREADY OPEN OR CLOSED SUDDENLY LAST TIME (EG DUE TO AN ERROR)', no-longer appears. A message will still appear if petBASE is already open or was not previously closed properly.  

(2) Maintenance changes.

02/11/17: V8.15

28/07/17: V8.14

10/05/17: V8.13

(1) General Settings: If you change the Service Type, before saving, petBASE now checks for bookings wth category = previous service type. If any are found, after displaying a  warning, it updates the category of all affected bookings, invoices and transactions to the new service type.

(2) Re-build Data Files: Now checks Bookings, Invoices & Transactions for category referring to non-current Service Type and updates any that are found. 

(3) Maintenance changes.

13/04/17: V8.12

(1) View Booking / Invoice Details:-

(a) If using Windows 10, click new PDF button to instantly create a PDF file in your Miscellaneous Documents folder.

(b) If using Windows 10 and Microsoft Office Outlook is installed and ticked in General Settings, click new E-mail button to instantly create a PDF file and attach it to an e-mail addressed to the customer. 

(2) View Customer / Supplier Details / E-mail: If Microsoft Office Outlook installed and ticked in General Settings, you can now add an attachment from your Miscellaneous Documents folder.

(3) General Settings: Microsoft Office Outlook setting now saved on the local computer. This covers possibility that, if you have the Multi-User program, Outlook may not be installed on all networked computers.

29/11/16: V8.11

(1) List All Customers & Customers v Bookings Table / Batch E-mail. If Microsoft Office Outlook is not ticked in General Settings:-

(a) On clicking OK, petBASE first calculates the total number of characters in the selected e-mail addresses, subject and text. If this exceeds the theoretical maximum of 2047, a warning message appears: click Yes to try anyway or No to cancel.

(b) If a single e-mail can't be created, the option of creating multiple separate e-mails is no-longer given.

(2) Maintenance changes.

08/09/16: V8.10

(1) Added Program Options to General / Settings. This form differs according to whether you're using the Evaluator or full program:-

(a) Evaluator. You can disable one or more program options to see the effect on the rest of the program.

(b) Full program. A list of your purchased options is shown.

(2) Added Re-build Frequency to General / Settings. This enables you to change the frequency that Re-build Data Files is normally run from daily (the default) to weekly. If you specify weekly, you can optionally select a preferred day for the re-build, eg Sunday. 

(3) Mail Merge (List Customers / Customers v Bookings): Added pet names to source file. 

(4) About petBASE: Added Latest Version button. This opens the appropriate Download page from the petBASE web site, which now includes the version and build number in the title bar.

(5) Error handling: Error log file automatically created/updated. 

7/05/16: V8.01

(1) Customers module was Customers/Pets.

(2) Print Booking Form or Invoice: Correction. Default images of dog and/or cat were not shown at top of print-out.

(3) Summary of  Appointments on specified date: error occurred when printing (from V8.00).

(4) Print general invoice: 'Departure date' text not shown (just date).

(5) Print booking form (scheduled): Correction. Appointment time didn't show minutes; eg 10.30 printed as 10.

(6) Manual Backup: When you clicked the spanner button to select destination, if you cancelled the resulting 'Choose directory' window without selecting a location, an error occured.

(7) Maintenance changes. 

17/02/16: V8.00

(1) Program now referred to as petBASE 8S (was petBASE 7G) and installs to C:\petBASE8S.

(2) General Settings:- 

(a) Service Type: You can now enter any word up to 12 characters (previously only 'Grooming', 'Training' or 'Services' could be selected).

(b) Pet Types. A previously-specified pet type can't now be removed if it's included in existing customer or booking details. Eg if you already have cats in customer or booking details, you can't change Pet Types to 'Dogs only'.

(3) All times are now in 24-hour format. Eg 10.15, 15.30, etc.    

(4) Added Booking Notes Prompts. Enables you to specify any standard text that you want to appear in the Booking Notes box when you add a new booking.

(5) Add/Change a Booking:- 

(a) Appointment and departure times now 24-hour format (see item 3), so AM/PM no-longer required.

(d) Now prevents appointment time being later than departure time. 

(e) When changing appointment date, if outside calendar range, resets to previous date. 

(6) Add a Booking: If Schedule Services Work ticked in General Booking Settings, Unsched button visible at top of form. If this is clicked before proceeding further, booking is not scheduled. 

(7) In all cases where a small form is superimposed on a main menu, appropriate text now appears in the main menu footer. Previously, this was only done in some cases.

(8) Manual Backup: Floppy disk no-longer shown as specific option for backup location (but could still be selected as drive A).

(9) Restore Data From Backup: New function, replacing separate Restore From Manual / Auto Backup functions. Main points:-

(a) Enables you to compare dates and times of last manual & auto backups before deciding which to restore.

(b) Manual backup location no-longer has floppy disk option (but could still be selected as drive A).

(c) Button added to directly read date and time of manual backup file Pbdata.zip in specified location.     

(d) You can now restore from your last auto backup, even if the Miscellaneous Settings data file has been corrupted since the backup was made.

