Frequently asked questions

The Salon Billing Portal helps a salon manage day-to-day operations from one place. It brings together customer records, appointments, service billing, packages, memberships, staff access, subscriptions, expenses, products, advance packages, staff performance and reports — every one of them included in both the Basic and Pro plans.

For example, a receptionist can create an appointment, the service team can complete the customer visit, and the billing desk can generate the invoice from the same portal. Owners and admins can then review sales, outstanding payments, staff activity, and business performance without maintaining everything in separate registers or spreadsheets.

The portal is useful for salon owners, branch admins, front-desk staff, managers, billing staff, and employees. Each person does not need to see every feature. The portal supports role-based access, so an owner may access reports and settings while a receptionist may only work with customers, appointments, and billing.

This makes the portal practical for real salon workflows. Staff members can focus on their assigned tasks while sensitive areas such as subscriptions, permissions, financial reports, and organisation settings remain available only to the right users.

Menu visibility depends on your role, permissions, and subscription plan. For example, an admin may see Settings, Subscription, Feedback, Staff, and Permissions, while an employee may only see the modules required for daily operations. A few options — Roles & Permissions, the Co-owner, Manager and Accountant logins, and more than one outlet — need the Pro plan.

If you believe you should have access to a module, ask your salon admin to check your role and permissions. If it is Roles & Permissions or an extra outlet, the admin can upgrade to Pro from the Subscription section.

After logging in, confirm that the correct salon or organisation is selected from the top bar. Then open the Dashboard to review current activity, pending work, or summary numbers. If your salon has multiple branches or organisations, selecting the right organisation is important because customers, appointments, bills, reports, and settings are linked to the selected organisation.

Admins should also review Settings to ensure organisation details, logo, GST details, and billing-related information are correct before creating bills or invoices. Accurate setup helps avoid incorrect invoice details later.

Use the login page with your registered email or phone-based credentials, depending on how your salon account was created. If your organisation has enabled Google login, you may also see an option to sign in through Google.

Once logged in, the portal verifies your profile and permissions before showing the app. If your login is successful but you cannot see expected modules, it usually means your role or permissions need to be checked by an admin.

Use the Reset Password option from the login screen. Follow the instructions shown there to confirm your identity and create a new password. After resetting, return to the login screen and sign in with the updated password.

If you are a staff member and cannot complete the reset process, contact your salon admin. They can verify whether your account is active and whether your registered contact details are correct.

Admins and eligible users can update their password from the Settings area under the Update Password tab. This is useful if you want to change a temporary password, improve security, or update credentials after sharing access during onboarding.

For security, avoid using shared passwords across multiple staff members. Each staff member should ideally have their own login so the salon can track actions and manage access properly.

This can happen when your session token is missing, expired, invalid, or removed from the browser. It can also happen if the portal cannot verify your profile. In such cases, the app clears the old login session and sends you back to the login page so you can sign in again safely.

If this happens repeatedly, check whether your internet connection is stable, whether your account is still active, and whether your browser is blocking required storage. If needed, contact your admin or support team.

An organisation usually represents a salon business or branch configured in the system. If your business has multiple locations, each branch may appear as a separate organisation. The portal uses the selected organisation to decide which customers, appointments, staff, bills, reports, and settings to show.

For day-to-day use, always confirm the selected organisation before creating appointments or bills. This prevents records from being saved under the wrong salon branch.

Use the organisation selector in the top navigation bar. When you change the selected organisation, the portal updates the current working context. Modules such as Dashboard, Customers, Billing, Expenses, Products, Reports, Settings, and Staff use that selection to fetch the right data.

This is especially helpful for owners or managers who supervise more than one branch. They can review activity branch by branch without needing separate logins.

An organisation may not show if it is inactive, if your user is no longer linked to it, or if your access has been changed by an admin. The portal is designed to show organisations that are available for your user and are active enough to open.

If you expected to see a salon branch but it is missing, ask your admin to confirm your organisation assignment. If you are the owner, review whether the organisation status or subscription state needs attention.

If the portal detects that the previously saved organisation is no longer valid for your user, it automatically selects the first available active organisation. This prevents the app from opening with an empty or broken organisation context.

