# Bella Booking — All-in-One Business Management Software ## Company Overview Bella Booking is all-in-one business management software for Beauty, Wellness & Health Practices — including salons, beauty clinics, skin clinics, spas, personal trainers, physiotherapists, chiropractors, osteopaths, and other appointment-based businesses. Australian-made, zero commission, flat-rate pricing. **Company Details:** - Business name: Photon Soft (Australia) / Bella Booking (Global) - ABN: 67 656 104 559 - Location: Sydney, Australia - Founded: 2021, Australian company with global reach - Website: https://bellabooking.com (Global) | https://bellabooking.com.au (Australia) ## What We Do Bella Booking transforms day-to-day operations for salons, spas, beauty clinics, and wellness and health practices — from chaos to calm — with modern, purpose-built software. It makes running your business as effortless as the craft your team brings to every client. ## Reviews & Social Proof - Rated **5.0 / 5** on Capterra from **8 verified reviews** (all 5★ as of August 2026) - Also listed on GetApp and Software Advice (Gartner Digital Markets syndicate) - Profiles: https://www.capterra.com/p/10025891/Bella-Booking/ | https://www.capterra.com.au/software/1072465/Bella-Booking - Verbatim reviewer headlines include: "Streamlined patient booking with world-class support", "The supportive & flexible system we have been asking for", "Best Day Spa System Ever", "So easy to use and the customer support is absolutely amazing", "Best Salon Software for Sole Traders", "Best decision we made", "Pleased I made the change to Bella" - Switcher mentions on Capterra include Fresha, Timely, Mindbody, Vagaro, and Square ## Target Audience Any appointment-based Beauty, Wellness & Health Practice, at any size — from a solo practitioner to multi-location groups and franchises. Bella is not salon-only and not limited to small businesses: the Professional plan includes unlimited team members, and Bella for Enterprise serves groups, franchises and high-volume businesses with volume pricing and white-label branding. - Hair salons - Nail salons - Beauty salons and spas - Barbershops - Beauty clinics and aesthetic clinics - Spas and wellness centres - Medical spas - Skin and laser clinics - Lash and brow studios - Personal training studios - Physiotherapy clinics - Chiropractic clinics - Osteopathy clinics - Wellness clinics (acupuncture, naturopathy, holistic health) - Solo practitioners, multi-chair teams, multi-location groups and franchises - Salon owners and managers, clinic and practice owners, front-of-house teams and practitioners ## Core Features ### Scheduling & Calendar - Intuitive appointment scheduling calendar with drag-and-drop functionality - Colour-coded services and smart conflict prevention - Multiple calendar views: day, week, month, and agenda - Quick appointment creation, walk-in handling, and rebook suggestions - **Recurring appointment series**: Create repeating appointments (e.g. weekly, fortnightly, monthly) for regular clients. Cancel all future appointments in a series in one step - Find a time: availability-first booking — select client and services first, browse available slots across multiple days with intelligent gap-fill ranking - Intelligent gap-fill scheduling: slots that fill gaps between existing appointments are ranked higher and labelled "Best fit", "Great fit", or "Good fit" - Keyboard shortcuts: N (new appointment), F (find a time), Escape (close panels), Cmd+Enter (save) - Appointment search by client, team member, status, or date range - Blocked time management for breaks, meetings, and training - Mobile-friendly access from any device - Multi-service appointment grouping on scheduler with full-details tooltip - **Appointment check-in**: Mark a client as arrived — and their service as in progress — from the scheduler or the appointments list, so the team can see who is waiting and who is being looked after. The assigned team member is notified the moment their client is checked in, and a state-aware undo reverses a mis-tap. Check-in never changes the appointment's status, so checkout is unaffected. Arrived / in-progress markers appear across the day, 3 days, week, month and agenda views (including on short and narrow appointments); Waiting and In progress each get their own customisable colour in Settings → Scheduling → Scheduler colours, and when colouring by service the check-in colour rides a strip along the top. The dashboard's Today snapshot counts who is waiting or in progress right now. Controlled by a team permission (appointments:checkin), not by plan - **Reschedule to any week**: Open an appointment and move it three ways — one-tap suggested times (already checked against availability), a browse-by-week list of free slots, or Pick on calendar (browse to any day or week and tap the new time on the live grid). A confirmation shows every service's new time and team member, warns on overlaps without blocking, and carries a per-move "Let the client know" toggle. Multi-service appointments and parties move as one - Calendar views include a 3 days view between Day and Week; on a phone Week view keeps readable column widths and pans sideways - **Scheduler Filters**: One Filters control in the scheduler header narrows the calendar by appointment status, booking source (online vs created in the business, plus whether the client requested a specific team member) and appointment tags. Status defaults to Booked, Confirmed and Completed, so cancelled appointments stay off the calendar until you tick Cancelled — the answer to "can I see cancelled appointments on the calendar?". A dot marks anything differing from the defaults and Reset restores them; the choices last for the session, not permanently. Cancelled appointments shown this way are display-only — they never block availability or Find a time - Activity logging with full appointment audit trail (created, rescheduled, cancelled, confirmed) - Working hours enforcement: optionally block appointments outside team member schedules (dimmed cells, disabled submit). When off, a warning is shown but you can proceed - Client availability checks: prevents double-booking clients and checks family member conflicts - Compact layout, weekend visibility controls, scroll preservation - Resend notification or send manual reminder from appointment actions menu ### Waitlist - Capture demand when fully booked - Clients can join your waitlist from the online booking page when no slots are available; business is notified of new entries - Preferred time windows and service selection - **Automatic slot matching**: When a slot opens, the system automatically matches it to waitlisted clients based on their preferred time, service, and team member. Your team is notified of matches and can convert to appointments with one click - Dismiss slot notifications if the match is not suitable - Team member details included in waitlist match notifications - Convert waitlist entries to appointments with one click - Automated notifications when clients join ### Services & Bundles - Complete service menu with categories and organisation - **Service Add-ons**: Configurable extras per service (e.g., conditioning treatment, scalp massage) - Create add-on option groups with selectable options, each with its own price and duration - Groups can be optional (clients can skip) or required (must select before proceeding) - Support single-select and multi-select with min/max selection limits - Clients choose add-ons during online booking; staff can add them from the dashboard - Add-on prices and durations are included in all totals, notifications, and reports - Add-on durations affect availability calculations — system only shows slots that fit the full duration - **Service Variants**: Create named variations of a service (e.g., Short Hair, Medium Hair, Long Hair) each with its own price, duration, and timing overrides - Per-variant pricing and duration — service listing shows automatic "From $X" pricing - Per-variant timing overrides: processing time, buffer before, buffer after - Client eligibility: restrict variants to first-time or returning clients - Eligibility scope: "this location" or "this service" for granular control - Works with pricing tiers (tier-specific prices per variant), bundles, and add-ons - Online booking auto-filters by eligibility; anonymous users treated as first-time - Calendar shows "Service Name — Variant Name" for full context - **Prerequisite services**: Require a consultation (or any service) before a treatment can be booked online — Completed (appointment must be marked Completed) or Booked (upcoming non-cancelled counts, including same-cart). Any or All when listing several. Locked treatments stay visible with a CTA to book the missing service; staff can override from the dashboard. Not a membership workaround - **Pricing tiers**: Create custom pricing levels for different experience levels - Set up tiers (e.g., Junior, Senior, Master) - Same service with different prices based on team member experience level - Clients see appropriate price when selecting their preferred team member - **Service Bundles**: Package multiple services into a single bookable bundle - Four pricing modes: use service prices, set a fixed total price, apply a percentage discount, or offer the bundle for free - Show Savings: display original price struck through with "You save" message during online booking - Processing time between services (e.g., colour development) — client stays, team member free for other bookings - Drag-and-drop ordering of services within bundles - **Processing Time**: Bookable gap where the client stays but the team member is free (e.g., colour development, chemical treatments). The team member can take other short appointments during processing. Resource remains blocked - **Buffer Time Before & After**: Setup and cleanup time that blocks both the team member and resource. Invisible to clients during online booking. Appears as hatched blocks on the internal scheduler - **Location-Level Timing Defaults**: Set default processing time, buffer before, and buffer after at the location level. All services inherit these defaults automatically. Override per service where needed. Resolution: bundle override > service override > location default > 0. No competitor offers location-level defaults with per-service inheritance - Service-level deposit and cancellation overrides - CSV import to upload existing service lists - Duration and resource settings per service ### Online booking - 24/7 online self-booking for clients through branded booking pages - Mobile-friendly, responsive booking pages - Real-time availability display - Multi-service booking in a single appointment with configurable add-ons per service (optional or required) - Team member selection (optional for clients) - **Family booking online**: Clients can book appointments for family members (children, partners, parents, siblings, friends, pets) through the online booking page - **Booking approval and client confirmation are separate**; business