help center

How can we help?

Answers to what agency owners ask us most, from the first demo through day-to-day running of your platform. Search it, or browse by topic.

Getting started

Everything between "this looks interesting" and your platform being live.

How long does it take to launch?

Most agencies are fully live within 14 days of kickoff. If you are migrating, we handle the data import for sitters, clients and upcoming appointments, so you are not re-typing your business into a new system.

What do you need from me to get started?

Four things, and we help with all of them:

  • your logo and brand colors
  • the domain you want families to visit
  • your service area and what you charge
  • your current lists of sitters and families

Everything else — the site, the apps, the booking flow — is on us.

Can you move my data over from the system I use now?

Yes. Send us an export of your sitters, families and upcoming appointments and we import them before you go live, so the first thing your team sees is their own book of business rather than an empty screen.

Do I need to be technical to run this?

No. Every day-to-day change — rates, service area, the words families see, which emails go out, which services you offer — is a setting in your admin panel. Nothing on that list requires us, and nothing on it requires code.

Can I see it before I commit?

Yes. Book a walkthrough and we will show you the platform set up with your own branding, then answer whatever you throw at us. No credit card to see it.

Will my team need training?

We walk your office team through the admin panel during onboarding and stay close through your first bookings. Sitters and families do not need training — they get an app that works the way every other app on their phone works.

Your website and apps

What your families and sitters actually see, and whose name is on it.

Is the app really white-labeled?

Yes. Your logo, your color palette, your domain. Families and sitters never see the name Sittysites — they see you.

Do we get real iPhone and Android apps?

Yes. Your agency gets its own app published in the App Store and on Google Play, under your name, with your icon. Families book from it and sitters work from it.

What if I already have a website?

We can rebuild your marketing site as part of onboarding, or connect Sittysites to your existing site as a booking layer. Your call — plenty of agencies keep the site they already paid for.

Can I run more than one location?

Yes. Each location gets its own site, its own sitters and its own numbers, grouped under one brand so a family landing on your main page just picks their city first.

Can I change the words on the site later?

Yes, and you do it yourself. Headlines, service names, the labels on buttons and the wording families read at booking are all editable from your admin panel without waiting on us.

Bookings and scheduling

How work gets requested, filled and finished.

What kinds of bookings can families make?

The ones agencies actually sell:

  • One-time — a Friday night, a wedding, an afternoon
  • Recurring — the same days every week across a set date range
  • Nanny — an ongoing weekly schedule
  • Pet care, tutoring and errands — if you have those services on
How does a job get to the right sitter?

Two ways, and you can use both. A family can request specific sitters directly, or the booking goes to your job board where the sitters who are qualified and available apply for it. You stay in control of who gets confirmed.

Can my office book on behalf of a family?

Yes. Your team can create any booking from the admin panel — phone-in clients, repeat families, whatever comes through the office — and it behaves exactly like one a family placed themselves.

What happens when plans change?

Bookings can be edited or cancelled after they are confirmed, and everyone attached to them is notified automatically. Nobody has to remember to call the sitter.

How do sitters record their hours?

They clock in and out from the app on the job. Those hours are what the family is billed for and what the sitter is paid for, so the two can never drift apart.

Can families request the same sitter every time?

Yes. Families can save the sitters they love and request them by name. Requests go to that sitter first, and fall back to the job board only if they cannot take it.

Sitters and staff

Hiring, vetting and keeping track of the people doing the work.

How do sitters apply?

Through an application form on your own site. You decide what it asks — the questions, the wording and the order are yours to edit, so the form matches how you actually screen people.

Can I track applicants through my hiring process?

Yes. Applicants move through your stages, from new application to hired, and each stage can send its own email automatically. You write those emails, and you can turn any of them off.

Does it keep track of certifications and documents?

Yes. Sitters upload their documents, each one can carry an expiration date, and you can see at a glance who is current and who is about to lapse.

How do sitters see their schedule?

In the app: upcoming jobs, the address, who they are caring for and the notes the family left. They get notified when something is confirmed, changed or cancelled.

Can I see how a sitter is doing?

Families can rate and review the sitters they book, and your admin panel shows each sitter’s history, ratings and activity in one place.

Families and memberships

Your clients, and the ways agencies charge them.

How do families sign up?

They register on your site or in your app, add their children, pets and addresses, and you approve the account. From there they book on their own.

Can I charge a membership or registration fee?

Yes. You can charge it once at registration or on a recurring schedule, and members can get their own rates or have booking fees waived — that is the usual reason agencies run one.

Can I run promotions?

Yes. Promo codes take a set dollar amount off, and you decide who they apply to and when they stop working.

Do families have to download the app?

No. Everything they can do in the app they can also do on your website. Most families end up on the app anyway, because that is where the notifications land.

What do families see about a sitter before booking?

The profile you let them see — photo, bio, experience and the badges that matter to you. You control how much of it is public.

Payments and payouts

Money in, money out, and what you keep.

Do you handle payments?

Stripe is integrated end-to-end. Families pay through the app, sitters get paid automatically on your schedule, and you keep your agency fee.

When exactly is a family charged?

Booking fees are charged when the booking is confirmed. The hours are charged after the appointment ends, once the sitter has clocked out, so families are billed for the time actually worked.

When do sitters get paid?

Payouts run automatically on the schedule you set — daily or weekly — straight to the sitter’s bank account through Stripe. If you would rather pay your sitters yourself, that can be turned off.

How do refunds and credits work?

You issue them from the admin panel. The adjustment lands on the family’s account and shows up in your books, so a goodwill credit is never an untracked side deal.

How does your pricing work?

A flat monthly subscription based on your agency size. No per-booking fees, no surprise charges. Talk to us for a quote against your actual volume.

Settings and support

The parts you can change yourself, and how to reach us for the rest.

Which services can I turn on or off?

Babysitting, nanny placement, pet care, tutoring and side-kick jobs like errands, party help and office work. Turn on the ones you sell — the rest disappear from your site and your app.

Can I control which emails and texts go out?

Yes. Every automatic message — email, text and push notification — can be switched off individually, and the wording of the ones you keep is yours to edit.

Can I rename what things are called?

Yes. If your business says caregivers rather than sitters, or appointments rather than bookings, change it once in your settings and it changes everywhere families and sitters see it.

How do I set my service area and my rates?

Service area is set by ZIP code, and your rates are set per service and per area, so a suburb an hour out can price differently from your core neighborhoods.

Where do I see how the business is doing?

Your dashboard: revenue, bookings, active sitters and what needs attention today. It is the first screen your office sees each morning.

How do I get help?

Use the form below, or email us directly. A human replies within one business day, and if something is genuinely on fire, say so — we will treat it that way.

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