For example, if a branch was deactivated or your access was removed from one branch, the portal may switch you to another branch that you can still access.

The Dashboard provides a quick overview of business activity for the selected organisation. Depending on your permissions and available data, it may show salon performance numbers, appointment-related information, customer activity, billing summaries, charts, and recent operational lists.

It is meant to be the first page you check when you want a quick snapshot of how the salon is doing. Owners can use it for business monitoring, while front-desk teams can use it to understand current activity.

The Dashboard supports filters such as Today, Overall, Year, Month, single Date, and Custom Date Range. When you choose a filter, the portal sends that filter to the backend and refreshes the numbers for the selected period.

For example, use Today to check current-day activity, Month to review a specific month, and Custom Date Range to compare performance during a campaign, festive season, or selected business period.

The most common reasons are that no organisation is selected, no activity exists for the selected date range, or your role does not have permission to view the relevant data. It may also happen if the backend request fails because of a network or server issue.

Try selecting a wider period such as Overall or a valid month, confirm the organisation selector, and refresh the page. If the issue continues, ask your admin to verify permissions and organisation access.

The Customers module is where salon client records are maintained. Customer details are important because appointments, service bills, product bills, packages, memberships, outstanding payments, and feedback can all connect back to a customer profile.

Keeping customer records updated helps the salon provide a better experience. For example, staff can quickly identify repeat clients, check contact details, review previous visits, or connect bills and memberships to the right person.

Linking records to a customer gives the salon a reliable history. When a customer returns, the team can see earlier appointments, purchases, memberships, pending balances, or service preferences depending on what has been recorded.

It also improves reporting. Without customer linkage, it becomes harder to understand repeat business, outstanding dues, membership usage, and individual customer value.

Before creating a new customer, search existing records using the customer's name, phone number, or other available identifiers. This helps avoid duplicate customer profiles.

Duplicate customer records can create confusion because appointments, bills, memberships, or dues may get split across multiple profiles. If a duplicate is found, use the existing customer record wherever possible.

The Appointments module is used to schedule and manage salon bookings. It helps the front desk or staff record who is coming, when they are coming, and what service they are expected to receive.

This keeps the salon organised during busy hours. Instead of relying on phone notes or paper diaries, the team can use appointment listings to track upcoming and past bookings.

An appointment is a planned or scheduled visit. A bill is created when the salon charges the customer for services or products. In a normal workflow, a customer may first be booked through Appointments, then billed after the service is completed.

However, salons may also create bills for walk-in customers without a prior appointment, depending on their process. The appointment module helps with planning, while billing records the actual transaction.

Use the Appointment Listing area to review existing appointment records. From there, users with permission can search, view, or edit appointment details depending on how access has been configured.

This is useful when a customer calls to confirm a booking, reschedule, or ask about an earlier visit.

Service Billing is used to create bills for salon services such as haircuts, treatments, facials, grooming, styling, or any service configured in the service catalog. It records what the customer purchased, the amount charged, and payment-related details.

Service Billing is one of the main operational areas of the portal because it converts completed salon work into official sales records and invoices.

The Service Billing screen uses services configured in the Services module. When the salon maintains accurate services and prices, billing staff can quickly select the right items instead of manually typing charges each time.

This improves speed and reduces pricing mistakes. If the salon changes prices, the admin should update the Services module so future bills use correct values.

The portal includes an edit route for service bills, so authorised users may be able to edit billing records depending on permissions and business rules. This is helpful when a correction is needed, such as updating a customer, service, payment detail, or invoice information.

Because bills affect sales and reporting, salons should restrict edit access to trusted users only. Changes should be made carefully and only when there is a valid operational reason.

The portal supports invoice views, including a public invoice page. This means an invoice can be opened separately, which is useful for printing, sharing, or allowing a customer to view billing details without logging into the staff portal.

Invoice accuracy depends on correct organisation settings, customer details, service details, GST settings if applicable, and payment entries.

Service Categories are groups used to organise the salon menu. Examples may include Hair, Skin, Makeup, Nails, Spa, Grooming, or Bridal services. Categories make the service catalog easier to manage and easier for staff to browse.

Using categories is especially useful when the salon offers many services. It keeps the billing and service-selection experience cleaner.

