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Guide for Salon Managers

12-15 minutes

Introduction

As a Manager in Luminate, you handle day-to-day operations and team supervision. You're the bridge between the administrative team (Owners and Admins) and the front-line staff. Your role includes managing appointments, approving leave for your team, viewing reports, and ensuring smooth daily operations.

This guide explains your complete permission set—what you can do, what you can see, and where your role's boundaries lie. Perfect for senior stylists who've been promoted to a supervisory position or floor managers overseeing daily operations.

Who this is for: Team members assigned the Manager role in Luminate.

What you'll learn:

  • Your complete access level and permissions
  • Managing appointments, the waitlist and the roster
  • Approving leave for staff members
  • Viewing reports (without export)
  • Processing transactions, refunds and cash drawer reconciliation
  • Adjusting client account credit
  • Sending deposit payment links to customers
  • Using Lumen, the AI support assistant
  • Understanding your role's limitations

Time to complete: 12-15 minutes

Prerequisites

Before you begin:

  • You should have received a login invitation and completed setup
  • Helpful to have read Tutorial 1.3: Understanding Roles and Permissions
  • Familiarise yourself with the basic navigation (Tutorial 1.1)

What Managers Can Do

Managers have operational access focused on team supervision and daily management:

Feature Area Manager Access
Dashboard Full access with all statistics
Appointments Create, edit, cancel any appointment
Waitlist Full management
Skin Tests Full management
Transactions Process sales, view all transactions
Refunds Yes - Process refunds
Cash Drawers Open, close, reconcile, record movements and adjustments
Reopen a closed drawer session Yes - shared with Owners and Admins
Customers Full customer management, including merging duplicates
Account Credit Yes - Adjust client credit balances
Staff View only - Cannot add or edit staff
Staff Accounts No access - Cannot manage logins
Roster Full schedule management
Leave Approve Staff and Receptionist requests only
Services Create, edit, delete services
Products & Colour Full inventory management
Reports View only - Cannot export
Payroll & Leave Report No access
Salon Settings No access
Notifications No access
Messages Full access - View, send, close, archive
Lumen AI Access to all but two support chat tools
Deposit Links Send deposit payment links to customers
Billing No access

The Manager Dashboard

Location: Sidebar → Dashboard

As a Manager, you see the full management dashboard. It's in two parts.

Right Now

The panel at the top of the page is the live operational view — what needs attention today:

  • Next appointment (or "No more appointments today") with a link straight to the calendar
  • Skin Tests Due - customers needing a patch test
  • Low Stock - products at or below their reorder level
  • High Priority Waitlist - waitlist entries flagged as urgent
  • Pending Deposits - unpaid deposits and their total value
  • Counters for today's appointments, low stock, birthdays, waitlist size and remaining SMS credits

Each one links through to the relevant page, so this is the fastest way to start your day.

Today's Appointments and Analytics

Below Right Now are two tabs:

  • Today's Appointments - the day's bookings with a completion counter (for example "19/33 done"), filterable by stylist
  • Analytics - Sales (total takings, transaction count, and the split between services and products, with a comparison against the previous period), Operators (per-staff productivity), Re-Booking (how many clients left with another appointment) and Revenue Trend (a daily revenue graph with a daily average)

Use the period selector on the Analytics tab to change the timeframe:

  • Today - Current day only
  • This Week - Monday to today
  • This Month - First of month to today

Appointment Management

Location: Sidebar → Appointments

You have full control over the appointment calendar.

Viewing Appointments

The calendar shows appointments for all staff. You can:

  • Switch between Day, Week and List views
  • Filter by specific staff members
  • See appointment status through colour coding
  • View appointment details by clicking on them

Booking Appointments

  1. Click an empty slot on the calendar or use New Appointment
  2. Select or create the customer
  3. Choose the staff member
  4. Select the service(s)
  5. Confirm the date and time
  6. Click Save

Editing Appointments

  1. Click on the appointment
  2. Click Edit
  3. Make your changes
  4. Click Save

You can also drag appointments to reschedule them on the calendar.