can use either or both. Approval = business must approve or decline each online booking before it is confirmed. Approval applies only when no deposit is required. When a deposit is required, the client pays at booking and the appointment confirms on payment — approval does not apply. Confirmation = client must confirm attendance (e.g. via link); deposit payment can count as confirmation - **Minimum and maximum booking window**: Control how far in advance clients must book and how far ahead they can book (e.g. up to 90 days) - Option to hide service prices on the booking page - Waitlist integration for fully booked time slots - **Schedule optimisation**: Three modes for online booking — Show All (every available slot), Reduce Gaps (hide slots that create gaps too short for another booking), or Eliminate Gaps (only offer slots adjacent to existing bookings). Configure per location - Professional booking website that matches salon branding — four layout templates, ten curated palettes or a custom colour, drag-and-drop section ordering, plus custom wording (section headings, call-to-action text, and the Book Now button label) - **Incomplete bookings**: View online bookings that clients started but did not finish. Appears in a Follow-ups panel alongside the waitlist with dismiss and remind actions - **Memberships online**: Clients browse membership plans, subscribe via Stripe Checkout, and manage their membership (view status, session usage, cancel) through the My Membership portal - **Packages online**: Clients browse and purchase prepaid packages, view balances, and apply package credits when booking - **Group bookings — your own party size**: No fixed cap. Set a minimum and maximum party size per group-enabled service; Bella only offers times when enough qualified team members are free for everyone, each guest with their own team member. Set the range to 2–2 for a couples-only treatment and the booking page always asks for the whole party ("For 2 people"); leave the minimum at 1 and a single person can still book. The service editor warns if the party size exceeds the team who can perform the service. Teams can still make a deliberate exception from the calendar - **Named guests**: Each extra guest in a group booking can be given a name — online or on the calendar — appearing on the booking, the calendar and at checkout, with no placeholder client profiles created. Always optional - **People per booking (shared spaces)**: For a couples sauna, float room or private high tea, the client is asked how many people are coming, can optionally say who (family members from their account, or just names), and Bella reserves exactly that many places in the room - **Per-person pricing**: A shared-space service can be charged per booking (a single flat charge — the default, so no existing service changes) or per person, where the price set is the per-head rate. The booking page labels the service "per person" and, once the headcount is chosen, the review spells out the sum — two people at 60 shown as "2 × 60 = 120" in the business's own currency. It stays one booking, one line and one payment, so a membership, package or deposit still settles the whole amount, and add-ons are added once, never multiplied per head. For a discounted party price, a fixed-total bundle is the tool instead - **Private hire**: "Reserves the whole space" makes a single booking take the entire room or facility, however many people attend — private sauna sessions, exclusive-use spa suites, whole-studio hire. Nothing else can be booked into that space while it runs. People per booking can still be set purely to name the guests and take attendance. Private hire and group bookings are mutually exclusive (opposite booking shapes) and the service editor disables whichever toggle would conflict - **"How do people book this?"**: Multi-person setup is a single choice on the service's Group bookings tab — Just one person, Several share the space, Booked together a team member each, or Private hire — and Bella sets the underlying options, so a combination that is sellable but never bookable cannot be created - **Connect your own Google Analytics or Tag Manager**: In addition to Bella's built-in analytics (which need no setup), a booking page can report into the business's OWN analytics. Under Settings → Online booking → Appearance, paste a Google Analytics 4 Measurement ID, or a Google Tag Manager container ID to run Google Ads conversion tracking, the Meta Pixel and TikTok from one place — Bella adds the tracking code. It sends page views and, on a completed booking, a purchase event carrying the booking's value and currency, so real conversions and return on ad spend are measurable. Cookie consent is handled with Google Consent Mode: visitors in the EU/EEA, the UK and Switzerland are asked before any tracking cookies are set, while everyone else (for example Australia) sees no banner. Available on every plan; the notice only appears once the business has connected its own analytics - **Announcement banner**: A highlighted message above the Book now button — a holiday closure, a parking change, a seasonal promo. Leave it blank and nothing shows - **QR code destinations**: The booking-page QR code can point at the full booking page, straight to the booking steps, or directly at memberships, prepaid packages, gift cards or the product shop. Sections that are not switched on are not offered - **Reserve with Google**: Switch it on from the Online booking page. Bella publishes the business into Google's partner feed so a Book button can appear on Google Search and Maps. The Book button opens the booking steps (`/{slug}/booking`), not the landing page. Distinct from pasting the booking URL into Google Business Profile, and from Google Analytics / Tag Manager. Google only shows the button in countries and categories where it offers Reserve with Google; Bella publishes several times a day and Google can take a day to show it. Needs online booking on, a complete pinned address, a mappable business type, and at least one online-bookable service and team member ### Payments & Deposits - **Deposit Collection**: - Accept deposits as fixed amount or percentage of total - Secure payment processing via Stripe (credit card, Apple Pay, Google Pay) - Set different deposit requirements per service - Successful payment automatically confirms appointments - Staff can record a deposit against any appointment using the same four payment methods as checkout: Cash, Card (Manual), Other, or Card on File - **Unified payment picker** (Record Deposit, Checkout, Create Sale): - Four methods everywhere — Cash, Card (Manual), Other, Card on File - EFTPOS is recorded as Card (Manual); there is no separate EFTPOS method - "Other" covers bank transfer, voucher, barter, etc. - Card on File shows brand, last four digits and expiry date directly on the option, with inline Expiring/Expired severity - **Saved Cards & Card on File**: - Clients save cards through the online booking portal (Payment Methods page) - Staff charge the saved card for a deposit, a checkout, or a product sale — a real Stripe payment, not just a record - Supports multiple saved cards per client - Card on File refunds processed automatically through Stripe - **Pass processing fees to Clients**: - Optionally pass all payment processing fees (Stripe + platform) to clients - Transparent "Processing Fee" line item shown at checkout - Fee calculated using inverse formula so business receives exactly the service price - Off by default — no changes for existing businesses - Can be enabled or disabled per service for granular control - Country-specific total rates: AU 2.7%, NZ 3.7%, US/international 3.9% - **Digital Tipping**: - Clients can leave tips for team members after appointments via the online booking portal - Preset tip amounts ($5/$10/$20) or a custom amount - Tips processed securely through Stripe with standard processing fees - Business and team members notified via notification centre, email, and SMS - Tip notifications customisable in Automated messages with {{TipAmount}} and {{TeamMemberName}} variables - Enable/disable from Settings → Payments - **Afterpay / Clearpay (Buy Now, Pay Later)**: - Clients split payments into 4 interest-free instalments via Afterpay (Clearpay in the UK) - Business receives the full amount upfront through Stripe - Available for deposits, gift card purchases, and package purchases - Eligible countries: Australia, New Zealand, United States, Canada, United Kingdom - Enable from Settings → Payments (requires Stripe Connect) - **EFTPOS & Payment Terminals (Coming Soon)**: - Integrated EFTPOS and payment terminal support in development - Compatible with Stripe Terminal and other providers including Square - Tap-and-go, chip, and swipe payments directly from the salon - Transactions sync automatically to Bella Booking - **Cancellation Policies**: - Set notice periods (0 to 72 hours) and a late-cancellation / no-show fee - Flexible fee basis: percentage of the deposit, percentage of the booking total, or a fixed amount - Automatic refund calculations and processing via Stripe - Different policies per service (most restrictive policy applies) - Late cancellation online (less than required notice) only for appointments with a deposit; otherwise client must contact business to cancel - **Card on file booking protection**: - Online-booking policy where clients save a card to confirm a booking — no upfront charge and no hold - Secures the booking so a late-cancellation or no-show fee can be charged to the saved card when staff cancel or mark a no-show - No-show protection without requiring a deposit upfront (a pre-authorised hold is planned, not yet available) - **Reschedule Policies**: Set minimum notice for rescheduling separately from cancellation; time-based only (no fee); inside the window clients must contact business to reschedule - **Self-Service Portal**: Clients cancel or reschedule online within your policy rules; refunds processed automatically when applicable - Visual policy calculator shows clients what they will be refunded ### Client Management (CRM) - Comprehensive client profiles and appointment history - Personalised service notes and preferences (colour formulas, allergies, preferences) - Three-tier notes visibility: notes scoped to client-level, appointment-level, or both - **Timeline notes**: Dated, authored notes on a client's profile — each note records who wrote it and when, with optional file attachments - Client document storage to upload and manage files including consent forms, medical documents, before/after photos - **Photos & Files view**: A unified view that brings together every attachment from a client's appointments and their profile (documents and timeline-note attachments) in one place - Photo annotation: mark up any client or appointment photo with pen, shapes, arrows, and text (colour picker, stroke width, undo); saves as an annotated copy and never alters the original — useful for treatment mapping and progress documentation - Client statistics: total orders, total