Why Fretso
Most pet software is a diary with a bill stapled to it
That works until you add retail, then boarding, then a vet room, and suddenly nothing agrees with anything. Fretso has real accounting and stock underneath, which is why it holds together when the business gets complicated.
The problem
Six things owners tell us on the first call
They're all the same problem wearing different clothes: nothing in the business shares a record with anything else.
01
Three systems, three different answers
The booking app says one thing, the till says another, the stock sheet hasn't been touched since March. Fretso holds one version and everything writes to it.
02
Two days rebuilding month-end
Takings by service, commission per groomer, tax ready to file. They're reports you open, not a weekend lost to a shoebox of receipts.
03
The phone never stops
When's the jab due, can I get in Saturday, can I get the same food, what do I owe you. All four are on their phone now, so your desk can serve the person actually standing there.
04
Money left on the table every month
Boosters due, grooms overdue, packages about to expire. Set the rule once and the message goes out whether or not you had time to think about it.
05
It only runs properly when your best person is in
Double-booked runs, lapsed boosters, two people off the same Saturday. The software refuses all three, so a quiet Sunday gets the same guardrails as a Monday with you in the building.
06
Opening a second shop means starting again
It's a settings change, not a migration. Customers, pets and prepaid balances carry across, and you get one login that shows both.
Comparison
Booking app vs. Fretso
Being straight with you: if a diary is genuinely all you need, buy a diary, it's cheaper. This is about what happens when you need more than that.
| Typical booking app | Fretso Pet ERP | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | A booking diary with invoicing bolted on | Real accounting, stock, purchasing and HR underneath |
| The pet | A different record per service, joined up by whoever remembers | One file the groomer, the vet and boarding all write to |
| Tax | Exported to something else at month end and hoped for | Applied correctly the moment the invoice is raised |
| Stock | Counted by hand, or living in a second system | Drops as you sell and as the vet dispenses, and warns you |
| Second shop | A second system, and a spreadsheet to add them up | Same login. Managers see theirs, you see all of it |
| Mistakes | Training, and hoping the good manager is on shift | Double-bookings and lapsed boosters refused by the software |
| Your customers | Ringing the desk to ask when the next jab is due | A page on their phone with the card, the diary and the bill |
| Getting out | Their format, their timetable, export on request | Open-source core. Your data, exportable whenever you want |
The upshot
What that gets you
01
One file per pet, not four
Your groomer can see the vet flagged a skin condition last month. Your boarding staff can see the dog's on twice-daily meds. Same file, same pet, no phone call.
02
It's a real ERP underneath
Fretso sits on ERPNext, which is proper accounting and stock software that thousands of businesses already run on. You're getting a general ledger, not a spreadsheet with a nice front end.
03
The software says no, so your staff don't have to
Nobody can double-book run 4. Nobody can check in a dog whose boosters lapsed. Nobody can approve two people onto the same Saturday off. Your Sunday staff get the same guardrails as your best manager.
04
Bills correctly wherever you trade
GST in India with HSN codes and the right splits. VAT in the UK and Europe. Plain sales tax in the US. Set it once, forget it.
05
Staff see their job, not your business
A groomer opens the app and sees today's dogs. That's it. No revenue, no other people's wages, no clinical notes they've no business reading.
06
Switch off what you don’t do
No vet room? Turn veterinary off. It disappears from the menu and from your bill. You're not paying for a clinic you don't run.
Access
Seven roles, already set up
- Front desk
- Takes the booking, checks them in, rings up the sale, chases the deposit, closes the till.
- Vet
- Consult notes, vaccinations, scripts, dispensing, lab results.
- Groomer
- Their own day, their own tickets, their own commission. Not your P&L.
- Boarding staff
- Runs, check-ins, feeds, meds, daily logs, going-home notes.
- Manager
- Their branch numbers, the rota, leave approvals, who can see what.
- Owner
- All of it. Branding, branches, payments, tax, every number in the business.
- Pet parent
- Their pets, the vaccination card, booking, invoices, re-orders.
Next step
Come and see it on your own shop
Twenty minutes on the real software, walked through the way you actually work. No slide deck, and nobody chases you afterwards.