How a small salon can move from paper and pen to simple records without learning accounting software
Replace the notebook with client notes, daily sales by payment type, expenses with receipts and a list of clients who have not been in.
SuperCat
Your message is ready to send
I run a small hair salon and everything is on paper: appointments, what we take each day, expenses and client notes. I want one simple tool that replaces the notebook and that I and my stylists can use on a phone.
Build one tool: Clients with name, phone, last visit, favorite stylist and notes such as color formulas, allergies and what they usually book.
Daily log: for each visit record the client, stylist, services, price, tip and how they paid (cash, card, other). A closing screen shows the day's total by payment type so I can match it to the till.
Expenses: record supplies, rent, utilities and products with a photo of the receipt, by category.
Reports: weekly and monthly sales, expenses and profit, sales per stylist, and a list of clients who have not been in for 8 weeks so I can message them. Export everything as CSV for my accountant.
Stylists log in and see only their own services and tips, and I see everything. Keep it simple, with big buttons and no accounting jargon.
Opens WhatsApp with this message and a code for 5 cans. Nothing to install, no account to create.
Prefer another app? the message.
What you get
- A client list with visit history, preferences and color notes.
- A daily log with sales split by payment type and a closing screen to match the till.
- Expenses by category with receipt photos.
- Weekly and monthly sales, expenses, profit and sales per stylist.
- A list of clients who have not visited in a while, and a CSV export for the accountant.
What usually gets in the way
- Everything is written in a notebook, so nothing can be searched, totalled or backed up.
- General accounting software is paid and generic, and it does not know what a color formula or a regular booking is.
- Daily sales are hard to match to the till when cash, card and tips are written together.
- Color formulas, allergies and preferences live in a stylist's memory rather than on the client's record.
- There is no easy way to see which clients have stopped coming in.
The longer story
A paper book works well in a salon until it needs to answer a question. What did we take last month, what color did this client have last time, who has stopped coming in. Each of those means turning pages, and none of the answers can be shared with a second stylist or kept safe if the book is lost.
Generic accounting software is built for bookkeepers, not for a chair and a till, and it is easy to find it more than the business needs. A small tool built around the salon’s own routine, a client record, a daily close, an expense log and a monthly total, asks for less typing and uses the words the staff already use.
Keeping each stylist’s view limited to their own services and tips, with the owner seeing everything, means the same tool can be shared in a small team without handing out the whole business.
Send it as it is, or change anything first
SuperCat asks a question or two, then builds it.
Send on WhatsAppOpens WhatsApp with this message and a code for 5 cans. Nothing to install, no account to create.
Prefer another app? the message.
More requests like this
Online shops· Inventory, Bookkeeping
Average-cost inventory, sales profit and expenses for a reseller
Log each purchase as a lot, work out cost of goods from the average cost, and keep expenses, receipts and mileage in one place.
Send this to SuperCat
I resell collectibles, supplies and accessories online as a one-person LLC and want one simple bookkeeping tool to replace my Excel tabs. I keep YNAB for bank transactions.
Build one tool: Inventory with each purchase lot (date, supplier, item, quantity, total cost) and a running average cost per item, so a lot of thousands of items is one row, not thousands.
Sales: record each sale with price, fees and shipping. The tool takes the cost of goods from the average cost, lowers the stock count and shows profit per sale and per month.
Expenses: import my YNAB export as CSV and let me split one transaction across categories (inventory, supplies, equipment, software, shipping) with a note and a photo of the receipt. Spending in the inventory category creates or tops up a purchase lot so I enter it once.
Mileage: log trips with date, purpose and miles, with the IRS rate applied and a yearly total.
Reports: monthly and yearly profit and loss, inventory value on hand, cost of goods sold, and a tax-time CSV export for my accountant. Just me, phone-friendly, with a short checklist of what an accountant will ask for.
Opens WhatsApp with this request and a code for 5 cans to get started.