Settings

Every setting you can change from the gear on the route page, in the order the gear shows them, with what each one does, what to pick or type, what happens if you leave it blank, and an example. You change these yourself on the route page; your sitters never need to.

Open Settings and save 2 minutes

Open the route page.

Phone or laptop, the same page you plan the day on.

Tap the gear (⚙️) at the top, next to the bell.

Or tap More at the bottom, then Settings (“Rules, spacing, staff, time blocks”). Both open the same panel.

You’ll see: a panel headed Settings that says “Loading…” for a moment, then “The settings most owners change. Search finds the rest.”

Look at the sections.

From the top: a Search settings… box, Essentials (already open), then Staff, Drive times, Time blocks and Advanced, which start closed. At the very bottom: Close and Save.

You’ll see: a number at the right of each heading: how many settings (or sitters) are inside. Drive times shows “fitted” or “not set” instead.

Tap a heading to open or close that section.

Advanced holds nine smaller sections of its own (Driving & timing, Visit spacing, and so on). Tap each one to open it.

Or type part of a name in Search settings…

For example type key. Only the settings with that word in their name or their grey note stay on screen, with their sections opened for you. Clear the box to see everything again.

Read the grey note under a setting before you change it.

Each setting has its name in bold, a short grey note, then a box or a list to pick from.

You’ll see: some empty boxes with pale grey text inside. That pale text is only an example. The box is empty, so the setting uses its usual value (listed for each setting below), not the example.

Change what you need: type in the box, or pick from the list.

A list that shows (the usual: see below) is blank on your Settings tab and uses its usual choice. A list that shows a word that is not one of the choices (like “km”) is what your Settings tab holds; it is kept as it is unless you pick something else.

Tap Save at the very bottom of the panel.

This one Save covers everything in the panel: the settings, any Staff rows you changed, and the time blocks. Only what you changed is sent, so a change someone made on another phone meanwhile is not overwritten.

You’ll see: “Saving…”, then a line such as “Saved: Buffer per stop (minutes). Reroute to apply.” If nothing was different: “Nothing needed changing.”

Reroute to put the change into the plan.

After a moment the panel turns into a card headed Saved: “Days already planned keep their plan until you reroute them.” Tap Reroute this day for the day on screen, or Reroute several days… to pick days on a calendar.

You’ll see: the Reroute choices, as on any day. Nothing moves until you pick one.

If you only changed the look of the page (Business Name, Logo URL, Accent Color, Sitter Colors, Web App Icon URL), there is nothing to reroute: the Saved card says something like “Your name and logo are on this page now. Plans are not changed.” and offers only Close.

To leave without saving, tap Close (or the gear again).

Anything you typed but did not save is dropped. The panel opens fresh next time.

Where the settings live. The gear reads and writes the Settings tab of your spreadsheet (and the Staff and Time Blocks tabs for those sections). Changing a row on the tab itself works too; the gear shows the same value next time you open it. If a setting’s row is missing from an older spreadsheet, saving a value in the gear adds the row for you.

What is in Settings

Essentials (5)
Reroute by itself at 5 AM
Staff (the team table)
Drive times
Time blocks
Advanced
- Driving & timing (6)
- Visit spacing (7)
- Sitters & priority (7)
- Group walks (3)
- Keys (2)
- Page & notifications (3)
- Time To Pet & overnights (8)
- Make it yours (5)
- Other (8)
Settings that live only on the spreadsheet
If a setting seems to do nothing

Essentials open when Settings opens

The five every business answers first. Everything else has a usual value that suits most businesses.

Business Operating Hours

The hours your team works. Everyone works these unless their own Start and End on the Staff table say otherwise.

What to type: One span like 06:00-22:00 or 6am - 10pm; 24 hours for a business that runs round the clock; or different hours by day: Sun closed; Mon-Fri 07:00-19:00; Sat 08:00-17:00.
Left blank: 6:00 AM to 8:00 PM. (The grey 06:00-20:00 in the empty box is what blank means.)
Change it when: Your first or last visits of the day fall outside these hours, or you work shorter days at the weekend.
Example: You start at 7 on weekdays, 8 on Saturday and are closed Sunday: Sun closed; Mon-Fri 07:00-19:00; Sat 08:00-17:00.

