Marigold Hair and Beauty

Clients, the appointment book, services, commission, retail stock and gift vouchers for a salon.

Download 514 KB16 tables, 17 queries, 10 reports, 4 print templates and 34,042 invented records, dated back from 2026-10-22.

Rutba Data Files with Marigold Hair and Beauty, the salon sample, open at its print template Receipt: a page laid out with the business's own name and address at the head and one of its records filled in, beside the list of the database's tables and how many records each holds — Marigold Hair and Beauty in Rutba Data Files, made with its invented records and open at its print template Receipt.

Overview

For a salon, barber or beauty room that takes bookings, pays its team commission and sells a little retail over the desk. Marigold Hair and Beauty is an invented high-street salon with four stylists, a beauty therapist and a junior. It opens Tuesday to Saturday, with a late night until eight on Thursday.

The records cover the last thirteen months of the appointment book and the next six weeks. Clients come back on their own rhythm, a gents cut every few weeks and a root tint every six or so, and some stop coming. One stylist left about five months ago and most of her clients moved to the stylist who replaced her. December is the busiest month and January the quietest. A few clients cancel late or do not turn up, and the salon keeps their deposit.

Every service done is kept with the price charged, which depends on whether a junior, a stylist or a senior stylist did it, and new clients have 20 per cent off their first visit. Colour work and lash lifts need a patch test in the six months before. Retail and back-bar products are counted in and out as they are sold or used, and a weekly order goes in on Tuesday for whatever has run low. Two lines have been on back order with the supplier for the last few weeks. Gift vouchers are sold, mostly in December and before Mothering Sunday, and redeemed against bookings.

The salon is registered for VAT, and its prices, like any salon's menu, have VAT in them. Each visit paid for at the desk has a numbered receipt that lists the services and any products bought at the same time, with the VAT within each line, the deposit already paid and any gift voucher used. It prints the gift voucher itself, a commission statement for each stylist each month, and a letter confirming an appointment.

In Rutba Data Files, choose Salon on the start screen, then With sample records to look around, or Empty for the same design with nothing in it.

It suits, with small changes

A barber shop
A nail bar
A beauty or brow and lash studio
A massage or spa room
A dog groomer
A mobile hairdresser

Read on

Tutorial: the everyday tasks: 7 everyday tasks, step by step, each naming what to open.
Tables, fields and relationships: every field of 16 tables, and how they are related.
Queries, forms, reports and print templates: what each one shows, its criteria and calculated columns, and when to print it.

Things you should know

Everything in a sample's records is invented: the business, the people, their addresses, e-mail addresses on example domains that reach nobody, and phone numbers from the ranges kept for drama and fiction. Tax, company and bank numbers are placeholders of zeros.
The dates count back from the day the file was made, and some run on into the weeks after it, as real bookings and due dates do. Made from the Data Files start screen, a sample is dated from that day. Queries that compare with today (overdue, due this week) show more as a downloaded file gets older.
To start empty, choose the same business on the start screen and then Empty: the same tables, queries, forms, reports and print templates, with nothing in them but the Start Here guide.
Your records live in one file on your computer. Keep copies: File, Save As makes one, and a copy on another drive or in your own cloud storage keeps it safe if this computer is lost. Close the database before copying the file by hand.
Every change to the design (a new field, a renamed table) is a numbered step that Data Files keeps, so you can see what was changed and when.
Prices are VAT inclusive. A receipt shows the VAT within each line, worked out as the price less the price divided by one plus the rate, rounded to the penny; the receipt's VAT is those added up. Change the 0.2 in Services and Products if your rate is different, or make it 0 if you are not registered for VAT.
The services of a visit are kept twice on purpose: in Booking Services, as booked, and in Receipt Lines, as charged and printed. A receipt should not change after it is handed over, so the till keeps its own copy.
Every booking, past or to come, can print an Appointment confirmation. Choose the booking you want before printing; printing them all gives thousands of letters.
Commission is worked out on takings with VAT in them, as many salons pay it. To pay it on takings before VAT, divide the price by 1.2 in the commission queries.
The owner takes no commission, so she has no statements. Staff who have left keep their records with Active set to No.
Stock is not counted by Data Files on its own: In Stock goes down as products are sold or used at the basin and up as deliveries arrive. In the sample this was worked out while the records were made; in your own salon, change In Stock when you add a sale or a delivery, or count the shelf each week.

Starting with your own records

Start with Business, your own name, address, VAT number and the words at the foot of a receipt. Then Suppliers, then Staff with their level and commission rates, then the Services menu with a price for each level. Add your Products next, with their supplier and reorder level. Clients can be added as they book. Then make Bookings and add the services for each in Booking Services, changing the price where you charge something different. Record Product Sales and Stock Deliveries as they happen, and Gift Vouchers when you sell them. Each visit paid for gets a record in Receipts with its Receipt Lines, and at the end of each month a record in Commission Statements, with its lines, for each person on commission.

Making it yours

Every change to the design is a numbered step in Data Files, so a change can be seen and undone.

A barber can drop the beauty services, keep Junior and Senior prices and add a Walk-in choice to Booked Via.
A dog groomer can rename Clients to Owners and add a Pets table pointing at it (name, breed, size, temperament), then make each booking point at a pet.
To pay commission only above a target, add a Target field to Staff and a calculated column in Takings by stylist last month that takes it off the takings.
Add a Reminder Sent yes/no to Bookings and tick it when the reminder goes, so nobody sends two.
For a nail bar or brow studio, add a Station or Room field to Bookings to show which chair or room each appointment uses.
Change the patch test rule from six months to another period by editing 180 in the Patch tests due query.
Add a Tips field to Bookings and a query that totals tips by stylist each month.
To sell products over the counter without a booking, add a Client field to Receipts and leave Booking empty; the Receipt template can then print {Client} instead of {Booking.Client}.
Give receipts for gift vouchers too: add a Receipts record with one line, Kind Voucher and Tax Rate 0, since VAT on a voucher is paid when it is spent.

Questions people ask

How do I print a receipt again for a client?: Run Receipts last 7 days, or open the Receipts form and find the number. Then open the print template Receipt, choose that receipt and print it. It prints exactly as it did on the day.
Where does the VAT number on the receipt come from?: From the Business table, with the salon's name, address and phone. Change it there once and every receipt, voucher, statement and letter takes the new details.
A client cancelled with less than 48 hours' notice. What do I do?: Set the booking's Status to Cancelled and type the day in Cancelled On. Leave Deposit Refunded unticked, so the deposit is kept. No-shows by client counts late cancellations and no-shows together.
How do I pay part of a bill with a gift voucher?: In the sample a voucher is used in full on one visit. Type its value in Voucher on the receipt and the rest in Paid Today, with Paid By as Gift voucher and card. To let a balance stay on a voucher, add a Balance field to Gift Vouchers.
Why does the commission statement for a stylist not match the takings report?: Takings by stylist last month counts services only; the statement adds the retail they sold, at the retail rate. Both use completed appointments only.
How do I start with my own salon instead of Marigold?: Open the sample empty and fill in Business first. Then add your suppliers, staff, service menu and products, in that order, before any client or booking.

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