---
title: Building your service catalog
slug: setting-up-services
category: Services & Products
url: https://alaga.io/help/article/setting-up-services
audiences: business_owner, manager
updated: 2026-09-13
source: Alaga Help Center
---

# Building your service catalog
Sidebar: **Services**. The filter tabs across the top are All, Appointments, Apt Add-ons and Boarding Add-ons. Press **Add Service** to create one.

## The fields that matter

- **Service Name** and an optional short **Code** (up to 10 characters, such as STD or DOG-F) used on kennel cards and reports.
- **Service Categories** — this is the important one, and you can tick more than one:
  - **Standalone Appointment** — bookable on its own, such as a full groom.
  - **Appointment Add-on** — offered during an appointment, such as a nail trim.
  - **Boarding/Daycare Add-on** — offered during a stay, such as play time.
- **Can be added to** — for appointment add-ons, restrict which parent services they attach to. Leave it empty and the add-on is available everywhere.
- **Duration (minutes)** — 5 to 480. Required unless the service is add-on only.
- **Price**. Turn on **Variable Pricing** and this becomes a starting price that staff finalise at the appointment, which is how you handle "depends on the coat".
- **Buffer Time (minutes)** — blocked out after every booking of this service for clean-up and turnaround. Buffer time is invisible to clients but protects the schedule.
- **Requires Exclusive Attention** — the assigned staff member cannot be double-booked while this runs.
- **Staff Commission (%)** — feeds commission calculations in payroll.
- **Active** — inactive services stay in history but disappear from booking.

## Pricing beyond the base price

Alaga does not price services by breed or size. Three other levers exist:

- **Variable pricing**, above, for judgement calls.
- **Weight-based rates** for boarding and daycare, under Business Settings, Facility Settings.
- **Pricing Rules** under Business Settings, Pricing Rules, for holiday, peak-date and day-of-week surcharges. A rule has a type (holiday or special date, day of week, or date range), what it applies to (all, appointments, boarding or daycare), a price multiplier such as 1.15 for a 15 percent surcharge, and an optional flat surcharge on top.

## Deleting a service

Alaga checks whether the service has ever been used. If it appears on an appointment, an invoice line or a waitlist entry, it is **deactivated instead of deleted**, so historical revenue keeps its labels. Only a service that has never been used is fully removed.