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Management system for a hair salon chain: from a notebook to live control

Pelokitos, 20 kids' hair salons in three countries, left the notebook behind: the owner sees live which haircut is underway and who does it, 99.9% on record.

Year2026
IndustryKids' hair salon chain with franchises in three countries
Duration12 weeks from first contact to launch · a 67-day switch across three countries
What we did
  • Custom management system for the whole chain
  • Live control of haircuts, queue and till
  • Online booking, time-based pricing and prepaid packs
  • One account per person, with clock-in and targets
The shop's notebook · Saturday
  1. 3:10 Simón — Juli
  2. 3:25 the brother no name or phone
  3. 3:40 cut + styling who did it?
  4. Card: stamped 2 which family?
  5. Till $412,000 does it balance?
Owner's phone · Alto Rosario Live
  1. Juli Haircut · Simón G. · age 6 12′
  2. Mati Haircut · Rafa G. · age 4 4′
  3. Caro Styling · Valentina R. 9′
  4. Lu Free Haircut · Tomás P. · age 5 0′
Cuts today
38
In the queue
2
Till
$ 1.184.000
  1. 01 / 04Before, what happened in the shop went into a notebook, when it went anywhere.
  2. 02 / 04Today every visit comes in with its family, its phone number and its stylist.
  3. 03 / 04The owner sees live which haircut is underway in each chair, and who is doing it.
  4. 04 / 04What is charged stays tied to the haircut and to the person who did it.
99.9% · of cuts tied to stylist and payment

The case on video, explained.

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Twenty salons, three countries and what mattered written by hand

Pelokitos is a chain of 20 kids' hair salons: 13 in Argentina, 6 in Miami and 1 in Uruguay, with thirty years in the trade. It had a desktop program that recorded the sale, but control lived somewhere else. When a stylist was alone, haircuts went into a notebook. Bookings were taken by phone. The till and the day's notes were written as free text. And to know how a shop was doing, the owner had to check shop by shop or ask: there was no chain view and no daily summary. We built a management system for the whole chain around one idea: everything that happens in a shop is recorded as it happens, with a name attached. Today the owner sees on his phone which haircut is underway in each chair and who is doing it; everyone on the team has their own account, with their clock-in and their monthly target; families have their own account, check themselves in by scanning a QR code at the shop and book online, with prices that drop in the quiet hours; and the cardboard prepaid pack became part of that account. Before designing, we surveyed how the work was done:

The haircut, in a notebook
With a stylist alone, nobody entered anything in the system: it went into a notebook, and when online bookings arrived they got mixed up with the people waiting. Between 40 and 48% of records were only opened at checkout.
Dirty, incomplete or missing data
Every visit had to be typed in again and customers couldn't enter anything themselves. With a queue waiting, the phone went in as 1111111111: 30% of phone numbers were invalid and 25% of people were duplicates. It wasn't the employee's fault: it was the system's.
The till, as free text
Cash, complaints and late arrivals, written by hand shop by shop. Overages and shortages had no control; in Miami there was no till count on any day.
The prepaid pack, on card
Four haircuts on a hand-stamped card, entered twice at the till. In Miami, a card file by letter that the manager went through by hand.
No bookings in the system
Bookings were given by phone or on the spot. There was no online booking and no way to move people to the empty hours.

What the owner asked for: knowing who works on what

Before writing a line, we worked with the owners, walked the shops and opened up the previous system from the inside: three separate databases, one server and twenty years of data. In late May, the owner put in writing what he needed to see to run the chain. Almost nothing on that list was a sales figure: they were control questions. What time each person came in and left. How much each stylist produced over the hours they were there. Which prepaid packs were sold, which were redeemed and where. And one rule: if a child arrives with a booking and the stylist ends up serving the brother and the father too, the system has to record it. None of those answers lives in a single shop, or comes out of a notebook. That is why the project became one product for the whole chain, with one design rule: nothing gets charged unless it is on record whose haircut it was, who did it and how it was paid.

