[Upcoming feature] Stylist pricing & duration

[aazhang]

Hi Health & Beauty sellers,

We’re excited to share that Stylist pricing & duration is in the works!

What it is

Set a different price and duration for each staff member who performs a service. For example, the same service could cost $65 with one stylist and $110 with another - without creating separate services or variations.

We’d love your feedback on two specific areas:

1. Setting a base price and duration

Each service would have a base price and duration that applies to your whole team. You’d only need to customize the staff members who charge a different price or need more time.

Anyone without a customization would continue using the base settings, including whenever you update them.

Does this match how you manage pricing today, or do you think of every stylist’s price and duration separately?

2. Changing the stylist on an appointment

Imagine a client books with Maya for $80, but Chris(who charges $120) ends up performing the service.

• Before the appointment: Should the price automatically update to Chris’s rate, or should the client keep the price they were originally quoted?
• After the appointment has been completed and paid for: Should you be able to charge or refund the difference, or should the payment stay the same while you update the stylist for commission and tip reporting?

If you have additional feedback or use-cases related to Styling pricing & duration, feel free to also share that below.

Want early access?

Reply to this post if you’re interested in joining the beta. We’ll add you to the list and follow up when it’s ready.

[EBSorlando]

Do you guys have an ETA on when we can get our hands on the beta?

[WarfleighBarber]

It would be nice to be able to funnel all new clients to certain barbers. so our most popular barbers dont have to take new clents and we can help build the newer barbers books 

[Groompella]

Interested in joining the beta.

[Nikalut]

Hi, I'd like to join the beta. 

[salon87okc]

Will this only be available on square plus then? It would be nice if I have square teams to have access to this without having to pay for it

[QueenAngie]

agreed!

[solsticebeauty]

THIS IS INCREDIBLE. This was one of the main pain points we have been experiencing since switching back to square although loving everything else! From what I read that set up sounds very similar to how vagaro and BLVD have theres set up and sounds great!

Do we have a time frame as to when this would be launching?

[Nikalut]

Could you please add a feature that lets us control which client details each staff role can see? Nail technicians should see only the client’s first name, without the last name or phone number. Administrators should be able to see the client’s full information.

This is very important to us for protecting our business and client relationships.

[AdamPaulSalon]

This sounds amazing!!! Our service list is a beast between all the different stylists and pricing we have. 

To answer the above questions:

1. That does NOT match how we utilize our services in our salon. Our salon charges for TIME by 15min increments. Depending on the stylists "level" they are assigned a 15min rate. That allows them to be completely transparent with a guest about the pricing of the service. For example, all our services available for online booking are set to be slightly longer (haircuts are set for 60mins and most colors are set between 2.5-3hr blocks) with the mindset of guests who book online are more than likely NEW guests and the stylists will need some extra time during their first visit. once the guest comes in and the stylist is able to assess the goal, what it takes to achieve it and what kind of maintenance is needed, then at check out they can customize the new guests timing  at the next appointment thus lowering the cost of the service. We do not want to put stylists in a limited box of "this service has to be this length of time for this amount of money" because the real commodity being sold is the stylists time, not the service itself. If a guest book a dimensional color and they come in with thinner, short hair and the whole color service only takes 1.5 hours, they should not be expected to pay the same price as a guest who comes in with thick, long hair who it might take a full hour just to places all the foils and the service ends up being 3+hours. 
The best case scenario with what your developing for us would to allow for customization of assigning a specific price point to each 15min block of time on each stylist. From there, we could set the time for each stylist of what they'd need for a new guest and that's the price that would be displayed online, and then moving forward, if the guests timing needs to be adjusted, it's simply a matter of adding or removing blocks of time. Along this same train of thought, it would be even more incredible to be able to go into each guests profile and set their tailored service timing so we when front desk goes to rebook them, their tailored timing is automatically there. 
This would also make reporting some much easier too! We set each 15min block of time at a price point to where we know 100% for sure that the business will never lose money on a service. Once we know the cost per hour of what it takes to run the business, divide that cost by 4 and that's the floor level cost. Then you factor in commission rates and profit to end up with a 15min rate that will always guarantee profit and success. In reporting, all that would need to happen is for the calculations to look at the open blocks of time on a stylists book and total up what's available for that day/week/month and you can see what is possible for them to earn solely based off the time they have available. 
I hope this helps and we'd be happy to explain more if needed. 

2. If a guest books with one stylist and then needs to see another stylist for whatever reason, that should be communicated to the guest well before they arrive and the guest be told and given the choice of proceeding. If the service is updated from Maya to Chris, then yes, the price should be updated to Chris's price point, and then it would be up to the salon to decide whether or not to allow for a discount on the ticket. As our salon is commission based, we need each stylists price reflected accurately on every ticket. We never want to undercut a stylists commission if there's a price difference because more than likely is Chris's price is that much higher, he probably also has a higher commission percentage too. 

