Skip to main content
When a client opens your booking page, the times they see aren’t magic. They’re the result of three things you control: your service menu, each stylist’s working hours, and your booking policies. This guide walks all three, then shows how they combine.

​
The service menu

Services holds the menu: each service has a category, a duration, a price, a type (Primary books on its own, Add-on rides along), and a visibility (Public shows on the booking page). Durations matter more here than anywhere else, because the duration is how much calendar a booking consumes. A 45-minute blowout that actually takes an hour will quietly wreck your afternoons. A service can last up to 24 hours.

​
Categories

Services are grouped under categories you create and name, such as Color or Extensions. Each category is a band you can open and close, and a service without one sits in uncategorized, always last. On the web, the pencil beside a service opens edit service. Its category menu lists your saved categories, with no category first and add new category last. A category you add there is saved to your list and can be picked for any other service. The gear beside add service opens categories, where the whole list is managed:
  • Rename a category in its field. Every service in it follows.
  • Reorder by dragging a row. The groups on the services page appear in that order.
  • Delete a category with its trash button. Sable asks first and tells you how many services move to uncategorized. The services themselves are kept exactly as they are.
In the native app, choose an existing category or use New category…, also while adding a service from a new appointment.

​
Who offers what, in a salon

On the Salon plan, the web services page has two views of the same menu, switched at the top of the page. by service lists every salon service under its category with how many stylists offer it. Open a service to see:
  • default price: the salon’s price and duration for the service.
  • One row per stylist, with an assigned switch, a price, and hours and minutes. A stylist who is assigned offers the service. Their boxes show the default in grey until you type their own price or time, and clearing a box returns them to the default.
by stylist lists your bookable stylists with how many services each one offers. Open a stylist to see their services by category. assigned shows what they offer today; all services shows the rest of the menu, each with its switch off, ready to assign. This is the quickest way to set up someone new, who starts with nothing assigned. Changes in these tables save as you make them. A switch saves when you flip it, and a price or duration saves when you leave the box. The price and time a client is quoted and charged are the ones for the stylist they book. Booked appointments keep the price and duration they were booked with. On your booking page, a client who picks a stylist sees that stylist’s prices and times. Before a stylist is picked, a service whose price differs between stylists shows the lowest one as a from price. On a phone, the same two views open one screen at a time: tap a service or a stylist, then tap a row to set that stylist’s price and time. use default price returns them to the salon’s default. Front desk sees both views to answer questions at the desk, without changing them. A commission stylist sees one list: the services assigned to them, with their own price and duration.

​
Letting stylists manage their own services

A salon can hand part of the menu to its commission stylists and assistants. There are four switches:
  • choose which services they offer: turn any salon service on or off for themselves.
  • set their own duration and set their own price: their own version of a service. The salon’s price and everyone else’s stay as they are.
  • add new services: add a service to the salon’s menu, offered by them.
Set the salon default in the gear beside add service, under stylists and assistants can. To give one person something different, open them in Team → Members, go to Role, and switch services from salon default to custom. Custom starts from the salon default, so you only change what’s different for them. In the Sable app on iPhone and iPad, the same choice is in the team member’s details under services. A stylist with a switch on sees my services and all services on their services page, with offer, my price and my duration beside each service. What they can’t change stays visible and greyed; hover over it on a computer, or tap it on a phone, to see why. On a phone, tapping a service opens their price and duration with the salon’s price under the name, and use salon price goes back to it. A service a stylist adds belongs to the salon: it is paid to the salon like any other salon service, and it stays on the menu if they leave or the switch goes off. In your lists it shows added by and their name, and you edit, assign or remove it as usual. Turning a service off for themselves only stops new bookings; appointments already booked keep it. Every change a stylist makes is listed under changes in that service’s edit service: who, what changed, and when. To hear about changes as they happen, turn on Stylist changed their services in Team notifications.

​
One list for solo stylists and booth renters

A solo stylist’s Services is one list under their categories, with each service’s booking page visibility, price, and duration. The pencil opens edit service, where price and duration are set. Booth renters run their own menu the same way. Services shows a booth renter the services they created, with their own prices, durations, and categories, and each of those services is offered only with its owner. The salon’s services page covers the salon’s own menu and its commission stylists.

