HELP CENTRE
What can we
help you with?
From your first booking to a full diary. Find answers and practical steps for running your salon with Covered Beauty.
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Getting started
I've just signed up. What do I do first?
Is there a free trial?
I'm switching from Fresha / Treatwell / Booksy. Can I bring my data?
Bookings
Can clients confirm bookings I make and add a card?
Yes. When you book a client in yourself, in the dashboard, as a repeat booking or through an import, their confirmation email and their 3-day and 1-day reminder emails include a secure link to confirm the appointment and save a card with Stripe. Nothing is charged. By adding their card, the client agrees you can charge your no-show fee if they don’t turn up, or the same fee if they cancel late inside your cancellation window. They see the fee before they agree.
To use it, connect Stripe on the Payouts page, then set your no-show fee, a fixed amount or a percentage of the treatment price, in Settings under Card on file for bookings you make. It’s on for every salon, but no links go out until you’ve set a fee. You can switch it off in the same place.
Bookings you mark as Pending don’t send any emails on their own, so use Send card request on the appointment to ask the client to confirm. When they do, the booking changes to Confirmed, they get their usual confirmation email and you get your new-booking alert. The appointment page shows whether they’ve confirmed and what they agreed to, and Send card request emails them the link again at any time. Clients who book online don’t get the link. If they pay a deposit, the card they pay with is saved at checkout instead.
Can I charge a no-show fee?
Yes, as long as the client has a card saved for that booking and your Stripe payments are connected. Cards are saved in two ways: clients who pay a deposit online save the card they pay with and agree when they book that you can charge it later, in line with your terms; and clients you book in yourself can confirm and add a card from the link in their emails.
If someone doesn’t turn up, open the appointment, choose the no-show fee as the reason in the card on file section of the payments panel, and charge the card. The client doesn’t need to be there. For bookings confirmed through the link, the fee they agreed to is filled in for you, the appointment shows exactly what they agreed to, and a no-show or late cancellation charge can’t be more than that fee.
How do I set deposits?
What happens if a client doesn't finish paying their deposit?
What happens when a client cancels?
What can clients do if the day they want is fully booked?
Your calendar
How do I reschedule an appointment?
What stops two clients booking the same slot?
Can I change the treatment on an appointment?
Can I leave a gap between appointments?
I marked an appointment by mistake. Can I change it back?
Can I set up a repeat booking?
How do I close for a holiday or stop last-minute bookings?
How far ahead can clients book?
Can I see my bookings in my phone's calendar?
Treatments and prices
How do I change my prices from a future date?
On the Treatments page, open Schedule a price change and pick the day the new prices start. Then either change the treatments you tick by a percentage or a set amount (up or down, with the option to round to the nearest £1), or type a new price for each treatment. Free treatments aren’t ticked for you.
New prices start at midnight UK time on that day. Anyone booking an appointment on or after it automatically pays the new price, even if they book today, and your booking page shows the new price and the date it starts. Appointments before that date keep today’s price. Each treatment can have one scheduled change at a time, so cancel the existing change before setting a different one.
What happens to bookings already made when I change my prices?
They don’t change on their own. After you schedule a change, a pop-up lists bookings already made for dates on or after the start date. Ones still at the old price are ticked; ones booked at a different price are listed unticked, showing what they were booked at. Tick the ones to move to the new price, or keep their current prices. If you’d rather decide later, you can review them from the Treatments page at any time, even after the new prices have started. Updating a booking doesn’t send the client anything, and deposits already paid stay the same.
You can cancel a scheduled change before it starts. You’ll be asked to confirm, and you can move any bookings already made at the new price back to the current price.
Can I hide a treatment or choose who does it?
Can I work from more than one place?
Yes. On Settings → Venues add each place you work from, your own salon, a room you rent in someone else’s, a clinic you visit on Saturdays. Give each one an address and the days and hours you’re there. Leave a venue’s hours blank and it uses your usual opening hours.
