For barbershops

The chair waits for nobody

A barbershop fills up twenty minutes at a time, with people who walk in unannounced. Both fit here: whoever books from a phone sees what is still free today, and whoever walks in gets added by you, against the clock, and lands in the day where he actually sat down.

Free for 30 days, no card. Then USD 25 a month, flat. It never renews on its own.

Typical length
15–45 min
Booking window
60 days
Free trial
30 days

Six cuts in three hours. The whole afternoon is two lines, entered once.

The first thing we hear

“Nobody books here. You come in and you wait.”

And that stays true. What changes is that whoever waits knows how long, and whoever cannot wait takes 18:20 from the bus. The one who walks in gets added by name in two taps and lands in the day at the time he sat down. Nothing forces you to take a deposit or close the door: deposits ship switched off, and you turn them on only if you ever want to.

What gets lost between cuts

None of it is fixed by a notebook next to the till.

  1. Four people, one chair

    The ones on the bench have no idea whether the wait is twenty minutes or an hour. Whoever guesses wrong gets up and leaves, and that is the cut you did not do.

  2. “Any room at six?”

    Twenty messages a day asking the same thing. You answer them with clippers in your hand, or half an hour later, once the person has had his hair cut somewhere else.

  3. The dead Tuesday

    Tuesday afternoon is empty and Saturday cannot take another soul. Without seeing the whole week there is no way to move anyone from one day to the other.

What changes the afternoon

In the order you notice it, not the order of the brochure.

The one with no appointment

You add him by name and that is it: no account, no email, and he is filed at the time he sat down. The public list only offers hours that have not started yet, so while the clippers are running nobody takes that chair from a phone: what is bookable is the next one.

What is free right now

Whoever looks from a phone sees the hours still open today, not last week’s. And your own screen updates itself when someone books, so there is nothing to refresh between cuts.

  • A whole afternoon, twenty minutes at a time

    Enter Tuesday 4pm to 8pm once and it repeats every week. Each window you publish is one appointment, so twenty minutes for a cut and forty for a cut with a beard sit on the same day.

  • The one who wants Saturday

    Saturday is full and he joins the list anyway. If somebody cancels, the freed slot is emailed to the first few in the queue — up to five at once — and held for them for half an hour: nobody else sees it in that window, and the first of them to take it keeps it.

  • Two people do not both get 18:20

    If two tap the same slot in the same second, the database refuses the second one. It is not a check you run afterwards: it is a unique index that will not let the duplicate row in.

How it works

Three steps, and the middle one is no longer yours.

  1. 1

    Your dashboard

    Publish your hours

    Set your week once: which days you work and at what hours, how long an appointment lasts and the break you want between them, and your hours are split into times clients can book. Services can each have their own length. Then add the one-off dates and the days you are closed.

  2. 2

    What your client sees

    Your clients book themselves

    At any hour, from their own account. They pick a slot that is open and the booking is taken then and there, with the day and the time in their own list. Two people cannot end up with the same slot: the database refuses the second booking outright, rather than leaving you to catch it afterwards.

  3. 3

    Your dashboard

    You collect the deposit and the calendar fills

    If you ask for a deposit, the client transfers the money and uploads the receipt, and the deposit is settled once you approve it from your dashboard. A reminder goes out the day before and, if someone cancels, the waitlist hears about it by email.

One plan, no surprises

Start with a 30-day free trial. Subscribe when it ends, or do not: nothing is charged automatically.

Free trial

The whole product, for a month.

Free30 days

  • Every feature, nothing held back
  • No card to get started
  • It ends and nothing is charged

Premium

Recommended

For professionals taking bookings every week.

USD25per month

  • Unlimited appointments and clients
  • Deposits by bank transfer, with a receipt
  • Reminders, waitlist and site widget
  • It never renews on its own: you pay for the month you want

Common questions

What people ask before they start.

Can the man on the bench see how long the wait is?

He sees which slots are still free today, every time he opens your page. There is no sign reading “about twenty minutes”: there is 18:20 taken and 18:40 free, which is the same information without anyone having to guess it. Whoever does not want to wait takes 18:40 from his phone and goes for a walk.

If someone walks in, can I put him down for any time I like?

You file him against the clock: a walk-in goes into the nearest free minute within the next hour, because it is a record that somebody arrived rather than a booking for later. For next Saturday he books it himself from his phone. And if the slot is already taken, the database refuses it.

Can I open slots for one day only?

Yes. On top of the weekly pattern — Tuesday 16:00 to 20:00, repeating on its own — you publish one-off windows for a date. And the other way round: if you close one Tuesday you block that day and those hours stop being offered, without deleting the pattern and entering it all again afterwards.

Do my clients need an account?

That is up to you. Switch guest booking on — it arrives switched off — and a name and an email are enough: no account, no password, the booking is confirmed by email, and that same link is how they cancel. Leave it off and the client creates an account with a confirmed email address, and in exchange sees all their bookings in one place and cancels the ones they cannot make. Either way, they get the reminder by email the day before.

How do deposits work?

You decide whether to ask for a deposit, how much, and in which currency, and you write the transfer instructions your clients see. They transfer the money and upload the receipt; you look at it and approve or reject it from your dashboard. Until you approve it, the receipt shows as pending.

What happens when someone cancels?

Your dashboard updates without a reload. If nobody is waiting on that day, the slot goes back on the public list immediately. If people are queued, the freed slot is emailed to the first few of them and held for half an hour: for that stretch it is offered to nobody else, and the first of them to take it keeps it. If none of them does, it goes back on the public list.

Can I plug it into my website or my calendar?

Yes. There is a widget to paste into your page, so clients book without leaving your site, and an ICS feed you subscribe to from Google Calendar, Outlook or your phone. The feed is read-only: appointments flow into your calendar, but what you put in Google does not block hours here.

Does it work if I also see people without a booking?

Yes. Whoever turns up unbooked you enter by hand, with a name and no account, and they are filed at the time they arrived. And if you want air between two appointments, set a break between appointments in your schedule, and those minutes never reach whoever is booking.

How much does it cost?

The first 30 days are free, with everything included and no card. After that it is a flat monthly subscription: the same price whether you take ten appointments or two hundred, with no commission per booking or per deposit. If you decide not to continue, nothing is charged and your data stays where it is.

Try it on a Tuesday

Ten minutes to set up the week, then watch what Saturday does. No card, nothing to install.

Free for 30 days, no card. Then USD 25 a month, flat. It never renews on its own.

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Barbershop booking software · BookClock