Cancelling Appointments

  1. Click on the appointment
  2. Click Cancel
  3. Confirm the cancellation
  4. Optionally record a reason

Sending Deposit Payment Links

If an appointment requires a deposit, you can send the customer a secure payment link instead of taking the deposit at the till:

  1. Open the appointment details
  2. Click Send Payment Link
  3. Choose the channel (email, SMS or WhatsApp) and confirm the amount
  4. The customer receives a message with a link to pay online
  5. You can track whether the deposit has been paid from the appointment detail page

The Send Payment Link button only appears when all of the following are true:

  • The appointment has a deposit that hasn't been paid yet
  • The appointment status is Scheduled, Confirmed or Arrived (a cancelled or completed booking can't be paid online)
  • The salon has completed Stripe Connect setup — without it, online deposit collection isn't available at all
  • The customer has an email address or a mobile number on file

If you'd rather take the deposit in person, use Take Deposit instead, which opens the till with the deposit pre-loaded. See Tutorial 8.4 for the full deposit workflow.

Managing Appointment Status

The appointment detail page has a row of status buttons. Click one to move the booking straight to that status — there is no fixed sequence you have to step through:

Status When to use it
Scheduled Booked but not yet confirmed by the customer
Confirmed The customer has confirmed they're coming
Arrived The customer is in the salon
Complete The service is finished
No Show The customer didn't turn up
Cancel The booking was cancelled

There is no "In Progress" status — a booking goes from Arrived straight to Complete.

The Status card on an appointment, showing the Scheduled, Confirmed, Arrived, Complete, No Show and Cancel buttons with Complete currently selected

Roster Management

Location: Sidebar → Roster

Managers can fully manage the staff roster.

Creating Shifts

  1. Click on an empty slot for a staff member and date
  2. Set the start and end times
  3. Add break duration if applicable (in minutes)
  4. Add optional notes for internal reference
  5. Click Create Shift

Shifts are created one at a time — there is no recurrence option on the shift itself. To repeat a pattern across future weeks, use duplication instead.

Editing Shifts

Use the pencil icon in the top-right of a shift block to change its times, break duration, or notes, and the trash icon to delete it. You cannot move a shift to a different staff member — delete it and create a new one on the right row.

Duplicating Rosters

Duplication is a three-step wizard — Staff → Dates → Review:

  1. Click Duplicate in the week navigation bar at the top of the Roster page (you don't need to be on the source week — the wizard asks)
  2. Select staff — tick who to include
  3. Choose weeks — the week you're copying, how many weeks form the pattern (up to 8 for a rotating rota), the repeat interval, and the first and last week to write into. Bank holidays are excluded by default
  4. Review changes — a server-run dry run showing exactly what will be created, and what to do with any shifts already in those weeks (Keep them, Replace clashes, or Clear the weeks). Deleting options need an explicit acknowledgement
  5. Click Duplicate roster

There is no undo, which is why the Review step states the exact counts. See Tutorial 5.3 for the full walkthrough.

Roster Change Notifications

Staff aren't emailed for every shift you save. Changes are collected as you work, and each affected staff member gets one summary email once you've stopped editing for about 30 minutes (or every 4 hours if you're editing on and off). Changes to a shift starting within the next 24 hours go out almost immediately, and anything you undo before the summary sends is never emailed at all. You can plan a whole week without flooding anyone's inbox.

This covers duplicated shifts as well as ones you add, edit or delete by hand on the grid — so publishing a duplicated roster reaches the team through the same summary email, without you having to tell them separately.

Public Holiday Indicators

The roster shows warnings when you try to create shifts on public holidays. The system won't prevent it but will ask you to confirm.

Leave Approval (Limited)

Location: Sidebar → Leave

Managers can approve leave requests, but with hierarchy restrictions.

Who You Can Approve

Whose request Can You Approve?
Staff ✓ Yes
Receptionist ✓ Yes
Another Manager ✗ No
Your own ✗ No
Admin ✗ No
Owner ✗ No

Key point: you cannot approve leave for another Manager, for an Admin, or for yourself. Those requests go to an Admin or the Owner. (Admins are the only role that can approve their own leave.)

The Leave Page

Leave opens on your own allowance card first — base days, days carried over, total, used, pending and remaining, plus an estimate for next year. Below that is the full list of requests for the whole team, filterable by status, staff member and year.

