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Waitlists

Video walkthrough: Watch on Loom (link coming soon)

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Waitlists lets you manage your list of buyers waiting on a puppy. You can create separate waitlists for different litters or purposes, capture each buyer’s preferences, collect deposits, and keep notes on every entry. You can also give buyers a deadline to pay their deposit, and BreederBuddy will remind them for you.

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What You Can Do Here

• Create one or more waitlists for your program or specific litters
• Add buyers and capture their preferences (sex, coat color, registration, aptitude)
• Run one simple queue, or split the list into lanes (Males / Females, or your own groups)
• Collect and track waitlist deposits through invoices
• Set a deadline for deposits, with automatic reminders to the buyer
• Get one email listing everyone who still owes a deposit
• Add notes to a waitlist or to individual entries
• Link a waitlist to an upcoming litter from the litter’s Waitlist tab
• Download a waitlist as a PDF or export it to CSV
• Copy every email address or phone number on a waitlist in one click
• Archive waitlists when they’re no longer active

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How It Works

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Creating a Waitlist

1. Go to Waitlists in the left menu (under Customers).
2. Click Add Waitlist. A short guided walkthrough opens and asks one question per screen:
   • What should this waitlist be called? Give it a Name (e.g., “Spring 2026 priority list”) and an optional Description.
   • Should this waitlist be tied to a litter? Pick a litter, or skip this and link one later.
   • How do you run your list? Choose Single queue (the default), Split by gender, or Custom lanes. See “Splitting a Waitlist Into Lanes” below.
   • What do you want to track for each entry? Tick the extras you want to record: Sex preference, Coat color preference, Registration preference, Aptitude / potential.
   • Should buyers need a deposit to join this waitlist? Deposit Required? starts ticked with a $300 Deposit Amount. Change the amount, or untick it for a list with no deposit.
   • How long should buyers have to pay? Leave it on your account default, or turn a deposit deadline on or off for this list.
3. Click Create Waitlist on the last screen. Your new waitlist appears on the Waitlists page, ready for entries.

You can change any of this later from the waitlist’s Settings tab: click Edit Details, then either change the fields on the page or click Guided Walkthrough to step through the same questions again (including lanes and what to track).

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Adding Buyers to a Waitlist

1. Open a waitlist with Manage and go to the Entries tab.
2. Click Add Entry.
3. Pick the buyer under Select Contact. If the waitlist has lanes, choose their Lane.
4. Set their Status: leave it pending if they’ll pay the deposit online, or choose the paid status if they already paid you another way (cash, check, a payment app). Their deposit invoice is then recorded as paid too.
5. Fill in any preferences you chose to track for this waitlist. The Note field is only visible to you.
6. Click Save. The buyer appears in the list with their place in line. If the waitlist takes deposits, BreederBuddy asks Send Deposit Request?; otherwise it asks Send Waitlist Email?. Click yes to email the buyer now, or No to send it later.

The buyer must be a contact with an email address for BreederBuddy to create and send their deposit invoice. You can resend the confirmation any time with the envelope button (Send Waitlist Confirmation Email) on their row.

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Ordering Entries and Holding Spots Open

• Reordering buyers: with the sort set to Queue order (drag), grab the handle on any entry and drag it to a new position. The number next to each entry is their place in line.
• Ordering by deposit: in the same view, Arrange by deposit date is a one-time re-sort that moves paid deposits to the front in the order they were paid. You can still drag entries afterwards.
• Open seats: after your entries, the list shows Available Puppy Reservation seats, each with Add Entry and Reserve buttons so you can fill that exact spot. On a single queue, the number of seats comes from Default Reservation Count on the waitlist’s Settings tab, or the linked litter’s puppy count if you leave it blank (one seat if neither is set). The count only sets how many open seats show; you can always add more buyers.
• Holding a spot open (say you want position #1 kept free, or you’re keeping first pick yourself): click Reserve Slot instead of Add Entry. A reserved slot holds a position with no buyer attached — no contact, no deposit. When you’re ready to fill it, use Convert to Entry on that row.
• Each entry row also has Edit Entry, Move Entry to Another Waitlist, and Delete Entry buttons.
• On the main Waitlists page, the waitlists themselves can be reordered too — switch the sort to Custom Order and use the arrows or drag handle on each card.

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Splitting a Waitlist Into Lanes

If you sell picks per sex or per group, a waitlist can hold several queues, each with its own #1, #2, #3:

• Single queue — one ordered list, first come first served.
• Split by gender — separate Males and Females queues.
• Custom lanes — name your own sections, like sizes, coat types, or show vs. pet. Click Add lane for each one.

Each lane can have an optional number of Spots, which controls how many open reservation seats it shows before it fills. Spots isn’t a limit: you can keep adding buyers past it. A lane with no Spots number always shows one open seat after its last entry. If you change lanes later, no entries are lost: anything that no longer fits shows up in an Unassigned section you can drag from. Buyers added from an application with Convert & Place into Waitlist also start in Unassigned.

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Getting Buyers Onto a Waitlist From Your Application

Buyers can’t add themselves to a waitlist directly. Instead, share your application form (see Applications). When a submission comes in, open it and choose Approve Or Decline → Convert & Place into Waitlist. BreederBuddy creates the contact, adds them to the end of the waitlist you pick (in Unassigned if the list has lanes), and offers to send the deposit request or confirmation email. Their application answers stay on the submission and aren’t copied to the waitlist entry, so add any preferences you track (like sex or color) with Edit Entry.

