CanvasDesk · booking system for beauty salons
An invitation to become one of three founding salons
CanvasDesk is a booking and client management system built in the UK for permanent makeup, aesthetics and beauty salons. This page explains where it stands today, what we offer our first salons, and everything it can do for you.
Where we are today
Live, working, and not advertised yet
CanvasDesk is up and running and takes real card payments. We have not advertised it anywhere yet. Before we open it to everyone, we are looking for three pilot salons to use it day to day and tell us what works and what does not. Those three salons get a deal that will not be offered again.
The founding salon offer
- Months 1 to 3FreeNo charge at all.
- Months 4 to 12£8 a monthText reminders free, plus 100 other texts a month; 6p a text beyond.
- After that, for good20% offA founders' discount on the standard price for as long as it is the same salon: £19.20 a month instead of £24, and £8 instead of £10 for each extra person taking bookings.
The standard price is £24 a month for the first team member who takes bookings, and £10 a month for each additional one. Text reminders are always free: one before every appointment, never counted. Each team member who takes bookings adds 20 other texts a month to your salon's allowance (for example top-up reminders or recall messages); after that, texts are 6p each. Team members who take no bookings, such as a receptionist, are free. Emails are included.
Included
- Up to 50 services, and more if you need them
- Up to 10 team members
- Full set-up and onboarding, done with you
What we ask in return
- Honest feedback, sent through the Report a problem button inside the system whenever something gets in your way
- A short monthly Zoom call to talk through your pain points
What it does
Everything CanvasDesk offers your salon
Online booking
- Your own booking page link to share on Instagram, Facebook, Google or by message
- Each treatment shows its length, price and deposit
- Only times that are really free are offered: working hours, holidays, breaks and closed days are all taken into account
- Deposits are paid online at the time of booking
- An online booking whose deposit is not paid in time is released automatically, so the slot is free again
- No passwords for clients: they confirm their email and mobile with a one-time code, and their phone or laptop is remembered for 90 days
Calendar
- Day view with a column for each team member, a week view, a month overview and a simple list
- Move a booking by dragging it to another time, day or team member (press and hold on a tablet or phone)
- Make a booking longer or shorter by dragging the bottom edge of its tile
- When you move a booking, choose whether the client is sent a message, or move it quietly if they already know
- Click an empty slot to make a booking, or block time for a break
- Holidays, part-day time off and salon closed days are shown on the calendar
- Colour bookings by status or by treatment type
- Print a daily run sheet for each team member
- Works on computer, iPad and phone
Appointments and daily work
- A To do list on the calendar: visits waiting for checkout, unconfirmed bookings, deposits due, money still owed and possible duplicate clients
- Pencil-in bookings: hold a time without a deposit, released automatically if not confirmed by a set time
- Confirm, reschedule, cancel or mark as no-show
- Your own cancellation rules: a free cancellation window (for example 48 hours), with the deposit kept on late cancellation or refunded automatically when the client cancels in time
- A full history of every change to a booking: who did what, and when
- Quick search for any client or appointment from any page
Checkout and payments
- Take payment by cash, your own card machine, bank transfer, complimentary, or an online card link with a QR code the client scans
- Split a bill across several payment methods
- The deposit is taken off the bill automatically
- Money still owed is tracked until it is paid, and the client can pay it from their phone
- Email receipt sent to the client when the visit is fully paid
- Refunds of deposits and overpayments
Stripe card payments, 0% commission
- Money goes straight to your bank account; your salon's name is on the client's card statement
- CanvasDesk takes 0% commission on your sales. For founding salons, only Stripe's standard card fee applies
- Clients pay by card, Apple Pay or Google Pay
- Your own Stripe dashboard, opened with one button
Client records
- Contact details, date of birth, address and medical notes
- Notes, each showing who wrote it and when
- Before-and-after photos kept on the client's record
- Full appointment history, past and upcoming
- Possible duplicate clients are spotted for you, and two records can be merged safely
Consent forms and questionnaires
- Digital consent forms signed by the client on their own phone before the treatment, saved as a PDF
- Your own consent wording for each treatment
- Build your own questionnaires and aftercare sheets, link them to treatments, or send them automatically after the visit
- Answers are private: only the team members you allow can read them
Client messages, by email and text
- Booking confirmation, "your appointment was moved" and cancellation messages by email, with a calendar invitation
- A text reminder before every appointment, free and never counted towards your allowance
- Choose when reminders go (for example 3 days and 24 hours before); extra text reminders use your allowance
- Edit the wording of your client messages to sound like your salon
- Aftercare messages sent after the visit, on your own rules
- Top-up reminders, for example 6 and 8 weeks after a treatment, which stop once the client has booked
- Recall messages to bring clients back: you choose the treatments and how long after the last visit the message goes (for example 12 months after brows for a colour boost). It is not sent if the client has already booked again
- Recall messages go only to clients who agreed to marketing. Clients tick a box when they book online, or change their choice on their own page
- You are emailed when a client books, cancels or moves an appointment online, and you choose who on the team is told
Client's own page
- No account and no password to remember: the client types their email and gets a one-time code to enter
- Their phone or laptop is remembered for 90 days, so next time they go straight in
- Clients see their upcoming and past appointments and their photos
- They can pay a deposit or what is still owed
- They can cancel or move an appointment within your cancellation rules
- They fill in the questionnaires you send them
- They choose which reminders and marketing messages they want
Team, hours and holidays
- Up to 10 team members, each with their own login: you invite them by email, and they sign in with their own email and password
- Ready-made roles (Admin, Receptionist, Technician), and you can fine-tune what each person may see and do. For example, a technician can see only their own appointments, or see client names without phone numbers
- Working hours for each person, and which treatments they offer
- Holidays, part-day time off and salon closed days; online booking never offers those times
- The reason for someone's time off stays private
Moving across
- You can run CanvasDesk alongside your old system until you are happy, then switch your booking link
Your clients' data
UK law and data protection
- Designed around UK data protection law (UK GDPR) and the UK rules on marketing messages (PECR)
- Clients confirm their email and phone with a code, so nobody can open another person's appointments, photos or notes by typing in their email address
- Marketing is sent only to clients who agreed to it, and the system keeps a record of when and how they agreed. Every marketing message has an unsubscribe link, and replying STOP to a text is always honoured
- Team members see only what their permissions allow, and sensitive actions are recorded
- The booking database is hosted in secure data centres in Frankfurt, Germany
- Card details are handled by Stripe and never pass through CanvasDesk
An honest picture
What to expect as a founding salon
CanvasDesk is new. It may not yet have every feature that the bigger booking systems offer. For example, there are no business reports or statistics yet, no gift cards or packages, no product stock, and no bookings for multi-day training courses. Texts come from the CanvasDesk number, and emails show your salon's name but are sent from the CanvasDesk address.
It has been built carefully over a long time, and improvements go live nearly every day. As a founding salon, your feedback decides what gets built next.
Coming next
AI receptionist, next year
An AI receptionist that helps answer your clients' messages is planned for next year. It will be an optional add-on for an additional fee, only if you want it. Our goal is for CanvasDesk to become the number one booking system for beauty salons in the UK.
Try it first
A free demo account, no obligation
We can set up a demo account for you to explore everything on this page at your own pace. It is free and there is no obligation. If you like it, we talk about becoming a founding salon. If not, no problem at all.
The demo is ready for you to explore for free. Just send us your full name and email address, and we will set it up for you.
CanvasDesk · updated November 2026