Everything you need to run your shop on CutsToConnect, starting from zero.

01 — Start Here

Getting started

Three things happen before you ever see your dashboard: your account exists, you log in, and you accept the current Terms. That's it.

1. Get your login

   An admin either creates your shop for you and sends you an email/password, or you self-register through the sign-up page if that's how you found CutsToConnect. Either way, you end up with an email and password for your own individual login — this is called a Seat.

2. Log in

   Go to the login page and enter your email and password. If you forget your password, use the "Forgot?" link — it emails you a reset link.

3. Accept the Terms

   The first time you log in (and any time the Terms are updated), you'll be asked to accept them before the dashboard unlocks. This takes one click.

4. You're in

   You land on the Dashboard tab. Everything else in this guide starts from here.

02 — Orientation

The dashboard tour

Your dashboard has a left sidebar with every major area of the product. Here's what each one actually does, before we go deep on any of them.

Everything in the sidebar is also reachable from your phone through the separate mobile dashboard — that's the version you actually want open while you're standing at the chair.

03 — Set This Up First

Your booking bot

This is the single most important thing to configure before you tell anyone your site is live. It's the chat widget that lets a customer book themselves — on your website, or as a standalone link — without ever calling you.

What you're configuring

• Identity — your shop's display name, the bot's name, its icon or your uploaded logo, and an accent color.
• Key messages — the greeting a customer sees first, and the confirmation message after they book. Use {{name}} anywhere you want it to say their actual name.
• Services & pricing — the list of cuts/services and what each one costs. This is what customers pick from.
• Business hours — which days you're open, your hours, and how long each appointment slot is (e.g. every 30 minutes).
• Conversation steps — the order the bot asks things in (service, barber, date, time, notes). You can turn any step off, reorder them, or rewrite exactly what the bot says at each one.

Getting it live

1. Fill in the sections above

   Work top to bottom in the builder. A live preview on the right updates once you save.

2. Save Changes

   Nothing goes live until you click this.

3. Set as Live Bot

   If you're editing a new draft, this makes it the one customers actually see (only one bot can be live at a time).

4. Copy Embed Code

   This gives you a small snippet to paste into your own website. No website yet? Use "Open Live Bot" to get a direct link you can post anywhere — Instagram bio, a text to a client, wherever.

04

Walk-in queue & kiosk

Customers who show up without a booking join a live line — either by scanning a QR code you post in your shop, or by you adding them manually from the dashboard.

• The queue shows on your Dashboard tab in real time, ordered first-come-first-served.
• Customers see their own position and an estimated wait, based on the average cut time you set (see Growth Features).
• When you're ready for the next person, use Clear Chair — this opens checkout (see below) rather than just marking them done.

05

Client database

Every person who's booked, walked in, or been added manually lives here. This fills itself in as you use the product — you rarely need to add anyone by hand.

• Search and filter by status, category, or school.
• SMS Consent column shows who's actually opted into texts — this is set only by the client themselves (a checkbox, or texting back START/STOP), never by you.
• Referral Credit shows anyone owed credit from the referral program, with a one-click Redeem once you've honored it in person.
• Click Edit on any client to see their full history, notes, and update their details.
• Download Client Data exports everything to a spreadsheet whenever you want your own copy.

06

Calendar & appointments

Appointments booked through your bot land here automatically. You can also add one yourself directly from the dashboard.

• Manually scheduling a slot warns you if it overlaps something already booked.
• Recurring appointments (weekly regulars) are supported — a client can set one up right in the booking bot, and you'll see every future date it generated.
• Business hours and appointment length are configured once, in the booking bot builder — the calendar respects whatever you set there.

07 — Getting Paid

Checkout at the chair

CutsToConnect doesn't process payment for the haircut itself — you still collect cash or card in person, same as always. What it does is show you exactly what's owed before you do, discounts included.

When you clear someone from the walk-in chair, or mark a scheduled appointment complete, a checkout screen opens instead of just marking them done:

1. Confirm the price

   For a walk-in, enter what you're charging. For a booked appointment, the price is already filled in from what was booked.