Distance Units

Miles or kilometres for every distance the page shows, and the unit the drive speed below is read in. The planning itself is the same either way.

Choices: Miles or Kilometres.
Left blank: Miles.
Change it when: You drive in kilometres (Canada and most places outside the US).
Example: Pick Kilometres, then set the drive speed below in km/h, such as 35.

Average drive speed (mph, or km/h if Distance Units is km)

How fast your sitters really get around, used to guess drive times until Drive times is fitted, and for any drive Google could not answer.

What to type: A number.
Left blank: 20.
Change it when: Your routes are rural (raise it) or slow city streets (lower it). Once Drive times is fitted, this matters much less.
Example: 30 for a country route of farm roads.

Buffer per stop (minutes)

Minutes added on top of every drive for parking, walking up and a word with the client.

What to type: Minutes, a whole number.
Left blank: 3.
Change it when: Sitters keep running a little late (raise it) or most homes are a quick in and out (lower it). It counts at every stop, so 2 extra minutes on a 12-visit day is 24 minutes.
Example: 5 in a downtown area where parking takes a while.

Segment Shown On Cards

The short place label on every visit card, so you can see at a glance where a visit is. One choice for every card; nothing to type per client.

What to type: Zip (the postcode from each address: US zip, Canadian first three characters like K1A, UK first half, Australian 4 digits), City (the city from each address), Area (your Clients tab’s Area column), or Flag: Zone (a Time To Pet flag that starts with that word, so “Zone: North” shows as North).
Left blank: Area when the client has one, otherwise the zip.
Change it when: The label on the cards does not mean much to you.
Example: You tag clients in Time To Pet as “Zone: North” and “Zone: Lakeside”: type Flag: Zone.

Reroute by itself at 5 AM just under Essentials

Reroute by itself at 5 AM (fewest changes)

A tick box. The same switch as step 15 on More › Set up; change it in either place.

Choices: Ticked or not. It saves as soon as you tick it.
Left alone: Off, the usual choice: every day stays exactly as Time To Pet booked it until you press Reroute.
Change it when: You want today planned before you wake up. On: around 5 AM, today gets Reroute: fewest changes, and anything it moves is on your list of changes to make in Time To Pet.

Staff the team table

One row per sitter, with the things you change as the team changes. Everything else about a sitter stays on the spreadsheet’s Staff tab.

Tap the Staff heading.

You’ll see: “Loading staff…”, then a table with one row per sitter. The number on the heading is how many rows.

On a phone, scroll the table sideways to reach the columns on the right.

The Save and Rename buttons are at the far right of each row.

Change a row, then tap Save on that row, or the main Save at the bottom.

The row’s own Save saves only that sitter, straight away, and leaves the panel open. The main Save at the bottom saves every row you changed, together with the rest of Settings.

You’ll see: next to the row’s buttons, “Saving…”, then “Saved Maria. Reroute to apply it to today.” With the main Save, the line at the bottom adds “Staff updated: Maria.”

The columns, left to right:

Name

The sitter’s name, as Time To Pet spells it. You cannot type here; use Rename (below) to change it.

Not listed?: A row ticked Placeholder on the Staff tab (a dummy or placeholder account, not a real person) is hidden here on purpose.

Priority

Who gets visits first. High fills first, then Medium, then Low. How strictly depends on Priority: spread after this many visits.

Choices: High, Medium, Low. If a row had a number from before, that number shows as a choice too and still works (lower fills first).
Left blank: High. Your usual sitters can stay as they are.
Change it when: Some people should only pick up visits when the main sitters are busy.
Example: Maria and Jo: High (your sitters). Sam: Medium (a team lead who also runs the office). Priya: Low (a manager who only covers).

Last resort

A tick box. A last-resort person only gets visits nobody else can take. It sits below Low and is separate from Priority.

Left unticked: A normal sitter.
Change it when: You (the owner) or an on-call person should only appear on the routes when there is truly nobody else.
Example: Tick it on your own row. What happens to visits Time To Pet has already booked to you is set by Last-Resort Sitter Bookings.

Max

The most visits this sitter gets in a day.

What to type: A number.
Left blank: No limit (their hours still limit them).
Example: 6 for a part-timer who only wants a short day.

Min

The fewest visits that make this sitter’s day worth driving out for. Below it, their visits are offered to everyone else. A client is never left unvisited to reach it.