spent, cancellations, no-shows - **Memberships tab**: View active memberships, session counters, and enrol clients into membership plans directly from their profile - Notification preferences per client (SMS, email) - Client import via CSV and export - **Duplicate prevention**: Bella stops two client records being created with the same phone number or email address — family members sharing contact details are allowed - Possible-duplicates detection with guided one-click merge (records, loyalty, memberships, packages and family transfer to the kept profile; the duplicate is archived) - Archive and restore clients - **Family & dependent booking**: Add family members to client profiles — children, spouses, partners, parents, siblings, friends, even pets. Book appointments for anyone in the family, both in-salon and via online booking ### Team Management - Staff schedule coordination with default working hours - Custom working hours for specific dates - Time off management (annual leave, sick leave, personal leave) - Team schedule view (grid layout) - **Granular role-based permissions**: Four built-in roles (Owner, Admin, Receptionist, Team Member) with over 30 individual permissions across 15 modules. All roles except Owner can be fully customised through a visual permission matrix. Permissions cover: scheduler, appointments (view all, create, edit, cancel, delete, checkout, manage waitlist, view client financials), clients (view, create, edit, delete, export), catalogue (view, manage), products (view, manage), sales (view, create, refund), team (view, invite, edit, view own/all schedules, manage schedule), reports (view all), settings (manage, billing), timesheets (view own, manage), inventory (manage), locations (manage), loyalty (view, adjust client points), gift cards (view, void), and reviews (view, respond). Team members can have different roles per location - Pricing tier assignment per team member - Online booking visibility toggle (hide team members from online booking) - Calendar feed (iCal) for external calendar sync - Profile photos and scheduler colours - Multi-location access per team member - **Attendance tracking**: Time clock with PIN-based clock-in/out, hours tracking, late arrivals, CSV export (Professional plan) ### Point of Sale & Checkout - Check out clients directly from completed appointments - Services pre-populated from the appointment - Add retail products to the sale - Payment methods: Cash, Card (Manual), Other, or Card on File — identical picker at Record Deposit, Checkout and Create Sale - Cash / Card (Manual) / Other recorded for reconciliation; Card on File processes a real Stripe payment - **Split payments**: Settle one sale across as many payments as it takes. Choose "Split across multiple payments" at appointment checkout or on Add sale, then Add payment for each — pick the method, type the amount (or hit Rest to fill the balance), and Left to collect counts down to zero. Cash, Card (Manual), Other and the client's saved card combine freely. Gift cards, packages, memberships and client credit come off the bill first, so only the genuine remainder is split. Nothing is charged until the sale is completed, so a payment can be removed or redone, and a declined card leaves the other payments intact. Where processing fees are passed on, the fee applies to the card payment alone, never the cash, and the exact figure is shown before charging. The receipt shows one line per payment, the Sales list shows the combination (filtering by either method finds the sale), and the Sales summary report counts each payment in its own column - **Custom items**: Add a one-off charge to any sale or checkout without creating a permanent product or service — a late-arrival fee, gift wrapping, a one-off consultation. Set a price, optionally credit a team member; tax follows existing settings with a per-line exempt toggle. Appears on the receipt as typed and as its own Custom items row in Sales summary - **Product quantity**: Product lines take a quantity — three of the same shampoo is one line showing "3 × $30.00" with a line total, and stock comes down by three - **Sale date**: A sale can be dated up to 14 days back so a delayed checkout lands on the right day in Sales summary, Tax collected and other money reports. It is separate from the appointment date. An already-rung sale can be corrected via Edit sale with a reason, recorded in the sale's edit history - **Receipt note**: A one-off note (up to 500 characters) that prints on that receipt only, above the standing receipt footer — on the emailed receipt, the printed/PDF copy, and the client's My Receipts page. Separate from the private team-only note on the same screen - **Receipts as tax invoices**: One redesigned document used by both the dashboard and the client's My Receipts page — letterhead and registration number labelled for the country (ABN in Australia, VAT Reg No. in the UK), client name and billing address, itemised services with team member and add-ons, and a ruled totals block. Every payment is itemised (deposits, gift cards, client credit, package coverage, refunds) with its processing fee. Prints or saves as a single page. Walk-in and retail sales get a receipt automatically, editable in Settings → Automated messages, and clients can view, print and re-send their own - Standalone sales for walk-in product purchases without an appointment - **Payment link**: Send a client a link to pay their appointment balance online by text or email; they sign in, pay by card, and the appointment checks itself out - Refund management (full or partial; Card on File refunds processed automatically via Stripe; offline-method refunds recorded for reconciliation) - Sale notes for internal reference - Complete sales history with filtering - Every sale feeds directly into reports and dashboard ### Products & Inventory - Product catalogue with name, brand, price, cost, SKU, and barcode - Inventory tracking with stock levels - Inventory audit trail (every stock movement traced) - Supplier management - Supplier orders (create, track, receive) - Sell at checkout alongside services - Product sales reporting - **Bulk product import** via CSV ### Two-Way Messaging & Campaigns (Messages Plus Add-on) - **Dedicated phone number** for your business — send and receive SMS with clients - **Threaded inbox**: Three-panel layout with thread list, conversation view, and contact info - **Two-way messaging**: Clients reply to your messages and responses appear instantly - **Internal notes**: Add private notes to conversations (visible to team only) - **Automated messages in context**: Reminders and confirmations appear in the same thread - **Auto-handling replies**: YES/Y confirms appointments, NO/CANCEL flags for follow-up, STOP/UNSUBSCRIBE manages consent - **SMS campaigns**: Send a single message to multiple clients — filter audience, preview recipient count and credit usage, track delivery statistics - **Email campaigns**: Branded emails in your colours — rich text, images through the body, an optional hero banner, your logo in the header, and a Book-now button — or paste your own HTML (including a Canva Email design) and Import it to send exactly as designed. Open/click tracking, scheduling, automatic unsubscribe handling. Unlimited within Messages Plus (fair use), no per-send cost - **Generate with AI**: Describe an email in a sentence and Bella drafts a subject and body, grounded in your salon's own description and your country's spelling — a first draft you edit, never auto-sent - **Pre-send content check**: Before a campaign sends, Bella returns pass/warning/fail — SMS checked against anti-spam rules, email for spam-trigger words and deliverability on subject and body, plus structural checks on HTML/image emails (missing alt text, an oversized email Gmail may clip). Serious problems (like a misleading subject) hard-block the send; the structural and softer deliverability issues show as warnings you can send past - **SMS credits management**: View balances, purchase credit packs, configure auto-top-up - **Real-time delivery status**: Queued, Sent, Delivered, or Failed indicators on every message - Messages Plus is an add-on subscription — the only paid add-on Bella Booking offers (covers real carrier costs of the dedicated number, passed through at cost). Automated messages (reminders, confirmations) remain on all plans ### Automated Notifications (SMS, Email & Business Alerts) Bella Booking handles all client and business communications automatically with 19 message types across 3 channels: **Client Notifications (via SMS and/or Email):** - Appointment confirmed - Pending approval - Pending confirmation - Rescheduled appointment - Cancelled appointment - Checked out appointment - Waitlist confirmation - Appointment reminders (2 configurable reminders) - Reminder to rebook - Review request **Business Notifications (via Notification Centre, Email & SMS):** - New online booking - Booking pending approval - Online cancellation - Online reschedule - New waitlist entry - Form submission completed - Tip received - Review received (opt-in — notify the business when a new review arrives) - Welcome message **Features:** - Customisable templates with variables ({{FirstName}}, {{Date}}, {{Time}}, {{ServiceName}}, {{FormName}}, {{TipAmount}}, {{TeamMemberName}}, etc.) - One-click confirmation and self-service links - Client notification preferences (opt-out per channel) - Live message preview before saving - Resend confirmation or send manual reminder from appointment actions - Notification debouncing when appointments are changed multiple times quickly - SMS delivery tracking via webhooks - Spam detection for automated message templates ### Dashboard & Reports Bella Booking's 25+ built-in reports include: - **Appointments summary**: Team performance, new vs returning clients analysis, plus check-in metrics — average wait between a client arriving and being seen, how long appointments actually run from start to checkout, how consistently the team checks clients in, and on-time arrival rate (on time = arriving within 10 minutes of the start) - **Appointment Cancellations**: Cancellation reasons and trends tracking - **Sales summary**: Daily revenue breakdown with detailed transactions. The payment breakdown carries Cash, Card, Gift Card, Client credit and Other columns, which always add up to the day's payments (both new columns are in the CSV export and the totals row) - **Future income**: Expected income from upcoming Booked and Confirmed appointments — the booked pipeline — net of manual and promo-code discounts already applied. Pick a forward window (next 7, 30 or 90 days, next month, or custom) for expected net income, gross booked value, discounts, deposits already held and the balance still to collect, plus a trend by week and a breakdown by team member. Memberships, packages, loyalty and gift cards are applied only at checkout so they are excluded here and clearly noted. The dashboard's "Future Bookings Value" is calculated the same way (net of manual and promo-code discounts), but covers