How to organize a salon schedule with several professionals

To organize the schedule of a salon with several professionals, set up each person’s hours separately, with their breaks, and define which services each of them does. Then decide who sees what: the front desk needs everyone’s schedule, and each professional needs only their own. That way clients can only book times when someone is free and knows how to do what they asked for.

One schedule per person, not one per salon

The most common mistake is using the salon’s opening hours for the whole team. The salon is open from 9 am to 8 pm, but the colorist comes in on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, and the afternoon stylist starts at 1 pm. If the schedule doesn’t know that, you’ll get bookings with someone who isn’t there that day.

Before you touch any system, write down each person’s week on a sheet of paper:

1. Which days they work and during which hours.
2. Their fixed breaks: lunch, an afternoon break, the school run.
3. Their day off during the week.
4. The absences you already know about: vacations, courses, doctor’s appointments.

Breaks belong inside the working hours, not as made-up bookings. A fake booking to cover lunch skews the month’s numbers, and sooner or later someone deletes it by mistake.

Who does each service

In a salon, not everyone does everything. One person does color and highlights, another only cuts and styling, and the nail technician doesn’t touch hair. A spa is the same: not every massage therapist does hot stone massage.

If the schedule offers a balayage with someone who doesn’t do it, the problem shows up on the day, with the client sitting there waiting. Make a simple table: services in rows, people in columns and a mark where it applies. It helps you set up the system and talk it through with the team.

If the same service costs a different amount depending on who does it, split it in two: “Women’s cut” and “Women’s cut · senior”, each with its own price and its own people. That way the client sees the real price before choosing. To build the list from scratch, the guide on your service and price list will help.

Choosing a professional or “Anyone”

Some clients want their usual stylist, and others just want a time that suits them. Offer both: the team with photos and names, and an option for anyone who is free.

That open option spreads the work more evenly and fills gaps in the day. New people on the team start getting clients without you having to assign them by hand.

Days off, vacations and absences

The weekly hours cover what repeats. One-off changes go in as blocks: “Carla is off on Friday the 24th”, “we’re closed on January 1”, “the downtown location closes on Saturday for stocktaking”.

Two rules that save you trouble:

• Enter the absence as soon as you know about it, not the day before. Until it’s entered, the schedule keeps offering those times.
• Blocking time doesn’t move bookings that already exist. Check whether anyone had an appointment that day and get in touch to change it.

Who sees what within the team

Not everyone needs to see the same things. The owner sees everything, money included. The front desk needs the full schedule and the client list, but not the billing. Each professional needs their own day and nothing else.

Separating this isn’t about mistrust. A stylist who opens her schedule on her phone and sees only her own clients finds what she needs faster than by looking for herself among the columns of the whole salon.

How it works in Citauno

In Citauno each professional has a profile with their weekly hours, their breaks and the services they do. These are the steps, in order:

1. Each person’s hours. In Team, edit the professional and fill in Member schedule: days, start and end times, and one or more breaks per day. The Copy from location button brings in the location’s hours as a starting point. If someone’s hours go beyond the location’s, only the hours when the location is open are offered. More detail in hours per professional.
2. Each person’s services. On the service’s page, or the professional’s, turn off the whole-team option and tick who does it. If a client picks several services in the same booking, only the people who do all of them appear. The step-by-step is in services per professional.
3. The professional step. With Show professional selection to clients turned on, clients see the team with photos and the Anyone option. If they choose it, Citauno assigns someone who is free at that time and does those services.
4. Absences. In Blocked times, or straight from the calendar, you block the whole business, one location or specific people. Each professional can add their own blocks. To make a block repeat every week, like a Monday team meeting, there’s a tool we switch on by request.
5. Access. In Accounts & access you invite each person with their role (see the table below).
6. Day to day. The calendar has day and week views, with one column per professional and filters by location, professional and status. You create a booking by tapping a free slot, and change its time or person with Reschedule or Edit booking. More in the calendar view.

The four roles

The owner or an admin also decides whether professionals can see clients’ phone numbers and emails; in new businesses they’re hidden. If you want to give someone the day-to-day without access to billing, the role is Manager. The full matrix is in team and roles.

If you have more than one location

Each professional profile belongs to one location, and each service can be offered at every location or only at some. Clients choose the location first and then see only that location’s team and services.

If someone works at two locations, today they’re set up as two profiles, one at each location, each with its own hours. The calendar’s location filter tidies up the view, but it isn’t a permission: a manager can change it and see both locations.

An example

Picture a neighborhood hair salon with four people: the owner, who cuts and does color, two stylists, and a nail technician who only comes in the afternoons. The schedule was a notebook at the front desk and a WhatsApp group where everyone posted their changes whenever they remembered.

The first step was sitting down with the team for an hour and writing out each person’s week, with lunches and days off. Then they marked which services each person does: color went to the owner and one of the stylists, and nails to the nail technician.

With that set up, a client booking from Instagram only sees real availability. The nail technician opens her schedule on her phone in the morning and sees the day’s appointments without waiting for someone to pass her the list. And when a stylist goes on vacation, her week is blocked once and nobody has to remember not to book clients with her.

Frequently asked questions

Can a professional see their colleagues’ schedules?

With the Professional role, no: they see only their own. If someone needs to see the whole salon’s day, like the person at the front desk, the right role is Manager.

Can I charge different prices for the same service depending on who does it?

Today the price and the duration belong to the service, not to the person. The way to do it is to create one service per price level and assign each one to the right people.

What happens to existing bookings if I change someone’s hours?

They stay as they were; the change applies to new bookings. If one ends up outside the new hours, move it with Reschedule and let the client know.

Can professionals change their own hours?

They can add one-off absences from their own schedule. The weekly hours are edited by the owner or an admin in Team, so nobody changes their week without the salon knowing.

If your salon already has more than one person seeing clients, try entering your team’s real week and see how the schedule looks. Citauno has a 15-day free trial, no card required. Take a look at the booking system for hair salons or check the pricing.