Benefits of a digital POS system: what changes per task in your salon

Count tasks, not features

A point of sale is literally the point where a sale is completed. In a salon that is more than ringing up an amount: you look up what the client had, add a product if needed, pick the payment method and make sure the sale can be found later. With a standalone till or just a card terminal, part of that is manual work.

The fairest way to judge the benefits of a digital POS system is therefore to count. Take an ordinary Tuesday and make a tally mark every time you retype something, look something up in a notebook or have to sort something out later. Those marks are what a digital checkout can remove. Whatever is left simply remains work.

Below we go through six moments. For each one you see what happens by hand and what a checkout tied to your calendar does differently. If you first want to know how to choose a system, read the guide to choosing a POS system.

1. The receipt starts with the appointment

With a standalone till every receipt starts empty. You check the calendar to see what the client had, look up the price and ring up the amount. With a combined treatment or an extra product, that is exactly when something gets forgotten or rung up twice.

In Salonnare you open the checkout from the appointment itself. The treatments of that appointment are already on the receipt, with the price from your service list, and the receipt is linked to that client and that visit. You only add what came on top, such as a shampoo for home use.

Double charging gets flagged. If you add a treatment to the receipt separately while it is already part of the appointment, the checkout asks whether you really want to charge it twice. That sounds minor, but with a standalone till it is a mistake you only notice when the client checks her bank statement at home.

2. The checkout works out VAT and change

Treatments and products can carry different VAT rates. By hand that means a calculation or an estimate at the end of the quarter. A digital checkout puts the rate on each line of the receipt and totals it per rate, so your receipt and your records say the same thing. What a VAT-proof receipt looks like and how long to keep it is explained in the article on a VAT-proof checkout system.

Cash is rounded to 5 cents. The checkout calculates the rounded amount itself, so you do not have to think about the difference with every cash payment.

The receipt can be emailed to the client. No receipt roll running out, and the client can find it again if she wants to exchange a product.

3. You fix a mistake with a credit note, not an eraser

A wrong amount in a notebook gets crossed out. That works until your accountant asks why the daily takings do not match the card payments. In a digital checkout a paid receipt stays in place. If money needs to go back, you create a credit note with negative lines next to it. That way you see both: what was sold first and what was refunded later, and the revenue of a closed period does not shift afterwards.

A payment without a receipt stands out. If a payment comes in via Mollie or Stripe that does not belong to any receipt, Salonnare reports it so you can link it to the right receipt. With just a card terminal you only discover that kind of gap when counting.

In the receipt history you filter by date, payment method and status (paid, open, refunded or credit note). The question "did Mrs Jansen actually pay for that serum last month?" takes a few clicks.

4. Stock keeps up

If you sell products, stock is the second notebook next to the till. Every sale has to be ticked off there as well, and on a busy Saturday that simply does not happen.

With inventory management (from the Starter plan) a sale at the checkout deducts the product straight away. If a sale would take stock below zero, the checkout warns you, and when stock runs low you get a notification in the app. Counting the shelf is still needed, but you count to check, not to catch up. How to set that up is covered in the article on a POS with inventory management.

5. Who can do what at the checkout

If you work with several people, you do not want everyone to be able to refund receipts. With a standalone till you solve that with trust or a key. In Salonnare you set per team member whether someone may only view the checkout or also edit it. A colleague can take payments while refunds and corrections stay with you.

Because a receipt that comes from the calendar is linked to the client and the visit, you can also find it later from that client. That is not distrust; it simply makes a question about a receipt quick to answer.

6. Closing the day and serving your accountant

At the end of the day, with a standalone till, you count the drawer, add up the card slips and write down the total. At your accountant the retyping starts all over again.

With the reports (from Starter) you see the daily overview with revenue per team member and per payment method, with tips shown separately. The accounting export creates files for Moneybird, e-Boekhouden and Exact Online. It is an export, not a live connection: you transfer the data and process it further in your accounting software. How to close the day step by step is explained in the article on the end-of-day close at the checkout.

What a digital checkout does not do for you

An honest picture belongs here too. A digital checkout does not count your cash drawer: counting the money and comparing it with the cash takings remains a task you do yourself. Salonnare also has no separate function for an opening float or a till session, so you simply note your change at the start of the day yourself.

The checkout does not replace your bookkeeping either. It delivers clean, complete data, but the tax return and the annual accounts are done by you or your accountant in accounting software.

And software does not fix unclear agreements. Agree with your team when a receipt gets closed and who handles refunds. The checkout then makes those agreements easy to follow.

What it costs and how to test it for a week

Taking cash and card payments is already part of Salonnare's free plan: Free costs €0 per month, for 1 team member and 50 appointments per month. Starter costs €29 per month and adds inventory management, reports, the accounting export and online payments, among other things. Pro costs €59 per month. Every online or card payment carries a transaction fee of 0.5%, with a minimum of €0.30. The marketplace commission on new clients is €0. Payments via Mollie or Stripe land in your own account. All plans are on the pricing page.

How to test it. In week one, enter your service list with prices and VAT rates and check out every appointment from the calendar for a full day. Keep your tally sheet from the start next to it. At the end of the week, count how many marks are left and where they are. That tells you more than any feature list. More about the checkout is on the page about Salonnare's POS system.

Ready to count? Start free with Salonnare and check out your first appointment from your calendar.

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