(10) Specify Service(s):-

(a) Warning message displayed if duplicate service selected.

(b) Warning message displayed if no standard fee and/or no standard time listed for selected service (where applicable). 

(c) On clicking Delete button (to delete current services), all checkboxes unticked.

(d) On clicking Cancel button, confirmation message displayed.

(11) Set Screen Display:-

(a) If Default selected, apart from re-setting to standard sized, display is centred on screen (previously moved to top-left corner of screen).

(b) Added Centre button. This centres the display, while maintaining the current size.  

(12) Help page print-outs now show coloured text. 

(13) Maintenance changes. 

21/11/15: V7.32

(1) Program start-up:- 

(a) At first start-up of the day, data files checked and (if no problems found), Auto Backup run (as before) followed by Re-build Data Files. 

(b) At subsequent start-ups, data files checked (no checks done before).  

(c) At all start-ups, if problem found with a data file, Re-build Data Files runs automatically.

(2) Database Engine settings revised for improved performance. 

(3) Invoice Settings: Added Optional Information field (eg bank details) to appear on all printed invoices.

(4) Print Booking Form: Correction. If collection/delivery charge £100 or more, didn't print. 

11/10/14: V7.31

(1) Invoices / Settings: Added Payment Methods. This enables the user to define payment methods in addition to the default ones, eg 'Bank transfer' and 'PayPal'. This function is identical to that previously (and still) available in Accounting / Settings, but enables the additional payment methods to be used for invoices, as well as accounting transactions. Also, if Invoices module purchased, when adding or changing a booking and defining a deposit, these additional payment methods are available.

(2) Start-up: If petBASE already open, or didn't close properly last time, a message appears giving option of cancelling or continuing. 

22/01/14: V7.30

(1) Added optional Login System for petBASE, with which you can define any number of users, each with their own password and access level. The system will also keep a log of who has added or changed key data.  Note that this is a more sophisticated alternative to the existing Password Protection system.

(2) Added Transactions Analysis to Accounting module. Gives basic transactions statistics over any date range.

(3) General Settings: Program Scope re-named Pet Types. Defaults to 'Dogs & cats' (previously 'Cats & dogs').

(4) Add/Change Customer: Correction. When selecting photo file, max file length increased from 20 to 30 chars.

(5) Printer Setup: If a printer other than the default Windows printer is selected, this is saved for subsequent petBASE sessions. (Previously, it was retained only for the current session.)

(6) Program startup: If program has been upgraded to a later version since last startup, Re-build Data Files runs automatically.

(7) Restore from Manual Backup:-

(a) Program version from which backup was made is no-longer required.

(b) If restoring from earlier program version, Re-build Data Files runs automatically after restoration.

(8) Restore Data From Auto Backup:-

(a) If restoring from earlier program version, Re-build Data Files runs automatically after restoration.

(b) Removed options to restore only certain data. 

(9) Invoice Payments analysis:-

(a) Caters for deposits with different payment method than balance. 

(b) Payment methods no-longer include VAT breakdowns. 

(10) Invoices Monthly Analysis:-

(a) Totals for different pet types no-longer included.

(b) Caters for deposits with different payment method than balance.

(11) Display of 'speed tips' for table column headings improved.

(12) Change History: Single page display replaced by list of program versions, with details of selected version shown to right of list. Because of the large amount of text, the previous function was slow to open.

(13) Mail Merge function: Now creates data source file in CSV format (plain text file with comma-separated values), for compatibility with Word 2013, etc. Previously, this was a dBASE file. 

(14) Added Transactions to Accounting / Analyse. Gives basic transactions statistics over any date range.

(15) Add/Change Invoice: If Suppliers/Accounting modules purchased, but current user's password prevents access to them, if cash payment made, corresponding transaction now automatically created in Accounting module.

(16) Maintenance changes.

20/02/13: V7.25

(1) Grooming Classes re-named Pet Classes and moved from Bookings / Settings to Customers/Pets / Settings.

(2) If you select Pet Class as your Grooming Fees Basis, these Classes were previously only accessed by linking them to Breeds in the Breeds Library. A Class column has now been added to the pet details table in Customer/Pet Details, so you can now directly select a Class for each pet. This has been done for greater flexibility and to enable you to see at a glance the Class assigned to each pet.

(3) Added Credit Card Charge facility. This is specified in Invoice Settings and can be a percentage or flat amount. Then, when adding or changing an invoice, if the balance and/or deposit are paid by credit card, the surcharge is automatically calculated and added to the totals. 

(4) Calendar now shows dates as Day + Month or Month + Day, according to the date format setting in Windows Control Panel. Note that all other dates already conform to the Windows setting. 

(5) Help system: 'Setup guide' replaces 'Using petBASE for the first time'. Contents re-written so steps can be followed in logical order. This is included in Introducing petBASE.

(6) Previously, if the user 'changed the size of all items' to Medium - 125% in the Windows Control Panel, this resulted in some of petBASE's text being truncated, etc. This has now been corrected. 

