Barber booking software for Canadian shops
Half your Saturday is booked and half of it walks through the door, and the software has to handle both without one barber's diary turning into fifteen-minute crumbs. Slotora gives booked customers a link and walk-ins a place in a queue they can watch from the coffee shop next door. 14 days to try it in the shop, then a monthly subscription in Canadian dollars per barber clients can book.
Try 14 days in your shopThe walk-in queue, and the one part that does not work in Canada yet
Switch the queue on and a customer scans a code or opens your queue link, types a name, picks a service and a barber or whoever is free first, and watches his place on his own phone. When a barber is ready he presses next, and the first person in line becomes an ordinary booking that starts now, in that chair. Names and numbers in the queue are deleted after two days.
Here is the gap. Elsewhere the customer can tick a box to get one text when he is second in line or about ten minutes away. Slotora does not send texts to Canadian numbers yet, so in Canada that text does not go out; the customer keeps an eye on his own page, which updates every half minute. Tell people that when they join, and nobody is surprised.
A walk-in you served before you had time to type him in can still be written in afterwards, with a start time in the past, so the day's record matches the day.
Built around the chair
Register as a barber and these come in as starting services with lengths. Prices are yours to set.
The menu
Cut at 30, skin fade at 45, beard trim at 20, cut and beard at 45, hot towel shave at 30, line-up at 15, kids' cut at 20, grey blending at 40. Rename them, retime them, delete what you never do.
Short cuts that pack the day
Choose which start times customers see. The strictest setting offers one start per working block, the earliest that fits, so the day fills forward from opening rather than leaving twenty-minute holes nobody books.
Tips at the chair
The counter's tip box has 10, 15 and 20% buttons worked out from the price of the cut, and a paired Stripe reader can be set to ask for a tip on its own screen. Interac debit is taken on the reader next to credit cards; an Interac tap over C$100 needs the card inserted and a PIN.
A page that shows your work
A gallery of up to twenty-four photos you upload, and a photo on each service, so a taper and a burst fade are pictures, not two words.
Per barber, per month
Billed in Canadian dollars after the trial. Only barbers customers can book are counted.
| A one-chair shop | C$19 a month |
|---|---|
| Each extra barber | + C$10 a month |
| 6 chairs and more | C$69 a month flat |
Prices in Canadian dollars. No GST/HST is added at present. Not a percentage of any cut, tip or card payment.
Where another system may beat us for a barbershop
- Square texts your customers; we do not, yet
- Square Appointments' Canadian pricing page, read today, includes text and email reminders on all three of its plans, including its $0 plan for a single location, and lists in-person debit at 0.75% plus 7 cents. If text reminders are what keeps your no-shows down, that matters.
- Booksy brings its own customers
- Booksy runs a consumer app where people search for a barber. Slotora's directory in Canada is small, so plan on your Instagram and your regulars, not on us, for new faces.
- Our queue cannot call him back by text
- As explained above, the queue's nearly-up text is not sent to Canadian numbers until texting opens here.
Ontario certifies barbers; most provinces do not
According to the federal Job Bank, trade certification for barbers is compulsory in Ontario and available on a voluntary basis in Yukon. Elsewhere a barber may still need a hairstylist certificate, depending on the province and the work. Slotora does not check anyone's certificate.
One payroll rule applies across Canada: the Employment Insurance Regulations treat work in a barbering or hairdressing establishment as insurable even for a chair renter who is not the owner or operator, and the CRA expects the owner to pay both shares of the EI premiums. Our hair salon page explains it in more detail; your accountant should have the last word.
Barbers ask
Can I run walk-ins and appointments from the same diary?
Yes. Booked customers sit in the diary as usual, the queue waits beside it, and each walk-in becomes a booking the moment a barber calls him. The queue screen shows the estimated wait from the bookings already in each chair.
Should a fifteen-minute line-up need a deposit?
Usually not, and you can leave it without one while longer services carry a deposit. Deposits sit on each service and go into your own Stripe account.
Can customers tip by card?
Yes. At the counter you add the tip with the percentage buttons or by hand, or a Stripe reader asks for it on screen. Tips are stored apart from the price of the cut and printed on their own line of the receipt.
Does the shop get text reminders?
Not in Canada yet. Booked customers get email confirmations and reminders, with a link to move or cancel the booking themselves.
Is there a commission when a customer books online?
No. The monthly subscription after the trial is all Slotora charges. Stripe charges its own fee on card payments.
Put the queue on the counter this Saturday
Set your cuts at their real lengths, choose how start times are offered and print the queue code. 14 days before you pay for it.
Checked on 10 November 2026
Government pages for the trade rules, the competitor's own page for its offer.
- Job Bank — barber requirements — https://www.jobbank.gc.ca/marketreport/requirements/16446/ca · Read on
- Justice Laws — Employment Insurance Regulations, s. 6(d) — https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/regulations/SOR-96-332/section-6.html · Read on
- CRA — barbers and hairdressers — https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/tax/businesses/topics/payroll/payroll-deductions-contributions/special-situations/barbers-hairdressers.html · Read on
- Square — Square Appointments pricing, Canada — https://squareup.com/ca/en/appointments/pricing · Read on Plan prices shown with a dollar sign; the page does not name the currency.