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Services

Managing Your Services

Managing Your Services

Build your service menu — the catalogue of everything your venue offers — so customers can browse and book online, and your team knows exactly what each appointment involves.

Where to find it — Web: Sidebar → Services. Mobile: Services tab (or Service in navigation).

Overview

Your service menu lets you:

  • Create services with a name, price, duration, category, and description
  • Set fixed or range pricing ("from $110") for variable-cost services
  • Assign staff to each service and optionally set per-staff pricing or duration overrides
  • Link add-on services that can only be booked alongside a primary service
  • Organise services into categories and drag to reorder them
  • Deactivate services you no longer offer without losing booking history
  • Import services from an existing booking platform
  • Run an AI-powered menu audit to find duplicates and pricing issues (PRO)

Note

Free accounts can have up to 5 active services. PRO accounts have unlimited services.

The services dashboard

The services page shows all your services (active and inactive) in a table on web or a card list on mobile.

Health indicators

A banner at the top flags potential issues:

  • Missing descriptions — services without descriptions show poorly on your storefront
  • No staff assigned — services that no team member is assigned to perform

Toolbar actions

Action Icon What it does
Search — Filter services by name (text input: "Search services...")
Select CheckSquare Enter multi-select mode for bulk actions
Reorder ArrowUpDown Enter drag-to-reorder mode
Import — Import services from another platform
Add Service Plus Open the create service sheet
Audit (PRO) Sparkles Run an AI audit of your service menu

Creating a service

Step 1: Open the create form

  1. Go to Services in the sidebar.
  2. Click Add Service.

Step 2: Fill in the core fields

Field Required Validation Notes
Name Yes 2–100 characters What customers see when booking (e.g. "Full Balayage")
Category No — Default: "General". Choose from built-in categories or type a custom name
Description No — Storefront copy. Click Write with AI to generate from the service name
Price Yes Whole number, minimum $0 In your local currency. See Pricing options
Duration Yes 15–480 minutes How long the service takes

Step 3: Configure advanced settings (optional)

Expand the Advanced section to access:

Setting Default What it does
Add-on only Off Service can only be booked alongside another service — not as a primary booking
Processing gap (minutes) 0 Gap after the service for colour processing, drying, etc. Blocks the time slot but doesn't require the staff member
Cleanup buffer (minutes) 0 Cleanup time after the service ends
Self-service Off No team member needed — clients book the resource directly (e.g. sauna, float tank)
Requires patch test Off Clients without a valid passed patch test are warned during booking and before the appointment
Requires consultation Off Blocks booking if the client hasn't had a prior consultation
Smart Pricing On Allows dynamic pricing rules to adjust this service's price
Deposit rule No deposit required Link a deposit policy to require payment upfront
Promote upsells Off Suggest products during booking
Physical resources — Assign rooms, chairs, or equipment the service requires (with quantity)
Required forms — Link consultation or intake forms the client must complete before booking

Step 4: Save

Click Save (web) or Create Service (mobile). The service appears in your menu.

Tip

Solo operators — when you create a service, OpenChair automatically assigns you as the staff member. You don't need to assign yourself manually.

Pricing options

Choose a pricing type when creating or editing a service:

Type How it works Display
Fixed Single price "$40"
Range Minimum and maximum price "$110–$140"
Free Price set to $0 "Free"

For range-priced services, enter both a Price (minimum) and Max Price. The storefront and booking form show the range. The actual amount is set at checkout.

Tax label varies by country: "Price including GST" (AU/NZ) or "Price including VAT" (UK).

Categories

Categories group related services on your storefront and in the service list.

Built-in categories

Category Icon
General —
Hair & Grooming Users
Barbering Users
Face, Skin & Brows Zap
Injectables Stethoscope
Body, Wellness & Recovery Bot
Nails Puzzle
Tattoo & Piercing Gem
Other Clock

You can also type a custom category name when creating or editing a service. Custom categories appear alongside built-in ones.

Reordering categories

On web, drag the category tabs at the top of the services dashboard to change the order they appear on your storefront. The order is saved automatically.

Add-on services

Add-ons are services that can only be booked alongside a primary service — they cannot be booked independently. Examples: conditioning treatment, toner, eyebrow tint.

Creating an add-on

  1. Create the service normally.
  2. Toggle Add-on only on in the Advanced section.

Linking add-ons to a primary service

After creating an add-on:

  1. Open the primary service (e.g. "Balayage") for editing.
  2. Scroll to the Upsells section (appears after the service is saved, and only for non-add-on services).
  3. Select the add-on services to link.
  4. Save. A "Upsells saved" confirmation appears.

When a customer books the primary service, linked add-ons appear as optional extras.

Assigning staff

Control which team members can perform each service.

Assigning staff to a single service

  1. Open the service for editing.
  2. In the Assigned Staff section, select team members.
  3. Save.

Only assigned staff appear as options when a customer books this service.

