Salon Software - 5 Reasons To Use It

If you run day spas or beauty salons, chances are that you've considered purchasing salon software to help run your business. Being a small business owner means wearing a multitude of hats and computerized programs that help streamline some of the processes. Keeping one's finger on the pulse of a bustling business is much simpler with a bit of help. Here are some ways that a high quality salon software program can come in handy:

1) Bookkeeping: Keeping up the financial books of a day spa or beauty shop isn't easy. There's money coming in and out of the operation almost hourly. Customers pay for their services such as haircuts, manicures, pedicures, hair color as well as for purchasing products such as conditioners, shampoos, styling aids and more. These incoming streams of cash must be tracked, taxed and recorded for the Internal Revenue Service. Paying employees including stylists, cleaning staff and handymen, paying rent, utilities, stocking products, equipment and tools such as scissors, chairs and more will all need to be documented, too. Doing all the payroll tax paperwork is another level of this task. Having a good computer program will make keeping up with the bookkeeping much easier.

2) Licenses: Salons must be licensed in order to operate and each individual that is performing cosmetology services much have a license, too. Keeping track of all the expiration dates can be a pain unless there is a computerized program monitoring it.

3) Inventory: No one wants to run out of shampoo, conditioner, nail polish or lotion when they're running a business. Tracking the inventory with software will mean the cupboards will never be bare. Customers will always be able to purchase what they need and stylists, aestheticians and others will have the supplies to do their jobs.

4) Hiring employees: Not only must you pay the employees of your shop, you must also obtain and keep track of all of their paperwork such as W-2s, 1099s, social security cards, I-9s, citizenship documents, personnel reviews and more. Having a computer system to input all the info will spare the file boxes an overflow of paper stacks.

5) Advertising information: Every business needs to have brochures, logos, business cards and more to advertise their services and products. If ads are placed online, in magazines, newspapers or other sources, keeping copies of all the files on a computer will mean that it's ready to roll when it's time to run another ad, print up more brochures, business cards or signage.

A successful small business of any kind requires that the owner wear a variety of hats. Many salons' owners also have their own clients to tend to, as well. Unless a person is a superhero, it's tough to juggle such a diverse load of tasks without some help. Luckily, technological advances have given everyone helpers via a keyboard and computer screen. With salon software, an owner can accomplish bookkeeping, licensing, stocking inventory, hiring and maintaining employees, and advertising in an organized manner. With all that taken care of, focusing on the customers will be much easier.