2. Apply a student discount

   Only appears if this client verified a .edu email. Check the box to apply your shop's student discount percentage — skip it if the online price already had it baked in, to avoid discounting twice.

3. Apply referral credit

   Only appears if this client has a credit balance. Check it to knock the balance off this charge — it zeroes out their credit automatically.

4. Confirm & Clear Chair

   Logs the final price and marks the visit complete.

This exact flow exists both on the desktop dashboard and the mobile dashboard — use whichever you have open.

08 — All Optional

Growth features

Five things you can turn on or off independently, each with amounts you set yourself. None of them are required — everything defaults to on with sensible amounts, but you're in full control.

Set what you want and click Save Growth Features. Changes take effect immediately on your booking bot and walk-in queue — no redeploy, no waiting.

09

Custom deals

Your own promotions, written by you, shown right at the top of your booking bot — the first thing a customer sees when they open it.

1. Click "+ Add Deal"

   Found in the Automated Assistant tab.

2. Write a title and description

   e.g. "Buy 2 Get 1 Free" with details underneath. Saves automatically as you type out of the field.

3. Toggle it active

   Only active deals show to customers. Flip it off any time without deleting it.

10 — Multi-Barber Shops

Shared storefront

If your shop has several barbers who each run their own independent business — separate accounts, separate billing, separate clients — you can still present customers with one booking bot for the whole shop.

1. One barber creates the storefront

   Gives it a name and gets a join code.

2. Everyone else joins with that code

   Nothing about their own account changes — this just adds them to the shared bot's barber list.

3. Build the shared bot

   Same builder as your own personal bot, just tagged "Shared" — one identity, one set of hours, one service list for the whole storefront.

4. Embed the shared link

   Customers pick a specific barber by name — bookings land in that exact barber's own dashboard automatically.

11

Outreach & texting

Send text campaigns to your own clients — but only to people who've actually opted in.

• Smart segments — one click builds a list like "Lapsed Regulars" or "New This Month" from real visit history, no manual list-building.
• Every send respects SMS consent automatically — clients who haven't opted in are filtered out for you.
• Anyone can reply STOP at any time and it's honored immediately, recorded on our side (not just Twilio's).

12 — For The Chair

Working from your phone

The desktop dashboard is for setup and planning. Day-to-day, while you're actually cutting hair, you want the mobile dashboard open instead.

Getting there

• From the desktop sidebar, click Mobile Dashboard to open it directly.
• Text yourself the login link using the phone-number field right below it.
• Or scan your personal Login QR code — see QR Codes below. Keep this one private; it's your own login.

What it's built for

• See who's waiting and who's next without switching apps.
• Start a service, then Complete & Checkout when you're done — same discount-aware checkout described earlier.
• Send a quick templated text ("Running late," etc.) or jot a note on a client, one tap.

13

QR codes for your shop

Two different QR codes, two very different purposes — don't mix them up.

Both are available as downloadable PNGs from the sidebar, ready to print.

14

Analytics & billing

Analytics pulls straight from your real booking and checkout history — revenue, return-client rate, and trends over whatever date range you pick. Nothing to configure; it's just there.

Billing is your own subscription — one Seat, billed monthly through Stripe. Update your payment method or see past invoices any time from that tab.

15 — Their Side Of It

What your clients actually see

Everything above is what you configure. Here's the experience it produces for the person booking a cut.

• Booking online: opens your bot, enters their phone/name/email, optionally enters a referral code or verifies as a student, then walks through service → barber → date → time in a simple chat.
• Walking in: scans your Queue QR, enters their name and number, sees their live position and estimated wait.
• Managing their own booking: every confirmation includes a link where they can view, reschedule, or cancel — without calling you.

16

Getting help

Stuck on something this guide didn't cover? Use the Feedback tab in your dashboard — it goes straight to the CutsToConnect team, and replies show up in the same place.