BookNovi Help
How to set up and run your business on BookNovi: the steps a new business takes, a page for each part of the app, and what works best in each. The same Help is inside the app, where it shows what applies to your business, and the assistant answers from it.
Getting started
The steps a new business takes, in order, for each kind of business.
- Find your way aroundThe top bar, the Apps menu, the assistant and Help, and how the app shapes itself to the kind of business you run.
- The demo businessA make-believe salon with every module in use, to look around and try things in. Nothing in it is real or sent anywhere, and it keeps itself up to date every day.
- Voice notesDictate a note beside any note field, or say one in the phone app's Voice Notes, have the ums and ahhs taken out, read it through, and keep it with what was heard.
- The phone appYour day, the calendar, the clock, clients, stock by scan, the map of your customers, tools from a calculator to scans made into PDFs, and a talk with BookNovi, on a home screen in your colors.
- Map my customersYour clients and the businesses you sell to on a map, a day of visits made by tapping or put in order for you, driven in your own map app, each stop checked in where you stand.
- Notifications on your phoneA booking of yours made or changed, your client arriving, a message, approvals waiting and stock running low, as you choose, with quiet hours, and no health details on a lock screen.
- Bringing your records overYour clients, services, contacts, a list of leads, or Shopify's products and orders from another system's file: checked before anything changes, brought in in the background, and undone as one.
- Hair salonThe steps a salon takes in its first week, in order: the business, the menu, the team and their hours, chairs, clients, online booking, card payments, reminders and color formulas.
- Barber shopThe steps a barber shop takes, in order: the business, the menu, the barbers and their hours, the waiting room for walk-ins, online booking, card payments and reminders.
- Nails, lashes and browsThe steps a nail, lash or brow studio takes, in order: the business, the menu with its add-ons, the techs and stations, photos of the work, patch-test forms, online booking and reminders.
- Spa and massageThe steps a spa takes, in order: rooms, the menu with turnover time, therapists, intake forms, treatment notes, packages and gift cards, and online booking.
- Clinic and aestheticsThe steps a clinic takes, in order: the business and its words, providers, treatments with their rooms and equipment, consent, photos, notes and online booking.
- Fitness, yoga and wellnessThe steps a studio takes, in order: the business, instructors, classes and events on their own calendar, places and waiting lists, waivers, packages and memberships, and client progress.
- Personal training and coachingThe steps a trainer or coach takes, in order: the business, sessions on the menu, your hours, clients with their goals and plans, session packs, online booking and reminders.
- Product brandThe steps a product brand takes, in order: where stock is kept, vendors and parts, products with their pictures and prices, stock received, the online store, shipping labels and wholesale accounts.
- Manufacturing and distributionThe steps a maker or distributor takes, in order: stock places and bins, vendors and materials, formulas, production, purchasing, shipping, wholesale and fulfillment.
- Something elseThe steps any business that takes bookings follows, in order: your words for things, the menu, the team, clients, booking, payments, and the parts you add.
Running the day
The calendar, the front desk, clients, the register and messages.
- The calendar and the front deskBooking, moving and checking out appointments, blocked time, repeating visits, the waitlist, the waiting room, and online booking with its deposits and cancellation policy.
- Classes and eventsGroup sessions on their own calendar: repeating classes with a leader, a limit on places and a waiting list, attendance, payment, flyers, and events anyone can reserve a place at.
- ClientsEach client's profile at a glance (the figures, what is on file, where they came from) and the record behind it, the filtered lists, and bringing your list over.
- Contacts and the mailing listEveryone your business knows on one list, who has become a client, their tags, a contact added or a list brought in, and the mailing list written to through Marketing; the sales CRM at its small end.
- FormsIntake, consent, waivers and treatment notes: the builder, versions, what each client owes, filling in on the tablet or by a link, signatures, the PDF, sending a copy, and bringing a form over.
- The register and paymentsRinging up a sale, tips, splitting a payment, ways to pay, receipts, refunds, voids and exchanges, the cash drawer, working offline, and setting up card payments.
- Cards on fileSaving a client's card with their agreement, what a card may be charged for, charging one without the card there, receipts, removing a card, and how card testing is stopped.
- MessagesOne inbox the team works for texts, email, your website's chat, Instagram and Facebook, with saved replies and pictures; reminders sent for you, drafted replies and team chat.
- The receptionistAn AI receptionist that answers texts, email, your website's chat, Instagram and Facebook, books inside your rules, asks you about the rest, keeps the notes and keeps spam out.
Your team
The people who work here, their hours, their logins and their pay.
- Your team and their schedulesThe people who work here, what they do and when, their licenses, the logins that let them sign in with a place on the team and its switches, and what stylists see of the client book.
- Time and payThe time clock and punch clock, timesheets and overtime, pay plans, bonuses and deductions, the pay period sent to ADP, and rent kept as leases with a ledger.
