September 2026 · Release Notes

What's New in Salonipy

The newest additions bring Salonipy up to what international salons expect — gift cards, a barcode scanner, VAT/GST tax invoices, fuller payroll with payslips and staff loans, and accounting exports — on top of a big earlier update around stock and client retention. Everything is live in your app, nothing to install. Screen names below match the sidebar on a computer; on a phone they sit under the More tab.

💬 WhatsApp automation & campaigns

6 updates

Automatic appointment reminders — with Confirm / Cancel

⚙️ Settings → WhatsApp automation

Salonipy now messages your clients on WhatsApp for you. Before each appointment it sends a reminder, and the client can simply reply Confirm or Cancel — the booking updates itself in your app. Fewer no-shows, no manual typing.

How to use

  1. Open Settings → WhatsApp automation and connect your WhatsApp (official Cloud API, or scan a QR code).
  2. Turn on automation and set how many hours before to remind.

Sale receipts sent automatically

🧾 New Sale

As soon as you save a bill, the client gets a neat WhatsApp receipt with the item breakdown and total — automatically, or one-tap, whichever you prefer.

How to use

  1. In WhatsApp automation, set Sale receipt to Automatic or Ask after each sale.

Offers & deals campaigns — to a whole group at once

📣 Broadcast & Reviews

Pick an audience (all clients, VIPs, inactive, birthdays this week) and a message or deal, then send to everyone in one tap through your WhatsApp automation — no more opening chats one by one.

How to use

  1. Open Broadcast, choose the audience and message (or a deal), then tap Send all automatically.

Birthday wishes & win-back — on autopilot

⚙️ Settings → WhatsApp automation

Turn on Birthday wishes and every client gets a warm message on their birthday. Turn on Win-back and clients who haven't visited in a while are gently invited back — all by themselves, in the background.

Short, shareable booking links

🔗 Online Booking

Your booking link is now clean and memorable — like salonipy.com/book/your-salon — perfect for your Instagram bio, WhatsApp status and cards. Older links keep working too.

Message a booking request in one tap

🔗 Online Booking → Requests

Every online booking request now has a WhatsApp button — confirm it, or let the client know it can't be taken, straight from a ready-made template.

WhatsApp automation is available as a message package for your account — talk to us on WhatsApp to switch it on.

Latest additions

7 updates

Gift cards & vouchers

🎁 More → Gift Cards

Sell prepaid gift cards with a unique code and an expiry date — perfect for birthdays, Eid and festival gifting. The money counts in your day close on the day you receive it; when the customer redeems the code at the counter, the value drops straight into their client wallet to spend on any bill, so it is never counted as cash twice.

How to use

  1. Open More → Gift Cards → Sell gift card, enter the amount and how it was paid, then share the generated code with the customer.
  2. When they come to spend it, tap Redeem code, scan or type the code and choose the client — the balance moves into their wallet.

Barcode scanner for billing & stock

📷 New Sale · Purchases · Products

Give each product a barcode and bill in seconds. Scan with your phone’s camera or a plug-in USB scanner and the product lands on the invoice instantly — the same works on the purchase screen when you receive new stock.

How to use

  1. Open a product and tap 📷 Scan (or type the number) to save its barcode.
  2. On New Sale or Purchase, use the barcode box — a USB scanner types it and presses enter automatically, or tap 📷 to use the camera.

Works with any standard USB or Bluetooth barcode scanner — it behaves like a keyboard, so there is nothing to set up.

Tax, VAT & GST invoices

🧮 Settings → Salon Profile → Tax

Set your tax name (VAT, GST or Sales Tax), rate and registration number once. Bills then print as proper tax invoices with the number on them, and you can choose whether your prices already include tax or it is added on top. A monthly tax summary shows exactly what you collected, ready for filing.

How to use

  1. Go to Settings → Salon Profile → Tax, set the name, rate and registration number, and the “prices include tax” switch to suit your country.
  2. New bills use it automatically; export the tax summary from Backup & Export.

Overtime, leave & printable payslips

💵 Staff Payout · 💼 Staff

Payroll now goes further. Set a monthly paid-leave limit and an overtime rate for each staff member; the monthly payout works out salary, overtime, commission and tips together, and gives you a clean printable payslip for every person.

How to use

  1. Open a staff member to set their overtime rate and monthly casual-leave limit.
  2. On Staff Payout, tap 🧾 Payslip next to anyone to print their slip.

Staff loans & advances

🏦 More → Staff Loans

Give a staff member a loan or advance and recover it automatically in monthly instalments from their pay. The Loans screen shows who owes what and how much is left, and each instalment is deducted right on the payout.