What to type: A number, no bigger than Max.
Left blank: Uses Minimum Visits Per Staff (which is off unless you set it).
Example: 3: Jo is not sent out for one or two walks.

Start and End

This sitter’s standing shift on a normal day. Day-to-day changes (in later, a one-off day off) go on the Shifts screen instead, not here.

What to type: Times like 7:00, 7:00 AM or 18:00.
Left blank: Business Operating Hours.
Example: Start 9:00, End 15:00 for someone who works school hours.

Break after (hrs / min)

Two small boxes: after how many hours of their shift a break starts, and how many minutes it lasts. It follows the shift wherever it starts, so it keeps working when start times move around.

What to type: Hours in the first box (like 4 or 4.5), minutes in the second (like 30).
Left blank: No break, unless the fixed break boxes are filled.
Example: 4 / 30: a half-hour break 4 hours in. If this is filled, it wins over a fixed break.

Or fixed break

Two boxes for a break at the same clock time every day, start and end.

What to type: Times like 12:00 and 12:30.
Left blank: No fixed break.
Change it when: Only when the break really is tied to the clock, such as a school pickup at 3:00. Otherwise use Break after.

Shadowing

For a trainee riding along. Type the mentor’s name and the trainee gets a copy of that person’s day; no address needed.

What to type: The mentor’s name, as it is on the Staff tab.
Left blank: Works on their own.
Change it when: A new sitter starts. Blank it when they start on their own.
Example: On Priya’s row type Maria. “no address yet” under the box only means this sitter has no map pin of their own; a trainee who is shadowing does not need one.

Only these services

Limits this sitter to certain services. A tick list of the services in your visits; tap “Any service · choose…” to open it.

Choices: Tick the services they may do. The summary then says “2 of 14 · change…” or similar.
Left blank: Any service (skills and other rules still apply).
Example: Sam only does group hikes: tick only Adventure Hike.

Save (on the row)

Saves this one row now. You do not need it if you use the main Save at the bottom; both save the same thing.

Rename

Changes a sitter’s name on every tab, so their history, clients and keys stay with them.

How: Tap Rename. A box asks “New name for Maria, spelled exactly as Time To Pet has it now.” Type the new name, then OK.
Change it when: A sitter’s name changes in Time To Pet (a married name, a nickname dropped).

A Staff row will not save

The line beside the row says why, and nothing on that row was saved: “Priority is High, Medium or Low”; “Max visits must be a number”; “Min visits (5) can’t be more than Max visits (4)”; “Shift start should look like 7:00 or 7:00 AM”; “Break-after should be a number of hours, like 4 or 4.5”; “Shadowing: nobody on the Staff tab is called …” (check the spelling). Fix that box and save again.

“The Staff tab changed since this opened”: someone sorted or imported the Staff tab while the panel was open. Tap Close, open Settings again, and redo the change.

Drive times fitted or not set

Under the label How long driving really takes. Straight-line distance always understates real driving. This section learns how much longer your roads really take and uses that on every drive. It costs nothing to run or keep. These buttons work straight away; the main Save is not needed.

Tap the Drive times heading and read the first line.

You’ll see: one bold line saying whether real drive times are working, not working (and why), or off, sometimes with Open the guide. Then either “Fitted on … from … real drive times” with your roads’ effective speed, or “Not fitted yet”.

Read Google this month.

Address lookups, drive-time pairs and road lines used this month, each with Google’s free amount beside it, and roughly what it has cost. Your Google Cloud billing page is the final word.

Tap Fit from what I already have.

Uses the real drive times already on file. Free every time.

You’ll see: “Fitting…”, then a short report and the “Fitted on” line. If there are too few on file, it says about how many are needed.

No drive times on file yet? Tap Buy a sample and fit.

Asks Google for a few hundred real drive times, spread over short and long drives, then fits. It takes up to a minute. It needs a Google Maps key; without one the button is replaced by “Buy a sample and fit needs a Google Maps key.”

Once fitted, Real Drive Times on Auto stops buying drive times from Google and every drive uses your fitted roads, while your Maps key keeps looking up new addresses.

Time blocks the windows clients book

The arrival windows your clients book into, like Morning 7:00 to 10:00. Widening a visit to its block is what gives the planner room to improve a day. Blocks are used when a pasted Daily Summary names one (“Requested Block: Morning”).

