Filing Incident Reports

This page covers the incident report form on your HR page (/employee/hr): when to file, how to choose a severity, what to write, and what happens after you submit. Incident reporting is an employment duty under the Employee Code of Conduct, not an optional extra, which is why the form sits next to your own record.

When to file

File when something happened that the business needs a record of

• A pet injured in your care, even minor: a nick from clippers counts.
• A bite or scratch to you or a coworker.
• A customer confrontation.
• Property damage.
• A near-miss that could have hurt someone or something.
• Anything involving a pet's medical distress.

The rule of thumb: if you would tell your manager about it in person, file the report too. The conversation handles the immediate moment; the report creates the record that protects everyone later. Do not file incident reports for routine difficulties: a customer who was merely difficult is not an incident. But when in doubt, file. An unnecessary report costs five minutes; a missing report costs credibility when the facts are disputed weeks later. The Company's response once your report lands is governed by the Incident Response policy.

Choose the severity honestly

Severity is the form's fixed vocabulary: four values, no custom entries

• Low: minor, handled on the spot, no ongoing risk. A small clipper nick with no bleeding; a knocked-over product display.
• Medium: needed real attention but resolved. A bite that broke skin but did not need medical care; a pet that panicked and had to be calmed over twenty minutes.
• High: significant harm or risk. A pet injured badly enough to need a veterinarian; a staff injury needing treatment; a serious customer altercation.
• Critical: the worst category. A pet in medical distress; a severe bite; anything involving emergency services.

What to write

The form takes three fields: severity, description, and action taken (optional): plus an optional link to an appointment and pet.

• Description: what happened, in order, in plain language. Times help. "At about 2:15pm during the nail trim, the dog jerked as the trimmer caught the quick on the left front paw. Bleeding controlled with styptic powder by 2:20. Owner informed at pickup at 3:05." That is a good description. "Dog got hurt during nails" is not.
• Action taken: what you did about it: first aid administered, owner notified, veterinarian called, area sanitized, manager informed. If you have not taken action yet because you are filing mid-situation, say so: "filing now, owner notification pending" is honest and useful.
• Appointment link: if the incident ties to an appointment, name it. The appointment must be assigned to you, or the write fails. When you name an appointment, the pet defaults to that appointment's first pet. This keeps reports attached to the real record instead of floating as free text.

Write the report as a factual record, not an argument. State what happened and what you did. If a coworker's actions contributed, state the facts without editorializing. The report may be read in a dispute, a workers' compensation claim, or an insurance review: write it as though it will be.

What happens after you file

Your report is recorded with your staff ID, timestamp, and everything you wrote, and your manager sees it on the admin side. The incident list shows you the reports you filed, newest first, with the appointment number and pet name attached: that is your copy of the record.

• Filing does not replace telling your manager. The report is the record; the conversation is the response. For anything medium and up, do both, and have the conversation first if it is urgent.
• You cannot edit someone else's report, and you cannot file on someone else's appointment. The ownership checks are enforced on the server. If you witnessed something on a coworker's appointment, file what you observed under your own name, or tell your manager and let them handle the assignment.
• If the incident involves misconduct, the protected reporting channel in the Whistleblower & Internal Reporting policy (Whistleblower and Internal Reporting Policy) applies, not the ordinary report flow.

The serious end