every upcoming non-cancelled appointment with no window, so the two figures match only when the report's forward window covers them all and none has already been checked out. - **Service & product sales**: Combined sales performance by team member - **Services sales**: Individual service performance and popularity — the checkout question (how many times each service was sold). Includes a Detailed view — a line-item breakdown of every service sold, filterable and CSV-exportable. - **Service bookings**: How many times each service was booked — one count per appointment service line, by appointment date, including bookings not yet checked out. Cancelled appointments are excluded. Distinct from Services sales - **Products sales**: Retail product sales and inventory movement - **Team member sales**: Individual sales metrics per team member - **Team Member Utilisation**: Booking efficiency and capacity analysis - **Team Member Days off**: Time-off tracking and planning - **Client retention**: New vs returning clients, retention rates, and rebooking patterns by team member - **Booking source**: Booking origin breakdown — how appointments are created (online self-booking, in-house team bookings, or a connected integration) — with counts and revenue - **Gift card summary**: Gift card sales, redemptions, revenue, and outstanding balances - **Loyalty summary**: Points earned, redeemed, active members, and programme engagement - **Tips summary**: Tips received per team member with daily breakdowns and period comparison - **Packages summary**: Package sales, sessions redeemed, active packages, and outstanding sessions - **Discount summary**: Discount usage by reason, total discount amounts, and frequency breakdowns - **Peak hours**: Heatmap of busiest times across the week (day x hour grid) with busiest 2-hour window identification - **At-risk clients**: Clients overdue for their next appointment based on average appointment frequency, with overdue ratio and total spend - **Client lifetime value**: Projected annual value per client based on appointment frequency and average spend - **Top spenders**: Clients ranked by total spending with appointment count and average spend - **Attendance**: Team member attendance from clock-in/out records, hours worked, and late arrivals - **Tax collected**: Taxable sales, exempt sales, tax collected, tax refunded, and net tax for any period — everything needed to file a BAS, VAT return or sales-tax return Dashboard with twelve KPI cards (revenue, active clients, bookings, average sale value, client retention, no-show rate, online booking, future bookings value, rebooking rate, average appointments per client, cancellation rate, and discounts given) — seven carry sparkline trend lines, and all but Future Bookings Value show period-over-period comparison. Visual charts: service distribution pie chart, team capacity bar chart, resource usage bar chart, new vs returning clients, booking source (horizontal bar of appointment counts per origin), revenue trend line, services by category (horizontal bar, top five), and the appointments booked for the week ahead. **AI Business Digest**: An AI-generated weekly performance summary delivered to your email. Covers revenue, bookings, client trends, and actionable insights calibrated to your business maturity. Most reports support date-range filtering (Client credit is a live snapshot, At-risk clients and Client lifetime value read a client's whole history, Online booking analytics covers the last 30 days); most support period comparison; many support team-member filtering; all but Online booking analytics export to CSV. **Online booking analytics**: Native, built-in analytics on the Online booking page — nothing to set up, no tracking code to wire up (and a business can additionally connect its own Google Analytics 4 or Google Tag Manager to the booking page on any plan; see Online booking above). Traffic-source attribution shows where your online bookings come from across six channels (Instagram, Facebook, AI assistants such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude and Copilot, Google, Direct, and Other) with visits, bookings, and conversion rate per channel. A booking funnel shows where visitors drop off (visited → added a service → picked a time → booked, last 30 days) with the biggest leak highlighted. A live "today" strip tracks visits, started bookings, and bookings as they happen. A visits→bookings conversion rate is sample-size gated so small businesses never see a misleading percentage. On the settings side, Booking policies shows a live availability readout — how many available times clients can book over the next 7 days under the saved policies, and what a staged policy change would make it — plus warnings for availability-shrinking combinations. ### Multi-Location Management - Manage multiple salon locations from a single account - Each location has its own settings, team members, services, and booking policies (approval, confirmation, deposits, cancellation, reschedule, waitlist) - Team members can be assigned to specific locations with appropriate permissions - Copy services between locations - Perfect for salon chains, franchises, or owners with multiple locations ### Bella AI Assistant (All Plans) - Ask questions about your business data in plain English and get instant answers - Schedule queries: "Who's working tomorrow?", "Show me next week's appointments" - Client lookups: "When is Sarah's next appointment?", "Show me John's history" - Business questions: "How much revenue did we make this month?", "What are the most popular services?" - Streaming responses with reasoning display - Table rendering for data results - Contextual suggestions for follow-up questions - **AI Business Digest**: Automated weekly performance summary delivered via email with revenue, bookings, client trends, and actionable insights calibrated to your business maturity - **Marketing-email drafting** (Messages Plus): describe a campaign in a sentence and Bella drafts a subject and body grounded in your salon's own description — a first draft you edit, never auto-sent - **Pre-send deliverability check** (Messages Plus): every campaign is checked before sending — SMS against anti-spam rules, email for spam-triggers and deliverability — with serious problems blocked and softer issues flagged as warnings - Feedback and rating system to improve AI accuracy over time - Available on all plans ### Command Palette (All Plans) - Press Cmd+K (Mac) or Ctrl+K (Windows/Linux) from any screen to open the command palette - Search across clients, appointments, services, products, gift cards, and team members in real time - Navigate to any page, settings section, or report with fuzzy search and typo tolerance (130+ destinations) - Quick actions: create new appointments, clients, sales, services, bundles, products, and team members without navigating away - AI quick answers: ask a question in plain English and get a streaming answer from Bella AI inline (Professional plan) - Recent items: see your most recently visited items when opening the palette - Permission-aware: results automatically filtered based on team member role and permissions - Works on desktop and mobile ### Loyalty programme (Professional Plan) - Points-based loyalty rewards for repeat clients - Customise earning rules and point values - Set rewards that clients can redeem - Track client engagement and loyalty status - Expiry notifications for unused points ### Referrals (Professional Plan — same plan feature as Loyalty) Separate programme from loyalty; you can run referrals with loyalty paused. Settings → Referrals or Programmes → Referrals. - Each client gets a unique refer-a-friend code and shareable link - Friend reward and referrer reward are **fixed currency amounts only** (never percentages) - Friend uses welcome reward on their first appointment; referrer earns when that first paid appointment is **checked out** (non-zero value) - Optional monthly cap on earned referrer rewards; configurable reward expiry (months) - Clients share from online booking Account → Refer a friend; team can copy links from Wallet → Referrals - Referral reward earned automated message; Referrals report under Insights ### Client Rewards & Offers (Messages Plus Add-on) - **Birthday rewards**: Capturing client birthdays is free. Set up an automated birthday reward — a percentage or fixed discount — and Bella recognises it automatically at online booking and the till, applied once a year. A greeting goes out on the day and a reminder before the reward expires. The reward and its messages are part of Messages Plus - **New-client offer**: Set it once and Bella recognises a client's first appointment, auto-applying a percentage or fixed reward — online or at the till — to welcome them in ### Client Reviews (Professional Plan) - Verified-appointment reviews only — clients must complete an appointment to leave a review - 1–5 star ratings with optional written feedback (up to 2,000 characters) - AI-powered moderation: inappropriate content is flagged before publishing; honest negative feedback is never blocked - Public and private business responses to reviews - Automatic review requests sent after checkout (configurable timing via automated messages) - Manual send/resend review requests from appointment actions menu - Opt-in notification when a new review arrives, so the business can respond promptly - Reviews displayed on online booking page with average rating, total count, and "Verified appointment" badges - **Website reviews widget**: Published reviews can also be embedded on the business's OWN website. Copy the snippet from Online booking → Share & embed (with a live preview first) and paste it into any site builder that takes custom HTML — Wix, Squarespace, WordPress and the rest. It renders the rating summary and the reviews, with the full star breakdown on wide layouts, each verified badge and the business's responses, in the brand colour. Published reviews only, updates itself as new reviews arrive, renders nothing at all until the first review, and includes a quiet "Book an appointment" link back to the booking page. Builders that paste code inline get a self-sizing widget; builders using a fixed-size frame (Wix) need the frame sized to fit. Multi-location businesses get a snippet per location - Clients can edit reviews within 30 days or delete anytime - Platform-only moderation — businesses cannot hide or delete reviews ### Forms & Intake (Professional Plan) - Digital form builder for client intake, consent forms, and waivers - Nine field types: short text, long text, multiple choice (single/multi), dropdown, yes/no, signature, file upload (photos JPEG/PNG/WEBP/HEIC→JPEG and PDFs; up to 5 files per question, 20 MB each), info block - Sections with titles and descriptions for organised layouts - Service linking: apply forms to all services or specific ones - Frequency control: send every appointment or once per client - Auto-send on appointment confirmation - Manual send via email and SMS - Signature capture for consent