Happy Dog CRM

A lightweight, self-hosted Customer Relationship Management application built for small pet-service businesses. Manage customers, schedule appointments, send emails, and export reports, all from one place.

🆕 Version 2.0.8

🆕 New in Version 2.0.8

• Confirmation emails. On the appointment form, tick "Email the customer a confirmation now" to email them the details when you save a new appointment or an edit (a calendar invite is included).
• Day-before reminders you set per appointment. Each appointment has Email and Text (SMS) reminder checkboxes. Ticked reminders go out the day before, at the time you choose under Settings › Messaging.
• Pickup notifications. After you mark an appointment complete, its page has a Send Pickup Notification button that emails (and texts) the customer that their dog is ready.
• Editable message templates. Settings › SMTP and Settings › Messaging each have Pickup and Day-Before Reminder templates you can word yourself.

🆕 New in Version 2.0.7

• Reports now export to your Downloads folder. Clicking Export saves the CSV straight into Downloads and tells you the file name — no more exports that seemed to do nothing in the app window.
• Email Blast reaches the people you tick. Picking individual recipients now works (previously only the "entire status group" option sent).
• The Help button opens the online guide in your web browser instead of a second copy of the app.
• Tidier sent log — a bulk email shows as Blast rather than a long code, and the Sign Out button is hidden when login is turned off.

🆕 New in Version 2.0.6

• No login screen by default. A fresh install opens straight to the Dashboard — most shops run this on one computer at the front desk, and a password every morning helps nobody. To turn the login screen on, tick Settings › Application Preferences › Disable login off. That page tells you the admin sign-in to use before you switch it on, so you can't lock yourself out.
• Time Clock is off by default. Turn it on under Settings › Application Preferences and the Time Clock link returns to the sidebar.
• The intake form now asks when clients prefer to come in. The QR template gained Preferred days and Preferred times; whatever they write shows on the Intake review card and is saved to their notes when you approve them.
• “Use my SMTP settings” on the Web Intake page fills in the intake mailbox from the email settings you already entered — same address, one click, instead of retyping the password.
• Printouts no longer show the web address. Invoices, kennel cards, the daily schedule, and the QR sign print clean, without the 127.0.0.1:5000/… line across the top.

🆕 New in Version 1.90

• Web Intake (QR sign-up): display a QR code so new clients can submit their own details. Submissions arrive in your inbox and appear under the new Intake menu for you to review and approve. See Web Intake (QR).
• Intake menu in the sidebar shows a red badge with the number of submissions waiting for review.
• Messaging › Emails now share one consistent layout (Compose, Email Blast, Send SMS, Sent Log), and the Email Blast editor matches the single-email editor.
• Printing from the Dashboard (invoice, kennel card, daily schedule) opens the print dialog right in the app window.

💾 Installation

System Requirements

Installation Steps

Command-Line Options

You can pass flags directly to the executable (installed at C:\Program Files\HappyDogCRM\HappyDogCRM.exe) to skip the interactive prompt:

HappyDogCRM.exe                     # interactive prompt (default)
HappyDogCRM.exe --mode webview      # desktop window via pywebview
HappyDogCRM.exe --mode localhost    # open in default browser
HappyDogCRM.exe --mode localhost --port 8080   # custom port

🚀 First Launch

On first run, Happy Dog CRM automatically:

• Creates the database file at %APPDATA%\HappyDogCRM\crm.db
• Seeds the database with sample customers, appointments, and dog behavior values
• Creates the default admin account

🔐 Default Login Credentials

To change the default credentials at startup, set environment variables before launching:

set ADMIN_USERNAME=myadmin
set ADMIN_PASSWORD=MySecurePass123
HappyDogCRM.exe

☷ Dashboard

The Dashboard provides a live overview of your business at a glance:

☺

Total Contacts

Count of all customer records in the database.

Upcoming Appointments

Scheduled appointments from today onward.

☍

Pipeline Value

Total price of all upcoming Scheduled appointments.

★

Completed Revenue

Sum of prices from all Completed appointments.

The dashboard also shows your next 5 upcoming appointments and your 4 most recently added customers.

Complete a visit & book the next one

Click any row in Today's Schedule to open the appointment, then:

☺ Customers

The Customers module stores all client information including:

• Full name, email, phone number
• Physical address (street, city, state, ZIP)
• Dog details: name, breed/type, behavior category, and notes
• Status (Lead / Prospect / Active / Churned)
• Lifetime Value (LTV): cumulative revenue from this customer

Customer Statuses

Lifetime Value (LTV)

LTV is not directly editable to preserve accuracy. It is updated in two ways:

• Automatically: when an appointment with a price is marked Completed, its price is added to the customer's LTV.
• Manual adjustment: on the customer detail page, use the Modify Lifetime Value panel to enter a positive or negative decimal amount (e.g. 50.00 to add, -25.00 to deduct). Optionally add a reason note. LTV cannot go below $0.00.

Schedule & Calendar

Manage appointments for your customers. Each appointment has:

• Title, linked customer, date & time, duration
• Type: Meeting, Call, Demo, Follow-up, or Other
• Location and notes
• Price: automatically added to the customer's Lifetime Value when status is set to Completed
• Status: Scheduled, Completed, or Cancelled

List Views

Three list tabs let you filter by time range:

• Upcoming: appointments from today onwards
• All: every appointment regardless of date
• Past: appointments before today

Each list view also supports filtering by Type and Status.

Calendar View

Click the Calendar tab to switch to the monthly calendar view.