Services are the actual billable items offered by the salon. A service may include a name, price, category, and other information depending on the setup. These services are used during appointment creation and billing.

For example, "Hair Cut", "Hair Spa", "Global Color", "Facial", or "Beard Trim" would be services. Keeping these updated ensures billing staff always use the current service list.

Usually, admins, co-owners, or managers should manage the service catalog. Since the service catalog affects billing and reports, it should not be changed casually by every employee.

Whenever the salon updates prices, adds a new treatment, or removes an old service, the catalog should be updated before the front desk starts billing customers for those services.

Packages are used when a salon sells a group of services together. For example, a customer may buy a prepaid grooming package, bridal package, hair treatment package, or multiple-session package.

Packages help the salon sell structured offers instead of billing every visit separately. They can also support promotions and customer retention by encouraging repeat visits.

Advance Packages are a package workflow for more advanced selling or tracking needs — extra listing, editing and control beyond simple package setup. They are included in both the Basic and Pro plans.

Advance Packages are part of every plan, so a missing menu item is about permissions, not the plan. Ask your admin to check that your role has access to packages.

The Sell Memberships module is used to sell membership plans to customers. Memberships are commonly used for loyalty programs, prepaid benefits, regular customer plans, or special pricing arrangements.

Once a membership is sold, the salon can refer to the Membership Listing to review membership records and track what has been issued to customers.

Packages usually focus on a set of services or sessions. Memberships usually focus on a customer's ongoing relationship with the salon, such as benefits, discounts, validity, or recurring-style privileges.

A salon may use both. For example, a customer could have a membership for discounts and also purchase a separate hair treatment package.

Memberships should be connected to customer profiles so staff can identify who owns the membership, when it was sold, and whether benefits should apply. This avoids disputes and makes it easier to check eligibility during billing.

It also helps management understand membership sales and customer loyalty performance.

The Expenses module is used to record money spent by the salon. Examples include rent, electricity, consumables, staff refreshments, cleaning supplies, product purchases, advertising, maintenance, or other operational costs.

Tracking expenses inside the portal helps owners compare money coming in through sales with money going out through business costs. This gives a more realistic picture of salon performance.

Expense Categories are labels used to group expenses. For example, Rent, Utilities, Products, Marketing, Salary, Maintenance, and Miscellaneous can be categories.

Categories make reports and reviews easier. Instead of seeing one long list of expenses, owners can understand which type of spending is increasing or needs attention.

Expenses are included in both plans, so you only need permission to view expense pages.

Ask your admin to check whether your role has access to expenses.

The Products module is for salons that sell retail items such as shampoos, conditioners, serums, creams, styling products, cosmetics, or aftercare products. It helps the salon maintain a product catalog and sell products through billing.

This is useful for salons that earn additional revenue from retail sales and want those sales recorded separately from service bills.

Product Brand is used to organise products by brand name. For example, if a salon sells multiple brands, the brand module helps keep the product catalog clean and searchable.

This also makes product selection easier during billing because staff can identify items more accurately.

Product Billing is used when the salon sells retail products to customers. It is separate from Service Billing because product sales and service sales may be tracked differently in reports.

For example, after a hair treatment, a stylist may recommend a shampoo or serum. The front desk can bill that retail product through Product Billing.

Products and Product Billing are included in both plans. You need permissions such as product brand, product or product billing access — if one is missing, the Products menu may be unavailable.

The Staff module is used to manage team members who work in the salon. Admins can add or manage staff users so they can log in and use the portal based on their assigned role.

This keeps access organised. Instead of sharing one login across the team, each staff member can have their own account, which is better for security and accountability.

The Permissions module is used to control what each role can access. For example, one role may be allowed to view appointments and billing but not reports, expenses, subscription, or settings.

This is important for salons with multiple staff members. It protects sensitive business areas while still allowing employees to complete their daily work.

Permission management is intended for admins or co-owners with the right access. Since permission changes affect what other users can see and do, this area should be handled carefully.

If a staff member cannot access a page needed for their work, an admin should review that staff member's role and the permissions assigned to that role.

Roles & Permissions — with Co-owner, Manager and Accountant logins — are what the Pro plan adds. On Basic, the account has one Admin, and staff are added as Employees.

