The pet sitter's client information sheet, and why paper and texts fail
A client information sheet has one job: to let you walk into a home you do not live in and run the evening as if you did. Here is everything that belongs on it, followed by the honest reasons the usual ways of keeping it break down.
The household half
- Client name, phone, email, address, and any parking notes.
- Entry: key, lockbox code, gate code, alarm code and how the alarm behaves, plus what to do if any of it fails.
- An emergency contact who is not the owner, for when the owner is on a plane.
- House extras you have agreed to: plants, mail, bins, lights.
The pet half, one sheet per animal
- Name, species and breed, age, and a photo. In a two-cat household, the photo settles which one is which.
- Feeding: what, how much, when, and where the food is kept.
- Medications: the dose, the time, and the technique. "Wrap the pill in cheese, and check the floor after" is exactly the kind of thing that belongs on the sheet.
- Habits and quirks: hides when strangers arrive, bolts through open doors, afraid of thunder.
- The vet's name and number.
- What normal looks like for this animal: appetite, energy, litter habits. You cannot spot "off" without knowing "normal."
- Where things live: leash, litter, treats, towels, cleaning supplies.
Why paper fails
Paper sheets are how most sitters start, and they are fine at two clients. The problems arrive with growth. There is one copy, and it is at home when you are in someone's hallway. It goes stale silently: the owner texts you a medication change in March, and the sheet still says the old dose in July. And a binder of twenty households is not something you leaf through with a dog leash in one hand.
Why texts fail
Text threads hold every detail you were ever sent, which is exactly the problem. The feeding instructions are three months deep, mixed with scheduling back-and-forth, across a separate thread for every owner. The information is technically there and practically unreachable, and the moment you need it is always the worst one: early morning, animal waiting, owner asleep in another time zone.
What the fix looks like
The sheet itself is not the hard part; you now have the full checklist above. The hard part is keeping it in one place, current, and in your pocket. Whatever tool you use, it should give each pet one structured page, let you update it the moment something changes, and put it on your phone where the work happens.
This is the problem PetSit was originally built to solve. Every pet gets a record with a photo and a Notes field that holds its operating manual: medications, feeding schedule, quirks, vet info, gate codes, where the leash and food are kept. The notes are tied to your bookings, so the right sheet is attached to the visit you are standing in. Only you ever see any of it, and you can export all your records at any time as JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) and CSV (comma separated values) files.
See it working in two minutes
PetSit is management software for one person running a pet-sitting business: client and pet records, pet and house notes, scheduling, and invoices in one place, built for your phone. Your bookings flow into the calendar app you already use (Apple Calendar, Google Calendar, or Outlook), so your whole day stays in one view. The demo is a full working example with sample data. No signup needed, and it is not your data, so nothing can break.
The free month lasts 30 days and needs no credit card. After that, 12 dollars a month, flat, with no per-booking fees.