forms and waivers - File uploads dual-land for your team: on the form submission and on the client's Files / Photos tabs (provenance "Form — {template}"); clients re-view uploads on the completed form — no separate My documents inbox in the booking portal - Print form previews and submitted responses - Submissions viewable from form editor, client profile, and appointment detail - Business notifications when clients complete forms ### Treatment Plans (Professional Plan) Personalised, phased, client-visible treatment programmes built on any client record (Clients → a client → Treatment Plans). Made for skin clinics, med spas, and aesthetic and wellness practitioners. - **Structure**: A title, an overview, a start date, and phases with week-based timeframes. Each phase carries its own notes, the services recommended for the client to book, and the homecare products recommended for use, with usage instructions - **Live catalogue pricing**: Recommended services and products pull their price live from the catalogue — a "from" price where a service has pricing tiers, variants, or is a bundle — so nothing is ever a stale snapshot - **Draft then publish**: Every plan starts as a private draft. Publish it and the client sees their live plan in the online-booking portal — the overview, each phase and its status, and the recommended treatments and products - **Client can act on it**: Clients tap Book on a recommended treatment to jump straight into booking with it pre-selected, or add a recommended product to their order - **Revisions logged**: At each follow-up the plan is revisited — mark progress, adjust the next phase, add a revision note that is dated, attributed, and linked to the appointment it happened at — then re-publish - **Downgrade behaviour**: After a downgrade, existing plans stay reachable and readable behind an upgrade banner rather than disappearing — a downgrade never hides real client history. Editing is locked, though an open plan can still be completed or discontinued ### Gift cards - **Amount-based gift cards**: Client chooses a custom or preset monetary amount - **Service-based gift cards**: Gift a specific service — the card is still a dollar balance, redeemable at checkout like any other - Custom gift card designs: upload business-branded images or use built-in designs - Online purchase via Stripe Checkout integration - Gift card redemption as a payment method during appointment checkout and POS sales - Void and manage gift cards from the dashboard - **Physical card codes**: When selling at the till, staff can scan or type the code printed on a physical card; leave it blank and Bella generates one. Online purchases still get a generated code - **Recipient name optional at the till**: When selling in person without emailing the card, recipient name can be left blank. Name is still required when the gift card is emailed, and for online purchases - Gift card summary report with sales, redemptions, and outstanding balances - **Online redemption at booking**: Clients can apply gift cards when booking online to cover the deposit or full payment - **My Gift cards portal**: Clients can view their gift cards and balances from the online booking portal - **Gift card expiration**: Configurable expiration dates — expired cards cannot be redeemed - Automated notifications with customisable templates ### Client credit (Professional Plan) A single running top-up balance per client — no juggling separate gift-card codes. Turn it on under Settings → Client credit. - **Top-ups**: The team tops up a balance from the Credit section of the client's Wallet tab, settled by cash, manual card, other, or by charging the client's saved card on file - **Top-up bonus tiers**: Optional "top up 100, get 10 extra" tiers as a flat amount or a percentage, added automatically when a top-up clears the threshold - **Paid vs promotional balance**: The client's own money and the promotional bonus are tracked separately throughout, so the liability report always shows the paid balance and the promotional balance side by side. The bonus is spent first at checkout - **Automatic at checkout — no code**: Available credit applies itself at checkout, capped at the bill, with a simple toggle to skip it for a sale. Whatever the balance does not cover is taken on one other method, exactly like a gift card - **Refunds**: Refund a credit-paid sale and the balance comes back; or choose "refund to credit balance" to return any sale to the client's balance instead of their card, so the money stays with the business - **Full ledger**: Every top-up, spend, refund and adjustment is recorded in a transaction ledger - **Settings**: Quick-pick top-up amounts (offered as buttons at the till), plus an optional minimum and maximum - Appears as its own Client credit column in the Sales summary payment breakdown ### Prepaid Packages (Professional Plan) - **Session bundles**: Sell bundles of prepaid sessions at a discounted upfront price (e.g., "10 Haircut Pack" for $400) - **Flexible composition**: Include one or more services in a package, each with its own session count - **Variant-level allocations**: Restrict sessions to a specific service variant (e.g., "Haircut — Short" only) or allow any variant - **Expiry periods**: Optionally set how many months a package is valid after purchase - **Sell from the dashboard**: Team members sell packages through the Sales form (POS) — supports cash, EFTPOS, and Card on File payments - **Online purchase by clients**: Clients browse and purchase packages through the online booking portal via Stripe Checkout. Packages are promoted on the booking page with a dedicated section and subtle upsell links in the services area - **Auto-apply at checkout**: Matching packages are automatically applied when entering checkout — team members can remove or change if needed. Package-covered services show $0 - **Package indicators during booking**: When creating an appointment, a package banner shows quick-add buttons for covered services, the service dropdown highlights covered services with session counts, and the total section shows potential savings - **Online booking redemption**: Clients apply their own package credits when booking online — no team member action needed - **Session tracking**: Real-time balance tracking per service shows remaining sessions - **Cancellation restore**: When an appointment is cancelled, redeemed sessions are automatically returned to the client's balance - **My Packages portal**: Clients view purchased packages and session balances online - **Package reports**: Track packages sold, revenue, sessions redeemed, and sessions outstanding - **Voiding**: Cancel an active package with a mandatory reason — remaining sessions forfeited. Voiding stops redemption; it is not a refund of the original sale - **Archive & restore**: Archive packages no longer sold, restore them later if needed - Purchase confirmation email sent automatically to clients ### Memberships (Professional Plan) Recurring subscription plans with automatic Stripe billing. Clients subscribe online or are enrolled by team members. - **9 billing cycles**: Weekly, fortnightly, every 4 weeks, monthly, every 6 weeks, every 2 months, quarterly, every 6 months, annually - **Customisable benefits**: Each plan includes one or more benefits with discount percentage (0–100%), optional session limit per cycle, and optional service scope - **Benefit patterns**: Included sessions (100% off, capped), percentage discounts (e.g., 20% off all services, unlimited), unlimited access (100% off, unlimited) - **Automatic recurring billing**: Stripe handles subscription billing, invoice generation, and payment retries - **Online purchase**: Clients browse plans and subscribe via Stripe Checkout on the online booking portal - **Dashboard enrolment**: Team members enrol clients directly from the client profile - **Session tracking**: For capped benefits, session counters track usage per billing cycle and reset at renewal - **Automatic benefit redemption**: Membership discounts applied automatically at checkout for matching services - **Pause and resume**: Team members can pause a client's subscription temporarily; billing stops and session counters are preserved - **Flexible cancellation**: Cancel immediately or at end of current billing period. Scheduled end-of-period cancellations can be undone from the dashboard (Undo cancellation) or switched to immediate (Cancel now). Clients can self-cancel from the online portal; undoing a scheduled cancel is a team-member action - **My Membership portal**: Clients view status, session usage, and next charge date online - **Automated notifications**: Email and SMS for activation, payment failure, and cancellation - **Terms and conditions**: Versioned terms attached to plans, accepted at purchase time - **Instalment plans**: A plan can be set up as a fixed-term instalment plan so a client pays for a defined course of services in instalments every 4 weeks instead of all upfront. Choose a 4, 8 or 12-week term; the price set is the per-instalment amount and the editor shows the term total and breakdown. Included services are granted once for the whole term (usable any time across it, not topped up each instalment), the plan renews automatically each term on the card on file, and the client is committed for the term — they can switch off renewal any time and the term's remaining instalments simply complete first. Online checkout spells out the total, the instalment schedule and the minimum-term commitment before confirming - **Maximum active subscribers cap**: Cap how many clients can hold a plan — a founding-member tier limited to the first 50 sign-ups, or a high-touch plan with a serviceable limit. Blank means unlimited, as before. A full plan stays visible on the booking page with a "Fully subscribed" badge (never hidden) but new online purchases are blocked; the team can still enrol someone from the dashboard as a manual override, and the plan detail shows "X of Y spots used". An abandoned online checkout automatically frees its reserved spot; if a paused or past-due member returns to a plan that has since filled (resumed, manually paid, or Stripe recovers a failed payment) the team gets a heads-up that this puts the plan over its cap, but the client keeps their membership - **Members list**: View all enrolled members across plans with search and status filtering - **Archive & restore**: Archive plans no longer offered, restore later if needed ### Resource Management - Link rooms, chairs, or equipment to services - **Resource capacity**: Set how many concurrent appointments can use a resource (e.g., 3 wash basins = capacity 3). Unlimited by default - **Require resource toggle**: Explicitly control whether a service requires a resource to be booked. When enabled, online booking hides time slots where no eligible resource has remaining capacity - Track resource availability with capacity-aware status (available, partially booked, full) - **Automatic resource assignment**: Online bookings automatically assign the first available eligible