If your salon has multiple roles, departments or branches, Pro permissions help keep access structured and secure.

Staff Performance is used to review how team members are contributing to salon activity. Depending on available data, this may help owners understand service contribution, productivity, sales impact, or staff-level performance trends.

This is especially useful for salons that track targets, incentives, commissions, or training needs. Owners can identify top performers and areas where staff may need support.

Staff Performance is included in both plans and is generally available to admin or co-owner style roles. If you do not have the right role, the page may not be visible.

The portal includes Staff Report, Sale Report, and Overview Report for eligible users. These reports help owners and admins review business performance from different angles.

Staff Report focuses on team-related data, Sale Report focuses on sales activity, and Overview gives a broader view of business performance. The exact numbers shown depend on available backend data and selected filters.

Reports are included in both plans and are usually available to admins and co-owners. Regular employees may not see reports because they can include sensitive business and financial information.

Use Sale Report to understand how much business was generated during a selected period. It can help answer questions such as which dates were strongest, whether sales are improving, and whether specific periods need attention.

For more useful analysis, compare similar periods, such as this month versus last month or festive-season weeks versus normal weeks.

Overview Report is best for a high-level business check. Instead of looking at one specific activity, it helps owners understand the general health of the salon.

Owners can use it during weekly or monthly reviews to decide whether marketing, staffing, service pricing, or package sales need changes.

Pending Outstanding helps admins and co-owners identify customers who still owe money. It provides a focused list of pending dues along with filters such as month and search.

This is useful for follow-ups, collections, and payment reconciliation. Instead of manually checking each customer or bill, the salon can review pending balances from one place.

This section is intended for owners, admins, or co-owners who handle collections and financial follow-up. It may not be appropriate for all employees because it involves customer dues and payment status.

If your salon allows front-desk staff to follow up on dues, the admin should make sure those staff members have the correct access and clear instructions.

Outstanding payments directly affect cash flow. Reviewing this section regularly helps the salon reduce unpaid balances and follow up before dues become difficult to collect.

For example, an admin can filter by current month or last month, search for a customer, and contact them with accurate payment information.

Organisation settings store important salon details such as business name, contact information, address, GST details if applicable, and other organisation-level information. These details may appear on invoices or affect billing behavior.

Admins should keep this information accurate because incorrect organisation details can create confusion for customers and accounting teams.

Logo Setting allows the salon to manage the logo displayed in the portal header and possibly on customer-facing documents depending on invoice setup. A correct logo helps the portal feel branded for your salon.

If your salon has multiple organisations or branches, each one may have its own branding. Always confirm the selected organisation before updating the logo.

Additional Settings are advanced configuration options available to eligible accounts. They may control extra behavior in the portal depending on your salon's setup and subscription access.

Because these settings can affect how the portal behaves, admins should review them carefully before making changes. If unsure, test with a small workflow or ask support for guidance.

Sale Report Setting is shown only when the account is configured to use it. It controls options related to sales reporting, such as how certain sales values should be treated or displayed.

This setting is useful when the business needs reports to follow a specific accounting or operational approach. Only admins who understand the salon's reporting process should change it.

The Subscription page shows your current plan status and available plan options. It is also where eligible users can start a free trial, choose a plan, create a subscription, sync payment status, or manage plan-related actions.

Admins should check this page whenever they want to add outlets or staff roles, when a trial is ending, or when the portal redirects to subscription renewal.

Basic (₹399/month) includes all core SalonBill features — Billing, Appointments, Job Cards, Customers, Expenses, Inventory, Packages, Memberships, Loyalty and Reports — for one salon/outlet with one Admin account. Staff can be added as Employees.

It also includes a WhatsApp trial of 50 messages per month for the first 3 months and standard customer support.

Pro (₹999/month) has all the same core features as Basic, plus multi-branch management (one salon included, additional outlets at ₹1,000/month each), role-based access for Admin, Manager and Accountant, and priority customer support.

It includes a WhatsApp trial of 200 messages per month for the first 3 months — a good fit for growing salons, multi-staff teams and multi-outlet groups.

The portal indicates that all salons under the same account share one account subscription. This means the subscription is not treated as a completely separate purchase for every visible organisation, depending on how your account is configured.

