Multi-location salon software for Canada, and where the time zones draw the line
A second salon in the next suburb is mostly a calendar problem: who works where on Thursday, which address the client booked, which room is free at which door. A second salon in the next province can also be a clock problem. Slotora runs several locations on one account, priced by the people clients book rather than by the address — and tells you up front which pairs of Canadian cities cannot share one.
Add your second locationFirst, check your time zones
Every location on one Slotora account runs on the same clock, the one your account's postal code gives it. That is not a detail: a booking at ten o'clock has to mean ten o'clock at the door the client walks through, in her confirmation and in her reminder. So two locations can share an account only if they share a time zone all year round.
In practice: Toronto and Ottawa, Calgary and Edmonton, Regina and Saskatoon, or Halifax and Moncton can each share one account. Toronto and Winnipeg cannot, and neither can Calgary and Vancouver. Saskatchewan is the subtle one: Regina keeps standard time all year, so it matches Winnipeg in the winter and Calgary in the summer, and cannot share an account with either. Lloydminster follows Alberta's clock, as our province table does.
Locations in different zones need an account each. That is a real limitation, and it is better found here than in the first week of bookings at the second salon.
What a second address changes
One account can hold your own address and up to twenty more. Each of these follows the location.
Opening hours and closures
Each location has its own week and its own closed dates, so the downtown salon can open Sundays while the other stays shut.
Who works where, by day
A stylist can be at Kitsilano on Tuesdays and Main Street on Fridays. Her hours say which location each shift is at.
The client chooses first
The booking page asks which location, then shows only that location's people and times. Her confirmation, reminder and calendar file name the address.
Rooms belong to their location
The massage room at one address never frees up a time at the other.
Services and prices per location
Offer a service at chosen locations only, or charge a different price at one of them. A stylist's own price still comes first.
A front desk per location
Tie a reception login to its own location: her calendar, her bookings and her reports narrow to it. The client book stays shared.
Stock per location
A count, transfers between locations, and a low-stock level at each one.
Reports per location
The period report and its downloads can be narrowed to one address.
Statutory holidays across a provincial line
Slotora offers the statutory holiday list of the province in your account's postal code. If both your salons are in Nova Scotia, that is the whole story. If one is in Halifax and the other across the line in Moncton, the account's list is Nova Scotia's — Heritage Day in February, no Victoria Day — while New Brunswick's list has New Brunswick Day in August and Remembrance Day.
Each location has its own closed dates, so you close the Moncton salon on New Brunswick Day by hand, once a year, on that location's hours. It takes a minute, but it is a minute you need to know about.
Priced by people, not by locations
The Canadian subscription counts the people a client can book, across all your locations together, and stops rising at a cap. A colourist who works at both salons is one person, not two. Adding a location adds nothing to the price. Try it for 14 days first.
| Any number of locations | No charge |
|---|---|
| The first bookable person | C$19 a month |
| Each further bookable person | + C$10 a month |
| 6+ bookable people, all locations together | C$69 a month |
Prices in Canadian dollars. No GST/HST is added at present. No commission on bookings at any location. Card payments go to your own Stripe account at Stripe's Canadian rates.
How other systems charge for a second location
Per-location pricing is the norm. Square's Canadian Appointments page charges its paid plans per month per location.[1] Vagaro's Canadian pricing page says each location you add has its own independent cost.[2] Mangomint's pricing combines a monthly charge per location with a charge per user.[3] Boulevard's paid plans are priced per location.[4] Phorest's Canadian pricing page says multiple locations are supported and gives prices only on request.[5]
The limits, all of them
Read these before you merge two salons into one account.
- One time zone
- Locations in different zones cannot share an account; each needs its own.
- One province's holiday list
- The suggested statutory holidays follow the account's postal code. A location in another province needs its own closures entered by hand.
- Some money stays whole-account
- The pay statement, the rebooking report, the bookkeeper's view and the day-end close are not split by location yet.
- The phone catches up later
- The owner's location screens are in the browser; the app's own screens for them come with later versions. Clients are reminded by email at every location — texts to Canadian numbers are not sent yet.
- Québec locations
- Slotora is not open in Québec yet, and that covers a Québec location run from an account based in another province too.
Questions from owners with more than one salon
How many locations can one account have?
Your own address and up to twenty more, as long as they are all in one time zone and outside Québec.
Do I pay more for a second location?
No. The price counts bookable people across the whole account. A person working at two locations is counted once.
Can my salons in Toronto and Winnipeg share an account?
No. They are an hour apart, and every booking time would be wrong at one of them. Each needs its own account.
Can clients book at either location from one link?
Yes. The booking page asks which location first, then offers that location's people, services and times.
Can a stylist work at both?
Yes. Her hours say which location each day is at, and the booking page offers her at the right address on the right day.
Can a closed location keep its history?
Yes. A location is closed, never deleted, and Slotora refuses to close one while it still has upcoming bookings.
Two salons, one calendar, one price
Check the time zones, add the second address, and give each person the location for each shift.
Sources
Each competitor's own pricing page, read on the date shown. Several state no currency; we print none of their figures.
- Square — Appointments pricing (Canada) — https://squareup.com/ca/en/appointments/pricing · read
- Vagaro — pricing (Canada) — https://www.vagaro.com/en-ca/pro/pricing · read
- Mangomint — pricing — https://www.mangomint.com/pricing/ · read
- Boulevard — pricing — https://www.joinblvd.com/pricing · read
- Phorest — pricing (Canada) — https://www.phorest.com/ca/pricing/ · read