- Training and certificationsWho must know what, by seat, job, department, location, service or name; the matrix by person or by job; sessions and a calendar of renewals; and the proof, each with its expiry.
- People: records, time off and reviewsHR for a small business, built on the team and the time clock: each person's record and documents, time off with its policies and balances, reviews, and checklists for starting and leaving.
Selling
Services, products, the online store, offers, wholesale, marketing and your website.
- Your menu of servicesCategories and services with prices and lengths, options, processing and buffer time, extras, the rooms and equipment a service needs, and online booking.
- Rooms, chairs and equipmentRooms, chairs and equipment booked with people: each one's picture, how many it holds, size, what is in it, what it is like and where it is, where they show, and what clients see of them online.
- ProductsWhat you sell and how it ties to stock: products made of parts, variants, prices, pictures, where each is sold, collections, and bringing products over.
- The online store and ordersOpening the store, shipping, pickup and delivery, tax and checkout, orders from every channel, payment links, subscriptions, reviews, returns and the product feed.
- Offers, packages, gift cards and loyaltyCoupon codes and automatic discounts, bundles, packages of visits, memberships, gift cards and store credit, loyalty points and the loyalty card, and how each is sold and used at checkout and online.
- WholesaleAccount types, price lists and tiers, applications from your store, orders online or taken for an account, terms, invoices and reminders, the line sheet and the marketplace.
- Selling to retailers with EDIA retailer set up on its wholesale account; its purchase orders in, your acknowledgment, ship notice and invoice out; GS1 labels, remittances and deductions, mailboxes.
- The marketplaceFind brands, distributors and services by industry, apply to buy, order at your prices, order again and keep shelves; or list your own line, decide who buys and bring in a catalog.
- MarketingThe marketing calendar and content plan, its pipeline and reports, social posts on every platform the business connects, events, lists, audiences, campaigns, designs and mailers, and getting found.
- The design studioPictures from a few words in your colors, presentations written from a brief, short videos shot by shot; the credits each costs a month on the Design studio add-on.
- Creators: codes, links and what they are owedInfluencers and creators with codes and links of their own, what each brings in, what their plan pays, held for your return window and paid as bills, their agreement and their own page.
- Your website and appBuilding your site from sections that read the app, styles, pages, publishing, your own domain, search and AI answers, the blog, policies, and your app.
- Bringing your existing website overReading your site on Shopify, Squarespace, Wix, WordPress or elsewhere, seeing what it becomes, comparing the draft, bringing it over with its redirects, and moving your domain.
Sales and the CRM
Leads, prospects and accounts, the pipeline, the map, routes, territories and goals.
- The sales CRMLeads, prospects and accounts, opportunities on a board, quotes accepted online, follow-up sequences, commissions, tasks, lists brought in, and the table views.
- Building quotes from templatesYour own way of pricing each kind of job as a template, and a wizard that asks its questions, shows the cost, price and margin as you go, and makes the quote.
- The sales map, routes and territoriesThe map of who you sell to, finding businesses nearby, a rep's route with check-ins, and territories at as many levels as you need.
- Sales reports, goals and the forecastRevenue won, orders, pipeline and the KPIs a sales team runs on, broken down every way, with goals, their pace, scorecards and the forecast.
Stock, making and shipping
Inventory, warehouses, formulas and production, shipping and fulfillment.
- InventoryParts and what is on hand, vendors with their approval and documents, purchasing and reordering, receiving with lots and dates, stock tags, counts, losses and write-offs, and inventory reports.
- Purchasing: what to order and whenThe worksheet, expediting an order already placed before ordering more, each item's forecast and order-by day, measured lead times, order-by alerts, order statuses and use by period.
- What the stock numbers meanThe nine stock figures, from on hand to available, short, on order and drop ship: what each counts, the arithmetic between them, and where the same numbers show.
- Advanced inventory: stock by location, transfers and 3PLsStock at each store, warehouse and 3PL, levels per location, transfers between them, pick tickets, consignment both ways, and your 3PLs' counts.
- The Warehouse section: modules, places and labelsModules you move between from tabs, with Fishbowl's words; facilities, location groups and locations, each numbered for a barcode label; naming many locations at once.
- Warehouses, bins and pick listsWhere stock is kept and what each place is for, bins with labels, putting stock away, pick bins and refilling them, pick lists, and counting by bin.
- The warehouse: zones, waves, packing and cycle countsZones and putaway rules, waves released into pick tickets, the pack station with cartons and SSCCs, replenishing, cycle counts on a schedule, client fees invoiced monthly, a 3PL's report and bill.
- The fulfillment dashboardEvery order to fulfill from every channel and facility in one place: its stage, facility, carrier, cutoff and flags, and what a batch gets: pick tickets, waves, packing, labels, holds, moves.
- Formulas, making and production runsFormulas by weight or percent, finished goods built from parts, stages a run makes first, making a batch, taking kits apart, starting a run, and production runs with a contract manufacturer.