Tap the Time blocks heading.

You’ll see: one row per block: name, start, end, a list (Arrival by or Finish by), “Only these services:” and Remove. With none yet: “None set yet. Add one, or paste a schedule report into the sheet and it works them out for you.”

Tap + Add a time block for a new one.

A blank row appears, set to Arrival by.

Type the name exactly as Time To Pet names the block.

The first box (grey example: Midday). The name has to match what the Daily Summary says after “Requested Block”.

Type the start and end times.

Like 12:00 and 15:00. A row with no name or a time the page cannot read is not saved.

Pick Arrival by or Finish by.

Arrival by: the sitter must arrive by the end time; the visit may run past it. Finish by: the visit must be over by the end time.

Leave Only these services empty unless the block is for certain visit types only.

Tap the list to tick services, for example an Overnight block only for overnight services.

Tap Remove on a block you no longer use.

Tap the main Save at the bottom of the panel.

Time blocks have no Save of their own.

You’ll see: “3 time block(s) saved.” in the line under Save. If any hand-placed visits were given new windows, it also says how many.

Advanced › Driving & timing 6 settings

Tap Advanced, then Driving & timing. (Drive speed, Buffer per stop and Business Operating Hours are in Essentials.) Advanced opens with the note “Defaults are right for most accounts.”

Post-Visit Admin Buffer (minutes)

Extra minutes after each visit before the drive to the next: notes, photos, the app.

What to type: Minutes.
Left blank: 0.
Change it when: Sitters spend real time on visit reports that your visit lengths in Time To Pet do not already include. If they do include it, leave 0, or the time is counted twice.
Example: 3.

Window Override Limit (minutes)

For a visit nobody could take on time: the furthest past its window the page will offer to place it. You always confirm each one.

What to type: Minutes; Off (or No, None) to switch the offer off; Unlimited to always ask, never refuse.
Left blank: 30 minutes. A 0 also means 30.
Change it when: You would accept a visit running later than 30 minutes past its window, if you okay it.
Example: 45. Medication visits and shift ends never bend, whatever this says.

Large Team Mode

How a very big day is split so planning finishes in time. Zones here are not territories; a visit nobody in its zone can take is still offered to everyone.

Choices: Auto (recommended): splits only past 25 working sitters or 125 visits. On: always splits. Off: always plans the whole team as one; on a very big day that can run past Google’s six-minute limit.
Left blank: Auto.
Change it when: Rarely. The Staff tab’s Zone column is optional; blank lets the planner draw the zones itself.

Scheduling Model

Whether sitters are assumed to work unless marked off, or off unless marked in. Match what your Time To Pet account uses.

Choices: Time Off: everyone is available every day and the time-off entries mark the exceptions. Availability: nobody works unless a row says so.
Left blank: Time Off.
Example: Your sitters send their available days each week in Time To Pet: pick Availability. A pasted Daily Summary still decides who works that date.

Stretch blocks when needed (minutes)

When a visit truly cannot fit its block because of the drive times, let it go this many minutes past the window instead of leaving it unplaced. A last resort only, and those visits are badged on the route page.

What to type: Minutes.
Left blank: 0: never. Never applied to medication visits, Special Times, overnights, key exchanges or exact-time visits.
Change it when: You would rather a visit be 10 minutes late than land in the bell with nobody.
Example: 15.

End of the day means

What the end of a sitter’s shift promises.

Choices: Finish by: the visit is over by the end of the shift, so a 30-minute visit cannot start at 8:59 for a 9 PM end. Arrival by: the sitter only has to have started by then, and the visit may run past it.
Left blank: Finish by.
Change it when: Your last block is an arrival window and you accept the visit running past it.

Advanced › Visit spacing 7 settings

Hours between one client’s visits, checked within a day and across days. Visits that break a rule show in the bell and the morning brief under “Hours between visits”. Read top-down: the cat and dog rules win for a client whose Species column says Cat or Dog; the “Everyone Else” rules cover the rest. A number on a client’s own row beats all of these, and 0 there exempts that client.

Blank means no rule here. An empty spacing box says “off” in pale grey. Until you type a number, that rule is not used.

