Online adoption
A visitor to your website submits an application for an animal; your team handles it in the app, reserves the animal, invoices the adoption fee, then hands the health record over to the adopter, who finds the animal and its whole history in the Son Espace Santé app.
The adoption questionnaire
Open Settings (side menu, Organization section), then under My shelter choose Online adoptions. The Adoption questionnaire page can also be reached from the Questionnaire button on the applications page.
- Turn on Accept online applications.
- If you wish, write an Introduction text (optional).
- Adapt the questions suggested by default (home, garden, other animals, children, time away, experience, motivation, agreement to a home visit…). For each Question, choose the Answer type: Free text, Yes / No, Choice list (with the Choices (comma separated)) or Number, and tick Required if needed.
- Add a question adds a new one; tap Save.
What the visitor sees
- On the public page of an animal up for adoption, they tap I apply. A general application, without a specific animal, is also possible from the adoption button on your website.
- They answer the questionnaire without leaving the website and without installing the app.
- They receive an email and click to confirm their application. An unconfirmed application never reaches your app.
Team members who can edit animals are informed of each new confirmed application, by notification and by email.
Handling applications
All applications
Side menu, Management section, then Adoption applications: the page lists the To process and Reserved files for all animals, including general applications, marked From the site when they come from the form. Open a file to go to the animal. The Homepage also shows the number of applications to process.
An animal's Adoption section
On the animal's profile, Adoption block, open Adoption ("Applications, reservation and handover"). Files are sorted into Applications, Reserved, Adopted and Refused or cancelled. Tap a file to read the contact details, the questionnaire answers and the notes.
- Reserve: the animal switches to the Reserved status;
- Refuse: enter a reason, then Refuse without email or Refuse and send email;
- Back to application or Cancel a reserved file;
- New file: create a file yourself (first name, last name, email, phone) for an adopter who does not go through the website.
When people on your waiting list are looking for an animal like this one, the section says so with a Notify button (see Adopter waiting list).
Preparing the adoption: fees, invoices and documents
When the animal is reserved, the status block on its profile offers Prepare the adoption:
- Adopter: the reserved file is reused. If you set the Reserved status by hand, choose the client who is adopting: the invoices will be addressed to them.
- Fee and invoices: enter the Adoption fee, add deposits (Add a deposit), then Create the final invoice, which deducts what has already been invoiced. The app reminds you of the animal's Expenses since arrival, foster family costs included, to compare with the fee.
- Documents: the departure checklist (adoption contract, neutering commitment, veterinary certificate…), detailed in Registers and exits.
Invoices are created as drafts: check and validate them before sending (see Invoices). Creating them requires write access to accounting. The adopter can pay online if online payment is enabled (see Online payment).
Handing the health record over to the adopter
Two paths lead to the handover: Hand over the record on a reserved file in the Adoption section, or Mark as adopted from Prepare the adoption, which opens Complete the adoption. On that last screen, choose the change of owner:
| Option | What happens |
|---|---|
| Hand over the record by email (recommended) | The adopter receives the health record by email, creates their account in a single screen (or logs in) and takes over the animal by accepting it. |
| Transfer to an existing account | The adopter already uses the app: the animal is transferred to their account immediately. |
| Adopter without an account | The animal stays in your account, marked Adopted; the adopter is recorded in your clients. |
If you wish, add A word for the family (optional), then tap Send the record and adopt or Record the adoption. The file must contain the adopter's email for the handover by email.
After acceptance, the animal switches to the Adopted status, the shelter keeps read access to its health record (which the adopter can remove) and, on the adopter's side, the profile shows which shelter it was adopted from. A departure record is kept by the shelter (see Registers and exits).
After the adoption
- Follow-up news: 15 days and then 90 days after acceptance, the adopter receives an email in the shelter's name inviting them to share news in the animal's logbook. The file shows when the email was sent and when news was shared.
- I-CAD declaration: the file reminds you of the change of owner to declare; Record the declaration notes its date and the File number (optional).
On the adopter's side
The adopter receives an email from the shelter, creates their Son Espace Santé account in a single screen or logs in, and finds the animal with its vaccines, weights and documents. They can manage the shelter's access from their shares (see Sharing an animal).
Frequently asked questions
An application a visitor says they sent does not appear.
The visitor must confirm their application by clicking the link received by email. Without confirmation, it is not passed on.
What is the difference between refusing and cancelling?
Refusing is the shelter's answer to the application, with a reason. Cancelling removes the file without judgement, for example when the adopter withdraws.