What the owner needed to see
  1. 01Clock-in and clock-out times for each person
  2. 02Productive hours over hours worked
  3. 03Commissions per haircut, per product and per toy
  4. 04Target per location: progress and projection
  5. 05Packs sold, redeemed and redeemed at another branch
  6. 06Two tills per location, with transfers between them
  7. 07If the brother and the father are served too, the system has to record it
Control questions, not sales questions: all 20 locations consolidated.

Live, which haircut is underway, who is doing it and what gets charged

Each visit enters the system when the family arrives, not when they pay. The family checks itself in: it scans the shop's QR code with its account and joins the queue, with its details already on file. If it arrives without an account, reception looks it up by phone and the record appears at any of the 20 locations; without the guardian's name, a phone number and the child's birth date, nobody can be queued. If two siblings and their father come in, they enter as one visit, with one record per person and their stylist. The stylist picks it up on their phone and, when done, it is charged on the same screen. Nobody who hasn't clocked in that day can be assigned a haircut. On the other side, the owner and the regional manager see the chain live: each shop's queue, refreshed every 18 seconds; the till, every 30; who is cutting whose hair. An anti-fraud check runs every hour with five rules whose thresholds the owner sets (repeated discounts, a till open for more than a day, too many voids, a pack with no payment), and every action is logged with its user, role and location: in September, 85 people left a trail.

99.9%
of services tied to a stylist and a payment
99%
of visits with a family and phone number
One visit · everyone sees it
  • Owner and regionalAll 20 locations live on the phone, the till in one currency and the anti-fraud check with its thresholds.
  • ManagerHer shop: the queue, the till, who clocked in and who was late, with the reason. She builds her team and the days off.
  • ReceptionLooks the family up by phone, queues them and charges. Without complete data, nothing moves.
  • StylistTheir haircuts and nothing else, on the phone. They clock in from there and see their target and commission.

Online booking and time-based pricing: the schedule balances itself

Before, there were no bookings in the system. Today families book on the website or the app, at any hour: 12% of online bookings arrive between 9 pm and 9 am, with the shops closed. At 11 locations families can choose a stylist; in Miami, more than a third of online bookers do. The shop's hours govern booking, and each stylist's days off and holidays take them off the website automatically. Price is used to move demand. Pelokitos' week is back-loaded: in 2025, in Argentina, only 5% of visits fell Monday to Thursday before 1 pm, while Saturday and Sunday filled up. Each shop loads discounts by day and time and booking shows them on every slot, with a color code the brand named “Preciokitos”: whoever can come on a Tuesday morning pays less, and Saturday is left for those who can't. That is how price is moving demand into the hours that used to be empty.

The week · % of 2025 visits in Argentina
MonTueWedThuFriSatSun To 1 pm 1.6% −30% 1.3% −30% 1.2% −30% 1.2% 1.6% 5.3% 3.8% 1–5 pm 3.1% 2.8% 3.2% 2.9% 4.1% 8.4% 7.6% From 5 pm 5.4% 5.9% 5.9% 5.8% 7.9% 10.7% 10.3%
2025 visits, previous system −%Discount loaded at one shop
The bars come from the previous system's records (Argentina, 2025). The discount is Alto Rosario's rule: −30% Monday to Wednesday, 10 am to 1 pm.

The prepaid pack: from a stamped card to each family's account

The haircut pack is a big part of the business: in September it was 14% of what was charged in Argentina and 46% in Miami. Before, it was a hand-stamped card. First we migrated the balances: those from the previous system and, one by one and with a photo, the paper cards; everything was migrated successfully. Today the pack is sold within checkout or on the website, sits in the family's account and is redeemed at any shop. The queue shows how many cuts each family has left before serving them, the redemption records the branch of origin so it can be settled between franchises, and every void goes to the supervisor for review. The owner sees how many sold cuts remain unused, by country and in real time.

  1. 01SellAt checkout or online. If bought online, it goes into the day's till and the booking shows it is paid.
  2. 02RedeemAt any shop, with one tap. The queue shows how many cuts the family has left.
  3. 03SettleA redemption at another shop is recorded with the branch of origin, and the franchise statement settles it.
  4. 04ControlEvery void goes through the supervisor. The owner sees sold but unused cuts, by country.

