One full set, itemized
Take the most-booked service on the menu and strip it to parts: the gel or monomer actually applied, the tips or forms, the file and buffer that go in the bin afterward, the sanitation supplies behind the appointment, the tech's minutes at her commission or wage, and the slice the booking app and card processor take off the top. Price minus all of that is the real contribution of one appointment, and it varies wildly across a menu that looks uniform on the wall. Our Fractional CFO engagement builds that costing for every service and keeps it current as product and wage costs move.
Current matters. Gel systems get discontinued, distributors reprice, a tech renegotiates her split, and a costing done once at opening quietly drifts from reality. The model gets refreshed when inputs change, so a price list set two years ago never silently becomes a discount program nobody approved.
Six costs, three behaviours
Costs manage differently depending on how they behave, so the model sorts them before it prices anything.
| Cost | Behaves like | How we track it |
|---|---|---|
| Product applied at the table | Variable per service | Usage per service type, checked against purchases |
| Single-use files and buffers | Variable per service | A per-appointment kit cost; Ontario's personal-service-settings rules make this a real line, not a rounding error |
| Tech time | Variable or semi-fixed, by pay model | Minutes per service at commission or hourly cost |
| Booking app and card fees | A percentage of every sale | Fee load as one monthly number, watched for creep |
| Rent, utilities, insurance | Fixed capacity cost | Spread over sellable minutes, not over sales |
| Ventilation and equipment | Capex recovered over years | A payback question before purchase, depreciation after |
Minutes are the inventory
A salon does not run out of polish; it runs out of afternoon. Tables multiplied by open hours is the entire stock of sellable minutes, and every scheduling choice spends it. The booking app already knows the fill rate by weekday and hour, Booksy and Fresha both report it, and the CFO work turns that into decisions: which quiet mornings justify shorter staffing, whether a long low-contribution service is crowding prime Saturday slots that shorter, higher-contribution work would fill, and what a realistic week of capacity means for any revenue target. Menu design and schedule design turn out to be the same exercise.
No-shows spend minutes without paying for them, which makes them a capacity cost before they are anything else. The apps can require a card at booking and enforce a cancellation window; whether to switch that on is a client-relations call, but the model at least shows what an average week of empty slots costs, so the call is made with a number attached instead of a feeling.
Capex that must answer a payback question
The big purchases in this trade are lumpy and semi-permanent: plumbed pedicure chairs, source-capture ventilation, a renovation that adds two tables. Each one is a capacity bet, and the model prices it as one, added sellable minutes at realistic fill against cash out the door, before anyone signs. Sometimes the cheaper answer wins on the same math: extending Thursday and Friday evenings adds minutes for wages alone, no plumbing permit required, and a pedicure chair that only fills on weekends looks very different from one booked solid. Financing the purchase is its own decision, and Walla's years in banking mean the lender conversation is prepared, not improvised; Business Financing Advisory handles that side. The tax mechanics of the same spending, ITC recovery and CCA classes, live on our tax planning page rather than here.
A CFO rhythm sized for a salon
This is not a controller in the back room. It is a monthly working session over a one-page scorecard: revenue per open hour, contribution by service line, fee load, supply spend against usage, and progress on whatever the current decision is, a hire, a price change, a second location somewhere in the GTA. Staffing questions get modelled the same way: commission techs flex with revenue but cap the upside of a full book, hourly staff do the reverse, and the right mix depends on how reliably the chairs fill, which the scorecard already shows. The numbers come from books that already tie, which is why this engagement sits naturally on top of End-to-End Accounting. Scope and fee are quoted in writing after a free 15-minute discovery call.
Source: Ontario — O. Reg. 136/18: Personal Service Settings.
