Nail salon software for bookings, deposits and rebooking

Running a nail studio usually means paying for a stack of tools that barely talk to each other: Fresha or Square for bookings and a card terminal, Xero for invoicing, and maybe Mailchimp or a review tool on the side. Each subscription adds up, Fresha takes a commission on your new-client online bookings, and you still end up copying client details between systems or reconciling the till at the end of the day. OneBookPlus brings bookings, deposits, a POS with retail and packages, reminders, review requests and GST accounting into one platform built for Australian nail technicians and nail salons, with no commission on your online bookings.

The system is designed around the client journey. A new client finds your booking page through Instagram, TikTok, Google or your website and books online, choosing the service, the tech and a time that suits them, and paying a deposit to hold the chair. They get an instant confirmation, then an SMS reminder before the appointment to keep the slot from going cold. When they arrive, you can see their full card: previous shapes and colours, the soak-off they're due for, product allergies and any notes. At checkout you ring up the service, any retail and a prepaid package on one GST invoice, and the deposit is applied automatically. On the delay you set, OneBookPlus sends a review request with a direct link to your Google listing.

Why deposits matter for nail work

A full set of acrylics or a detailed nail-art appointment can tie up your chair for two or three hours. A single no-show is not a missed haircut, it is most of an afternoon of income gone, and a slot another client would have taken. Requiring a deposit at the moment of booking, a fixed amount or a percentage of the service, filters out the bookers who never intended to show, and the deposit is credited against the final invoice when they do. Paired with a 24-hour and same-morning SMS reminder, it is the most effective protection you have for a diary full of long appointments. Set the amount high enough to mean something and low enough that a genuine client does not flinch, and state the terms on the booking page rather than in a message afterwards.

POS, retail and packages

At the front desk, OneBookPlus is your till. Ring up the service, add retail such as cuticle oil, base and top coats, files and aftercare, and sell prepaid packages like a 5-visit gel pack on the same screen. Retail stock counts down as you sell, so you know when to reorder, and package balances are tracked against each client so a prepaid visit is simply redeemed at checkout. Everything lands on one GST-compliant invoice with your ABN, and the takings flow straight into your books.

Takings, expenses and BAS

Every sale, service, retail item and package redemption posts to the same set of books. Card payments taken through the invoice Pay Now link clear the invoice on their own. Payments taken on your own terminal and cash takings are entered or imported from a statement at end of day and matched against the bank deposit, there is no live bank feed at the moment. Product costs, rent and supplier bills are tracked and categorised so you can see real profitability rather than just turnover. GST is calculated on every invoice and expense, and when BAS time arrives you export a clean summary of GST collected and GST paid in one click. This is general information rather than tax advice, confirm your circumstances with your accountant or the ATO.

Hygiene, registration and what belongs on the record

Nail work sits in a grey area that catches new studio owners out. Premises carrying out skin-penetration or higher-risk personal-care procedures generally need to register with the local council or state health department and follow infection-control requirements, and those rules are written state by state rather than nationally, which is why NSW Health and Victoria Health are both cited in the sources on this page. Standard gel and acrylic work may fall inside or outside the skin-penetration definition depending on where you trade, so the safe move is to check your own state before you fit out a room. Whatever the answer, the client-side record matters: allergies and product reactions on the client card, the brand and base used at each visit, and a note when a client asks for something you have declined to do. None of that is a compliance system, it is the history that lets any tech in the studio pick up a client safely and answer a question months later. The salon and spa software page covers the same ground for studios blending nails with beauty treatments.

Pricing a chair by the hour, not by the service

Nail pricing is quoted per service but earned per hour of chair time, and the two only agree by accident. A full set at a good price is a poor earner if it takes three hours and a soak-off at half the price turns the chair over twice in the same window. The way to see it is to work out what an hour in your chair has to return once rent, product, consumables and the hours you are not on the tools are covered, then check each service on the menu against that figure. The free hourly rate calculator does that arithmetic, and the markup and margin calculator does the same for the retail shelf, where a thin margin is easy to miss because the dollar amounts are small. Package pricing needs the same test: a discounted 5-visit pack is worth selling for the loyalty it buys, not if it prices your best hours below cost. If you are weighing the commission model against a flat subscription, the OneBookPlus and Fresha comparison sets both out with the numbers.

Getting started

Sign up free, no credit card, no lock-in contract. Add your services, durations and prices, set your deposit rules, and upload your logo to brand your booking page. Share the link in your Instagram bio, on TikTok and on your Google Business profile. The free plan supports a branded booking page, a client CRM with photo and formula notes, automated reminders and GST invoices, which is enough to test the system on real appointments before upgrading, and never a commission on your bookings.