Salon staff commission in Canada, worked out to the line
At the end of the month a salon owner has one question per person: how much do I owe her, and what is it made of? Slotora answers it from the appointments and payments already in the calendar — commission on services, a share of retail, product cost, hours from the clock — and shows the working, not just the total. Then you, your bookkeeper or your payroll provider pay it.
See last month's statementOne person's month, line by line
The statement opens on last month, not this one, because a half-finished month is a number that will still change. Each line says what it was worked out from.
Base
What her services brought in
The amount clients actually paid for her appointments, dated on the visit. Refunds are taken off, cancelled lines are left out, no-show fees count, and tips are never part of it.
Rate
The commission rate that applies
A rate for one service beats a rate for its category, which beats her own percentage. So colour can pay differently from cuts without a spreadsheet beside the till.
Bands
Tiers, if you use them
Either each slice of her month at its own band's rate, or the whole month at the band she reached. You choose which, per agreement.
Cost
Product cost, if your deal takes it off
A fixed amount or a percentage per service, taken off before her share. Never on retail, never on a no-show, never more than was paid.
Retail
Her share of what she sold off the shelf
With its own rate, set for the salon and changeable per person. It never borrows the service rate, which would pay forty per cent on a bottle of shampoo.
Vouchers
Gift cards and passes she sold
A share on the sale, if your agreement includes one. A card bought online has no seller and pays nobody.
Hours
Hourly pay from the clock
Closed clock-in shifts in the month times her hourly rate, added to any fixed pay and commission. A shift still open is listed, not paid.
The Canadian payroll work it does not do
Slotora is not a payroll system and moves no money. These stay with your payroll provider or bookkeeper.
Source deductions
No CPP, EI or income tax withheld, nothing remitted to the CRA, and no T4 or Record of Employment.
Vacation pay
Ontario's minimum is 4% of gross wages under five years of employment and 6% from five years.[3] Slotora does not add it.
Statutory holiday pay
Ontario works it out from the four work weeks before the holiday, divided by 20; B.C. uses an average day's pay.[4][5] Slotora works out neither.
The minimum-wage floor
Ontario requires commission pay to amount to at least minimum wage for each hour worked.[6] Slotora shows her hours beside her commission, but it does not test one against the other.
A Canadian payroll file
The statement downloads as a spreadsheet your bookkeeper can read. The ready-made payroll files are shaped for British and Hungarian payroll programs, not Canadian ones.
The payment itself
No direct deposit, no pay stub, no pay run. You pay by whatever means you use now.
Tips, and what your province says about them
A tip taken on a card is recorded against the payment it came with. If a tip was meant for more than one person, the owner or an admin can share it out, evenly or by hand, and the reports show each person's share. Tips stay out of every commission base.
Ontario's employment standards guide says an employer may not withhold, make deductions from or make an employee return her tips, and that an owner may share in a tip pool only if she regularly does, to a substantial degree, the same work as the staff in it.[1] British Columbia's rules also forbid withholding tips except through a tip pool, and allow an employer into the pool only if she does similar work.[2] Slotora records what was tipped and how you shared it. It does not pay anyone their share, and it does not check your pooling against these rules.
Two people, one visit
When a client books a colour with one stylist and a cut with another in one visit, each person's own service is hers. A service the two genuinely share is split half and half by default, and you can choose a different rule for the salon: everyone equally, or the person on the booking takes it all.
A self-employed renter is never part of a shared visit, so her money is never mixed into an employee's statement.
Said plainly
- The rules are set in the browser
- Rates, bands, product cost and shared-visit rules are edited on the pay screen in the browser. The phone shows their results, with the full set arriving in later app versions.
- No proration
- A pay agreement that starts on the 20th is not quietly worked out as eleven-thirtieths of a month. The statement says the agreement covered part of the month and leaves the arithmetic to you.
- Who sees it
- The owner sees everyone; each stylist sees her own row; the front desk sees none of it unless you give her login the report permissions.
How other salon software handles pay
Some competitors calculate, some pay. Phorest's Canadian rostering page says it calculates staff payroll by salary, by rostered hours or by clock-in and clock-out times.[7] Meevo's pricing page lists commission tracking and payroll reports in every plan.[8] Square's Canadian Appointments pricing page puts commissions in the Premium plan only.[9] Mangomint's payroll add-on pays employees and contractors directly, with W-2 and 1099 tax forms[10] — forms used by the American tax system, and its page does not say whether it runs Canadian payroll.
Questions about commission and pay
Is Slotora a payroll system?
No. It works out what each person is owed and why, and moves no money. Deductions, vacation pay, statutory holiday pay and the payment itself happen in your payroll software or with your bookkeeper.
Can different services pay different commission?
Yes. Set a rate per service or per category; it beats the person's own percentage. Tiered bands can sit on top.
Does commission include tips?
No. Tips are always outside the commission base. They are recorded separately and can be shared between people.
Can I export the month for my bookkeeper?
Yes, as a spreadsheet of each person's statement. There is no file built for a Canadian payroll program yet.
What about booth renters?
A renter is not on the statement as someone you pay. Her takings are kept apart from the salon's, and her rent is recorded on its own ledger.
Can I try the pay screen before subscribing?
Yes. Everything is open during the 14-day trial; run last month's appointments through it and compare with your own figure.
Sources
Provincial guides and competitors' own pages, read on the date shown. Quoted for context; check your own obligations with your province or an accountant.
- Government of Ontario — ESA guide: tips and other gratuities — https://www.ontario.ca/document/your-guide-employment-standards-act-0/tips-and-other-gratuities · read
- Government of British Columbia — tips and gratuities — https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/employment-business/employment-standards-advice/employment-standards/wages/tips-gratuities · read
- Government of Ontario — ESA guide: vacation — https://www.ontario.ca/document/your-guide-employment-standards-act-0/vacation · read
- Government of Ontario — ESA guide: public holidays — https://www.ontario.ca/document/your-guide-employment-standards-act-0/public-holidays · read
- Government of British Columbia — calculating statutory holiday pay — https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/employment-business/employment-standards-advice/employment-standards/statutory-holidays/calculate-statutory-holiday-pay · read
- Government of Ontario — ESA guide: minimum wage — https://www.ontario.ca/document/your-guide-employment-standards-act-0/minimum-wage · read
- Phorest — salon rostering software (Canada) — https://www.phorest.com/ca/features/salon-rostering-software/ · read
- Meevo — pricing — https://www.meevo.com/pricing · read
- Square — Appointments pricing (Canada) — https://squareup.com/ca/en/appointments/pricing · read
- Mangomint — payroll processing — https://www.mangomint.com/features/payroll-processing/ · read
Stop rebuilding the month in a spreadsheet
Enter each person's deal once. At the start of every month the statement is waiting, with its working shown.