Everyone on the team, with their own account on their phone

Each stylist clocks in from their phone, sees their haircuts and knows at any moment how far along their monthly target they are and how much they will be paid. The manager sees, at her shop, who came in, who was late and who is cutting; she builds her team and loads days off without asking anyone. What used to come out of a spreadsheet at the end of the month, each person now has at hand.

Juli · Alto Rosario

In at 9:58 · clocked in on the phone

My target · October
$ 1,020,000/ $ 1,500,000
68%$480,000 to go
  • Own haircuts86
  • Own commission$ 255,000
  • Salary advance− $ 50,000
  • Net to be paid$ 205,000
What a stylist sees in her account. Labels are the app's; amounts are examples.

What changed in control and in the shops

The numbers come from the records of both systems. Where there is a before and after, July, the last full month on the previous system, is compared with September, the first full month on the new one, as of 29 September 2026; the Miami figure compares October 2026 with the October average for 2023–2025. Almost everything below could not be measured before, because it wasn't recorded.

99.9%of services tied to their stylist and their payment

Before, with a stylist alone, the haircut went into a notebook, and 40 to 48% of records were only opened at checkout. Today 99% of visits also have a family and phone number.

Generated texture
+20%more haircuts in Miami in October

Against the October average for 2023–2025, over the same number of days: the first full month on the new system across the six Miami shops.

+19%more haircuts in Argentina in the first month

19% extra haircuts across the thirteen shops in Argentina in the first month on the new system.

12%of online bookings, between 9 pm and 9 am

A channel that didn't exist. One booking in eight was made with the shops closed.

96%of till closings balance to the cent

Before, the till was written down by hand and in Miami there was no till count on any day.

85people with an audit trail in September

Every action is logged with its user, role and location. Before, the technical log didn't even record the branch.

20locations switched systems without closing a day

Thirteen in Argentina, six in Miami and one in Uruguay. Everything was migrated successfully, with no duplicates.

Switching without closing shops: the data first, then one at a time

Order started with the data. On 13 July we migrated Argentina: customer records were grouped by family, with a valid phone number and no duplicates. Ten days later, Miami; then Uruguay. Everything was migrated successfully across the three countries. On 16 July the system started at the first shop; in August it reached the rest, with both systems running side by side. 31 August was the previous system's last day in Argentina and Miami switched over on 12 September. Not one shop closed for a day. Since then, new families barely repeat: only 0.1% come with a phone number already on file.

  1. 13 JulyArgentina migrated: everything moved successfully, with a valid phone number and no duplicates.
  2. 16 JulyStart at the first shop.
  3. 25 August12 branches run on the new system. Uruguay starts directly on the new one.
  4. 31 AugustLast day of the previous system in Argentina.
  5. 12 SeptemberFull switch-over in Miami. The previous system stops running in parallel.

What the operation made us change

Control gets its final design in the shop, with the people who use it. Requests come from the operation, as voice notes and screenshots, and ship fast: across 21 dated requests, the median was one day. Some tightened control; others loosened it where it slowed the work down. What comes next, with the same precision. The booking deposit is built and switched off at every branch. Electronic invoicing and win-back over WhatsApp are ready and waiting for the client's data and accounts.

  • No clock-in, no haircutThe owner's decision, on 5 August: nobody who hasn't clocked in that day gets assigned a haircut.
  • Required data at the counterSince 7 August, without the guardian's name, a phone number and the child's birth date, nobody can be queued, so the database gets clean over time.
  • 773
    773 alerts in one weekThe “stylist clocked in but not serving” alert generated 773 in 7 days. We turned off the email; the alert stays in the app.

Answer and we’ll tell you if this works for your company.

We review it quickly. If it’s a fit, we set up a meeting.

Assessment

Five questions about how you control your locations today. At the end we'll tell you whether a system like Pelokitos' fits you.

How many locations or branches do you have?
What industry is your business in?
What's hardest for you today? Pick up to 3.

Pick up to 3.

What do you run on today?
When would you want this solved?
Last step: who should we write to?

We only use it to reply about this assessment.

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