Approving Requests

  1. Navigate to Leave
  2. Find a Pending request from a Staff member or Receptionist
  3. Click View to open it
  4. Review the dates, leave type and any clashing appointments the system has flagged
  5. Click Approve or Reject
  6. Optionally add a note

Your Own Leave

You can request leave like any other staff member:

  1. Go to Leave → Request Leave
  2. Select leave type and dates
  3. Submit the request

Your requests go to an Admin or Owner for approval.

Processing Transactions and Refunds

Location: Sidebar → Transactions (or the New Sale button in the top bar)

Managers can process sales and refunds.

Processing Sales

  1. Click New Sale
  2. Select or create a customer
  3. Add items (services, products)
  4. Apply any discounts
  5. Record payment method(s)
  6. Complete the transaction

Processing Refunds

Unlike Staff, you can process refunds:

  1. Find the transaction in the Transactions list
  2. Click View to open it
  3. Click Refund (this button appears only on Completed transactions)
  4. Choose full or partial refund
  5. Confirm the refund

When to refund:

  • Customer returns a product
  • Service was not delivered as expected
  • Double-charge correction
  • Pre-payment cancellation

See Tutorial 8.2 for the full refund workflow.

Cash Drawers

Location: Sidebar → Cash Drawers

Managers have full cash-handling access — this is one of the most substantial parts of the role.

What You Can Do

  • Open a drawer with an opening float at the start of the day
  • Close a drawer and reconcile the counted cash against the expected balance
  • Add a drawer if the salon needs another till
  • Record cash movements — Top Up, Payout and Safe Drop
  • View History for any drawer
  • Record an Adjustment — an over/short correction that resolves a reconciliation variance
  • Reopen a closed session — see below

Each drawer card shows the day's revenue split (cash, card, vouchers, other) alongside the cash calculation: opening float, cash transactions, and expected balance.

An open cash drawer card showing the Top Up, Payout, Safe Drop, History and Adjustment buttons above the revenue breakdown and the Cash in Drawer reconciliation

Reopening a Closed Session

If a drawer was closed by mistake, you can reopen it. Because reopening reactivates a closed audit record, it is deliberately restricted to the senior roles — Owners, Admins and Managers. Receptionists and Service Providers can't reopen a session, even though they can take payments.

Reopen is only offered when all of these are true:

  • The drawer is active
  • It has no session currently open
  • The session you're reopening was opened today

If the session was opened on an earlier day, it stays closed — ask the Owner if a correction is genuinely needed.

Adjustments

An adjustment rewrites the expected-cash reconciliation and can zero out a variance, so declaring a discrepancy "corrected" is limited to Owners, Admins and Managers. Ordinary movements (top-up, payout, safe drop) are open to anyone using the till.

Viewing Reports (No Export)

Location: Sidebar → Reports

Managers can view all reports but cannot export them.

Available Reports

You see 13 report tiles, grouped by category:

Category Report What It Shows
Financial Daily Revenue Revenue by day with transaction counts
Financial Revenue by Payment Type Revenue and refunds split by card, cash, voucher and other
Financial Accounts Receivable Outstanding customer balances and overdue payments
Financial Gift Vouchers Voucher sales, redemptions and balances
Financial Account Credit Outstanding client credit balances and movements
Financial VAT Report VAT collected, net sales and gross sales
Financial Colour Bar Performance Additional colour billed, cost, margin and per-employee waste
Customer Top Customers Highest-spending customers by revenue
Staff Staff Performance Revenue, tips and commission by staff member
Staff Hours Worked Rostered hours and shift totals
Staff Staff Commission Service vs product split, item breakdown and tier progression
Messaging SMS Usage Credit balance, usage history and top-ups
Inventory Colour Stock & Reorder Live stock, usage velocity, days to stockout and a reorder worklist

Not available to you: the Leave Report (staff leave summaries) and Payroll reports require Admin or Owner access, so those two tiles don't appear on your Reports page at all. You can still approve leave and check pending requests — only the formal leave report itself is restricted.

Viewing Reports

  1. Navigate to Reports
  2. Select the report type
  3. Set your date range
  4. Apply any filters
  5. View the data

About Export

Exporting is reserved for Owners and Admins because:

  • Exported data leaves the system
  • Financial exports may have compliance implications
  • The Owner controls what data is extracted

The Export button doesn't appear on reports for your role, so there's nothing to click by mistake.

