The word "report" may bring back memories of grade school, but the reports generated by salon and spa software are some of the most powerful resources owners and managers can tap into to help them analyze their business' strengths and weaknesses. These charts and graphs measure everything from the popularity of different services to retail sales by employee or manufacturer to client retention.
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Harms Software Millennium offers a whopping 300-plus reports, which can be easily imported into Microsoft Excel and Word or such formats as Comma Delimited Text, XML, HTML and PDF. The add-on service Millennium.NET allows users to view many of the reports remotely from a Web browser or even a cell phone.
If salon managers can't find the report they want among the more than 200 Salon Iris includes, they can create their own using the program itself or an application like Microsoft Access or Crystal Reports from Business Objects, an SAP company. The Enterprise version of Shortcuts, a central management solution for chains and franchises, also allows users to customize reports using Crystal Reports. For more specific analytical data, franchises, chains and single-site salons can contact Shortcuts' Business Intelligence Department, which can create sophisticated commission, enterprisewide and benchmark reports.
Managers can view dozens of useful reports in The Spa/Salon Manager software from Innovative Business Computer Solutions, or they can see a consolidated report called the Employee/Business Review, which calculates the net profit of the business—based upon service and retail sales, taking into account the cost of payroll, rent, supplies, utilities and other expenses—and displays the results in easy-to-read graphs and charts. The report shows the trends for weekly, monthly, quarterly, biannual or yearly time periods.
ProSolutions Software offers a similar report through their add-on module called ProConsultant. It provides a wide range of graphs analyzing sales and service profitability, appointment-book utilization, client retention, salon and spa traffic, staffing requirements, inventory activity and stocking-level requirements.
Contact these companies to find out how software can help you better understand your business. —L.A.
Harms Software: 888/813-2141; harms-software.com
Innovative Business Computer Solutions: 800/682-2998; spasalon.com
ProSolutions Software: 800/710-3879; prosolutionssoftware.com
Salon Iris: 888/803-4747; saloniris.com
Shortcuts Salon & Spa Software: 866/678-7324; www.shortcuts.net