This walkthrough takes a barber shop from a new account to a full day of booked clients and walk-ins. Follow it in order.
1. Create the business
- Choose Start free on BookNovi's site, or Create an account on the sign-in page, and make your account. The guided setup starts on its own.
- Type the shop's name under The business’s name, pick Barber shop under Beauty, and choose Next. It fills in a starter menu of cuts, beard and shave services, three chairs and a photo release form, yours to keep or delete.
- Check the Time zone, type the address and phone (or leave them for later), and choose Next.
- Under What do you sell and book?: say yes to tracking hours, pay or chair rent if any barber rents a chair, and to selling products if you sell pomade and the like. Choose Next.
- Say how many people work there, how you heard of us and, if a rep or a partner gave you a code, type it in. Choose Start my business.
The waiting room and the waitlist are on for every barber shop.
The business opens with What to do next: the steps of this walkthrough as a list that ticks itself as each gets done, under the top bar and in your menu at the top right. Your free trial starts the same day; see Plans and billing.
2. Set up the business
- Open Settings, Business. Set the Time zone, the calendar's hours and Time slots (15 minutes suits most shops), and choose Save.
- Under Location and Tax, type the address, phone and sales tax, and choose Save.
- To call your team Barbers instead of Staff, change What You Call Things on the same page.
3. Make the menu
- Open Services and choose Add category: Cuts, Beard, Shaves.
- Add each service with its price and length: a cut, a skin fade, a beard trim, a hot towel shave, a kid's cut.
- Leave Available in online booking on for what clients may book themselves.
4. Add your barbers and their hours
- Open Staff (or Barbers, once renamed) and choose Add staff member. Leave Performs services on.
- Tick their services on the Services tab and set their Work hours.
- As an owner, set Pay: commission, hourly, or Rents a chair with the Rent, how often it is Charged and when it is Starting. A renter keeps what their services bring in; the rent is charged on its own as each period begins.
Chair rent is collected in Time & Pay, under Rent. See Time and pay.
5. Get walk-ins checked in
The waiting room keeps a list of who has arrived, with a check-in screen for the door.
- Put a tablet by the door and open the waiting room from the bell at the top of the app, then Open the check-in screen.
- A client with an appointment enters their phone number to check in. Anyone else is asked to see the front desk.
- Behind the counter, the bell shows who has arrived. Tap one to open their appointment.
For a walk-in, book them on the calendar for now with New, then set them Arrived. When a slot opens later in the day, the Waitlist on the calendar says who wanted one.
6. Online booking, cards and reminders
- Settings, Online booking: switch on Take bookings online, set the notice and the window, and copy Your booking link for Instagram and your Google profile.
- Settings, Card payments: an owner chooses Set up card payments.
- Settings, Messages: switch on the confirmation and pick when the Reminder goes out.
See The calendar and the front desk and Messages.
Your first day
- The calendar opens on today with a column for each barber. Tap an empty time to book.
- Drag an appointment to move it to another time or another barber.
- When a cut is done, choose Check out on the appointment, add the tip, and take the payment.
Best practices
- Book regulars again before they leave: open the appointment and use Repeat to book the same cut every few weeks.
- Keep the check-in tablet on the waiting room screen. Clients see their name come up; the barber sees who is next.
- For chair renters, set the rent once on their pay plan, then mark it paid in Rent each time. Nothing is guessed at the end of the month.
- Turn on the Reminder a day before. It is the cheapest way to cut no-shows.