If you operate multiple branches, review the Subscription page or contact support to confirm how your billing applies to your setup.

If the account no longer has active SaaS access, the portal may restrict most sections and guide the admin to the Subscription page. This ensures the owner can renew the plan without being blocked from the place where renewal happens.

After renewal or successful payment sync, access should return according to your plan and permissions.

The free trial banner tells you that your trial is currently active and shows when it will end. This gives admins enough time to choose a paid plan before access changes.

It is best to review the plan before the trial end date so day-to-day staff are not interrupted by subscription restrictions.

The Feedback section is used to view customer feedback records. It is intended for admins who want to review comments, ratings, or customer responses collected through the salon's feedback process.

This section helps owners understand customer satisfaction and identify repeated issues. For example, if several customers mention waiting time, service quality, or billing confusion, the salon can take action.

No. Feedback is for incoming customer feedback and review-style information. It is not a module for publishing help articles or managing FAQs.

If the salon wants to publish customer help content, that content should be managed separately from the Feedback listing.

Admins should review feedback regularly and look for patterns rather than only individual comments. A single complaint may need immediate attention, but repeated comments usually point to a process issue.

For example, repeated feedback about long waiting time may mean appointment slots need adjustment. Repeated feedback about unclear pricing may mean services and billing communication should be improved.

Support Tickets are used to request help related to the software, account, access, subscription, or portal issues. A salon user can raise or track tickets from the Support Tickets area, depending on available permissions and implementation.

This is different from customer feedback. Support Tickets are for communication between your salon and the software/platform support team.

Create a support ticket when something needs help from the platform team, such as login issues, subscription questions, missing access, billing problems, incorrect data behavior, or technical errors that your admin cannot solve.

Before creating a ticket, check basic items like selected organisation, date filters, role permissions, and subscription status. Including these details in the ticket can help support resolve the issue faster.

The Profile page is used for user-level information. It may include personal profile details such as name, contact information, or image-related details depending on what is enabled in the portal.

It is separate from Organisation settings. Profile is about the logged-in user, while Organisation settings are about the salon business or branch.

Accurate profile information helps admins identify staff members correctly and may improve accountability in salon operations. If multiple staff members share unclear names or outdated contact details, it becomes harder to manage access and support.

If your profile details are incorrect and you cannot edit them, ask your admin or support team to help update them.

A Super Admin is a platform-level user, not a normal salon staff member. Super Admin users can access special sections such as all users, staff and roles, customer search, support requests, and platform-level profile management.

Salon owners and staff usually do not need Super Admin access. It is intended for the team managing the overall platform.

Impersonation means a Super Admin is viewing the portal as another user, usually for troubleshooting. The portal clearly shows a warning that actions affect the live account being viewed.

This should be used carefully. Once troubleshooting is complete, the Super Admin should return to the Super Admin account using the available return action.

Access can change because of permission updates, role changes, subscription changes, trial expiry, organisation status, or plan downgrade. First confirm the selected organisation, then check whether your plan and role include that option, and finally ask an admin to verify your permissions.

If everything looks correct but the page still does not open, create a support ticket with the module name, your role, selected organisation, and any error message shown.

Core modules are in every plan. The Subscription page opens when the account has no active plan or trial, or when you try something only Pro includes — Roles & Permissions, Co-owner/Manager/Accountant logins, or another outlet.

If your salon has already paid, ask the admin to sync or check the subscription status. If the issue continues, contact support.

Most reports and lists depend on the selected organisation, selected date filter, search text, and available permissions. If any of these are different from what you expected, results may look incomplete.

Before reporting an issue, check the organisation selector, clear search filters, widen the date range, and refresh the page. This solves many common list and report confusion cases.

Include your salon or organisation name, your user role, the page or module where the issue happened, the selected date filter if any, screenshots if possible, and the exact error message. Also mention whether the issue affects only you or multiple users.

Clear details help the support team reproduce the problem and solve it faster.

Use consistent customer names and phone numbers, avoid duplicate customer profiles, keep services and prices updated, record bills under the correct customer, review outstanding payments regularly, and restrict sensitive permissions to trusted users.

Good data habits make reports more reliable and reduce daily confusion for staff.