The Pet Configuration page gives you control over how pets are categorized, identified, and displayed across PawPlacer. It's organized into three tabs: Custom Pet Statuses, Automation, and Pet Age Display Mode.
Accessing Pet Configuration
- Open Settings
- Make sure the settings sidebar is showing Organization Settings
- Click Pet Configuration
This page requires Admin permissions.
Custom Pet Statuses
The Custom Pet Statuses tab lets you define your own pet statuses beyond the built-in defaults. Custom statuses help your team track where each animal is in your care pipeline using language that matches your organization's workflow.
For day-to-day pet status behavior, see Pet Status Management.
How Statuses Work
Statuses are organized into groups. Each group contains one or more individual statuses. For example, you might have a group called "Medical Hold" containing statuses like "Quarantine," "Post-Surgery," and "Awaiting Test Results."
Groups are visual organization only. They control ordering and headings in settings and reports, but they do not decide whether a pet is in care, public, locked, or foster-ending. Those behaviors are configured on each status.
Each status has behavior settings:
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| Enabled | Controls whether the status can be selected for pets |
| Public | Makes pets with this status eligible for public pet listings |
| Care state | Controls whether pets with this status are editable, count as in care, and count toward your pet limit |
| Ends foster | Completes an active foster assignment when a pet is moved into this status |
Use In care for pets your organization still owns, houses, fosters, treats, or is actively trying to place. Use Out of care for true outcomes such as adopted, transferred, returned to owner, deceased, or archived.
When you create a new out-of-care status, PawPlacer recommends and preselects Ends foster because most outcome statuses should close active foster placements. You can turn it off for special statuses where the pet should leave normal counts and editing but remain with the current foster.
Adding a Status Group
- Click New Group or Add Group
- Enter a group label
- Save the group
Adding a Status
- Click Add Status in the group where the status belongs
- Enter the status label
- Select a badge color; the color appears as a visual indicator throughout PawPlacer wherever the status is shown
- Assign it to a group
- Choose whether the status is enabled
- Choose whether the status is public
- Set the care state to In care or Out of care
- Choose whether switching to this status should end an active foster assignment
- Save the status
Public statuses can appear on public pet listings. Care state controls whether pets with that status count as currently in your care and remain editable. Out-of-care statuses are used for outcomes like adopted, transferred, deceased, archived, or returned to owner.
Editing and Reordering
You can drag and drop statuses and groups to reorder them. You can also drag statuses between groups. Click a group or status name to rename it inline. Use the status settings button to update color, group, enabled state, public visibility, care state, or foster-ending behavior.
Reordering is disabled while the status search box is filtered. Clear the search first so the saved order matches the full status list.
System statuses cannot be deleted, and enabled system statuses cannot be disabled. If you delete a status that is assigned to pets, PawPlacer asks you to choose a replacement status and updates those pets before removing the old status. If you delete a group that contains statuses, PawPlacer asks you where to move those statuses first. Groups that contain system statuses cannot be deleted.
Important Note
Changing or adding custom statuses does not automatically move pets to a different status. Existing pets keep their current status; update them individually from the pet profile or in bulk from the Pets page if you want them to use a new status.
Changing a status from In care to Out of care affects every pet assigned to that status. PawPlacer shows a warning when the change affects existing pets.
Out-of-care pets do not count toward the in-care pet limit. Their records stay in your account with full history, but their profiles are locked from normal editing and only status changes are allowed until the pet is moved back to an in-care status. Moving a pet back into care is blocked when the account has already reached its in-care pet limit.
Assigning a foster changes an eligible in-care pet's placement to foster while preserving its workflow status. You can move the pet between in-care statuses while keeping the foster assignment active. A foster assignment ends when the pet is moved to another foster, unfostered, adopted, or changed to a status configured to Ends foster.
Automated ID Numbers
The Automation tab lets you configure automatic ID generation for new pets. When enabled, PawPlacer assigns an ID to each pet as it's added, following the format you define.
Enabling Automated IDs
Toggle Enable Automated IDs to on. Once enabled, the configuration options appear below the toggle.
ID Schema Format
Choose from 10 preset ID patterns:
| Pattern | Example | Description |
|---|---|---|
| YY-NNNN | 26-0001 | Two-digit year, then sequence number |
| YYYY-NNNN | 2026-0001 | Full year, then sequence number |
| YYMMDD-NNNN | 260414-0001 | Date, then sequence number |
| YYMM-NNNN | 2604-0001 | Year and month, then sequence number |
| MM-NNNN | 04-0001 | Month, then sequence number |
| MMDD-NNNN | 0414-0001 | Month and day, then sequence number |
| NNNN | 0001 | Sequence number only |
| YYYY/NNNN | 2026/0001 | Full year with slash, then sequence number |
| NNNN-YY | 0001-26 | Sequence number, then two-digit year |
| NNNN-YYYY | 0001-2026 | Sequence number, then full year |
Additional Options
- Custom Prefix: Add an optional prefix to every ID. For example, a prefix of "PP" with the YY-NNNN pattern produces "PP26-0001."
- Number Padding: Choose how many digits the sequence number uses (1 through 6). A padding of 4 means numbers are zero-padded to four digits: 0001, 0002, and so on.
- Reset Yearly: When enabled, the sequence number resets to 1 at the start of each year. Only available with patterns that include a year component.
Live Preview
As you adjust the settings, a live preview at the bottom shows exactly what the next generated ID will look like. This updates in real time so you can see the effect of each change before saving.
Pet Age Display Mode
The Pet Age Display Mode tab controls how pet ages are shown throughout PawPlacer. Choose the format that best fits how your organization talks about animals.
Display Options
- Default: PawPlacer uses a mix of formats depending on context; this is the standard behavior.
- Date of Birth: Ages are shown as the pet's birthday (e.g., "Born Jan 15, 2024").
- Age: Ages are shown as a calculated value (e.g., "2 years, 3 months").
- Category: Ages are shown as a life stage label (e.g., "Young," "Adult," "Senior").
Select the option you prefer. The selected option is highlighted, saved immediately, and the page reloads so the new display mode is used across pages that show pet ages.
Permissions
Only team members with Admin access can modify pet configuration settings.