The Adoption Fees settings page lets you define a fee structure for each animal type your shelter supports. Fees are automatically calculated during the adoption checkout based on the pet's attributes.
Accessing Adoption Fees
- Open Settings
- Make sure the settings sidebar is showing Organization Settings
- Click Adoption Fees
How the Fee Structure Works
Each animal type (cats, dogs, rabbits) has its own fee card. Within each card, there are two layers:
Base fees by age: A dollar amount for each age category: Youngest (kittens/puppies/kits), Young, Adult, and Senior. This is the starting point for every fee calculation.
Percentage-based modifiers: Adjustments applied on top of the base fee for three additional attributes: health (sick or healthy), sex (male or female), and size (small, medium, or large). Each modifier is a percentage reduction that lowers the base fee. For example, a 25% modifier on "sick" health status means the fee is reduced by 25%.
How Fees Are Calculated
When an adoption is processed, PawPlacer matches the pet's species and age category to find the base fee, then applies any matching modifiers in this order:
- Look up the base fee using the pet's species and age category. (A kitten or puppy maps to "youngest.")
- If a health modifier exists for the pet's health status, reduce the fee by that percentage. ("Poor" health maps to "sick"; "good" or "great" maps to "healthy.")
- If a sex modifier exists, reduce the remaining fee by that percentage.
- If a size modifier exists, reduce the remaining fee by that percentage.
- The result is rounded to the nearest whole dollar.
For example, if a young dog has a base fee of $200, a 10% health discount for "healthy," and a 5% size discount for "large," the final fee would be: $200 × 0.90 × 0.95 = $171.
If a pet has a custom adoption fee set directly on its profile, that per-pet fee takes priority and the rules above are skipped entirely.
Setting Up Fees
Navigating the Interface
Each supported animal type (based on your shelter preferences) has its own card. Click the accordion sections to expand: Age Base Fees, Health Discounts, Sex Discounts, and Size Discounts.
Entering Values
For base fees, enter dollar amounts (between $0 and $10,000) in the fields prefixed with "$".
For modifiers, enter percentage values (between 0% and 100%) in the fields suffixed with "%". A value of 0% means no discount is applied for that attribute.
Saving
The Save button activates whenever you change a value. Click it to apply your changes; a confirmation toast will appear on success.
Which Animal Types Appear
Only the species enabled in your shelter preferences are shown. If you support cats and dogs but not rabbits, you'll see two cards. To change which species your shelter supports, visit Settings > Organization.
Permissions
Only users with Admin privileges can modify adoption fees. Other team members can view the fee structure but cannot make changes.
Tips
- Set a $0 base fee for an age category if you want to waive fees for that group (e.g., senior animals)
- Use the health modifier to offer reduced fees for animals with medical needs, encouraging their adoption
- Modifiers stack multiplicatively, not additively. A 10% health discount and a 10% size discount together produce a 19% total reduction, not 20%
Related
- Adoption Fees During Checkout: How fees appear to adopters during the adoption flow
- Payment Methods: Configure how adopters pay