Focus on "appointment book"

Most salons and freelances keep an appointment book, to manage stylists' time, maximise productive hours and to ensure, as far as possible, that clients are not kept waiting. The appointment system might be operated by a receptionist, by the stylists or by the proprietor. A loose-leaf, bound or computerised system might be used.

Each day is normally divided into several appointment slots. The length of each appointment slot might be standard for all stylists, or it might be customised to match each individual stylist's requirements. To reduce bottlenecks, some salons stagger stylists' appointments by 15 minutes or so. A salons might also reduce congestion by attempting to fill less popular slots first. Sometimes a longer appointment is inserted between every two or three shorter ones. This allows the stylist to catch up with his schedule several times each day and is often essential because;

• some clients arrive late for appointments
• hair styles may take longer than anticipated, for a variety of reasons
• clients may request extra services during the appointment
• 'impulse' clients, who have no appointment, may walk in off the street
• miscellaneous factors; stylists may be interrupted on a regular basis by the telephone when the salon is short staffed, while bottlenecks may occur at backwash chairs and dryers if the salon is very busy

The appointment book usually contains details of clients' names, appointment times and the service(s) required. Kept and cancelled appointments might be indicated by respectively ticking or crossing out the appropriate slot. However, the appointment book is generally used for management rather than for accounting purposes and there are a number of reasons why it may not reconcile with the till record. These include;

• careless and inaccurate record keeping (particularly by staff)
• free hair cuts (for example for regular or dissatisfied customers)
• booking several family members into the same appointment slot

In the VAT tribunal case of Susan Hair Design Ltd (LON/89/1144X), it was accepted that the appointment book did not constitute a prime trading record and that the discrepancy between it and the till record was not in any way sinister.