10/12/12: V7.23

(1) Password Protection: If you've purchased the Suppliers & Accounting modules, you can now define 2 passwords. Password 1 will give you access to all program modules (as before). Password 2 is optional, and prevents access to the Suppliers & Accounting modules.

(2) Grooming Classes:-

(a) Access prevented if Grooming Fees Basis not set to 'Class' in General Booking Settings.

(b) On closing form, if changes made message appears asking whether you wish to update the Breeds Library and giving option of opening it.

(3) Maintenance changes.

27/11/12: V7.22

(1) Print Customers v Bookings Table: Correct order shown.

(2) Summary of Grooming Appointments (on specified date):-

(a) If change made, form no-longer closes.

(b) Footer text updated to reflect changes.

(3) Add/Change Credit/Debit Details: Minor corrections to form appearance. Eg if Category=Transfers, Invoice button now invisible.

(4) Filter/Search Criteria: Defined criteria are now only retained until you exit petBASE, at which point they are deleted. 

(5) List Documents: Correction. If all files deleted, error occurred.

(6) List All Bookings: Error occurred when Filter button clicked. 

(7) Maintenance changes. These include the removal of a number of local files (used to hold temporary data), which are now created from scratch when required. This will improve program reliability in the event of computer problems or power failure, etc.  

27/10/12: V7.21

(1) List Bookings: Invoice button added, enabling an invoice to be created for the selected booking.

(2) Add a Booking Invoice: Instead of having to enter the required booking number, a list of all uninvoiced bookings now appears; select the required booking and click the Invoice button to create the new invoice.

(3) Filter/Search Bookings: Added Invoice criterion, which enables you to include bookings with or without an invoice.

(4) Maintenance changes.

25/04/12: V7.20

petBASE 7G introduced, covering grooming bookings only (alternative program petBASE 7 covers boarding and grooming bookings). Prior to this, the program was referred to simply as petBASE, which covered boarding and grooming bookings. These are the main changes compared with petBASE version 7.10.

(1) All references to boarding bookings have been removed, as have any fields or functions that apply only to boarding bookings.

(2) General Booking Settings:- 

(a) Form title was 'Booking Settings'.

(b) Added Grooming Fees Basis, which can be set to Breed or Class. Grooming Class is a new category - see later. The selected option is then used as the basis for defining your standard grooming fees.

(c) Added Schedule Grooming Work check box. If ticked, all bookings must be scheduled by assigning each pet to an available groomer within a free time slot on the specified booking date.    

(3) Bookings / Settings: Added Grooming Classes. If you select Class as your Grooming Fees Basis (see above), you must use this form to define your Grooming Classes (eg 'Small long-haired dogs'), which will then be used as the basis for defining your standard grooming fees (in Services and Fees). 

(4) Bookings / Settings: Added Opening Times & Available Staff. This enables you to specify your normal opening times and number of grooming staff (up to 5) available on each day of the week. From this, for each day, petBASE calculates the available grooming time, ie the total number of staff hours available to do grooming work on that day. 

(5) Breeds Library: If Class selected for Grooming Fees Basis, Class & corresponding Description columns are shown. For any Breed, you should select a Class.

(6) Services and Fees: The layout of this form now depends on the option selected for Grooming Fees Basis (see above), and shows Breed or Class in the LH column of the main table.

(7) Add/Change Booking: Changes include:-

(a) Services button added to select grooming services (previously clicked Grooming fee column heading).

(b) Service Details column added to pets table, showing selected services for each pet. 

(c) If Schedule Grooming Work ticked, Schedule button shown. Click this to show the current grooming schedule on the specified date, to which you can then assign the previously-specified grooming services for the selected pet to an available groomer in a free time slot.  

(d) If Schedule Grooming Work ticked, Groomer column added to pets table, showing the selected groomer for each pet.

(8) View Booking: Changes include:-

(a) Service Details column added to pets table.

(b) If Schedule Grooming Work ticked, Groomer column added to pets table.

(9) Add / Change Customer:  If Breed heading clicked, full Breeds Library now appears (instead of non-editable breeds list), so new breed can be added, if required.

(10) Summary of Appointments On Selected Date:- 

(a) If Schedule Grooming Work ticked, Groomer column included.

(b) List can now be ordered on Departure Time or Groomer (if applicable), in addition to Arrival Time.

(c) When adding a booking from this form, if Schedule Grooming Work not ticked, suggested appointment time pre-entered based on last departure time for current bookings.  

(11) Grooming Calendar:-

(a) Colour scheme changed to improve clarity.  

(b) Added new function Opening Times & Available Staff. This is similar to item 4, but enables you to change these settings on a specific date.

(c) Added new function View Schedule. If Schedule Grooming Work has been ticked, you can view the schedule on any date.

(d) Added new function Staff Assignments.  If Schedule Grooming Work has been ticked, you can see details of all assignments for a selected groomer on any date.   

(e) Number of bookings indicated by 'B' (previously 'A' for appointments).

(12) Bookings / Bookings menu heading:-

(a) Added Summary of Today's Appointments.

(b) Added Today's Schedule.

(13) Program installs to C:petBASE7G.

(14) Maintenance changes.

Updated 7 July 2020