Horse jumping over the text At The Yard
Blog
11 August 2026

Adding a new client just got a whole lot quicker

Update

Taking on a new livery client should be one of the nicest parts of running a yard – not a fiddly form-filling exercise. We've improved how you add a new user at every stage, so you can get your new livery set up in record time.

We've combined what used to be several separate stages into two simple screens.

What it used to take

Say a new livery arrives with three horses. Before this update, getting them set up meant:

  1. Head to Users and choose 'Create New User'.
  2. Pick a user type from the selection screen.
  3. Fill in the form, adding their horses as you went.
  4. Go over to Subscriptions to add their livery package – once for every horse.

Four stops, with the last one repeated for every horse the client brings to your yard. Now it's two screens.

Adding the user

Once you're up and running with At The Yard, your most common type of user will be a standard 'Logon User'. These users can make the most of the system, logging in and managing their account directly.

So we've made it the default. Click the 'Create New User' button and there's no user type selection screen to work through – you land on the form itself.

The new user form, opened directly from the Create New User button
Straight to the new user form, with the type selection screen out of the way

Nothing has been taken away, though. The less common options are tucked neatly into a drop-down right next to the default button.

The drop-down beside the Create New User button, listing the other user types
The other user types, one click away

Set up horses and packages straight away

As soon as you've created your new user, you're taken into the next step, where both jobs happen on the same screen: - Add their horses – as many as you need, with a name and gender for each. - Subscribe them to their livery packages – choose the package right there alongside the horses you're adding.

That's the trip to Subscriptions – and the repeat visit for every single horse – gone entirely.

Prefer to sort packages out later? Skip the step and add them from the Subscriptions page exactly as you always have.

A screen for adding horses, each with a livery package selected alongside it
Horses and livery packages together on one screen

Why it matters

Taking on a client used to mean bouncing between several screens and repeating yourself for every horse. Now it's a single, guided path. Less clicking, fewer mistakes and a smoother welcome for every new face at the yard.

It's live now – you'll see it the next time you add a user. As always, if you have questions or feedback, we'd love to hear from you.



28 January 2026

Introducing Xero Tracking Categories Integration: Better Financial Reporting at Your Fingertips

Update

TrackingCategories_Header.png

We're excited to announce a powerful new addition to our Xero integration: Tracking Categories Synchronisation. This feature bridges the gap between how you organise your business in At The Yard and how you report on it in Xero, giving you more granular financial insights without any additional manual work.

What Are Xero Tracking Categories?

For those unfamiliar, Xero Tracking Categories are a powerful reporting tool that allows you to categorise transactions by dimensions such as department, location, cost centre, or project. Unlike account codes which determine what a transaction is, tracking categories help you understand where or why revenue was generated. You can read more over at Xero.

For example, a livery yard might want to track income by:

  • Location: Main yard vs. DIY Yard
  • Business Areas: Livery, Lessons, Events, Products

Previously, this level of reporting required manual data entry in Xero after invoices were synced to add the tracking category. No longer.

The Challenge We've Solved

Many businesses using At The Yard already organise their products, services, and facilities into categories for internal management purposes. Perhaps you categorise your services by discipline (dressage, jumping, hacking) or your products by type (feed, bedding, equipment).

The challenge was that this organisational structure didn't carry through to your accounting. When invoices synced to Xero, all that context was lost. To get meaningful reports, you'd need to manually tag each invoice line item once it's in Xero - tedious work that often didn't get done.

Our new Tracking Categories feature allows you to map your At The Yard categories to Xero tracking options, ensuring every invoice line item arrives in Xero with the correct tracking information attached.

How It Works

Step 1: Create Categories in At The Yard

First, you'll need to set up categories in At The Yard to group your products, services, or facilities:

  1. Navigate to the Service, Facilities or Booking page and click on 'Edit Categories'
  2. Click "New Category" and give it a meaningful name. We recommend using the helpful naming convention as follows:
    Tracking Category: TRACKING CATEGORY NAME : TRACKING OPTION NAME
    So for example you might have the following:

    • Tracking Category: Location : Main Yard
    • Tracking Category: Location : DIY Yard
    • Tracking Category: Business Area : Livery
    • Tracking Category: Business Area : Events

      This naming convention is optional - you can choose to use the existing categories you have already setup. It is however important to ensure each item is only linked to a single tracking option for each tracking category. See Tracking Option Exclusivity for more information.
  3. Add your Product, Service or Facility to the category you want to receive the Tracking Category Option when they're synced to Xero. (You have to create a category for each item type).

  4. Save your category

Creating_Category.jpg

You can create as many categories as you need to reflect how you want to analyse your revenue in Xero.

list_of_categories_wide.jpg

Step 2: Configure Tracking Categories in Xero

If you haven't already, set up your tracking categories in Xero. This is done within Xero itself under Settings > Tracking Categories.

