Nothing has to be perfect before your first booking. The salon can go live with a partial menu and you can keep building it between clients.
Do it in this order — each step depends on the one above it.
1. Salon settings
Name, address, timezone, and hours. The timezone matters more than it looks: every appointment, reminder, and report is rendered in it.
2. Payments
Start this early. Stripe verification can take a day or two, and card payments are unavailable until it clears. Beginning it on day one means it is done by the time the rest is ready. See Set up payments.
3. Staff and roles
Invite each person, set their role, and give them working hours. The calendar cannot offer a stylist who has no hours.
4. Bring your existing clients
If you are moving from another system, import before you build the menu — imported clients arrive with their visit history, so your service menu can match what they already book.
5. Your service menu
Start from a template and edit rather than typing from scratch. Each service needs a name, a duration, and a price. Categories and add-ons can wait.
6. Turn on online booking
Last, because it depends on everything above. See Turn on online booking.
7. Take a test payment
Ring up a small sale on yourself and refund it. This proves the register, the reader, and the receipt email work before a real client is at the desk.