Way to go! You got a notification someone filed an application to adopt one of your rescue dogs! Now comes the process of approving/denying the application (paws crossed it is approval!). Here’s the process for tracking the stages of the application and staying connected with your applicant along the way!

1. Log into the back end of your website and then select Dog Adopters:

   

2. On the Submitted page (which it just so happens comes up first!), find the application you are wanting to review, then click on it.

   

   That will bring you up the application.

   

   But where’s the rest of it, you ask? See that little half-circle with an arrow conveniently located below the Address and Preference boxes? Click on it, and voila, the rest of the application magically appears!

   

   You can click on the arrows on the right of each row to access the information in that section of the contract.

   

3. Once you’ve reviewed it, you need to decide what to do with it. If you scroll down a bit, under the Timeline you will see various choices, all you need to do is decide which way to go.

   

   NOTE: Approval DOES NOT mean you are approving the application, just that you’ve determined in the Initial Review the applicant is not a loser and it might be worth exploring further. Of course, if the applicant is a horse’s patootie, then you can pick Deny. There also is a Reason section so you can note why you’re denying it.
4. If you click on Send Email, the email which your admin has set up to be sent to the applicant will appear (don’t worry, it doesn’t send it right away).

   

   You can either send it “as is” or make any edits you want. Just click on the Send Now button when you are ready to send it winging on its way…

   

   Remember to click on the Update Process button above the email text to wake up the techno- wizards of the website let them know it’s time to get to work.

   

5. The timeline now shows you have moved on to the Home Visit stage (a bit more about that below) with the same box as the Initial Stage when you are ready to approve at this stage.

   

   The application has now moved to the Initial Approval Stage in the Dog Adopter Roster:

   

   NOTE: As long as we’re here, when you’re trying to find an application and don’t know what stage it is in – or even if you want to see all the applications for a certain dog – you can now search that way from the top if any of the Adopter screens!

   

   And while all the updating is being done on the website, the little sprites of the software have sent that acknowledgement email to the adopter (like this but with your branding and whatever your admin set up):

   

6. The next step on the website is the Home Visit. Okay, so not all rescues do home visits – maybe they wait until the meet and greet or don’t do them at all. Not to worry, your admin can set this up as a reference checks completed or some other stage in the process. Whatever you decide, once the applicant has moved on to this stage, you are going to get a similar check box to the initial approval down in the Time Line and Notes section of the applicant’s screen where you can approve, conditionally approve, etc.:

   

   Assume during the home visit or reference checks everything is good except that one little pesky item which doesn’t allow you to approve the application at this stage. Maybe it’s a hole in the fence that needs fixing, or the vet tells you that the current dog is overdue for vaccinations, that’s where the Conditional Approval comes in.

   If you select Conditional Approval, you can use the drop-down box to select why (or add a Note). When you click on the Send Email, you can craft an email that let’s the applicant know what the problem is and how to fix it.

   (NOTE: As there are so many reasons for conditional approval, this email cannot be set up in advance by your admin – sorry.)

   

   When you’re done, click the Send Now button and your email will go winging through cyberspace to the applicant. Meanwhile, don’t forget to click the Update Process button so the application will be sent to the Conditional Approval tab on the Adopter Roster.

   

   If the applicant passes this step, then click on the Approved button. Again, if you click on the Send Email button, the text which your admin has set up will come up, which you can then edit as you want (are we starting to sound like a broken record? Good! Because it is supposed to be set up for ease of use!)

   In this example, the rescue has it set up as a reference check approval:

   

   If everything looks okay, then click the Send Now button and the email will go on its way to the applicant and by clicking the Update Process button, the applicant’s Time Line will now reflect the stage as approved, by whom, any reasons selected and whether the email was sent.

   

7. Reference checks done? Check! Home visit done? Check! Applicant is not a horse’s patootie? Check! Everyone in agreement they should get the dog? Check! Now for the biggie – the Final Approval. This sets the stage for sending the contract, getting the adoption fee paid and getting the dog on its way to the new home.

   (Of course, at any time you can do the Conditional Approval thing or even outright deny the application – but we’re hoping this is the perfect home).

   The applicant’s Time Line will now have an entry for final approval. It looks and acts just like all the others but will pull in the email which your admin has set up for this final step.

   

8. If this application is for a dog to be matched up with the adopter later, you are done! Once the applicant selects a dog you can note it on the dog’s screen and send the contract. (See our cheat sheet Using the Contract Module.)

   If the dog has been selected and will be heading out the door to this adopter, you can send the Adoption Contract which your admin has set up directly from the applicant’s Time Line. There you will see an Add Dog section where you can select the dog your want to adopt out from the drop-down box of available dogs.

   

   Once selected, the dog’s profile blurb will appear just to make sure you have the right dog and for future reference. If you scroll down past that just a bit, you will see the Send Contract buttons. If you hit yes, then the email crafted by your admin will appear (you can make any changes you want).

   

   If all is well and good in the world, once you click the Adopt Out [Name of Dog] button, the contract will go winging its way to the adopter!

Now you can sit back and relax while the adopter fills out the contract and sends it back to you! Maybe meditate on how much time you just saved not having to complete, print out and get the contract to the adopter! And think of the trees that haven’t been killed with all the paper work! More of them now for Fido to lift his leg on while taking a walk with him.

What the next steps are when rescue receives the contract back is covered in our Using the Contract Module.