How to use

  1. Open More → Staff Loans → New loan, set the amount and the monthly instalment.
  2. On Staff Payout, tap Deduct instalment to take that month’s amount out of their pay.

Profit & Loss and accounting export

📊 Reports · 💾 Backup & Export

Reports now include a clear monthly Profit & Loss. And for your accountant, one-tap CSV exports give you a general ledger (income and expenses together) and a tax summary — ready to import into QuickBooks or Xero.

How to use

  1. See the P&L on the Reports screen.
  2. Export the ledger and tax summary from Backup & Export → For your accountant.

Cash count at day close

🧮 Day Close

Day close now lets you count the cash in the drawer and instantly shows whether you are over, short or spot-on against what the day’s takings say you should have — the quickest way to catch a mistake before you lock up.

How to use

  1. Open Day Close, scroll to Cash count and type the counted amount to see the difference.

Dashboard & Attendance

4 updates

Face check-in attendance

🗓️ Attendance → Face check-in

Mark staff attendance with a look at the camera — no PINs, no paper. It runs entirely on your own device, so nothing is sent anywhere: only a numeric face signature is stored for each employee, never a photo. A quick blink check makes sure it is a live person, not someone holding up a picture. Works on a phone, a tablet kiosk, or a laptop or PC with a webcam.

How to use

  1. Turn it on once in Settings → Salon Profile → Dashboard look → Face check-in.
  2. Open a staff member, tap 📷 Enroll face, confirm consent, and capture two shots. Save.
  3. On the Attendance screen tap 📷 Face check-in, let the staff blink once — the app finds who it is and stamps their check-in (or check-out) time.

Needs the employee’s consent — enroll each face only with their agreement. The first use downloads a small recognition model, so it needs internet once; after that it works offline. On the Windows app, allow camera access if Windows asks.

Living Sky — a dashboard that follows the day

🏠 Dashboard

The top of your dashboard now changes with the real time of day — a sunrise in the morning, a bright sky at noon, a golden sunset in the evening, and a starlit night with a moon and drifting stars after dark. The sun and moon actually track the current hour, so the header feels alive all day. It is a quiet touch that makes the counter screen a little nicer to look at.

How to use

  1. It is on by default — just open your dashboard.
  2. To turn it off, go to Settings → Salon Profile → Dashboard look → Living Sky.

Live weather in the header

🌦️ Settings → Salon Profile → City

Add your city and the dashboard sky matches your real weather — clouds when it is cloudy, rain when it rains, and the current temperature next to your greeting. It uses a free weather service and remembers the result, so it is light on data and keeps working even when the connection drops.

How to use

  1. Open Settings → Salon Profile, turn on Live weather and type your City (for example, Lahore or Dubai).
  2. Leave the city blank to keep the time-based sky without weather.

Quick calculator

🧮 Dashboard (next to the ⚙️)

A small calculator button sits at the top of your dashboard for the quick sums a counter always needs — change, a discount, splitting a bill. It opens over the screen, closes when you tap outside, and keeps whatever you last typed until you clear it.

How to use

  1. Tap the 🧮 button at the top of the dashboard.
  2. Minimise it with the ─ button, or tap anywhere outside it. Press AC to clear.

Can be turned off in Settings → Salon Profile → Dashboard look → Calculator.

Branches

1 update

Multi-branch salons — every location, one owner

🏢 Branches

If you run more than one location, you no longer need a separate login and a phone call to find out how each branch did. Each branch keeps its own clients, staff, stock and day close, and you switch between them from the dashboard. The Branches screen adds up sales, invoices and expenses for all of them — today, this month, last month or this year — with each branch’s figures listed underneath.

How to use

  1. Open Branches. The top card shows how many branches your account allows — your main salon counts as 1.
  2. Tap + New branch and enter the branch name, WhatsApp number, address and a login for that branch. Your services and WhatsApp templates are copied across automatically.
  3. If the other location already uses Salonipy, tap 🔗 Link existing and enter its login instead — its history comes along.
  4. On the dashboard, tap Switch branch under your salon name to open any branch.
  5. Need more branches? Tap Request more branches — we contact you on WhatsApp, and your allowance updates in the app as soon as it is approved.

Only the Owner sees the branch switcher — staff mode never does. A branch signs in once per device, and logging out removes every branch from that device. Removing a branch only unlinks it; its account and data stay safe.

Appointments

2 updates

Double-booking warning

Appointments → +

The app now knows how long each service takes, so it warns you the moment two clients would land on the same stylist at the same time — and tells you the next time that stylist is actually free.

How to use

  1. Make sure each service has a Duration set: Services → tap a service.
  2. Book as usual and choose a stylist. If they are busy, a warning appears with the clashing appointment.
  3. Tap Use this next to "Next free" to move the booking, or save anyway — the app asks, it never blocks you.