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Adding Notes

There’s a Notes tab on every waitlist where you can keep a running log about the list as a whole. Each entry also has its own private Note field, which appears on that buyer’s row.

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Contacting Everyone on a Waitlist

BreederBuddy doesn’t send bulk emails for you yet, but it gathers every address in one click so you can email the whole list from your own inbox:

1. Open the waitlist and click the Communications tab (next to Entries, Settings, and Notes).
2. Click Copy All Emails To Clipboard. You’ll see “Copied emails to clipboard”. Secondary emails are included.
3. Open your own email, start a new message, and paste the addresses into the BCC line so families don’t see each other’s addresses.

Copy All Phone Numbers To Clipboard works the same way for group texts. The Customer Journeys tab shows a card for each buyer on the list so you can see where each one is in the process.

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Linking to a Litter

When a litter becomes available, open the litter and use the Waitlist tab — click Link Waitlist to attach an existing waitlist (only unlinked ones are shown), or Or create new waitlist to spin one up already tied to that litter. From the litter view you can see exactly which buyers are in line for that specific litter. To detach one, use the Unlink from litter button on the linked waitlist.

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Moving a Buyer to Another Waitlist

1. Open the waitlist the buyer is on now and go to the Entries tab.
2. On the buyer’s row, click the Move Entry to Another Waitlist button.
3. Choose the waitlist they’re moving to under Select New Waitlist and click Save.

The buyer lands at the end of the other waitlist; drag them to a new spot if needed. If the new waitlist uses lanes, they keep their lane only when it has a matching one (for example, Females to Females). Otherwise they land in its Unassigned section. A deposit they’ve already paid moves with them. An unpaid deposit request is cancelled, and if the new waitlist takes a deposit, BreederBuddy creates a new request at that waitlist’s amount.

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Collecting Deposits

When a waitlist has Deposit Required? turned on, BreederBuddy automatically creates a deposit invoice each time you add a buyer (with an email address) and offers to email them the deposit request. The buyer pays online from the link in that email. When they pay, BreederBuddy updates their entry so paid buyers are clearly marked, and sends them the Waitlist Deposit Receipt email. If they paid you another way (cash, check, a payment app), edit their entry and choose the paid status, and BreederBuddy records their deposit invoice as paid too. To take card payments online you need Stripe connected (see Payments Setup).

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Setting a Deposit Deadline

If you want buyers to pay within a set number of days, you can put them on a deposit deadline. BreederBuddy handles the follow-up so you don’t have to chase anyone.

1. Go to Settings → Preferences and find Waitlist deposit deadlines.
2. Turn on Use deposit deadlines and set how many days to pay.
3. Choose how many days before the deadline you want buyers reminded. The default is 4 days and 1 day before.
4. Choose what happens when the deadline passes: move the buyer to Expired, or just flag them for you.
5. Choose how often you want to hear about unpaid deposits: a daily summary, a weekly summary, as soon as someone misses their deadline, or not at all.

Every waitlist follows your account setting unless you change it on that waitlist’s Settings tab, where you can turn deadlines on or off for that list alone. Under the settings you’ll always see a plain-English sentence describing exactly what BreederBuddy is going to do, so there are no surprises.

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When the clock starts

The countdown starts when you send the buyer their deposit request, not when you add them to the waitlist. If you add someone on a Friday night and send the request on Monday, their days start on Monday.

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What the buyer receives

• A friendly reminder a few days before the deadline, with a link to pay.
• A courtesy note the day before, letting them know their spot is held until tomorrow.
• If the deadline passes, a kind note that their spot has opened up, inviting them to reply if they’re still interested.

Every one of these emails comes from your kennel name, includes your payment link, and tells the buyer they can simply reply if they need more time. Reminders stop as soon as the deposit is marked paid, whether online or manually.

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Expired entries

An expired buyer is never deleted. They move out of the line into an Expired section at the bottom of the Entries tab, and everyone below them moves up. Click Restore to put them back where they were, with a fresh deadline.

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Giving someone more time

On any entry with a running deadline you’ll see two extra buttons:

• The bell sends that buyer a deposit reminder right now.
• The clock opens Give More Time, where you can add 3, 7, or 14 days, enter your own number, or remove the deadline for that buyer entirely so they keep their spot with no reminders.

Moving a deadline forward also gives that buyer their reminders back, so they’ll be nudged again before the new date.

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Your unpaid deposit email

BreederBuddy sends you one email listing everyone who still owes, rather than a separate email per buyer. It shows who is past the deadline, who was released, and who is coming due soon, with a link straight to each waitlist. Daily and weekly summaries arrive in the morning in your time zone.

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Exporting to PDF

Open the waitlist and click the download icon at the top right. Choose Download PDF for a printable copy of every entry, or Export CSV for a spreadsheet.

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Archiving a Waitlist

Once all puppies from a litter have been placed and you no longer need the waitlist active, you can archive it:

1. Open the waitlist and go to the Settings tab.
2. Click Edit Details.
3. Check Archive Waitlist? and click Save.

Archived waitlists are hidden from your active view but every record is preserved.

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Key Terms

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Tips & Common Questions

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Still Have Questions?

We’re here to help. If something isn’t working the way you expect, or you’d like to have a discussion around a certain topic, please reach out to us anytime through the chat in the bottom right corner of your screen. Thank you.