Cat: Minimum Hours Between Visits

The least time between two visits for a client known to have a cat. Known from the Species column (filled from each pet’s type or breed in Time To Pet by the nightly backup), or from what they book (a service that says cat or kitty). A client nobody knows yet, with two visits in a day, is asked about on the route page.

What to type: Hours.
Left blank: No rule.
Example: 9: twice-daily feeds land around 8 AM and 5 PM, not 8 and 10.

Dog: Minimum Hours Between Visits

The least time between two visits for a client known to have a dog (the Species column, or because they book walks). Stops two let-outs landing two hours apart and then nothing for eight.

What to type: Hours.
Left blank: No rule.
Example: 4.

Dog: Maximum Hours Between Visits

Flags a dog left too long between visits. Reported, not enforced: the fix is usually another visit, which is your call.

What to type: Hours.
Left blank: No rule.
Example: 8, usually 6 to 8.

Everyone Else: Minimum Hours Between Visits

Only for clients the cat and dog rules do not cover: species unknown, or a bird, rabbit or other small animal. Not a copy of the cat and dog rules; those win when they apply.

What to type: Hours.
Left blank: No rule for those clients.
Example: 6.

Everyone Else: Maximum Hours Between Visits

The same idea for the maximum, for clients the dog rule does not cover. Reported, not enforced.

What to type: Hours.
Left blank: No rule.
Example: 12.

Maximum overnight hours

From the last visit of the day to the first the next morning. The one that matters for puppies. Reported on the plan; it assumes tomorrow looks like today.

What to type: Hours.
Left blank: No rule.
Example: 10: a 9 PM last visit wants a 7 AM first visit.

Once a day: keep within hours of the usual time

For clients with one visit a day, like a trip where the cat is fed once a day. Each day’s visit is aimed within this many hours of that client’s usual time on the days before, so it does not creep later each day. It only narrows the visit’s block; if that leaves no fit, the full block is used and the visit is marked.

What to type: Hours, like 1 or 1.5; 1:30 and 30 min also work. 0 or Off turns it off.
Left blank: Half an hour (0.5).
Example: 1: a cat fed at 9 on Monday is fed between 8 and 10 the rest of the week.

Advanced › Sitters & priority 7 settings

Work Week Starts On

Which day your 7-day week begins. Drives the week view and hours-this-week.

Choices: Sunday to Saturday.
Left blank: Sunday.
Example: Monday, if your pay week runs Monday to Sunday.

Weekly Hours Flag Threshold

A number here switches on hours-so-far-this-week on the route page and flags anyone over it.

What to type: Hours.
Left blank: Off: no weekly hours shown.
Change it when: You watch overtime. It plans every earlier day of the week each time the page opens, so on a large team the page opens more slowly.
Example: 40.

Priority: spread after this many visits

How the Staff table’s Priority (High, Medium, Low) behaves. High people always go first; this says how long before Medium and Low start getting visits.

What to type: A number of visits, or 0 or Strict.
Left blank: 6: once each High person has about 6 visits, Medium starts taking visits too, then Low, so the day spreads.
Strict (or 0): High people fill to their Max before anyone at Medium gets a visit, and Medium before Low.
Example: Strict if your Low person is a manager who should only ever cover when everyone else is full. Last resort people stay overflow-only either way.

Minimum Visits Per Staff

Below this many, a sitter’s visits are offered to everyone else so nobody drives out for one walk. A sitter’s own Min on the Staff table wins over this.

What to type: A number.
Left blank: Off (0 too). A client is never left unvisited to achieve it.
Example: 2.

Familiar Staff Requirement

Whether a sitter who has never been to a home may be sent there.

Choices: Off. Alert: flags a sitter who has never been to that home. Shadow: sends somebody who has been along with them, automatically. Require: sends only somebody who has been (a brand-new client with nobody familiar yet is flagged instead; Put on a sitter’s schedule anyway sets the rule aside for one visit).
Left blank: Off.
Example: Alert, to see first-time visits without blocking them.

Familiar Staff Scope

Which clients the rule above covers.

Choices: Flagged: only clients ticked on the Clients tab. All: everybody.
Left blank: Flagged.
Example: All, if nobody ever shows up cold at any home.

Familiar Staff Grace Days

While this many days have not yet passed since the first day in your visit history, Require behaves as Alert. Useful on a new setup where nobody counts as familiar with anyone yet.