Step 3: Map Your Categories

Once your categories exist in both systems: 1. Navigate to your Xero integration settings in At The Yard 2. Click on "Tracking Categories" 3. For each At The Yard category, select the corresponding Xero tracking category and option

category_mapping.jpg

Once configured, the system handles everything automatically. When an invoice containing a categorised product, service, or facility syncs to Xero, the appropriate tracking data is attached to each line item.

Important: Tracking Option Exclusivity

There is a requirement to ensure each item only appears in a single tracking option for each tracking category.

To understand this lets look at an example with two Tracking Categories each with multiple Tracking options.

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                     XERO TRACKING CATEGORIES                        │
├─────────────────────────────────┬───────────────────────────────────┤
│      Tracking Category:         │      Tracking Category:           │
│          LOCATION               │        BUSINESS AREA              │
├─────────────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────┤
│   ┌─────────────────────┐       │   ┌─────────────────────┐         │
│   │     Main Yard       │       │   │       Livery        │         │
│   └─────────────────────┘       │   └─────────────────────┘         │
│   ┌─────────────────────┐       │   ┌─────────────────────┐         │
│   │      DIY Yard       │       │   │      Lessons        │         │
│   └─────────────────────┘       │   └─────────────────────┘         │
│                                 │   ┌─────────────────────┐         │
│                                 │   │       Events        │         │
│                                 │   └─────────────────────┘         │
└─────────────────────────────────┴───────────────────────────────────┘

✓ VALID: "Dressage Lesson" assigned to ONE option per category

     ┌───────────────────┐
     │  Dressage Lesson  │
     └─────────┬─────────┘
               │
     ┌─────────┴─────────┐
     ▼                   ▼
┌─────────┐        ┌──────────┐
│Main Yard│        │ Lessons  │
└─────────┘        └──────────┘
(Location)        (Business Area)


✗ INVALID: Item in multiple options of the SAME tracking category

     ┌───────────────────┐
     │  Dressage Lesson  │
     └─────────┬─────────┘
               │
     ┌─────────┴─────────┐
     ▼                   ▼
┌─────────┐        ┌──────────┐
│Main Yard│        │ DIY Yard │   ← Both are "Location" options!
└─────────┘        └──────────┘
(Location)          (Location)

When multiple At The Yard categories are mapped to the same Xero tracking category, each item (product, service, or facility) can only belong to one of those categories. For example, if you have categories for "Dressage" and "Showjumping" both mapped to a "Discipline" tracking category in Xero, a lesson service cannot be in both—it must belong to one or the other. This ensures each invoice line item receives a single, unambiguous tracking assignment. At The Yard will alert you should this happen in error.

Key Benefits

Automated accuracy – Eliminate manual tagging errors and ensure consistent tracking across all your invoices.

Time savings – What previously required manual work after an invoice synced to Xero now happens automatically along with other data.

Better reporting – Unlock the full potential of Xero's reporting capabilities with properly tracked transactions.

Flexibility – Map your existing category structure to Xero's tracking categories without changing how you organise your business.

Real-World Use Cases

Discipline-based tracking lets your yard see exactly how much revenue comes from dressage versus showjumping versus cross-country. Understand which disciplines are driving your business and where to focus your investment.

Mixed-use facilities can separate income streams—seeing at a glance how much revenue comes from livery versus lessons versus events versus retail.

Instructor performance tracking becomes straightforward for yards with multiple freelance or employed instructors, letting you see revenue generated by each without manual spreadsheet work.

Arena and facility income can be tracked separately, showing you which facilities generate the most bookings and whether that new all-weather arena is paying for itself.

Getting Started

If you're already using our Xero integration, the Tracking Categories feature is available now. Start by creating categories in At The Yard that reflect how you want to analyse your revenue, then head to your Xero integration settings to map them.

If you haven't yet connected At The Yard to Xero, there's never been a better time. Our integration handles invoices, payments, contacts, and now tracking categories—keeping your financial records accurate and up-to-date without the administrative burden.

Looking Ahead

This release represents our ongoing commitment to making financial management effortless for equestrian businesses. By connecting the operational tools you use every day with professional accounting software, we're helping you spend less time on admin and more time doing what you love.

Have questions about setting up Tracking Categories? Our support team is here to help. Get in touch and we'll guide you through the configuration process.



20 January 2026

Recent Platform Updates

Update

We've shipped several improvements that didn't warrant their own blog post. You may already be using them, but in case you missed anything, check them out below.

Facility Management

We've added new options to help you customise how you manage bookings and billing.

Minimum cancellation notice periods are now configurable. When set, the system automatically prevents customers from cancelling bookings too close to their scheduled time, eliminating the frustration of last-minute cancellations that leave unfilled slots.

Flexible billing dates give you more control over cash flow. For services that bill on completion, staff can now choose whether to bill on the scheduled date or the actual completion date when they mark work as complete.

Admin & Information Management

User search functionality is now available in the admin users interface. No more paging through long lists—just search and find the user you need.