• Use the ‹ and › arrows to navigate between months.
• Each day cell shows colour-coded appointment labels:
  • blue = Scheduled
  • green = Completed
  • red = Cancelled
• Click any appointment label to open its edit form.
• Click any empty day cell to open the New Appointment form with that date pre-filled.
• Today's date is highlighted with a blue circle.

🔔 Reminders & Alerts

Happy Dog CRM can automatically remind your customers about upcoming appointments by text message or email, and can send an alert the moment an appointment is booked. Everything is set up from inside the application — no typing of commands is required.

Appointment Alerts (when booking)

On the New Appointment screen, pick a customer and their address, phone, and email appear automatically. Tick either box before saving:

• Send text message alert — texts the customer their appointment details.
• Send email calendar alert — emails a calendar invite (with your business name and address) they can add to their calendar.

Automated Reminders (before the appointment)

Editing an appointment updates its reminder; deleting or cancelling it removes the reminder. On the Appointments page, Send Reminders Now sends any due reminders immediately.

Sending while the app is closed — the Background Helper

Reminders and Web Intake are placed in a queue and handled by a small background helper. Installing the helper lets them run on schedule even when the Happy Dog CRM window is closed.

Emails

The Emails module allows you to:

• Compose: send individual emails to a customer
• Email Blast: send one message to multiple customers at once, with optional status filter
• Sent Log: view all previously sent emails with subject, recipient, and status

📥 Web Intake (QR Sign-up)

Web Intake lets new clients add themselves. You display a QR code (on a flyer, your window, or a business card). Scanning it opens the customer's email app, already addressed to you with the subject filled in and a short template in the message (Name, Email, Phone, Address, Dog name, Dog breed, Preferred days, Preferred times, Notes). They fill it in and hit send. Happy Dog CRM checks your inbox and lists each new email under the Intake menu, where you review it and either Approve (which adds the customer and their dog) or Dismiss it. No website or sign-up form is involved — it's just email.

One-time setup

Common IMAP servers

Reviewing submissions

New submissions appear under Intake in the sidebar (with a red count badge). For each:

• Approve — adds the person as a customer and their dog. If a customer with the same email already exists, the dog is attached to them instead of creating a duplicate.
• Dismiss — discards the submission without adding anyone.

☍ Reports & Exports

Export any dataset as a CSV file compatible with Excel and Google Sheets. Clicking Export saves the file into your Downloads folder and shows you the file name; open it from there.

Use the Preview button to review data in the browser before downloading. Filters for status and date range are available on the Customers and Appointments datasets.

⏰ Time Clock

The Time Clock module lets staff track work hours directly within Happy Dog CRM.

Clocking In and Out

Viewing Time Entries

• Each user sees their own last 30 entries.
• Admins see all employees' last 100 entries on the same page.
• Duration is shown in hours and minutes (e.g. 2 h 15 m). An active (un-clocked-out) entry shows Active.

👤 User Management

Administrators can manage user accounts from the Users page.

Roles

Managing Users

⚙ Settings

Access the Settings page by clicking the cog icon ⚙ in the top-right corner of any page.

Background Service — where is it?

Open Settings › Background Service to see whether the helper is installed, and to Install, Remove, or Run now — no command line needed.

Turning the login screen on

Happy Dog CRM opens straight to the Dashboard — there is no login screen out of the box. That suits the usual setup: one computer at the front desk, used by the people who work there. The app only listens on that computer and is not reachable from the internet.

If more than one person uses the machine and you want separate accounts and a sign-in, open Settings › Application Preferences and untick Disable login.

Updating Happy Dog CRM

Open Settings › Update. It shows the version you're running and a Check for Updates button that asks the Happy Dog Software site whether a newer release is out. If there is one, download it and run the installer over your existing install.

SMTP Email Setup

To enable outbound email, configure your SMTP server in Settings ⚙ › SMTP Settings.

Gmail (App Password)

Microsoft 365 / Outlook

Environment Variable Override

SMTP settings can also be provided via environment variables (take effect immediately, override the database values):

set SMTP_HOST=smtp.gmail.com
set SMTP_PORT=587
set SMTP_USER=you@gmail.com
set SMTP_PASSWORD=yourapppassword
set FROM_ADDRESS=you@gmail.com
set FROM_NAME=Happy Dog CRM

📄 Environment Variables

🗃 Data Storage

Database Location

When running as a packaged executable, the database is stored in:
%APPDATA%\HappyDogCRM\crm.db

This ensures your data survives application updates. To find this folder quickly, paste the path into Windows Explorer's address bar.

Backup

To back up your data, simply copy crm.db to a safe location. The database is a standard SQLite file and can be opened with any SQLite viewer (e.g., DB Browser for SQLite).

Tables in the Database

🔧 Troubleshooting

Emails not sending

Verify SMTP credentials in Settings › SMTP Settings. For Gmail, make sure you are using an App Password, not your main password. 2-Factor Authentication must be enabled on your Google account first.

❓ FAQ

Can multiple users access Happy Dog CRM at the same time?

Yes. When run in localhost mode, any computer on the same local network can access the app by navigating to http://<host-IP>:5000. Each user needs their own account created by an administrator.

Is my data sent to the cloud?

No. Happy Dog CRM runs entirely on your local machine. No data is sent externally except outbound email via your configured SMTP server.

Can I import existing customer data?

Currently there is no built-in CSV import. You can insert records directly into the SQLite database using a tool like DB Browser for SQLite.

How do I update the application?

Download and run the latest HappyDogCRM-windows-setup.exe; it upgrades the existing installation in place. Your database at %APPDATA%\HappyDogCRM\crm.db is not touched during updates.

Can I run this without an internet connection?

Yes. All features except SMTP email sending work fully offline.