Service revenue, product revenue, and a lot of small receipts.
We built WispBooks for our own coffeehouse — Kin Cafe in Robbinsville, NC — and found that a salon's books have almost the same shape. Two kinds of revenue, inventory that walks out the door, and costs that arrive as a handful of paper.
A café sells a $4 latte and a $12 bag of beans out of the same register. A salon sells a service and a bottle of product out of the same chair. Your Square sales arrive broken out by item and category, so you can see which is which — and the costs behind them get categorized as they come in, instead of being sorted out in March.
What that means in a salon
Product vs. service
Product purchases and service supplies get categorized apart as they arrive, so the cost side of each half of the business is legible on your P&L.
Booth rent & chair fees
Recurring rent, whether you pay it or collect it, categorized and evidenced every month without a reminder.
Tools that are assets
A $600 pair of clippers or a new chair is a fixed asset, not an expense. WispBooks flags it and asks before it posts.
Supplies in small pieces
Color, towels, capes, laundry, and licensing come in as scattered receipts and emails. All of it gets found and filed.