The Bookatu blog
Practical, no-nonsense advice for service businesses. Cutting no-shows, building steady income, getting found online, and keeping more of what you earn.
Go live without Stripe, and choose what clients can change online
If clients pay you in person rather than online, your booking page no longer needs Stripe to go live. And a new section in Settings lets you decide whether clients can cancel or move a booking online, how close to the start, and how many times a booking can be moved.
Print or email receipts at the point of sale, and tax rates to three decimals
Every sale at the point of sale now has a receipt you can print or email. Here is how that works, plus barcode scanners that end with Tab, opening the cash drawer, tax rates like 14.975%, and invoice payment links that charge the full total.
Every booking and what they bought, on one client profile
A client's profile now counts every booking they have with you, shows what they bought beyond their appointments, keeps a postal address, and holds on to the note you typed when you first added them. Here is what changed and where to find it.
Your waitlist now hears about more than cancellations
Cancellations are no longer the only thing that reaches your waitlist. Time freed by a moved booking, an unpaid deposit or a no-show marked before the start is offered too, waiting clients can get more than one offer, and repeat bookings check your diary first.
See your bookings in Google Calendar, Outlook or Apple Calendar
Each team member can now see their bookings in the calendar app they already use, or connect their own Google Calendar. Here is how it works, who can see what, and what it does not do.
What happens when a client asks us to delete their data
A client can request deletion from their own account, confirm it by email, and change their mind for 48 hours. Here is the whole lifecycle, including what stays behind and why.
GDPR without the panic: what Bookatu handles for your salon
Clients serve themselves a copy of their data, deletion requests run on rails with a 30-day countdown in your dashboard, and you can export your whole business any day. GDPR when the software does its share.
Let Claude book your clients: Bookatu's MCP server in practice
Bookatu runs an MCP server, so an MCP-capable assistant like Claude can see your services, check live availability and create real bookings with a key you issue. Here is how that works, in plain words.
Your next client might not use your website: when people ask ChatGPT (or any AI agent) to book
People are starting to hand whole errands to AI assistants, and booking an appointment is a natural errand to hand over. What agent-ready means for a salon, and how Bookatu keeps you bookable when the one doing the booking is software.
AI agents and your booking data: what a key lets in, and what it never touches
Bookatu has two doors for AI: the assistant inside your admin and outside agents that connect with an API key. What each one can do, how keys and scoping work, and the lines nothing is allowed to cross.
Run your salon from a chat: book, reschedule and block time by typing
The Bookatu admin has an assistant you can talk to in plain words. Type what you want and it books, reschedules or blocks time for you, shows you the change first, and never touches your calendar until you confirm.
Receive a whole delivery by photographing the supplier invoice
A box arrives with a paper invoice. Photograph it, send it to the assistant, and it reads the lines, matches them to the stock you already carry, and proposes the receipt for you to confirm. Sold something? Tell it, and the count drops.