resource by priority order. Customers never see or choose resources - **Scheduler resource view**: Switch to group columns by resources (rooms, chairs, equipment) instead of team members. Toggle individual resources on/off - Automatic resource re-assignment when appointments are rescheduled - Online booking strictly enforces resource capacity; dashboard allows override - Drag-and-drop resource ordering to set auto-assignment priority - **Resource operating hours**: Any resource can keep its own schedule — a recurring weekly pattern (which days, and the start and end times each day; each day can repeat weekly, every N weeks, or monthly on the nth or last weekday) plus one-off custom hours for specific dates. Ideal for a hydrotherapy pool that only opens on weekdays, or a treatment room with different hours to the rest of the business. A resource with no schedule of its own simply follows the business's opening hours - **Out of service**: Mark a room or piece of equipment out of service for a stretch of time — all-day or a partial window — with a reason (maintenance, repair, cleaning, deep clean or other) and an optional note. While out of service it cannot be booked and online booking hides any slot that needs it. For a shorter one-off closure a resource can be blocked directly on the scheduler, the same way a team member's time is blocked - **Availability follows the resource, not just capacity**: Resource-only services (float tanks, saunas, tanning beds, infrared pods) check the resource's own schedule as well as its capacity, so a resource that is closed, out of service, or blocked is never offered online — unless another eligible resource is free. Clients still never see resource names or schedules, only the times genuinely available - **Resource types**: Classify each resource as Room, Chair or station, Equipment, or Other. Each type gets its own icon across the resource list and service setup. Types are a label, not a rule — booking behaviour is identical whatever is picked, and everything works without one - **Resource schedule screen** (/resources/schedule, under Team & Resources): a grid view of resource availability across the period - **Resources across the dashboard**: Filter the appointments list by resource to see every booking for a particular room or machine; a Resource Usage chart on the dashboard shows bookings per resource for any period; and a client's appointment history names the room or equipment each appointment used, next to the team member ## Developers / API & MCP Page: /developers - Bella offers a REST API and a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server for a business's own booking data - **Self-serve website-booking API keys** (Professional+): create, edit and revoke in Settings → Integrations — catalogue, availability, clients, create/reschedule/cancel appointments. Base URL https://api.bellabooking.com, header `x-api-key` (`bella_live_…`). Keys are hashed, revocable, and bound to one location. Appointments created via the API show Booking source = Integration - Self-serve keys **cannot** reach sales, reports, payments, team management or settings (those endpoints return 403) - How to authenticate (agents): /.well-known/auth.md - **MCP** (managed per account): the same MCP server that powers Bella AI lets assistants like Claude and ChatGPT work with business data in natural language — including appointments, clients, sales and reports. NOT a one-click public connector - Available on the Professional plan, or by arrangement for larger and multi-location accounts - The AI assistant is read-only by default; selected actions can be enabled on request - Data is isolated and scoped per business ## Custom & Enterprise Page: /enterprise - For multi-location groups, franchises and high-volume businesses, with arrangements tailored to the business — "open to arrangements", not rigid tiers - Volume pricing across locations; multi-location management (one account, per-location schedules, teams, booking pages and reports) - White-label & custom branding: your logo, colours and brand across the whole booking experience, and unbranded client emails (no Bella branding on what clients see) TODAY; custom domains, fuller white-labelling and reseller arrangements by arrangement - Managed API, MCP & integrations (see /developers) - Hands-on data migration and onboarding on every plan - Priority support with a named point of contact for volume/custom accounts - Franchises and multi-brand groups welcome by arrangement (no built-in royalty/franchisor automation claimed as a shipped feature) - Security: PCI DSS via Stripe, encryption, role-based access, enterprise-grade practices; SOC 2 and HIPAA readiness underway (NOT yet certified) - No native mobile app — the answer is an installable PWA (push notifications, app-like, brand-themeable); no advanced payroll, but relevant custom features by arrangement for larger deals ## Book with AI (agents) Page: /for-ai-agents - Bella businesses are bookable by AI in two separate routes - (A) Clients book you through AI: Reserve with Google is LIVE — businesses switch it on from the Online booking page; clients book a business straight from Google Search and Maps where Google offers it for that country and business type; booking pages are structured so AI assistants can read services and availability. Availability of AI booking channels varies by country - (B) Run your business with AI: Bella AI and a managed MCP server let a business work with its own data in natural language (see /developers) - All AI booking channels deep-link into the business's real Bella online booking flow, where deposits/payments are handled through the existing secure checkout - Honest maturity: discovery and booking work now where available by country; agent-initiated payment is on the roadmap, not a current capability - Reserve with Google is a dashboard toggle. MCP access is managed per account — never a one-click public connector - Agent discovery on this site: /llms.txt, /llms-full.txt, /.well-known/api-catalog, /.well-known/mcp/server-card.json, /.well-known/auth.md, /.well-known/agent-skills/index.json - Public docs MCP (documentation search only — not booking or business data): /.well-known/mcp/server-card.json (transport https://docs.bellabooking.com/mcp) - Website-booking API: https://api.bellabooking.com — see /.well-known/auth.md and https://docs.bellabooking.com/developers/api-keys ## Pricing Plans NOTE: Team member limits apply per location and count only team members who are on the scheduler or bookable online. Anyone hidden from the scheduler and not bookable online — front desk, managers, bookkeepers — doesn't count towards the limit. Archived team members never count. ### Solo Plan - $25/month (USD) / A$25/month (AUD, inc. GST) - 1 team member - Unlimited appointments - Online booking (24/7) - Customisable booking page - Online payments via Stripe - Deposit collection - Client CRM & document storage - Core reports - Bella AI Assistant - Email support - SMS reminders (50/month included) - Easy onboarding and free data migration ### Starter Plan — $47/month (USD) / A$47/month (AUD, inc. GST) - Up to 3 team members - Unlimited appointments - Online booking (24/7) - Customisable booking page - Client CRM & document storage - Online payments via Stripe - Deposit collection - Core reports - Bella AI Assistant - Email support - SMS reminders (200/month included) - Easy onboarding and free data migration ### Professional Plan — $79/month (USD) / A$79/month (AUD, inc. GST) - All Starter features - Unlimited team members - Service add-ons (optional/required extras per service) - Gift cards (amount-based and service-based, via Stripe) - Prepaid packages (sell session bundles upfront, redeem at checkout or online booking) - Client credit (one running top-up balance per client, optional top-up bonus tiers, applies itself at checkout) - Treatment plans (personalised, phased, client-visible programmes published to the client's booking portal) - Digital forms & intake (signatures, consent, waivers) - Advanced reporting (the full 25+ report suite) - Custom reporting (upon request) - Memberships (recurring subscription plans with Stripe billing, 9 billing cycles, benefits with session tracking, online purchase, pause/resume) - Loyalty programme - Client reviews & reputation management - Digital tipping (part of the review-and-tip flow on the client portal) - Attendance tracking with time clock - Priority customer support - SMS reminders (500/month included) - API access ### Messages Plus — only paid add-on — $49/month (USD) / A$49/month (AUD) - Dedicated business phone number, two-way SMS inbox, SMS campaigns, unlimited email campaigns (fair use) - Includes 100 extra SMS credits/month (credits from Messages Plus renewals roll into the additional pool) - Optional on every plan; automated appointment reminders/confirmations do NOT require it - Carrier costs for the dedicated number — passed through rather than bundled into every plan ### SMS credit packs (one-time, any plan) - Small: 200 credits — $29 / A$29 - Medium: 500 credits — $59 / A$59 - Large: 1,000 credits — $99 / A$99 - Never expire; optional auto-top-up from Settings → Messaging - Live prices also on /pricing and in-app; Stripe is source of truth if figures drift ## Key Benefits - **Complete Salon Management**: All-in-one solution covering scheduling, services, sales, and reporting - **No-Show Protection**: Deposits, cancellation policies, client confirmations, and automated reminders reduce missed appointments - **Flexible Fee Handling**: Choose to absorb payment processing fees or pass them to clients with a transparent line item - **Flexible Pricing**: Pricing tiers let you charge appropriately for different experience levels - **Built-in Point of Sale**: Check out clients, sell products, and process payments (card, cash, or Card on File) from one screen - **Automated Notifications**: SMS, email, and business notification centre with 19 message types (including form submission and tip received alerts) - **Digital Tipping**: Clients can tip team members after appointments through the online portal - **Comprehensive Analytics**: core reports, charts, comparison mode and CSV export on all plans; 25+ reports in total with the advanced suite on Professional - **Client Document Storage**: Store consent forms, photos, and medical documents securely for each client - **Multi-Location Support**: Manage multiple salon locations from a single account - **AI Assistant**: Ask questions about your business data and get instant insights (all plans) - **Family Booking**: Book appointments for children, partners, parents, siblings, friends, and pets - **Loyalty programme**: Reward repeat clients with points-based loyalty (Professional plan) - **Memberships**: Recurring subscription plans with automatic Stripe billing, 9 billing cycles, customisable benefits with session tracking, online purchase, pause/resume, and automated notifications (Professional plan) - **Attendance tracking**: Time clock with PIN, hours tracking, CSV export (Professional