If you leave the stylist as "— anyone —", no check is made. Cancelled appointments are ignored.

Day view

Appointments → Day

One screen showing every stylist's day as a bar. Overlaps are marked in red, and each stylist's total booked hours sit beside their name — so you can see who is packed and who has room before you promise a client a time.

How to use

  1. Open Appointments and tap the Day tab.
  2. Change the date at the top to look ahead.
  3. Tap any block to open that appointment.

Money

3 updates

Tablet Kiosk — clients pick their own services

🖥️ Kiosk

Put a tablet at the counter showing your services with photos and prices. The client taps what they want and sends it to the counter; it appears on your Sales screen and one tap opens the bill with every item already filled in.

How to use

  1. Open Kiosk and tap Copy link.
  2. Open the link on the tablet and add it to the home screen.
  3. Turn on Guided Access (iPad) or Screen pinning (Android) so the page cannot be left.
  4. Orders arrive on Sales — tap Bill it, take the payment and print as usual.

The tablet never signs in, so nothing of your business can be reached from it — no client list, no prices to change, no reports. Services without a photo get their own designed tile, so the menu looks right from day one.

Receivables — who still owes you

💰 Receivables

Part payments were always possible, but there was no single place showing what each client still owes. Now there is: every client with a balance, biggest first, with the age of their oldest unpaid bill.

How to use

  1. Open Receivables. The total outstanding also shows on your dashboard.
  2. Tap a client to see their unpaid invoices.
  3. Tap Receive on an invoice, enter the amount and payment method.
  4. Tap Remind to send them a WhatsApp with the full breakdown.

Day Close now counts money on the day it arrives

🧮 Day Close

Previously, if a client cleared an old bill today, that cash was counted on the original invoice date — so today's cash drawer never matched. Payments are now recorded with their own date, and Day Close shows them separately.

Today's Day Close
Payment breakdown Cash Rs 1,900 ↳ of which: older invoices settled Rs 1,200 Cash drawer Cash sales Rs 1,900 Less: expenses − Rs 600 Expected cash in drawer Rs 1,300

Nothing to set up — this applies automatically to every payment you record from now on.

Stock & Products

6 updates

Inventory is now split: For Sale and Consumables

📦 Products

Many salons never sell products but still want to know how much they are getting through. Inventory now has two separate tabs. Consumables — backbar shampoo, colour, developer, cotton — never appear when you make a bill. Only their usage is tracked.

Consumables are counted in real units, not bottles, so small amounts stay accurate.

A consumable
Name L'Oréal Shampoo (backbar) Unit ml Pack Bottle · 1 Bottle = 1000 ml Stock 1,990 ml (≈2.0 Bottle) Cost Rs 1.20 / ml

How to use

  1. Open Products and switch to the Consumables tab.
  2. Tap + and enter the name, unit (ml, gm or pcs), pack name and pack size.
  3. Enter your opening stock and a low-stock level.

Your existing products are untouched — they stay in the For Sale tab exactly as before.

Service recipes

✂️ Services → a service

Tell the app what each service uses — once. A Hair Wash takes 10 ml shampoo and 5 ml conditioner; a colour takes 60 gm of tube. From then on the app deducts it for you.

How to use

  1. Open Services and tap a service.
  2. Scroll to Products used per service and tap + Add product.
  3. Pick the consumable and type the quantity, then save.

"Products used" on every bill

Sales → New Sale

When you add a service to a bill, the products it uses are filled in automatically — multiplied by the quantity, and combined when two services share a product. It stays folded away so normal billing is just as fast.

Long hair takes more shampoo, so every line is editable. The moment you change something, auto-fill stops and a Reset to recipe button appears.

How to use

  1. Make a bill as usual.
  2. Tap 🧴 Products used under the items to open it. The summary line already shows how many items and their cost.
  3. Adjust any quantity, remove a line, or add a product that isn't in the recipe.
  4. Save — stock drops automatically.

Editing or deleting a bill now corrects stock properly: the old usage is put back before the new one is applied. This did not happen before.

Purchases — and they reach your daily book

🛒 Purchases

A proper record of every stock purchase: supplier, bill number, several items in one entry, and what you actually paid. Whatever you pay becomes a Products/Stock expense on that date, so it shows up in Day Close and Reports without you entering it twice. Anything unpaid is tracked as supplier payable.

How to use

  1. Open Purchases and tap +. (Or tap + Stock next to any product to start with that item already filled in.)
  2. Enter the supplier and bill number, then add each item — in packs or in units, whichever is on the invoice.
  3. Enter how much you paid now and the method, then save.
  4. To settle a balance later, open the purchase and tap Pay.