What to type: Days.
Left blank: 0: Require means Require from day one.
Example: 30.

Advanced › Group walks 3 settings

For businesses that take several families’ dogs out together. Each family’s own visit becomes a pickup on one outing: the sitter picks each family up in booked-time order, does the walk, and drops off in reverse. The Time To Pet list still shows one line per family. Packs are set in More › Set up › Group walk packs.

Group Walk Services

The services that are group outings.

What to type: Service names, separated by commas, exactly as Time To Pet names them.
Left blank: No group walks.
Example: Group Walk, Adventure Hike.

Group Walks: Who Goes Together

How families are put together on one outing. The planner gives each outing a sitter.

Choices: Packs you set: families with the same Pack go out together, nobody else joins them, and a family with no pack goes alone. Closest dogs: families with a pack still go only with their pack; the rest are put together nearest first, with arrival windows that overlap, the same Area when both have one, within 5 miles, up to the max below.
Left blank: Closest dogs.

Group Walk Max Dogs

The most dogs on one outing when dogs are put together by Closest dogs. Counted from the pet names after the client’s name, like Ada Pell (Fido, Rex) = 2. With Client Name Display set to the owner only, each family counts as one dog.

What to type: A number, 2 or more.
Left blank: 6.
Example: 4 if your van holds four crates.

Advanced › Keys 2 settings

Key Pickup Points

Where keys are kept for sitters to collect: the office, a second office, a lockbox. A client whose Key Holder in Time To Pet names one of these (or says Office) gets a pickup stop wherever in the day suits best before their visit. These are also where one sitter can leave a key for another (Key Handoff, below).

What to type: One per line, or separated by semicolons, as Name: address.
Left blank: No pickup points. A key at the office stays a reminder note on the visit.
Example: Office: 100 Main St; North lockbox: 12 Oak St

You’ll see: after Save, each address is looked up on the map once and its map position is added after a bar, like “Office: 100 Main St | 44.52, -89.57”. Leave that part as it is. If one could not be found, the Save line says “Could not find … on the map”; with no Google Maps key yet it says to add the key in Set up and save again.

Key Handoff

What happens when the sitter on a visit does not have the key and another sitter does.

Choices: Meet where routes cross: puts a “Get the key from Maria” stop on the route at one of Maria’s stops that day (or her home if she is off); when no meeting fits, Maria leaves it at a Key Pickup Point instead. Drop at a key point first: Maria leaves it at the office or a lockbox on her way, and the other sitter picks it up there before the visit, so nobody waits; a meeting only when no drop fits. Owner decides: only flags it on the card and in Needs a look.
Left blank: Meet where routes cross.
Change it when: Sitters waiting for each other wastes time: pick Drop at a key point first. Both drop options need Key Pickup Points.

Advanced › Page & notifications 3 settings

Overdue Visit Threshold (minutes)

Minutes past a visit’s expected end before the page flags it as possibly missed. Only today is checked.

What to type: Minutes.
Left blank: 30.
Example: 45 if visits often run long.

Flags To Hide On The Route Page

Which Time To Pet flags appear on the visit cards. Shown as a tick list: ticked flags appear on the cards. Untick the ones that mean something to your office but nothing at the door. Unticked flags stay on the Clients tab.

How: Tap the list summary to open it. Show all and Hide all are under it, with a count such as “12 of 15 shown”.
Left as is: Every flag is shown, including flags that turn up later.
Example: Untick MEMBER, Review Received and Asked for review.

“No flags found yet. Import your clients first and they will appear here to tick.” means the client import has not run yet.

Schedule Change Message

What staff are told when you email them about a changed day.

What to type: A sentence or two.
Left blank: “Today’s company schedule has been updated. Please check your Time To Pet app or communication app.”
Example: Your day changed. Check the Time To Pet app before you leave.

Advanced › Time To Pet & overnights 8 settings

Overnight Arrival Buffer (minutes)

How long the arrival stop of an overnight takes: drop-off, settling in.

What to type: Minutes.
Left blank: 15.
Example: 20.

Overnight Departure Buffer (minutes)

The same for the morning departure stop.

What to type: Minutes.
Left blank: 15.

Client Name Display

Must match your Time To Pet account’s own setting, or client names in your imports will not line up with the Clients tab.