plan) - **Client Reviews**: Verified reviews with AI moderation build trust on your booking page (Professional plan) - **Prepaid Packages**: Sell session bundles upfront at discounted rates. Clients redeem at checkout or during online booking. Automatic session tracking and cancellation restore (Professional plan) - **GST, VAT & Sales Tax**: Register your business for tax and Bella captures the tax component on every sale, shows it on the client's receipt as a proper tax invoice, and totals it up in a Tax collected report for your BAS, VAT return or sales-tax return. Works in any country, with sensible label and rate suggestions based on your location's country - **Waitlist Slot Matching**: Automatic matching when slots open, with team notifications - **Activity Logging**: Full appointment audit trail for accountability - **Processing Time & Buffer Time**: Separate processing time (colour development — team member free) from buffer time (setup/cleanup — team member blocked). Location-level defaults with per-service overrides. Visual buffer blocks on the scheduler - **Seamless Scheduling**: Transform booking process from chaos to calm with intuitive calendar and waitlist management - **Happy Clients**: Modern booking experience with automated reminders, one-click confirmations, and online payments - **Team Success**: Advanced team management with role-based permissions, time off, and performance tracking - **Purpose-Built, Not Generic**: Built for salons, beauty clinics, spas and wellness businesses (Beauty, Wellness & Health Practices) — no generic-software bloat, and it scales from solo practitioners to multi-location groups - **Personal Support**: Real humans based in Sydney, Australia for responsive support - **Modern & Reliable**: 99.9% uptime guarantee with latest technology - **No Commission**: 0% commission on bookings, ever ## Feature Pages Individual feature detail pages with capabilities, how-it-works guides, and FAQs: - /features/scheduler - Appointment Scheduler & Calendar - /features/waitlist - Waitlist Management - /features/resources - Resource Management (Rooms & Equipment) - /features/services-and-bundles - Services, Pricing & Bundles - /features/pricing-tiers - Pricing tiers (Junior/Senior/Master) - /features/online-booking - Online booking - /features/payments - Payments & Deposits - /features/booking-page-customisation - Booking page Customisation (layouts, palettes, sections & wording) - /features/client-management - Client Management (CRM) - /features/treatment-plans - Treatment Plans (personalised, phased, client-visible programmes) - /features/loyalty - Loyalty programme - /features/referrals - Referrals (refer-a-friend fixed rewards) - /features/client-credit - Client credit (stored-value wallet + top-up bonuses) - /features/birthday-rewards - Birthday rewards (automated birthday discount, greeting & reminder) - /features/new-client-offer - New-Client Offer (auto-reward a client's first appointment) - /features/team-management - Team Management - /features/roles-permissions - Roles & Permissions - /features/attendance-tracking - Attendance tracking (Time Clock & PIN) - /features/calendar-feed - Calendar Feed (iCal Export) - /features/point-of-sale - Point of Sale & Checkout - /features/products - Products & Inventory - /features/suppliers - Suppliers & Orders - /features/automated-notifications - Automated Notifications (SMS, Email & Business Alerts) - /features/reporting - Dashboard & Reports - /features/online-booking-analytics - Online booking analytics (traffic sources, funnel & conversion) - /features/multi-location - Multi-Location Management - /features/bella-ai - Bella AI Assistant - /features/reviews - Client Reviews & Reputation Management - /features/command-palette - Command Palette (Search, Navigate & Ask) - /features/forms - Forms & Intake (Digital Consent, Waivers & Questionnaires) - /features/gift-cards - Gift cards (Amount & Service-Based) - /features/packages - Prepaid Packages (Session Bundles) - /features/memberships - Memberships (Recurring Subscription Plans) - /features/messages - Two-Way SMS Messaging & Email Campaigns (Messages Plus Add-on) - /features/service-addons - Service Add-ons (Optional & Required Extras) - /features/incomplete-bookings - Incomplete Booking Recovery ## Solutions Pages Discoverable destinations for developer, enterprise and AI-booking use cases: - /developers - API & MCP (website-booking API keys self-serve in Settings → Integrations; MCP managed per account — REST keys cannot reach sales/reports/payments) - /enterprise - Custom & Enterprise (volume pricing, white-label, API/MCP, migration, priority support) - /for-ai-agents - Book with AI (Reserve with Google live; run your business with Bella AI/MCP) ## Regional Information - **Australia**: Prices in AUD (inc. GST), local support, ABN registered - **Global**: Prices in USD, international support available - **Australian-made**: Proudly developed in Sydney, Australia - **Local Support**: Sydney-based support team with understanding of local business needs ## Industry Pages Specialised landing pages for each industry vertical: - /hair-salons - Hair Salons & Hairdressers - /nail-salons - Nail Salons & Nail Technicians - /beauty-salons - Beauty Salons & Aestheticians - /barbershops - Barbershops & Barbers - /beauty-clinics - Beauty Clinics & Aesthetic Clinics - /laser-clinics - Laser & Skin Clinics - /skin-clinics - Skin Clinics - /spas - Spas & Wellness Centres - /med-spas - Medical Spas - /lash-brow-studios - Lash & Brow Studios - /personal-trainers - Personal Trainers - /physiotherapy - Physiotherapy - /chiropractic - Chiropractic - /osteopathy - Osteopathy - /wellness-clinics - Wellness Clinics ## Use Cases (/use-cases) Hub: /use-cases — scenario-specific pages showing how Bella Booking solves particular business challenges: - /use-cases/small-team-salons - Small Team Salons (1-5 staff) - /use-cases/multi-location-salons - Multi-Location Salon Management - /use-cases/complex-service-menus - Complex Service Menus (bundles, add-ons, variants) - /use-cases/waitlist-management - Waitlist & Last-Minute Cancellation Recovery - /use-cases/booking-recovery - Incomplete Booking Recovery - /use-cases/digital-forms-intake - Digital Forms & Intake (consent, waivers) - /use-cases/clinic-digital-intake - Clinic Digital Intake (forms, e-sign, file upload) - /use-cases/family-dependent-booking - Family & Dependent Booking - /use-cases/gift-cards - Gift Card Sales & Redemption - /use-cases/prepaid-packages - Prepaid Packages - /use-cases/two-way-messaging - Two-Way Messaging & Campaigns - /use-cases/bella-ai-for-owners - Bella AI for Business Owners - /use-cases/pet-grooming - Pet Grooming & Animal Services - /use-cases/membership-management - Membership & Subscription Management - /use-cases/allied-health-practice-scheduling - Allied Health Practice Scheduling - /use-cases/wellness-centre-scheduling - Wellness Centre Scheduling ## Technology & Reliability - 99.9% uptime guarantee - Mobile-first, responsive design (Progressive Web App — installable on mobile) - Cloud-based with secure data storage - **Accessibility & personalisation**: Dark mode, dyslexia-friendly reading fonts, colour themes, density modes, reduced-motion, and focus mode - **Real-time notifications**: Instant push via SignalR — new bookings, cancellations, and waitlist entries appear on the dashboard without page refresh - Regular updates based on user feedback - API access for integrations (Professional plan) - Modern, fast interface ## Support & Onboarding - Easy personal onboarding and free data migration - Responsive support via chat, email, and phone - Personalised setup assistance - Regular check-ins and optimisation suggestions - Priority support for Professional plan users - Sydney-based support team ## Key Pages & Content - **Homepage**: Main landing page with hero section, features, benefits, and pricing — https://bellabooking.com - **Features Hub**: Detailed feature breakdown across 10 categories and 32 individual feature pages — /features - **Pricing**: Transparent pricing with Solo, Starter, and Professional plans — /pricing - **Industry Pages**: 15 specialised vertical pages (see "Industry Pages" section above for full URL list) - **Competitor Comparison Hub**: Overview page comparing all major salon software platforms — /compare - **Individual Competitor Pages**: Detailed comparisons with Fresha, Timely, Shortcuts, Square Appointments, Vagaro, Phorest, Booksy, Setmore, GlossGenius, Mindbody, Mangomint, Boulevard, Kitomba, Zenoti, Treatwell, Cliniko, Nookal, Jane App, Beauti, Acuity Scheduling, Client Diary, Ovatu, Booker, and Gentu - **Q&A Hub**: Educational content answering common salon software questions — /questions - **Guides**: In-depth long-form guides on salon business topics — /guides - **What's New**: Monthly release notes and feature updates — /updates (RSS feed at /updates/feed.xml) - **FAQ**: Frequently asked questions about Bella Booking — /faq - **Registration**: Free trial signup with no credit card required — /register - **Privacy Policy**: Data protection and privacy information — /privacy - **Terms of Service**: Service terms and conditions — /terms-and-conditions - **About**: Company information — /about - **Contact**: Get in touch — /contact ## Competitor Comparisons (/compare) Detailed feature-by-feature comparisons with pricing analysis: - /compare/fresha - Bella Booking vs Fresha - /compare/timely - Bella Booking vs Timely - /compare/shortcuts - Bella Booking vs Shortcuts - /compare/square-appointments - Bella Booking vs Square Appointments - /compare/vagaro - Bella Booking vs Vagaro - /compare/phorest - Bella Booking vs Phorest - /compare/booksy - Bella Booking vs Booksy - /compare/setmore - Bella Booking vs Setmore - /compare/glossgenius - Bella Booking vs GlossGenius - /compare/mindbody - Bella Booking vs Mindbody - /compare/mangomint - Bella Booking vs Mangomint - /compare/boulevard - Bella Booking vs Boulevard - /compare/kitomba - Bella Booking vs Kitomba - /compare/zenoti - Bella Booking vs Zenoti - /compare/treatwell - Bella Booking vs Treatwell - /compare/cliniko - Bella Booking vs Cliniko - /compare/nookal - Bella Booking vs Nookal - /compare/jane-app - Bella Booking vs Jane App - /compare/beauti - Bella Booking vs Beauti - /compare/acuity-scheduling - Bella Booking vs Acuity Scheduling - /compare/client-diary - Bella Booking vs Client Diary - /compare/ovatu - Bella Booking vs Ovatu - /compare/booker - Bella Booking vs Booker - /compare/gentu - Bella Booking vs Gentu ## Feature Comparison Hubs (/compare-feature) Compare a specific feature across the major salon software platforms: - /compare-feature/consent-forms - Which salon software has built-in consent forms? - /compare-feature/booking-analytics - Which salon software shows where your bookings come from? - /compare-feature/ai-features - Which salon software has built-in AI features? - /compare-feature/payment-processing - Which salon software has built-in payment features? - /compare-feature/online-booking - Which salon software has