15.0 Managing Tanning Programs

15.0.1 General Inventory Concepts

All products and services that you make available in your salon or spa are managed by the inventory module.  Inventory is made up of  services supplied to the client and products provided by the salon.  Products may be entered in inventory as retail product that you have purchased intended for resale, consigned product also intended for resale but where you purchase it only when you have sold it and back bar (sometimes called professional product) which is not intended for resale but for use by the staff.  Services are a very general category which can describe any of the hundreds of services that salons and spas provide to the client.  Tanning is one of those services but because you need to track the clients use of the blocks of time or sessions that you have sold to them there is a different way of entering tan services in inventory.

For advanced client loyalty features to be available you must use pre priced service inventory or what is called Pricing Tables.  To insure this feature is turned on and active look in Preferences at the Policy Tab and you should see the Use Pricing Tables box checked,  if not check it and Save your Preferences.

Salon & Spa will manage your tanning program while allowing you to sell to the client in four different ways:

• Single Session: this if for the client who only wants to purchase a single use of the equipment.  You could have more than one single session entry depending upon the length of time you want to sell to them say a 10 minute session and a 20 minute session.  This type is not tracked by the system and is treated similar to a normal service that you provide.

• Minute Packages: here the client purchases a block of time which may be used in any number of times with varying length.  You may have a number of minute packages available say 50 minute, 100 minute and 200 minute.  The system tracks the usage and current balance in the client's tan history file.

• Session Packages: here the client purchases blocks of sessions where the session lengths are usually fixed in length.  You can have a number of these types of packages which could vary by session length, say 10 minute and 20 minute and by number of session say 10 sessions or 20 sessions. The system tracks the usage and the current balance in the client's tan history file.

• Unlimited Package: an unlimited package allows the client to use the salon any number of times for a fixed period.  Salon & Spa will currently track only a monthly unlimited package.  Tracking by the system is done by date and the expiry date is reported to your staff upon inquiry to the client's tanning history.

Tanning is sold to the client by the point of sale module in the same way as the staff sells any other product or service.  When sold the client's history file is created to start tracking the usage.  As the sessions or time is used the staff enters the usage to the clients file using the tan tool as they check them in.  Balances are shown to the staff as they enter the new information.  The tan management tool is used to manage the program files and only needs to be used periodically to clean up the files and delete those which are expired and no longer needed or to print salon summaries of all clients' tanning histories.

Summary reports are available in the tools to provide a client a report of their purchase and usage at any time.  As well a summary report is available to look at the status of the program as a whole and the outstanding balances of all clients in the system.

15.0.2 Entering Tanning Packages in Inventory

From the File Menu select Inventory Manager and the tan packages tab. 

Inventory Manager showing a Tan Package Inventory

This screen is used to manage your inventory including tan package inventory.  To add a new tan package click on the Add New Tan Package Button.  To edit an existing package double click on the package row.

Tan Package Entry/Edit Screen

More information on entering inventory can be found in chapter 2.3.

For Tanning inventory please follow the following general rules:

Our Code for all service inventory starts with a [ . ]  for sorting purposes, the system will enter this part for you but do not delete it. Normal service entries may use any alpha - numeric code that you wish but for tanning the system recognizes the first four characters as .TAN after that you may use any characters you wish.  We suggest .TAN01, .TAN02 etc.

Package type may be either Minute, Session, Monthly Unlimited or Single Session.

A simple tan inventory setup would be as shown below: 

• .TAN01 Single Session
• .TAN02 100 Minute Package
• .TAN03 10 Session Package
• .TAN04 One Month Unlimited Tanning 

Service Name is required and should be set to make it easy for the staff to identify and select from the inventory list. For example TAN 100 Minutes, TAN 10 Sessions, etc

Description is optional and is used to further identify the service so could use Tan Package, etc

Category is optional and can be used to select groups of inventory for reporting purposes, we suggest a group called "TN" for tanning products and services.

Tax Code is required and after entering a few inventory items the system may learn this code setting and enter it for you.  Tanning is usually taxed similar to other service items code settings are shown below.

Application Code is required and this code determines if the taxes are to be calculated separately or tax on tax. Taxes are calculated separately in most jurisdictions today so the default value is 0. 

Tax codes are as shown below. Tax names and rates are set in Preferences. for example in Canada there is a federal sales tax called GST with a rate of 7% and many provinces have a sales tax called PST.  Two tax types are allowed for with up to 2 rates each as defined by the user.

• Code 0 No Tax 1 or Tax 2 
• Code 1 Tax 1 only at rate 1 
• Code 2 Tax 1 only at rate 2 
• Code 3 Tax 2 only at rate 1 
• Code 4 Tax 2 only at rate 2 
• Code 5 Tax 1 and Tax 2 at rate 1 
• Code 6 Tax 1 and Tax 2 at rate 2 
• Code 7 Tax 2 at rate 1 and Tax 1 at rate 2 
• Code 8 Tax 2 at rate 2 and Tax 1 at rate 1 

This is not as difficult as it may seem.  If only one tax is applied to tanning and you have set up that tax as Tax 1 with rate 1 then you would use Code 1.  If you had to apply two taxes to tanning you would set up TAX 1 and TAX 2 with rate 1 in Preferences and use Code 5.