[OGlashgirl]

I would love this feature. My lash artist takes a lot longer than I do for services and being able to customize the duration for her appointments automatically would be amazing! Next we need a feature to customize commission per different services!!

[papermoonbeauty]

This is SO helpful! Right now we have different variations for services but clients miss it and think there aren’t any available appointments for the service they pick 

I would also love to raise my prices as the owner but my staff isn’t ready to have higher prices yet. I would love to try this out once it’s in beta!

I’d also love the ability to restrict certain services from booking during specific hours. For example, I want to reserve my evening appointments/ certain days I work for facials only and some days where I just do waxing

Right now I’m using repeating appointments to block out my evenings but then clients can’t book online 

[OGlashgirl]

Totally agree!!!! I would love to restrict certain services for times! 

[Oliviastew22]

Yes this would be SO helpful for our spa. We have different providers who take longer to perform certain services. So this would totally help & also our more senior providers we would love to charge a different price for! 

[Offstriplash]

I'm not sure if this applies to the stylist and pricing features, but being able to set a time frame for the "add-ons" in the booking section would be helpful. Add-ons may require more time for the appointment and at this point you have to add time to the appointment separately though the add ons are available with a tap.

[Nikalut]

Yes we also need add on features 🙏🏻

[RavenandRose]

That would be very helpful! Different prices for different stylists for the same service. It might make configuring everything a lot easier too.

I would like to see integrated tips. When a customer pays for the service, the money goes to the salon to pay the employees and the tip goes directly to the stylist's bank account. They have an option for independent contractors, but it'd be nice for the employees.

[KNS]

Hello,

Thanks for asking for feedback. Here's how we handle this today, where it falls short, and what we'd need from the new feature.

How we handle it today

We use multiple variations per service and set the price and duration on each one. That covers the pricing, but it causes two problems:

1. Deposits can't be set by stylist. I can't set a $X deposit for Stylist 1 and a $Y deposit for Stylists 2–6. As a workaround, I set the fixed price to the deposit amount and set the display price to the full service price. When clients book online, they pay the deposit but see the full price.
2. The booking widget shows duplicate line items. If I build an advanced booking widget for a service with all stylists selected, each variation shows up as its own line item (e.g., "Variation A – Stylist 1" and "Variation B – Stylists 2–6"). This confuses clients and makes booking harder.

What the new feature needs

• Price, duration, and deposit set per stylist within one service, with no separate variations needed.
• Fixed price and display price controls kept as they are today.
• One line item per service in the booking widget. Clients should select Service A, then choose a stylist, and see that stylist's price and duration.
• Variations still available. Staff pricing and duration settings should also work inside each variation.

If we can't set deposits by staff member, either directly or through the fixed/display price workaround, this feature won't help us. Losing any setting that variations currently offer would also be a step backward.

Question 1: Base price and duration

Yes, this matches how we work. We have six stylists offering the same service at the same duration. Five charge the base price and one charges a premium. The base price and duration should apply automatically, and we should be able to quickly adjust the outliers.

Question 2: Changing the stylist on an appointment

• Before the appointment: The price and duration should update automatically to the new stylist's settings. Staff should be able to override them when needed.
• After payment: Square's current refund function works fine for correcting any differences.

Additional feedback: Policies

Cancellation policies shouldn't be locked to one business-wide setting. A master policy should stay available as the default, but businesses should also be able to set policies by service or by staff member, which could fit into this feature. Square's default message ("We ask that you cancel or reschedule with 7 days notice") regularly causes problems for us because we can't customize it.

Thank you,
Shane

[Hockeypet55]

I would be interested in testing the beta. I have not hired any baby aestheticians because I feel my prices Do not reflect somebody who is newer performing the same services  and I see it as a giant pain in the butt to have to create a service menu specifically for that person or edit any bookings that come in to give them a discounted price and enough time. 

[jun2955]

That sounds amazing but 

I’d still love to see an option for customers to book appointments for two people together—for example, a father and son—and choose the same start time when two barbers are available.

Right now, they have to make separate bookings. If they add two haircuts to one booking, the appointments are scheduled one after the other. A way to book both people at the same time would make scheduling much easier for families and barbers. Otherwise we have to cancel one appointment, then merge them together, change barber, It takes too much time.

[Azzz]

We’d love to see this to be happen!

[Simplystunnin01]

This is an amazing update.

would also love to be able to change service days and times.

this would be easy if you have certain specials or packages that are only available on certain days. And we also need to be able to take deposits via the appointment app not just online only.