Cost per unit updates itself using a weighted average of your old stock and the new purchase — so margins stay honest as prices change.

A purchase cannot be edited. If you make a mistake, delete it and enter it again — deleting puts the stock back and removes its expense entries, so nothing is left behind.

Stock history for every product

📦 Products → a product → 📜 Stock history

Every movement is now recorded with a date and a reason — purchased, sold, used in a service, adjusted, reversed. When someone asks "where did ten bottles go?", there is an answer.

How to use

  1. Open a product and tap 📜 Stock history.
  2. If the stock figure ever drifts from the history, a warning appears — tap Recalculate from ledger to put it right.

Stock Audit — count the shelf, find the gap

🔍 Stock Audit

Once a month, count what is physically on the shelf. The app compares it with what should be there and shows the shortage in rupees. This is what catches waste and theft.

During an audit
L'Oréal Shampoo (backbar) expected 1,990 ml Counted 1400 −590 ml (Rs −708) Mismatched 1 Shortage (waste / theft) Rs 708

How to use

  1. Open Stock Audit and pick a tab.
  2. Type the counted quantity next to each product. The difference and its value appear immediately.
  3. Tap Apply corrections when you are done.

Every correction is saved to stock history as an adjustment, so you always know when and by how much stock was changed.

Insights

4 updates

What each service really earns you

📈 Reports

Two new sections. Product Consumption shows how much material went out this month and what it cost. Service Margin takes each service's revenue and subtracts material and stylist commission — so you finally see which services are worth the chair time.

Service Margin · this month
Service Qty Revenue Material Comm. Net % Hair Color 1 Rs 5,000 −Rs 318 −Rs 500 Rs 4,182 84% Hair Wash 2 Rs 1,600 −Rs 44 −Rs 240 Rs 1,316 82%

Material cost comes from your service recipes, so the more accurate your recipes, the truer this table.

Client Health — who is slipping away

❤️ Client Health

A flat "30 days since last visit" rule treats everyone the same and mostly produces noise. This looks at each client's own rhythm: someone who comes every three weeks is flagged at six, while a client who has always come every two months is left alone.

How to use

  1. Open Client Health, or tap the "clients at risk" chip on your dashboard.
  2. Use the At risk, Lost and Healthy tabs — each list is sorted by how much that client has spent with you.
  3. Tap the WhatsApp button to send them your "We Miss You" message.

Clients with fewer than three visits fall back to the usual 30-day rule until a pattern appears.

Referrals — who brings you new clients

🤝 Referrals

Word of mouth is a salon's biggest source of new clients and almost nobody measures it. Now you can see who is sending people to you and how much revenue they have brought in — and thank them properly.

How to use

  1. When adding or editing a client, set Referred by.
  2. Open Referrals to see the leaderboard.
  3. Tap + Points to add loyalty points and send a thank-you on WhatsApp.

Rush Hours — and filling the quiet ones

🕐 Rush Hours

A heatmap of the last three months showing which days and hours are busy and which sit empty. Underneath, the four quietest slots — each with a button that turns the problem into a campaign.

How to use

  1. Open Rush Hours. Darker squares mean more sales.
  2. Look at Quietest slots below the map.
  3. Tap Fill it — Broadcast opens with your at-risk clients selected and the offer message already written. Review it, then send.

Your Data

3 updates

Bring your existing lists in from Excel

💾 Backup → Import

Nobody is going to type three hundred clients by hand. You can now import Customers, Services and Products straight from a CSV file — the app matches your column names itself, and you can correct any it gets wrong before anything is saved.

How to use

  1. In Excel, use File → Save As → CSV. The first row must be your column names.
  2. Open Backup and choose an Import option.
  3. Pick the file. Check the matched columns and the preview, then tap Import.

Duplicates are skipped automatically — clients by phone number, services and products by name. Dates like 05/09/1998 and prices like Rs 1,200.50 are understood.

Restore from a backup

💾 Backup → Restore full backup

Your Full backup file can now be loaded back into the app. It only adds — nothing you already have is deleted or overwritten, and you see exactly how many records will be added before you confirm.

The whole app is now in English

Every screen, button, message and WhatsApp template is in English, so the app reads the same for your team and for clients anywhere in the world.

Getting the update

  1. Close the app completely and open it again. The update installs itself — there is nothing to download and no reinstall.
  2. If you use it in a browser, refresh the page once.
  3. All your existing data carries over. Nothing needs to be re-entered.

To get the most from this release, the one thing worth doing first is adding your consumables and setting a recipe on your three or four busiest services. Everything in Stock and Insights builds on that.

Not using Salonipy yet?

Every feature above is included. Try it free for 7 days — no card required.

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