If you need exported data, ask an Admin or Owner to generate it for you.

Customer Management

Location: Sidebar → Customers

You have full customer management access.

Adding Customers

  1. Click Add Customer
  2. Enter contact details
  3. Record any preferences or notes
  4. Set marketing consent
  5. Click Save

Editing Customers

  • Update contact information
  • Add notes and preferences
  • Manage marketing consent
  • View appointment history
  • Check transaction history

Merging Duplicate Customers

There is no Merge button on an individual customer profile. Merging runs from the duplicate-review screen:

  1. Go to Customers
  2. Click Manage Duplicates in the top-right
  3. The system groups records it thinks are the same person
  4. Open a group, review the data that will be combined, and choose which record to keep
  5. Confirm the merge

The duplicate review screen listing grouped customer records by matched phone number, email or name, each with a confidence rating and Dismiss and Review Group buttons

The merged record combines appointment history, transactions, and notes from both profiles. See Tutorial 3.6 for the full walkthrough.

Adjusting Account Credit

Managers can adjust a client's account credit balance — credit is spendable at the till as the Credit payment method.

  1. Open the customer profile
  2. Go to the Billing tab, then the Credit sub-tab
  3. Click Adjust Credit
  4. Enter the amount and a reason
  5. Confirm

The Account Credit card on a customer's Billing tab, showing the current balance, the Adjust Credit button, and an empty credit activity list

Every adjustment is recorded against the customer, and the salon-wide picture is on the Account Credit report. See Tutorial 3.8 for details.

Service and Product Management

Location: Sidebar → Services / Products & Colour

Managers can manage both services and products.

Services

  • Create new services with duration and pricing
  • Edit existing services
  • Set commission rates
  • Configure tiered pricing (by staff level)
  • Assign colour coding

Products & Colour

  • Add retail products and colour stock
  • Set prices (retail and cost)
  • Track stock levels
  • Adjust inventory
  • Configure SKUs
  • Manage brands and product lines

Waitlist and Skin Tests

Both sit in the sidebar and both come with your appointment access, so you have full control of each.

Waitlist

Location: Sidebar → Waitlist

Add clients waiting for a slot, set their priority, and convert an entry into a booking when a gap appears. High-priority entries surface on the dashboard's Right Now panel.

Skin Tests

Location: Sidebar → Skin Tests

Track patch test requirements, record results, and see which clients are due or overdue. Customers needing a test appear in the dashboard's Skin Tests Due tile, and the system warns you when booking a colour service for a client without a valid test.

Messages

Location: Sidebar → Messages

Managers have full messaging access, including inbox management.

What You Can Do

  • View all conversations
  • Read customer messages
  • Reply to messages
  • View customer-specific history
  • Close and reopen conversations
  • Archive threads

What You Cannot Do

  • Configure messaging settings (notification templates, auto-responses)

For settings changes, ask an Admin.

Notifications on Your Phone

Luminate can send a short banner to your own phone when something needs you, instead of you watching a screen for it.

Go to Settings > Notifications in the Luminate app, turn notifications on for your phone, then choose what you want to be told about.

Today there is one thing to choose: Customer arrives, which fires when a customer is marked as arrived for an appointment you are the assigned staff member on. More will be added over time, and each new one appears on this page ready to switch on.

These settings are yours alone. Turning them on changes nothing for anyone else, and nobody can switch them on for you.

Notifications are deliberately vague on a locked screen — a first name and an initial, never the service. Full detail appears when you tap through.

See 10.7 Push Notifications on Your Phone.

Lumen AI Support Assistant

Location: Chat icon in the bottom-right corner

Lumen is Luminate's built-in AI assistant that can answer questions and look up salon data for you. Lumen has 26 tools; as a Manager you can use all but two of them.