Choices: Owner (Pets), like Ada Pell (Fido, Rex). Pets (Owner), like Fido, Rex (Ada Pell). Owner only, like Ada Pell.
Left blank: Owner (Pets).
Change it when: Only if your Time To Pet account shows names another way.

Medication Field Name

The exact name of the Yes/No custom field on the pet profile in Time To Pet that means “has medication”.

What to type: The field name, spelled as in Time To Pet.
Left blank: Looks for a field called Needs medication?
Change it when: Your account already had its own differently named field.

Every Sitter Gives Medication

Whether any sitter may take a medication visit.

Choices: No or Yes. Yes: pills, drops and other medication can go to any sitter (the medication time still holds). Injections still go only to sitters with an injection skill, once anybody has one.
Left blank: No.

Medication Details Field Name

The partner field: the text field on the pet profile holding the timing, like 8:00-10:00.

What to type: The field name, spelled as in Time To Pet.
Left blank: Looks for a field called Medication times.

Template Horizon (days)

How far ahead Generate Visits from Templates projects by default.

What to type: Days.
Left blank: 28.

Default Inactivity Threshold (days)

Days without a visit before a client counts as gone quiet in the retention reports.

What to type: Days.
Left blank: 45.
Example: 30 if most of your clients book weekly walks.

Advanced › Make it yours 5 settings

Only the route page’s look. None of these changes a plan, so there is nothing to reroute after saving them.

Web App Icon URL

The tab and home-screen icon, instead of the Apps Script one.

What to type: A public link to a PNG or ICO image: upload one to your website and copy its address.
Left blank: The usual icon.

Business Name

Your business name at the top of the route page and in the browser tab.

What to type: Your name as you want it shown.
Left blank: Route Plan.
Example: Maple Street Pet Care.

Logo URL

Your logo, small at the top of the route page.

What to type: A public link starting with https:// to a PNG, JPG, GIF, WEBP or SVG. Upload it to your website and copy its address; it should end in .png, .jpg or .svg. A Google Drive or Photos share link does not work.
Left blank: Uses the Web App Icon URL, if you have one.

Accent Color

Your brand color for the main buttons, tabs and links. Sitter colors do not change.

What to type: A color code like #6B3FA0.
Left blank: Route Companion green.

You’ll see: a light color is darkened just enough to keep white text easy to read, and the Save line says the shade it used.

Sitter Colors

Your own color for any sitter, on the map, the cards and the Routes tab.

How: Tap a sitter’s color box and pick a color. The text box above fills in for you. automatic beside a sitter puts them back on the automatic color.
Or type: Name and color code, separated by commas: Maria #1F6E52, Jo #B0562F.
Left blank: The automatic colors.

Advanced › Other 8 settings

Manual Visit Flex (minutes)

When you paste the Daily Summary, a visit with no Requested Block (placed by hand, or from a recurring template) gets a window of its scheduled time plus or minus this. Meet & greets and orientations are always exact.

What to type: Minutes; 0 means exactly that time.
Left blank: 30.
Example: 60: a visit booked for 2:00 can land between 1:00 and 3:00.

Real Drive Times

Whether to buy real drive times from Google. Drive times already on file are used either way.

Choices: Auto: buys them until Drive times has been fitted, then stops, and every drive after that uses your fitted roads for free. Always: buys every missing pair (billed per pair of stops, so it adds up on a big day), up to your Monthly Google Budget. Never: buys none.
Left blank: Auto.

Monthly Google Budget ($)

The most this spreadsheet may spend on Google each month beyond Google’s free allowance.

What to type: Dollars.
Left blank: 0: it never goes past the free allowance. It stops buying drive times and road lines for the rest of the month, and plans keep working on what it already has.
Example: 20 lets it buy about 4,000 more drive-time pairs.

Plan Emails To

Where Route Companion’s emails go: the morning brief, the weekly summary and import problems.

What to type: One email address, or several separated by commas.
Left blank: Whoever owns the spreadsheet.
Example: office@yourbusiness.com, you@yourbusiness.com

Morning Brief

Every morning around 5 AM, one short note where your alerts go (email, your chat channel or both): what needs you today, tomorrow’s busiest two hours and who is off, one number, and anything that has stopped working. It changes nothing.