The application code may be set as follows: 

• Code 0 Tax 1 and Tax 2 calculated separately 
• Code 1 Tax 1 calculated and Tax 2 calculated on the pre tax total plus Tax 1. 

Salon & Spa will remember your tax code and application code for service and retail entries after a few are entered.  Please sort your inventory frequently when entering for this feature to work correctly. When memorized selecting a new service or new retail product the codes you normally use will be filled in for you.

Setting the Cost, Markup and Price of Tanning

For a single session tan leave the cost as $0.00, leave the markup as 0.0 and set the price to your sale price of a single tanning session.

For Example Cost = $0.00   Markup = 0.0  Price = $10.00

For a Monthly Unlimited Package leave the cost as $0.00, leave the markup as 0.0 and set the price to your sale price for the unlimited package.

For Example Cost = $0.00   Markup = 0.0  Price = $70.00

For a Minute Package the cost per minute must be set and the price for the number of minutes in the package.  The markup is left blank or 0.00.  The price $ / cost per minute $ = #of minutes.  The system will credit the resulting number of minutes to the client's tan history file when the package is sold.  No manual entry by the staff is required other than to sell the predefined package.  You may set up a number of minute packages under different codes.

For Example, cost per minute $0.50, sale price of $20.00 would credit 40 minutes
             and, cost per minute $0.40, sale price of $30.00 would credit 75 minutes
             and, cost per minute $0.20, sale price of $50.00 would credit 250 minutes

For a Session Package the cost per session must be set and the price for the number of sessions in the package.  The markup is left blank or 0.00.  The price $ / cost per session $ = #of sessions.  The system will credit the resulting number of sessions to the client's tan history file when the package is sold.  No manual entry by the staff is required other than to sell the predefined package.  You may set up a number of session packages under different codes.

For Example, cost per session $5.00, sale price of $20.00 would credit 4 sessions.
             and, cost per session $4.00, sale price of $40.00 would credit 10 sessions.
             and, cost per session $3.00, sale price of $60.00 would credit 20 sessions.

Always click on the save icon to save the record to the file after you have entered it. A message will come up confirming the save was completed. 

You may modify a record at any time and re-save it with the changes. They may be entered in any order and sorted later using Sort Inventory from the file menu. Remember that they sort in code order so Tan1, Tan2, Tan3, etc 

15.0.3 Using The Client's Tan Credits

Salon & Spa is designed to enter credits to the client's tanning history through the sale of various types of packages.  Credits will be based upon the pricing set up as noted above for the different types.

When the client is checked into the salon or checked out the staff will call up the clients history and enter the usage of the day for the minute or session package.  For a single session sale nothing needs to be done and nothing is entered into the tan history, however, the tan information will show in the clients overall service history.  For an unlimited tan package when the staff looks at the client history the purchase date will show as well as the expiry date and the number of days remaining until expiry.  The staff are able to advise the client as to the status of their package and take the opportunity to sell further packages.

The clients tan history can be called up from a number of locations in the program where you see the tan tool icon.  

Remember when a client has been selected for a check out sale the history tools on the tool bar will bring up their file without a further search.  All of the clients histories including formula, profile, general service history, tanning history, info photo and loyalty points are activated to their files. If a client has not been pre-selected using all of these tools will bring up the client search dialog.

Client Tan History

The staff may view the client's history and print a copy for the client if desired.  Staff can also enter usage into the time or session packages using the tool.

An alternative quick way of checking a client in to a tanning session from the sales screen is to use the quick entry tool from the tool bar icon.

Quick Tan History Update

Although it is highly unlikely a single client may have one of each type of package running concurrently. This is not recommended as would cause confusion.

15.0.4. Managing Tan Histories.

To manage your client's tanning histories you would use the Manage Client Tan Histories Tool found in the Tools Menu of the Client Manager or administration tools from the sales manager screen..

Administration tools menu

Tan Manager Screen

The tan manager will show the active files for the client selected.  When the tool opens it will load the first client in the file.  You may select clients using the search button or the Next and Previous buttons.  If you load the salon tan summary at the bottom of the screen (click on load summary button) you can select clients by clicking on the client row in the summary. Note that the load summary button changes to refresh summary after it is loaded the first time.  You will need to refresh the summary to have changes you make in the upper section show in the summary.  Printing the summary will give you a hard copy of all of your clients histories and balances.

The summary will show the current status of all client tan histories in your files.  If a file has expired it will show as expired = Yes and clicking on the row will allow you to delete the history by clicking on the Remove Expired Record button.  Because Minute and Session histories can become quite long by purchasing new packages which credit more time or sessions you may reduce the lengthy files to a single balance by clicking on the row and then the button labeled Reset Client Balance.

We suggest that you take the time to manage the histories from time to time as very large histories will slow the system.

The tanning tools in Salon & Spa will allow your staff to quickly and efficiently manage a large program with different tanning packages that meet your client's needs.  You will always know the status of the client's credits with little effort on the part of the staff and the client will be comfortable knowing that their balance is always up to date and accurate.