Then edit a treatment on the Treatments page and tick the venues you do it at. Clients booking that treatment pick where they’d like to come, and only see times that venue is open. If a treatment is only done at one venue, there’s nothing to pick. The venue’s address is what they see on their confirmation and in their email, and it’s on the appointment in your calendar.
You can’t be booked at two venues at the same time. The one exception is a venue another person runs. Tick Someone else runs this venue and its diary is kept separate, so a colleague can be treating someone there while you’re at your own place.
If you work from one place, you don’t need any of this. Leave Venues empty and everything works as it always has.
Can I run a discount or special offer?
Yes. Open Offers (next to Treatments), give the offer a name your clients will see, and choose how much off: a percentage, or an amount in pounds. Then pick the dates it runs and whether it’s for all your treatments or just some.
Your booking page shows the offer on the treatments it covers, with the usual price crossed out while it’s on. Any booking for an appointment on those dates is priced with it, whether the client books online or you book them in yourself, and the deposit is worked out on the offer price. The appointment shows which offer it got and how much it saved.
Bookings made before you set the offer up keep their price, and so do bookings you move to another day. You can change an offer or stop it early at any time.
Money
Who pays the card-processing fees?
When do deposits hit my bank account?
How do I refund a client?
What does my Covered Beauty subscription include?
How do gift vouchers work?
Once your bank is connected on the Payouts page, anyone can buy a voucher from the Gift Cards link on your booking page: £25, £50, £75, £100, £150 or any amount from £5 to £1,000. The money goes to your Stripe account, and the code is emailed to the buyer, and to the person it’s for, if the buyer adds their email. The Gift vouchers page lists every voucher, gives you a buy link to share, and lets you issue a complimentary voucher.
Clients can use a code when paying their deposit online: if it covers the deposit, no card is needed, and if not, they pay the difference by card. At the salon, open the appointment and enter the code under Got a voucher?. Each voucher is used in full on one booking, and any value left over isn’t kept for later.
How does the loyalty programme work?
Messages and reminders
Do you send text reminders?
Yes. Every salon gets 50 free texts a month, which reset on the 1st. Switch reminders on in Settings → Text reminders and choose when they go out: 1 hour, 3 hours, 24 hours or 2 days before. With reminders on, clients also get a text when their booking is confirmed, moved or cancelled.
Texts go to UK mobile numbers and are kept to one message (160 characters). You can change the reminder wording in Email and text wording, send a one-off message from an appointment with Text this client, and try it on your own phone with Send test SMS (a test uses one of your texts). Email reminders are included on every plan and don’t use your texts.
What happens when I run out of texts?
Which emails do clients get, and can I change them?
How do aftercare emails work?
Can I send a text to lots of clients at once?
How do I get clients to come back?
How do reviews work?
Clients
Can I change a client's name, email or phone number?
How do consent / medical forms work?
Build your forms on the Medical forms page and choose which treatments each one applies to. When a client books one of those treatments, their confirmation email includes a secure link to complete the form before they arrive, and they’re reminded 48 hours before if it’s still not done. If they arrive without it, use Hand to client so they can fill it in on your tablet. Set a kiosk PIN in Settings → Kiosk PIN first: while your client has the device it shows only their form, until someone from your team enters the PIN. Forms are version-pinned, so a regulator years later can see exactly what questions were asked at the time.
Don’t need forms, for example, as a hair salon? Switch off Require medical forms on the same page and clients won’t be asked. We treat health information as UK GDPR Article 9 special-category data and only collect it with explicit consent. Staff need the Forms permission to see clients’ answers.
Can clients add their appointment to their calendar or phone wallet?
A client has asked me to delete their data. How do I do that under GDPR?
Your team
How do I invite my staff?
Can I control what each staff member can see and change?
Can each practitioner have their own hours and treatments?
Your account
Can I get alerts on my phone when someone books?
Can I add two-factor authentication?
How do I cancel my subscription?
How do I delete my account?
Privacy and security
Where is my data stored?
How is my clients' data protected?
Is something not working? How do I check?
I've found a security issue. How do I report it?
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