Section 20: Colour Management

5-10 minutes

Everything colour-related in Luminate — from the first settings decision all the way to the stylist weighing bowls on the iPad scale. Structured colour formulas replace freeform Colour consultation notes with precise gram-level recipes, and (in Full mode) automatically bill customers when they exceed the grams included in their service price. The Colour Bar is the tablet-based counterpart for live mixing against a Bluetooth scale.

Tutorials in This Section

20.1 Getting Started with Colour Management

A one-page orientation to the whole feature: the three modes (Notes, Formulas, Full), what turns on at each level, and how to decide which is right for your salon. Read this before any of the others.

Time: 5-10 minutes

20.2 Configuring Colour Settings & Charge Rules

Owners and Admins configure the salon's colour mode, set the default colour charge rule, and define any additional rules here. Covers applies_to, markup types (flat / percentage / per-gram), minimum charge, minimum overage, and the live preview.

Time: 15 minutes

20.3 Brands and Your Colour Catalogue

Brands are their own catalogue now. Learn how to create, edit, and delete brands, what the three brand types (Product / Colour / Both) mean, and how to reassign products when you retire a brand.

Time: 5 minutes

20.4 Setting Up Colour Products

Gram-tracked colour products live on the Products page's new Colour tab. Walk through the Add Colour Product dialog, understand net weight and cost per gram, and set initial stock.

Time: 10-15 minutes

20.5 Colour Stock Take

How to run a physical stock take on the inline-edit Colour tab. Covers how the append-only stock movement log records each change, and how to reconcile discrepancies.

Time: 15-20 minutes

20.6 Creating a Colour Formula

Deep dive on the unified formula dialog: bowls, products, the developer line, barcode scanning, Save plan, Finalise, Revert. Used on customer profiles, the appointment sidebar, and the appointment detail page.

Time: 15 minutes

20.7 Mixing Colour at Appointments

From the appointment's perspective: when does a formula appear, how to record actuals mid-service, and how a finalised formula stages the overage charge onto the live draft.

Time: 10 minutes

20.8 Overage Billing Explained

How the emerald Extra colour used line reaches the till, how edits and Revert flow through to POS, and what happens once the transaction completes (formula becomes read-only, rule snapshot is frozen).

Time: 15 minutes

20.9 Colour Bar Overview and Setup

The tablet-based flow at a high level: what the Colour Bar is, the iPad hardware setup you need, and how to switch the native app into Colour Bar mode.

Time: 10 minutes

20.10 Colour Bar: Day-to-Day Use

The stylist's daily workflow: stylist picker, date navigation, status filter chips (Mine / All / Pending / In mix / Applied / Leftovers due), and how to move between appointments.

Time: 10 minutes

20.11 Colour Bar: Planning a Formula

The Edit screen on tablet: Start fresh, Copy & edit and Edit formula, bowls up to six, per-bowl barcode scanning, the per-bowl developer and its ratio, weighing live against the scale, notes, totals, and applying the colour in one tap.

Time: 10-15 minutes

20.12 Colour Bar: Mixing with the Scale

Live weighing against the Bluetooth scale. Covers the LiveWeightCard, Tare and Capture, what "Stable" means, reading the battery indicator, and what to do if the scale disconnects mid-mix.

Time: 10-15 minutes

20.13 Colour Bar: Weighing Leftovers

The post-application step. When the Weigh leftovers screen appears, weighing one leftover per bowl, the "leftover heavier than dispensed" warning, tapping No leftovers — used it all when the leftover is gone, and how the corrected usage totals reach stock and the reports.

Time: 10 minutes

20.14 Pairing Your Acaia Pearl Scale

The shipped in-app Bluetooth pairing flow: the permission prompt, discovering the Acaia Pearl 2021 from the Colour Bar header's Pair scale button, verifying the connected pill, reconnecting after a drop-out, and handing one scale between two iPads.

Time: 5 minutes

20.15 Troubleshooting the Colour Bar & Scale

Fixes for the common Colour Bar problems: a scale that won't pair or keeps dropping out, low-battery warnings, the LiveWeightCard's state messages, why Capture is greyed out, the "leftover heavier than dispensed" warning, and recovering from a wrongly finalised formula.

Time: Reference only

Who Should Read This Section

Salon owners — all tutorials, with 20.1 and 20.2 as the starting points
Managers — 20.3 through 20.7 (catalogue, stock take, formula workflow)
Colour specialists / stylists — 20.1, 20.6, 20.7, and the Colour Bar tutorials (20.9–20.15)
Reception / admin — 20.7 and 20.8 so they recognise the overage line on the POS
IT / person setting up the iPad — 20.9 and 20.14

Next Steps

After completing Section 20, revisit:

Section 7: Services and Products — especially the Colour Service card in Tutorial 7.1 and the Colour tab in Tutorial 7.2
Section 2: Daily Operations — Tutorial 2.4 covers how the colour overage line behaves in POS
Section 12: Advanced Features — Tutorial 12.5 is a quick-reference companion to 20.6

Last Updated: August 2026

Tutorials in This Section

Recommended Reading Order

Who Should Read This Section

Next Steps