How we replaced an off-the-shelf booking tool with a platform built around how dog fields actually run: daylight hours, gate codes, a credit wallet, gift cards and an AI assistant that can find and hold a slot, built to plug straight into Sage ERP.
Hounds & Bounds runs eight fully fenced, private-hire dog fields across Berkshire and Hampshire, from open acres near Arborfield to secluded woodland. Owners book a field by the hour and have it to themselves. Bookings had been split across a WordPress site and a third-party booking service, and the business had outgrown both.
A field is only bookable while it's light, so opening hours move every month and differ by location. Each booking also needs a gate code, and a cancelled session should turn into credit, not a refund chase. None of that fits a standard salon-style booking widget.
Each field's sunrise and sunset are calculated from its own coordinates, month by month, so the slots on offer always match the daylight. Maintenance blocks sit on top, and a "next free slot" search finds the first opening across all eight fields.
Adding a session to the basket holds it for 15 minutes inside a locked database transaction, with a live countdown. Two people can be looking at the same Saturday 9am, but only one of them can have it.
Pick one or several fields, then specific days, a date range or a recurring slot, all in one basket. The booking page is a fast Vue app; the rest of the site is a normal CMS the owners edit themselves.
Every field has its own gate code, which can be scheduled to change and overridden for a single booking. The code goes out with the reminder email on the day, and if it changes, affected customers are emailed automatically.
Every money event on the platform is already a clean, separate record, which is exactly what an accounting system needs. Connected to Sage ERP, each paid booking becomes a sales invoice, each Stripe or PayPal payment a receipt against it, each cancellation into wallet credit a credit note, and each gift card sale a liability until it is redeemed. New customers are created as Sage accounts, and the reports staff use today can be reconciled against Sage month by month. The website runs the customer side, Sage keeps the books, and nobody types a booking twice.
Customers pay by card through Stripe or by PayPal. Cancel in time and the money goes back into their wallet as credit, which is spent first next time. The wallet is an append-only ledger, so every penny in and out can be traced.
Buyers pick a design, add a message and choose when it's emailed. The recipient gets a printable PDF and redeems it straight into their wallet. Coupons are built in too.
Customers save their dogs and vehicle registrations once, then reschedule or cancel their own sessions without ringing anyone.
The site carries our TecAI assistant, connected to the booking engine rather than just a FAQ. It can search availability across the fields, put sessions in the basket and take them out again. After a six-digit code sent by email it can also look up and manage the customer's own bookings. Payment always happens on the secure checkout, never in the chat. Its knowledge base refreshes from the site every night.
Existing customers, bookings, invoices and payments are imported from the old booking service and the old WordPress site. The import runs as a dry run first, so every record can be checked before anything is written. Sessions already booked for after launch day get the new reminders and gate codes automatically, so customers don't notice the switch.
A bespoke booking platform for eight secure, private-hire dog fields in Berkshire and Hampshire, replacing a WordPress site and a third-party booking service. It covers booking, Stripe and PayPal payments, a credit wallet, gift cards, gate codes, staff tools and an AI booking assistant. It launches on 17 November 2026.
Yes, it is built for it. Paid bookings map to Sage sales invoices, card and PayPal payments to receipts, wallet credits to credit notes and gift card sales to liabilities until redeemed, with new customers created as Sage accounts. We build the same connection for other booking businesses that run Sage.
Opening hours follow daylight. Sunrise and sunset are calculated for each field from its own coordinates, month by month, and maintenance blocks are applied on top, so customers only see slots when the field is usable.
A session added to the basket is held for 15 minutes inside a locked database transaction, with a visible countdown. Unpaid holds are released automatically every minute.
It can search availability, add sessions to the basket and remove them, and after an emailed six-digit code it can look up and manage the customer's own bookings. Payment always happens on the secure checkout, not in the chat.
We build booking systems around how your business really works, from our office in Reading. Tell us what your current tool can't do, and which ERP it needs to talk to.
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