What Lumen Can Help With

  • Customer lookups - Find customers, view their details, notes, and transaction history
  • Appointment queries - Check schedules, find appointment details, view colour test alerts
  • Staff information - View staff lists and details
  • Service and product lookups - Check pricing, availability, and stock levels
  • Transaction queries - Look up transactions and cash drawer status
  • Roster and leave - View rosters and pending leave requests
  • Waitlist - Check the current waitlist
  • Gift vouchers - Look up voucher details and balances
  • Schedule gaps - Find available booking slots
  • Public holidays - Check the salon's configured holiday dates
  • Revenue and sales - Check salon-wide revenue figures for today, this week, or this month
  • Commission - View commission earned by any staff member
  • SMS credits - Check remaining SMS balance and usage
  • Documentation - Search help articles and guides

Lumen is read-only. It can look things up and explain them, but it never books, edits or cancels anything on your behalf.

What Lumen Cannot Access for Managers

Some Lumen tools require permissions you don't have:

  • Salon settings - Lumen cannot look up salon configuration for you (requires Admin access)
  • Notification logs - Lumen cannot check notification delivery history (requires Admin access)

For these queries, ask an Admin or Owner, or use Lumen when logged in alongside them.

See Tutorial 15.4: Using Lumen, Your In-App AI Assistant for full details.

What Managers Cannot Access

Understanding your boundaries prevents confusion:

Staff Management

You can view staff profiles but cannot:

  • Add new staff members
  • Edit staff details
  • Create or remove login accounts
  • Change staff roles
  • Deactivate or anonymise staff

Settings

You have no access to:

  • Salon settings and configuration
  • Notification settings
  • Public holiday management
  • Staff level configuration
  • Leave policy settings

Reports Export

You can view reports but you cannot export them — the Export button isn't shown to your role, and every export route is blocked behind it. Request exports from Admins or the Owner.

The Leave Report is also restricted — viewing staff leave summaries requires Admin or Owner access, even though you can approve and view individual leave requests. That tile doesn't appear on your Reports page.

Payroll

No access to payroll reports or staff pay management. Payroll is handled by Owners and Admins.

Billing

No access to subscription or payment information.

Daily Workflow for Managers

Morning Routine

  1. Check the dashboard — work through the Right Now panel: skin tests due, low stock, high-priority waitlist and pending deposits
  2. Open the cash drawer with the day's float
  3. Review pending leave requests from Staff and Receptionists
  4. Check the waitlist for booking opportunities
  5. Review today's appointments for any issues
  6. Ensure staff are rostered correctly

Throughout the Day

  • Monitor appointments - Handle reschedules and issues
  • Send deposit links - Send payment links for upcoming appointments requiring deposits
  • Process transactions - Assist with payments
  • Supervise staff - Help with questions
  • Handle customer issues - Resolve problems
  • Check messages - Respond to customer enquiries
  • Ask Lumen - Use the AI assistant for quick data lookups

End of Day

  1. Review completed appointments
  2. Process any pending transactions
  3. Mark no-shows on the calendar
  4. Close and reconcile the cash drawer — record an adjustment if there's a variance
  5. Check tomorrow's schedule
  6. Flag any issues for Admin/Owner

Weekly Tasks

  1. Review staff performance in reports
  2. Plan the roster for the coming week
  3. Process outstanding leave requests
  4. Check customer feedback via messages
  5. Report issues to Admin/Owner

Common Pitfalls

"I can't approve my colleague's leave request"

Check their role. Managers can only approve Staff and Receptionist leave. Manager leave goes to Admins or Owners.

"There's no Export button on the report I'm looking at"

Exporting is reserved for Owners and Admins, so the button isn't shown to Managers. The report itself is still yours to read on screen — ask an Admin or Owner to generate the export for you.

"I closed the till by mistake"

You can reopen it — Cash Drawers offers a reopen option on a drawer whose last session was opened today. If the session was opened on an earlier day, it can't be reopened; speak to the Owner.

"I can't edit a staff member's profile"

Managers have view-only access to staff. Ask an Admin to make changes.

"A customer is asking about refund policy"

You can process refunds. Explain the salon's policy (check with Admin/Owner if unsure) and process the refund if appropriate.

"I need to change the roster settings"

Roster creation is within your access, but roster settings (like default shift lengths) may require Admin access. You can create and edit individual shifts.