Choices: On or Off.
Left blank: On.
Change it when: You do not want the email. The 5 AM reroute, if you turned it on (Settings or More › Set up), still runs either way.

Keep Time To Pet’s Sitter

Whether the sitter Time To Pet booked keeps the visit.

Choices: Strong: the booked sitter keeps it whenever it fits their day, and a visit that has to move goes to somebody already working that day before anybody is called in. Off: plan freely and ignore who is booked.
Left blank: Strong.
Good to know: A client’s Preferred Staff (Clients tab) is a preference too. To make it a rule, write only: in front of the names.

Keep Time To Pet’s Sitter For (days)

How far ahead the booked sitter is kept. Days beyond that are planned as a fair spread, since nobody has settled them yet.

What to type: 0 = today only, 1 = today and tomorrow, 7 = the whole week.
Left blank: 1.

Last-Resort Sitter Bookings

What to do with visits Time To Pet has booked to a last-resort sitter (often the owner).

Choices: Keep with them: they really do those visits, kept like any booking. Placeholder: bookings to them are just parked there, so the visits go to your other sitters first.
Left blank: Keep with them.
Example: You park every new booking on your own name until you assign it: pick Placeholder.

Settings that live only on the spreadsheet

A few rows on the spreadsheet’s Settings tab are not in the gear, because they are set once or rarely needed. Change them on the tab itself (column B, next to the name).

Google Maps API Key (set on the route page): Leave the cell blank. The key is saved privately in More › Set up.
Familiar After Visits: How many separate days a sitter must have visited a client before they count as familiar. Blank or 1: one day is enough.
Snapshot Stale Threshold (days): How old the pasted availability or time-off snapshot can get before the page calls it stale. Usual: 7.
Key Import Stale Threshold (days): How old the last key holder import can get before the page calls it stale. Usual: 7.
Office Pickup Latitude and Longitude: The older way to give the office’s map position. Still counted as a key point called Office when Key Pickup Points has no Office. Use Key Pickup Points instead.
Auto-Create Key Exchanges: Not used any more. Leave it Off.
Client Export: Preferred Staff, Do Not Schedule, Address 1, Address 2, City, State and Zip Code Column Name: Leave blank unless your Time To Pet client export renamed one of those columns and the import says it could not find it. Then type the exact column name.
GoHighLevel Webhook URL: Only if you use GoHighLevel: used by the spreadsheet menu item Send to GoHighLevel.
Google Tasks Sync: Only on older spreadsheets that already have the row. Not offered on new ones.

If a setting seems to do nothing

I changed a setting and the routes look the same

1. Did the line under Save say “Saved: …” with that setting’s name? If you tapped Close, or the gear, nothing was saved.

2. Did you reroute? Days already planned keep their plan until you reroute them. Use Reroute this day on the Saved card, or More › Reroute several days.

3. Is the box really filled? Pale grey text in an empty box is only an example. The spacing rules in particular do nothing until a number is typed.

4. Does the setting apply to this visit? Cat and dog rules need the client’s Species to say Cat or Dog. Familiar Staff on Flagged covers only clients ticked on the Clients tab. Group Walk Services must match the Time To Pet service names exactly. Key drops need Key Pickup Points.

5. Something stronger may be winning: a pinned visit never moves; a client’s own spacing number beats the company-wide ones; a sitter’s own Start, End and Min beat Business Operating Hours and Minimum Visits Per Staff.

The gear shows a different value from the one I typed on the Settings tab

Look for two rows with the same name on the Settings tab. The lower one is the one in use, and it is the one the gear shows and saves. Delete the other row.

Save keeps saying “Saving…”

After 40 seconds the page says “Still saving after 40 seconds. That is unusual.” Wait a minute, then reload the page. If the planner was in the middle of a reroute or an import, try again once it finishes. If it keeps happening, use More › Report a problem; the details are attached.

My logo or color did not appear

The Save line says why: “Logo URL: that is not a public https link to a PNG, JPG, GIF, WEBP or SVG image, so no logo shows.”, or “Accent Color: that is not a color code like #6B3FA0, so the page keeps its green.” Fix the link or the code and save again.

Something else

More › Report a problem. If Settings showed a red line, copy it into your report. It reaches Everjade with the page’s own notes attached.

Route Companion guide · updated 2026-10-06