Bulk-assigning staff

  1. On the services dashboard, click Select in the toolbar.
  2. Select multiple services.
  3. In the bulk action bar, choose Assign Staff.
  4. Select team members to assign.
  5. Confirm. Staff are added to all selected services (existing assignments are preserved).

Per-staff overrides

Each staff-service assignment can have individual overrides:

Override What it does
Proficiency level Junior, Senior, or Master — affects availability and scheduling
Duration override Custom duration for this staff member (e.g. a junior may take longer)
Price override Price difference for this staff member (e.g. a master charges more)

Deactivating and deleting services

Deactivating a service

Toggle the Active switch off on any service (in the table on web, or on the card on mobile). The service is hidden from the storefront and booking form but all historical bookings are preserved.

Re-activating a service on a free account is blocked if you already have 5 active services.

Deleting a service

  1. Open the service for editing.
  2. Click Delete.
  3. Confirm in the "Are you sure you want to delete this service?" dialog.

Warning

A service cannot be deleted if it has existing bookings, line items, recurring series, or waitlist entries. Deactivate it instead.

Reordering services

Services appear in sortOrder on your storefront and in the service list.

To reorder

  1. Click Reorder (ArrowUpDown icon) in the toolbar.
  2. Drag services into the desired order, or use the up/down arrow buttons.
  3. Click Done reordering. The order is saved automatically.

Importing services

Import services from an existing booking platform to avoid manual data entry.

  1. Click the Import button in the toolbar.
  2. Paste the URL of your booking page from another platform.
  3. OpenChair scrapes the page and extracts services using AI.
  4. Review the imported services — edit names, prices, and durations as needed.
  5. Confirm the import.

Imported services respect the free tier limit (5 active services maximum).

For full details, see Importing From Another Platform.

AI service menu audit (PRO)

The audit analyses your service list for duplicates, near-duplicates, and pricing inconsistencies.

  1. Click the Audit button (Sparkles icon) in the toolbar.
  2. Wait for the AI analysis (up to 30 seconds).
  3. Review findings — each shows the affected services and an explanation.

Finding types

Type What it means
Duplicate Two services with the same or nearly identical names
Near duplicate Semantically similar services (e.g. "Haircut" and "Hair Cut")
Pricing issue Inconsistent pricing for similar services

Resolving findings

  • Duplicates: Choose which service to keep. The other is deactivated (not deleted).
  • Pricing issues: Enter a corrected price directly from the audit card.
  • Dismiss: Hide a finding you don't want to act on.

The audit requires at least 5 active services to run.

Bulk actions

Select multiple services to perform batch operations:

Action What it does
Assign staff Add staff members to all selected services (additive — existing assignments preserved)
Update prices Set new prices for multiple services at once
Update properties Batch-change category, active status, deposit rule, or smart pricing
Delete Delete all selected services (blocked if any have linked bookings)

To enter selection mode, click Select in the toolbar, then tick the services you want.

Physical resources

If your venue has rooms, chairs, or equipment, you can link them to services to prevent double-booking.

  1. Set up resources in Settings → Resources.
  2. When creating or editing a service, expand Advanced → Physical Resources.
  3. Toggle each required resource on and set the quantity needed.

OpenChair checks resource availability when scheduling — if all units of a required resource are booked, the time slot is unavailable.

Platform differences

Feature Web Mobile
Service list display Table with columns (name, price, duration, staff, category, active toggle) Card list with badges
Create/edit form Sheet (side panel) Full-screen form
Drag-to-reorder Drag handles in table + arrow buttons Drag handles with haptic feedback + move buttons
Bulk actions Bulk action bar (assign, price, properties, delete) Bulk action bar
AI description "Write with AI" / "Rewrite" button in form "Write with AI" button in form
AI audit (PRO) Sparkles button in toolbar Sparkles button in toolbar
Category reorder Drag category tabs on dashboard Not available
Duration input Number input (minutes) Preset buttons (15, 30, 45, 60, 90, 120, 150, 180) + custom input
Deposit rule selector Dropdown in form Dropdown in form
Resource assignment Checkboxes + quantity spinners Checkboxes + quantity spinners

Troubleshooting

Issue Solution
Service not showing on the storefront Check that the service is marked as Active (toggle on). Inactive services are hidden from customers.
Cannot create more services Free accounts are limited to 5 active services. Deactivate a service you no longer need, or upgrade to PRO for unlimited services.
Cannot assign staff to a service You need to have team members added first. Go to Team → Add Team Member. Once added, they appear in the staff assignment list.
Price shows as $0 Edit the service and set a price. If you chose "Free" as the price type, the price is intentionally $0.
Cannot delete a service The service has existing bookings, recurring series, or waitlist entries linked to it. Deactivate the service instead to hide it from the booking form.
Category not appearing on storefront Categories appear automatically when at least one active service uses them. Check that the service using the category is active.
Audit button not visible The AI audit requires a PRO subscription and at least 5 active services.
Duration options on mobile are limited Mobile shows preset duration buttons (15–180 minutes). Tap the custom input field to enter any value between 15 and 480 minutes.

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Last updated: March 2026