Guides, how-tos, and reference docs for Bookchair.
Visit bookchair.co.uk/signup and follow the 3-step wizard. Choose your business type, select your region, enter your business name and account details. Ready in under 2 minutes - no credit card required.
Your business type drives which features you see and what compliance rules apply. Hair salons get the Colour Lab; aesthetics clinics get age-restriction enforcement. Change it anytime in Settings.
Your region determines the compliance laws applied. Supported: England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, Ireland, US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand.
Add a staff member and a service, then go to Bookings and click New Booking. Select a client, pick a service and staff, choose a date and time, and save. Your client gets an automatic confirmation.
Every Bookchair account includes a client-facing online booking portal. Find your link in Settings or share it from the dashboard. Clients can book 24/7 without calling.
Go to Bookings and click New Booking. The multi-step form guides you through client, services, staff, and time slot. Compliance checks run automatically.
On the calendar, drag any booking to a new slot or staff column. The booking updates instantly and a reschedule notification goes to your client.
Automatic reminders fire before each appointment. Configure timing in Settings. SMS credits are purchased separately; email reminders are included.
Click an empty calendar slot and choose Block time to mark a period unavailable without creating an appointment.
Open any booking and use the status dropdown to mark it cancelled or no-show. Cancelled slots free immediately for rebooking.
Go to Clients and click Add Client. All bookings, consultations, photos, and formulas are stored on the client profile.
Forms capture medical history, allergies, and GDPR consent. Bookchair warns or blocks a booking if no signed form is on file for services that require one.
Record patch test dates on the consultation record. Bookchair checks the validity window automatically and flags issues at the point of booking.
For hair salons and barbershops. Record colour formulas, processing times, and notes after each visit. Full history is visible on the client profile.
Every consultation captures consent date and version. Records are retained automatically per your region requirements.
Go to Staff and click Add Staff. Each member gets their own calendar column and can be assigned to specific services. No per-staff fees.
Define each staff member weekly hours in their profile. These hours control online booking availability.
Add exception days to block off holidays or training. Exceptions override the weekly schedule for that date only.
Go to Services to add treatments with name, duration, price, and category. Tick requires patch test or requires consultation to enable compliance checks.
Staff log in with limited access - they view their calendar and mark bookings complete. Financial reports require admin access.
UK Cosmetics Regulation requires patch tests at least 48 hours before colour, tinting, or chemical services. Bookchair warns if a test is missing or expired. Admins can override with a documented reason.
Under the Botulinum Toxin and Cosmetic Fillers (Children) Act 2021, certain aesthetic treatments cannot be given to under-18s. Bookchair hard-blocks these bookings and this cannot be overridden.
Consultation forms capture GDPR consent with wording tailored to your region. Consent timestamps are stored against the client record.
UK law requires 7 years; US state boards typically require 3 years. Bookchair shows the correct retention period in Settings.
England uses Local Authority/CQC; Scotland uses Care Inspectorate; Wales uses CIW; NI uses RQIA. Bookchair applies region-specific rules automatically.
Bookchair integrates with Stripe. Connect it in Settings. Charge clients at booking time or mark bookings paid manually.
Go to Reports for a revenue breakdown by period, staff, and service category. Charts show your earnings trend over the last 30 or 90 days.
Bookchair generates a branded PDF invoice for each completed booking. Your logo and brand colour are applied automatically. Clients download receipts from the portal.
Open the booking, click Refund, and choose a full or partial amount. The refund returns to the client card within 5-10 business days.
All report data exports to CSV from the Reports page, ready to import into your accounting software.
Go to Settings → Chair Rental and click Add Renter. Enter the renter's name, chair, agreement type (fixed, percentage, tiered, or hybrid), billing day, and compliance details. After saving you are taken straight to the contract to review and send.
Fixed: renter pays a set weekly or monthly amount. Percentage: renter pays a percentage of their takings. Tiered: the percentage changes above a threshold. Hybrid: combination of fixed fee plus a percentage above a floor amount.
Each renter gets their own login. They can view their current and past billing periods, see their income and rent split, download their contract, and export a tax-ready income summary for HMRC. Invite them from the renter profile using the Invite button.
UK law requires you to verify insurance (minimum £1M PLI), check right to work, and confirm self-employment status. Tick each item and upload the supporting document directly to the compliance panel. Bookchair alerts you via Telegram when insurance is due to expire.
Periods close automatically on the renter's billing day. You can also close manually from the renter's show page. Once closed, the final rent calculation is locked and both you and the renter can download the period report.
Renters can export a tax-year income summary from their portal at any time — formatted for HMRC self-assessment. Covers gross income, product costs, net income, and total rent paid, broken down by period.
Go to Settings → Integrations and click Set up next to Square, SumUp, or Zettle. You will be redirected to authorise your account. Once connected, payments taken on your reader are automatically reconciled against bookings in Bookchair.
Connect your accounting software from the Integrations page. Once authorised, completed booking payments sync automatically. Go to Settings → Integrations → Accounting to configure which account codes to use.
Connect Stripe in Settings → Integrations to take deposits or full payments at the point of online booking. Stripe handles the card processing; Bookchair records the payment against the booking automatically.
The Payments report shows all transactions across all connected card readers and online payments in one view. Filter by date, staff, or method. Export to CSV for your accounts.
Each morning at 7am, Bookchair looks at the previous day's completed bookings for before & after photos. For each set it finds, it generates a social media caption in your brand voice using AI. Posts appear in Social Media → Review for you to approve or edit before posting.
Go to Social Media → Settings to define your tone (professional, fun, luxurious etc), standard hashtags, and which platforms to generate for. This is used as the brief for every post generated.
On any booking, open the Photos tab to upload before and after shots directly from your phone or computer. Photos are stored privately against the booking and used only when generating social posts — clients are never tagged automatically.
You can trigger generation at any time from the Social Media page using the Generate from yesterday button — useful after uploading a batch of older photos or if you want to regenerate after changing your brand voice settings.
Still have questions? Check the FAQ or start a free trial to explore the software yourself.
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