​
A starting at price

Turn on starting at price in edit service when the final price depends on the visit, as with color. Clients see it as from $300 on your booking page and on the appointment’s confirmation link.

​
A deposit on a service

Open edit service and turn on deposit, under starting at price: enter the amount, choose $ for a fixed amount or % for a percentage of the price, and turn on new clients only if returning clients should skip it. Online, the client pays it when they book, and it comes off the bill at checkout. A percentage of 100 asks for full payment. A service that uses options carries a deposit on each option instead, so the service’s own deposit row steps aside while use options is on. Deposits need payments connected. For a visit that is already booked, take one from the appointment with Request a deposit.

​
Named service options

On the web, open edit service and turn on use options. Each option is a card with its name and a one-line summary. The pencil on a card opens its fields: a default price and duration, starting at price, a deposit, and block time before and after. Processing time is set for each stylist, option by option; see Processing time. A free option still needs its real duration, and an option’s time is set in steps of five minutes. Category and booking visibility belong to the parent service. In a salon, a stylist is assigned to the service, not to one option, and an assigned stylist offers every option. In by service, a service with options shows one chip per option; the chip you pick decides which option’s default and stylist prices you are editing. In by stylist, the options sit under the service, each with its own price and time. Clients choose the service, then one option before choosing a time. Changing an option means choosing a fresh time and reviewing its payment terms. A service with options enabled needs an active, eligible option to be bookable. Turning options off returns the service to its ordinary price and duration. With assignment permission, an option can be offered by all assigned stylists or a smaller set of them. Options cannot add a stylist who does not offer the parent service. The archive button on an option’s card removes it from new bookings while past appointments keep their original name and terms, and restore brings it back. Rebooking the same option with the same provider keeps the originating appointment’s saved terms while checking that the option is still bookable. A different option or provider uses current terms. Options describe service choices; they do not enforce package or prior-treatment eligibility. An option’s New clients only deposit setting offers clients optional phone verification at booking. A phone match alone does not waive the deposit. Verified completed visits with the selected provider determine whether a waiver applies, and clients review the resulting payment terms before booking.

​
Processing time

Color, lightener, and treatments often have a stretch where the client sits and the stylist is free. Processing time tells Sable when that stretch is, so the stylist can take another client in the middle of a long service. Processing time belongs to each stylist, because each stylist works at her own pace. For each one you set three parts of the service: start, the working time before processing; processing, the time she is free; and finish, the working time after it. You enter start and processing, and Sable works out the finish from the service’s length. A bar above the fields shows the three parts at a glance. Start and processing each need at least five minutes and move in steps of five. Finish can be 0 when processing runs to the end of the service, so a ten-minute service can be 5 · 5 · 0. There are two places to set it on the web:
  • In the service editor. Open edit service. Under processing time, each stylist who offers the service has a switch. Turn it on to set her split, and choose save. For a service with options, chips above the stylists pick the option, so each option can have its own split.
  • In the by service and by stylist tables. The processing column, after duration, shows a stylist’s split as 60 · 90 · 30, or + add when she has none. Click it to set the split, then done, or remove to take it away.
On a phone, tap a stylist’s row to open her sheet. processing time sits under price and duration; turn it on, set the split, and choose done. Booth renters set processing time for their own services, and stylists whose salon lets them change their own duration can set their own. If a stylist’s service gets shorter, start and processing still need to fit within its length, so change both together and save once. Saving a stylist’s processing time also updates that stylist’s upcoming booked appointments for the same service and option, including bookings waiting for the client to confirm. Their booked times and prices stay the same. Past visits stay as they were. Saving the setup again replaces any processing adjustment made just for an upcoming visit. If the split will not fit a booked service or would overlap another booking, Sable asks you to review the affected appointment before saving the setup. Staff can always book another client into a processing gap from the calendar. Whether clients can book into one online is your choice; see Booking policies.

