Salon software in the Philippines, a buyer's guide.

A salon earns from chairs and hours. The system has to know who is booked with whom, who is waiting, which stylist is free, and what each client had done last time.

• An appointment book per stylist and station, with a waitlist and a walk-in queue.
• A client card with past services, colour formulas, patch tests and notes on conditions.
• A menu priced by stylist level, with packages, memberships, gift cards and promo vouchers.
• The counter sale: services, products, tips and several ways to pay on one receipt.
• Stock of products used in services and sold at retail, received, adjusted and moved between branches.

Most salons pay stylists a commission on services and products, often at different rates by level or by service. The commission should be computed from the sales themselves and paid in a payout run, with each entry traceable to the receipt it came from.

Where a salon collects a service charge, RA 11360 requires all of it to be distributed equally among the covered employees, by actual hours or days worked. A system should keep the service charge apart from the commission and show how each run was shared.

Every sale needs a BIR-registered invoice or receipt, and the system that issues them must meet the BIR's rules for computerised receipts. The Ease of Paying Taxes Act (RA 11976) made the invoice the main document for the sale of services as well as goods.

Senior citizens (RA 9994) and persons with disabilities (RA 10754) are entitled to discounts on certain goods and services; the salon should know which of its services are covered and record the ID when one is given. Under the Gift Check Act of 2017 (RA 10962), a gift check may not carry an expiry date, so a gift card balance has to stay on the books until it is used.

A notebook and a spreadsheet can run one chair. With several stylists and a second branch, the arguments start: double bookings, commissions disputed every payday, colour stock that runs out in the middle of a service, and gift cards nobody can check. A system ties the booking, the sale, the commission and the stock to the same record.

Client details, and notes on scalp or skin conditions and allergies, are personal information under the Data Privacy Act (RA 10173). Only the staff who serve the client should see them.

With more than one branch, the owner needs each branch's takings, the stylists ranked, and the gift cards and packages still owed to clients. Payouts and sales should post to the books, and staff shifts and time off should sit beside the bookings so a stylist on leave cannot be booked.