View past booking requests, not just active ones. This makes it easier to track patterns, follow up on previously declined requests, or reference historical inquiries.

File attachments for horse profiles let you upload documents, veterinary reports, or competition results directly to horse profiles where they're easily accessible when you need them.

Shop

Customisable price displays Choose how prices appear when listing products or services: - Smallest order unit price - Smallest order total price - Lowest possible unit price The default display remains unchanged, but you can now adjust this per item in the shop settings.

We've got more improvements on the way. In the meantime, if you have questions or feedback, we'd love to hear from you.



18 March 2025

Introducing Flexible Delivery Options for Your Shop Products

Update

Delivery Options Configuration Screen

We're excited to announce a new feature for users of the At The Yard shop - customizable delivery options! This update allows you to set specific delivery patterns for each product in your shop, giving both you and your customers more flexibility and control over when items are delivered.

What's New?

  • Set specific days of the week when delivery is available for each product
  • Define pattern intervals (e.g. weekly, bi-weekly)
  • Set minimum and maximum lead times for orders
  • View and manage orders by delivery date in the admin panel

How It Works

Setting Up Delivery Options

  1. Navigate to the shop configuration page in your admin panel
  2. Select an existing product or publish a new one to the store
  3. Click on "Delivery Options" for that product
  4. Configure your delivery pattern:
    • Check the days of the week when delivery is available
    • Set the pattern interval (e.g. weekly)
    • Define minimum and maximum lead times (how far in advance customers can book)
  5. Click "Submit" to save your settings

Delivery Options Configuration Screen

The Customer Experience

When customers shop on your site, they'll now see available delivery dates based on your configured patterns. The date selector will only show dates that match your delivery rules, making it clear when they can expect their items.

Customer Delivery Date Selection

Managing Orders by Delivery Date

In the Shop Product Orders management screen, you can now see orders organized by delivery date. This makes it easier to plan your fulfilment schedule and manage your inventory effectively.

Orders Management by Delivery Date

Benefits for Your Business

  • Better resource planning: Know exactly when orders need to be fulfilled
  • Reduced delivery costs: Group deliveries on specific days of the week
  • Improved customer satisfaction: Set realistic expectations about delivery times
  • Streamlined operations: View and process orders by delivery date
  • Flexible configuration: Set different delivery patterns for different products

Getting Started

This feature is available now to all At The Yard shop owners. Log in to your admin panel today to start configuring delivery options for your products!



04 March 2025

Introducing Our New Void System

Update

void_horse.jpg

Ever found yourself wondering why an invoice was removed months ago? Or had a livery owner question a charge that seems to have vanished from their account? Managing the finances of a busy yard requires meticulous record-keeping, and today we're making that just a little bit easier.

From "Gone Forever" to "Just Voided"

Previously, when you needed to remove an invoice or charge in At The Yard, that information disappeared completely. It was simple but limiting—rather like mucking-out by throwing everything away instead of separating the good bedding for reuse!

Thanks to your feedback, we've implemented a much more sophisticated approach: our new void system. This allows you to maintain a complete financial history whilst still removing charges when needed.

What's Changed?

Instead of the delete button sending your financial records into the digital equivalent of a muck heap, the new void function works more like putting them in a clearly labelled filing cabinet:

Before: Invoice/Charge deleted → All information gone forever
Now: Invoice/Charge voided → Removed BUT record kept with your explanation

Why This Matters for Your Yard

This seemingly small change brings substantial benefits for yard managers:

  • When HMRC or accountants ask questions - You'll have a complete audit trail showing not just what was voided, but precisely why
  • When staff changes occur - New yard managers can see the reasoning behind previous financial decisions
  • When clients query their billing history - You can confidently explain exactly why a charge was removed months ago
  • When patterns emerge in your business - Identify if certain services are regularly voided for the same reasons, highlighting potential issues to address

How to Use the New Void System

Using the new system is refreshingly straightforward:

  1. Where you previously saw "Delete" for charges or invoices, you'll now see "Void"
  2. Click "Void" and a simple dialogue box appears
  3. Enter your reason (e.g., "Service cancelled due to weather," "Duplicate charge," "Promotional discount applied")
  4. Click the "Void" Button

That's it! The charge no longer affects your accounts, but the information remains accessible in your financial history.

Void Box
The new void dialogue box is simple but powerful

Why We Made This Change

Running a successful livery yard means balancing excellent horse care with sound business practices. This update reflects our commitment to helping you maintain that balance with minimal additional effort.

We understand that you'd rather be in the arena or stables than puzzling over financial records, which is exactly why we've made this process both more powerful and just as simple to use.

What's Next?

The void system is automatically available to all At The Yard users starting today. No training is needed—just look for "Void" where you used to see "Delete."

Your Thoughts Matter

Has this new feature made your yard management easier? Do you have ideas for other improvements? We'd love to hear from you, get in touch with your account manager today.