​
Add-on services

An add-on rides along with a primary service: a gloss with a cut, a treatment at the bowl. Create one in Services, on the web or in the iOS app, with add-on turned on. Two things set add-ons apart:
  • No added time. An add-on’s duration can be zero, shown as no added time. A zero-minute add-on rings up without touching the schedule; an add-on with a duration extends the appointment like any other service.
  • Booking page visibility. A new add-on starts off the booking page, made for offering at the chair; turn show on booking page on to let clients book it themselves.
Attach an add-on from the appointment’s services list during the visit or at checkout, in the web dashboard or the iOS app, and it rings up as its own line. Pricing for a single visit can be adjusted right there; see Checkout, refunds, and receipts.

​
Working hours, per stylist

Go to Settings → Scheduling. On the Working Hours tab, owners, managers, and front desk pick a name from the Stylist menu; stylists, assistants, and booth renters land on their own week. Set every day of the week: available with a time range, or Unavailable. Use Add break to carve out lunch or a standing gap, and Save changes when the week looks right. Owners and managers can set the same week from the team side: open Team, select the pencil on a teammate’s row, and find Bookable hours on their Schedule tab. Both places edit one schedule, so use whichever is closer to hand. Stylists set their own week from Settings → Scheduling. For a booth renter, Rented days sits above their bookable hours. Rented days are the days the renter pays for the chair, and nobody can book them on any other day, staff included. Bookable hours are when clients can book them online on those days; staff can still book outside them. Select the info icon beside either heading for a reminder, and use the tab’s one Save changes to save both together. The Time Off tab handles the exceptions: vacations, appointments of your own, the Tuesday you’re just not coming in. Time off wins over working hours, so you don’t need to rewrite the week to leave town. To work different hours on one day, add time off with Modified hours: pick the date, set Available to the hours for that day, and save. Only that day changes; the weekly schedule stays as it is. Modified hours replace the day’s regular hours and breaks, so add a block on the calendar if you still want a break that day. Leave End date empty for a single day, or set it to apply the same change across a range. Delete the entry from the list to go back to the regular hours.

​
Booking policies

The Booking Policies tab is the fine print your booking page enforces for you: Booth renters save these policies for their own bookings. This includes deposits, their cancellation policy and fees, cancellation rules, and lead times. Salon owners and admins continue to manage salon-wide policies.
  • Require booking approval: new online bookings arrive as requests and wait for your yes. See Booking requests.
  • Allow client cancellations and the notice window: whether clients can cancel online, and how close to the appointment they’re allowed to. The notice window sits with your cancellation policy.
  • Buffer before appointment and Buffer after appointment: breathing room the calendar protects around every booking, in hours and minutes, up to 2 hours. Cleanup, consult overruns, honesty about turnaround.
  • Allow online booking during processing time: whether your booking page can offer a time inside a stylist’s processing time. Off, online clients only see times when the stylist is fully free, and the salon fills processing gaps from the calendar. On, online clients can book into them too. This is a salon setting, so it shows for owners and managers only, and it covers booth renters’ pages as well.
  • Slot interval: how often start times are offered. Every 15 minutes feels flexible; every hour keeps the day tidy.
  • Minimum lead time and Maximum lead time: how soon is too soon (no more 6 AM bookings for 9 AM) and how far out clients can plan. The minimum is in hours and minutes, the maximum in days and hours; 0 days 0 hr means no limit.
  • Start appointments: Manually, where the stylist presses start appointment when the client sits down, or Automatically at the start time. This is a salon setting, so it shows for owners and managers only.

​
How a bookable time is born

For each time your booking page offers, all of this had to be true:
  1. The stylist is inside working hours, not on a break, and not on time off.
  2. Nothing else is there: no appointment, no time block.
  3. The service fits, including your buffers.
  4. The time lands on your slot interval, inside the lead-time window.

​
When “no times are showing”

Work the list in order; it’s almost always one of these:
  1. The service isn’t Public, so the page won’t offer it.
  2. The stylist’s working hours say Unavailable for the days in question.
  3. Time off is covering the whole window.
  4. The lead-time settings are stricter than you remember. A two-week maximum lead time with a fully booked fortnight offers nothing at all.
Still stuck? Visit the Help Center to submit a support ticket.