built-in online booking? - /compare-feature/treatment-plans - Which salon software has built-in treatment plan features? - /compare-feature/loyalty-programmes - Which salon software has a built-in loyalty programme? ## Q&A Hub Topics (/questions) The Q&A Hub provides educational content for salon owners exploring software options: ### Pricing & Costs - How much does salon software cost in Australia? - What does 0% commission booking software mean? - Is free salon software worth it? - Free salon software in Australia ### Choosing Software - How to choose the right salon software for your business - Best salon software for small salons (1-5 staff) - Best salon software for solo stylists - Best salon software in Australia - Best med spa booking software in Australia - Cloud-based vs installed salon software - Salon software without a marketplace ### No-Shows & Cancellations - How to reduce no-shows at your salon - How deposits reduce salon no-shows - How automated reminders reduce no-shows - Should I charge cancellation fees at my salon? - How to create a salon cancellation policy ### Online booking - Benefits of online booking for salons - How to set up online booking for your salon - Online booking system for hairdressers - How do I see where my salon bookings come from? ### Payments - What payment methods should salons accept? - Salon POS system in Australia ### Comparisons & Alternatives - Fresha alternatives for Australian salons - Shortcuts alternatives for Australian salons - Phorest alternatives for Australian salons - Kitomba alternatives for Australian salons - Booksy alternatives for salons and barbers - Boulevard alternatives for salons and spas - GlossGenius alternatives for salons - Mangomint alternatives for salons - Mindbody alternatives for salons and wellness businesses - Setmore alternatives for salons - Square Appointments alternatives for salons - Timely alternatives for Australian salons - Treatwell alternatives for salons - Vagaro alternatives for salons and spas - Zenoti alternatives for Australian salons ### Prepaid Packages - What are prepaid packages in salon software? - Salon software with prepaid packages in Australia ### Feature-Specific - How to use a waitlist to fill last-minute cancellations - How to manage salon staff schedules effectively - How to keep useful client notes in your salon - How to track your salon's performance with reports - What is AI salon software and how can it help? - How to use activity logs for salon accountability - How to export salon data to spreadsheets - What is an AI business digest and how does it help salon owners? - How do I identify at-risk salon clients? - How to recover abandoned online bookings at your salon - How to share your salon booking link on Google, social media, and your website - How do I track client lifetime value in a salon? - How does schedule optimisation reduce gaps in salon online booking? - How does two-way SMS messaging work for salons? ### Business Operations - How to price your salon services - How to retain salon clients and build loyalty - How to set up a salon loyalty programme - How to set up memberships and subscriptions in salon software - How to manage multi-location salons - How to get more reviews for your salon - How to market your salon and attract new clients ### Staff Management - How to track salon staff attendance and timesheets - Booth rental vs employment: which model suits your salon? - How to handle difficult clients at your salon ### Processing Time & Buffer Time - What's the difference between processing time and buffer time? - How do I set default buffer times for all services? - Can clients see buffer time when booking online? - How does processing time work in service bundles? ### Industry-Specific - Can I use salon software for pet grooming? - Barbershop booking software in Australia - Nail salon booking software in Australia ## In-Depth Guides (/guides) Comprehensive long-form guides covering important salon business topics: - The Complete Guide to Reducing Salon No-Shows (12 min read) - How to Set Up Online booking for Your Salon (10 min read) - Building Client Loyalty: A Retention Guide for Salons (11 min read) - Managing Salon Staff Schedules Effectively (9 min read) - Pricing Your Salon Services: A Practical Guide (10 min read) - Getting Started with Bella AI: Your Salon Assistant - How to Export Your Salon Data (CSV & iCal) - Setting Up Family & Dependent Booking - How to Set Up Processing Time for Hair Colour Services (7 min read) - How to Add Buffer Time Between Appointments for Day Spas (6 min read) - Multi-Team Appointments: How to Book Multiple Team members - How to Share Your Booking Link - How to Set Up Service Variants for Hair Length Pricing (8 min read) - How to Use Prepaid Packages to Boost Salon Revenue and Client retention - How to Use an AI Booking Assistant for Your Salon - Understanding Your AI Business Digest: A Guide for Salon Owners - Booking policies for Salons: A Strategy Guide - Using Digital Consent Forms and Waivers in Beauty and Medical Spas - How to Set Up Digital Tipping in Your Salon - Maximising Gift Card Revenue: A Salon Owner's Guide - Choosing Software for Your Lash Salon: What to Look For - How to Use Salon Reports to Grow Your Business - Salon Software Comparison for Australian Businesses - Salon Software Pricing Comparison: What You Actually Pay - Salon Staff Scheduling Tips: Rosters, Coverage, and Common Mistakes - How to Use Schedule Optimisation to Reduce Calendar Gaps - How to Set Up Two-Way SMS Messaging for Your Salon - Physiotherapy & Allied Health Software Comparison for Australian Clinics (12 min read) - Med Spa & Aesthetic Clinic Software Comparison for Australian Businesses (12 min read) - Salon Software and Xero: How Australian Salons Handle Accounting (8 min read) — honest: export-based reconciliation today, native sync on roadmap - Card Payments and EFTPOS for Australian Salons: What to Look For (8 min read) — online Stripe payments all plans; integrated terminal coming soon ## Contact Information - Website: https://bellabooking.com - Australian Website: https://bellabooking.com.au - Support: Available via website chat and email - Location: Sydney, Australia - Business Registration: ABN 67 656 104 559 ## Unique Value Propositions 1. **Australian-made with global reach** — Local understanding with international scalability 2. **Purpose-built for appointment-based businesses** — No generic business software; designed for salons, beauty clinics, spas and wellness businesses (Beauty, Wellness & Health Practices) 3. **Simple yet powerful** — Intuitive interface without unnecessary complexity 4. **Personal support** — Real humans based in Sydney who understand salon, spa and clinic business challenges 5. **AI-powered insights** — Bella AI Assistant helps you understand your business data instantly (all plans) 6. **No credit card required** — Free trial with full access to all features 7. **No commission, ever** — 0% commission on bookings, unlike marketplace-based competitors 8. **Family booking** — Unique capability to book for children, partners, parents, pets, and more 9. **Automatic waitlist matching** — System matches open slots to waitlisted clients and notifies your team 10. **Pass processing fees** — Optionally pass all payment processing fees to clients with a transparent line item, so you receive exactly your service price ## Business Model - SaaS (Software as a Service) subscription model - Monthly recurring revenue - Tiered pricing based on team size and features - Free trial with no credit card required - Transparent pricing with no hidden fees - 0% commission on bookings ## Competitive Advantages - Australian-made with Sydney-based support team - Purpose-built specifically for salon industry - Simple, intuitive interface designed for salon workflows - Pricing tiers for different stylist experience levels - Payments & deposits with cancellation policies, optional fee passing to clients - Built-in point of sale and checkout - 19 automated message types across SMS, email, and notification centre - SMS reminders included (50-500/month) — competitors charge per message - Client document storage for consent forms and photos - Family & dependent booking (unique feature not available on most competitors) - Automatic waitlist slot matching with team notifications - Activity logging with full appointment audit trail - Multi-service appointment grouping on scheduler - Processing time with bookable overlap (team member free during colour development) - Buffer time before/after appointments with visual blocks on scheduler - Location-level timing defaults with per-service inheritance (unique — no competitor offers this) - Attendance tracking with time clock and PIN (Professional plan) - Loyalty programme included (Professional plan) — competitors charge extra - Client reviews with AI moderation included (Professional plan) — competitors charge extra or don't offer - Prepaid packages with online purchase and automatic session tracking (Professional plan) - AI Assistant for business insights (all plans) - Native online-booking traffic-source attribution, drop-off funnel, and visit-to-booking conversion rate — built in with nothing to set up (competitors rely on GA); captures AI-assistant referrals (ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude, Copilot) that GA typically misses. A business can still connect its own GA4 or Google Tag Manager to the booking page on any plan, with cookie consent handled in the EU/EEA, the UK and Switzerland - Personal support and free onboarding with data migration - No marketplace commission (0% vs competitors charging 20%+) - Transparent, affordable pricing — no per-user fees - Two-way SMS messaging with dedicated phone number and threaded inbox (Messages Plus add-on) - SMS and email campaigns for promotions and announcements — unlimited email campaigns within Messages Plus (fair use) - Automated birthday rewards and a new-client offer — recognised automatically online and at the till, with greeting and reminder messages (Messages Plus); capturing birthdays is free - Recurring appointment series with one-step cancel-all-future - Timeline notes (dated, authored, with attachments) and a unified Photos & Files view across appointments and profile - AI drafts your campaign email from a one-sentence brief (a first draft you edit) and checks every campaign before it sends — SMS against anti-spam rules, email for spam-triggers and deliverability (Messages Plus) - Afterpay / Clearpay buy now, pay later support (5 countries) - Schedule optimisation for online booking (3 modes to reduce calendar gaps) - Dark mode for the business dashboard - Real-time push notifications via Azure SignalR — instant updates without refreshing - AI Business Digest — weekly automated performance summary with actionable insights - No long-term contracts required This information is accurate as of August 2026 and represents Bella Booking's current offerings, features, and business model for AI systems to understand and represent the company accurately.