Tips and Best Practices

  1. Prompt leave responses - Staff appreciate quick decisions. Check pending requests at the start of each day.

  2. Use the dashboard daily - The dashboard gives you a quick overview of salon health.

  3. Document issues - Keep notes on recurring problems to share with Admins during weekly reviews.

  4. Know your limits - Rather than trying workarounds, escalate to Admins for tasks outside your access.

  5. Train your team - Help Staff and Receptionists understand the system so they can be more self-sufficient.

  6. Communicate upward - Keep Admins informed of operational issues before they become problems.

  7. Monitor performance - Regular review of staff performance reports helps identify training needs.

  8. Use Lumen for quick answers - Instead of navigating through menus, ask Lumen to look up customer details, check schedules, or find transaction information.

  9. Reconcile the till the same day - Cash variances are far easier to explain while people still remember the shift, and a session can only be reopened on the day it was opened.

Related Tutorials

  • Tutorial 1.3: Understanding Roles and Permissions - Complete role reference
  • Tutorial 2.2: Booking and Managing Appointments - Detailed appointment guide
  • Tutorial 3.6: Merging Duplicate Customer Records - The duplicate-review workflow
  • Tutorial 3.8: Client Account Credit - Credit balances and adjustments
  • Tutorial 5.1: Setting Up Your Weekly Roster - Roster management
  • Tutorial 5.3: Duplicating and Managing Roster Patterns - The duplication wizard
  • Tutorial 6.3: Approving and Rejecting Leave Requests - Leave workflow details
  • Tutorial 8.2: Handling Refunds and Cancellations - Refund processing
  • Tutorial 8.4: Deposits and Pre-Payments - Deposit links and till collection
  • Tutorial 9.3: Staff Performance and Commission Reports - Performance reports
  • Tutorial 15.4: Using Lumen, Your In-App AI Assistant - AI support chat
  • Tutorial 16.2: Guide for Salon Administrators - How your access compares
  • Tutorial 16.4: Guide for Reception Staff - Understanding your team
  • Tutorial 16.5: Guide for Service Providers - Understanding your team
  • Tutorial 17.1: Daily Opening Procedures - Opening routine
  • Tutorial 17.2: Daily Closing Procedures - Closing and cash reconciliation

Frequently Asked Questions

Why can't I approve another Manager's leave?

The role hierarchy prevents Managers from approving each other's leave. This ensures proper oversight — Manager leave is approved by Admins or Owners. The same rule stops you approving your own request.

Can I see my own performance statistics?

Yes. The Staff Performance report includes your data, and you can also see personal stats in your dashboard profile.

What if I disagree with an Admin's decision?

Speak with them directly or escalate to the Owner. The system enforces the role hierarchy, but human communication solves most disagreements.

Can I be promoted to Admin?

Yes, if the Owner or current Admin changes your role. This is done through the Staff profile editing function (which you can't access, but they can).

What's the difference between Manager and Admin?

Almost everything an Admin can do, a Manager can too. The differences that matter:

What Admins can do that you can't:

  • Staff management - Admins can add/edit staff; Managers view only
  • Staff accounts - Admins can create logins; Managers cannot
  • Report export - Admins can export; Managers cannot
  • Data exports - Admins can export full salon data; Managers cannot
  • Leave & payroll reports - Admins can view the Leave Report and payroll; Managers can approve leave but cannot open either report
  • Settings access - Admins can modify settings; Managers cannot
  • Notifications - Admins can configure notifications; Managers cannot
  • Leave approval - Admins can approve any staff member, including themselves; Managers only Staff and Receptionists
  • Lumen AI - Admins have full tool access; Managers cannot query salon settings or notification logs

What you can do that an Admin can't:

  • Reopen a closed cash drawer session - restricted to Owners, Admins and Managers, because reopening reactivates a closed audit record

Everything else — appointments, waitlist, skin tests, customers, account credit, the roster, services, products, the till, refunds, cash adjustments and the inbox — is the same for both roles.

Can Lumen look up everything for me?

Almost. Lumen can access customer data, appointments, staff lists, services, products, transactions, cash drawer status, rosters, leave requests, public holidays, and more. Of its 26 tools, only two are closed to you: salon settings and notification logs, both of which require Admin permissions.

Can I access the salon from home?

Yes. Log in with your credentials from any device. Your access is the same whether you're in the salon or remote.

Last Updated: 9 August 2026 Verified against application code and a live Manager login: 9 August 2026