Payroll is where a lot of salon owners lose their evenings. Between rosters, attendance, tips, product commissions and service commissions, calculating pay by hand is slow and easy to get wrong — and getting it wrong is one of the fastest ways to lose good stylists. Here is how to run the whole cycle cleanly.
Start with clear roles and permissions
Before scheduling anyone, set who can see and do what. In Settings → User Roles, give your front desk, stylists and managers the right level of access — so a stylist can see their own calendar and clients, while only managers see full reports and payroll. This protects sensitive data and keeps the app simple for each person.
Build the schedule around real availability
Add each team member in the Staff section with their working hours, days off and the services they perform. Because your booking page reads these hours in real time, a good schedule does double duty: it rosters your team and controls exactly which slots clients can book. Keep it current — a stylist on leave should be marked off so they are never booked.
Track attendance without the paperwork
Turn on Settings → Timesheet Settings to automate proximity-based attendance and hours tracking from the app, instead of a paper register. Accurate hours feed straight into pay runs, so you are paying for time actually worked.
Set commission structures that motivate
Most salons use one or a mix of these. Decide what behaviour you want to reward:
- Service commission — a percentage of service revenue each stylist generates
- Product/retail commission — a percentage on retail they sell, to encourage upselling
- Tiered commission — a higher rate once a stylist passes a monthly target
Set each stylist’s rates once and let the system apply them to every sale, so commission is calculated as work happens rather than reconstructed at month-end.
Run pay day in minutes
Configure your pay cycle under Settings → Pay Run Settings — weekly, fortnightly or monthly — then generate a pay run that pulls together hours, service and product commissions, and tips for each person. Review, adjust anything one-off, and you have an accurate payslip breakdown without a single spreadsheet formula.
Stylists stay where they trust the pay. Getting payroll right is retention, not just admin.
Want payday maths done before you ask? Start your free Salonior trial — every feature included, 0% commission, no credit card required.