- Manufacturing: the schedule, materials and purchasingTanks, lines and rooms at your plant, runs placed on them and moved each day when they can't start on time, each order's timeline, what the schedule needs by week, and what to buy by when.
- Quality: checks, holds, CAPAs, deviations, SOPs, records, change controlSpecs, inspections at each step, holds released with a signature, non-conformances, CAPAs, deviations, SOPs read and signed, the records they call for, and change control.
- Shipping, freight, imports and exportsEvery shipment on one screen, labels on your own accounts, the end of the day, returns, parcels abroad, LTL freight, exports by sea and air, brokers and bonds, and imports with the ISF.
- Import documents: the checklist for each importEach import's papers and steps with who owns each, when it is due from the import's own days, what being late costs, reminders before the deadline, and the templates you edit.
- Fulfillment for other businessesStoring and shipping other businesses' goods: clients and their items, what they send in, their orders, their rates and invoices, their keys and their portal.
Money and reports
The books and the reports.
- The booksSales that post themselves, the bank filed, subscriptions found, payables and receivables, landed costs, deductions and chargebacks, the cost to serve, loans, the cash plan, reconciling and reports.
- ReportsHow the business is doing: sales and payments, the team, clients gone quiet, offers, appointments, every location side by side, how full each person, room and line was, and the library of reports.
The assistant and the platform
Memory and the assistant, workflows, languages, connections, the API and settings.
- Memory and the assistantThe assistant and the books assistant, what each sees, changes as cards to approve, its model, and Memory: its notes (also through Claude, ChatGPT and the API) and the knowledge boards.
- WorkflowsReminders, follow-ups and to-dos that run themselves: the ready-made automations, building your own from cards, and the to-do list they fill.
- ProjectsProjects on boards of tasks with owners, due days, checklists, comments, files and time; tasks that wait on others; the list, the timeline, My tasks and templates.
- LanguagesSpanish and French for clients, your website and store, the app your team uses and your own words; each language's date format; the language reports and printed documents are made in.
- Connect your appsEvery app BookNovi connects to in one place. Connect takes you to the app to sign in and say yes, or asks for the keys you make there, and brings you back connected.
- Passwords and 1PasswordBookNovi keeps no passwords. Your logins live in 1Password, and BookNovi keeps where each one is, on the record it belongs to, and who on the team sees that it exists.
- Connections, AI assistants and the APIThe services you link, your own AI assistant reading the business, API keys and webhooks, and the rules for what programs and AI may change.
- Talk to BookNovi from Claude or ChatGPTAdd BookNovi to Claude or ChatGPT with one address, sign in as yourself, and ask about your day or have it make changes, each said back to you before it is made.
- Mail on the recordsConnect your own Gmail or Outlook so mail with clients, the CRM's businesses and vendors is filed on their records, write from a record, and choose what the app and your AI assistants may read.
- Pay-as-you-go tools and the walletThe assistant searches the web, reads pages, reviews and videos, finds businesses on a map and looks a business up when a job needs it, paid from a prepaid wallet in US dollars.
- Files in Dropbox or OneDriveLink the business's Dropbox or OneDrive so files kept on records live there, in a folder for each record, with the app keeping only where each one is.
- Meetings and callsMeetings and calls from Zoom, Teams, Google Meet and the phone, with their recordings and notes, summarized into decisions, an action plan that becomes tasks, and a mind map.
- Context boardsGather notes, web pages, files, pictures, voice notes and what Memory keeps on one board, group them in boxes, and have the assistant write from them: a post, an email, the key points. Under Boards.
- ContractsAgreements with your accounts, vendors, renters and people: templates, versions, signing at a private link, the signed PDF, and reminders before each one renews or ends.
- Fields & objectsFields of your own on any kind of record, kinds of record the app does not have, formulas worked out from them, and the change sets that publish every change as a numbered version.
- Mind mapsMind maps drawn from what you type or say, changed with the keys or a tap, and saved as a picture, a PDF, an outline or OPML. Under Boards.
- Admin: locations, brands, people and modules across your businessesThe organization, its businesses and brands, every location with its kind and hours, location groups, logins across the businesses, the modules and features each uses, and its tools.
- Plans and billingYour free trial and its days, choosing a plan by the month or the year, the card on file and invoices, logins and add-ons, and what happens when a payment does not go through.
- Usage and capacityWhat each business holds and the work it does, part of the app by part: the database and files apart, what is growing and what drives it, the work of each day, and how each figure is measured.
- Backups, history and getting things backA daily copy of everything, at the hour you choose, kept apart from the app; a copy sent to you; every change to a record, and a version put back; a restore asked for.
- Compliance: SOC 2, ISO 27001 and HIPAAWhere your business stands against the three: the sign-in policy and second factor, the health-information switch, the access review, incidents and retention.
- SettingsEvery Settings tab: the business and its words, locations and tax, booking, messages, cards, the team, the menu, records and the look, plus more than one business.
Reference
The app’s words, and the questions people ask most.