Written for owners of hair salons, barbershops, beauty, nail, lash and brow businesses, spas and massage, tanning, tattoo and piercing studios and med spas in the United States.
The short version
- Treat gift card money as service owed.Deposits too. Until a card is redeemed, the money is a liability, so keep it apart from what you spend.
- Map the next 13 weeks of cash.Sales net of card fees, payroll, rent, product orders, tax deposits, and the weeks gift card redemptions are likely to land.
- Put a price on your no-shows.Work out what they cost each week, then what a deposit, shown before booking, would save. Measure eight weeks before and after.
A lot of the cash a salon takes in a busy month pays for work it has not done yet: gift cards and deposits. Spend it as profit and the redemptions arrive later with no cash behind them, while payroll, rent and tax deposits still fall due.
Build a 13-week cash view
Lay it out week by week. Greymill can build it from your POS and QuickBooks or Xero when they are connected.
- Service and retail sales, net of card fees.
- Deposits and gift card sales, shown as cash now with the service still owed.
- Booth rent coming in.
- Payroll and commission on payday, with card tips paid out through payroll.
- Product orders and rent.
- Sales tax and payroll tax deposits, and quarterly estimated taxes.
First-quarter redemptions arrive with no cash behind them. Until a card is redeemed, the money is a liability.
Gift cards stay a liability until redeemed
Federal law bars a gift card from expiring within 5 years of issue or the last load. California bans most expiry dates altogether. Unredeemed balances can be unclaimed property in some states. As of Oct 2026.
Credit CARD Act, 15 U.S.C. 1693l-1; California Civil Code 1749.5
What a deposit policy is worth
No-shows are hours you cannot sell again. Work out what a deposit is worth before you choose the size; the contracts lesson covers when a deposit holds up.
| Lost to no-shows if the rate falls to 2%: 100 x $70 x 2% | $140 |
| Less deposits kept on those no-shows: 2 x $17.50 | -$35 |
| Weekly loss with deposits | $105 |
| Weekly improvement on today's $490 loss (100 x $70 x 7%) | $385 |
$490 minus $105 = $385 a week; x 52 = $20,020 a yearThe fall from 7% to 2% is an assumption: measure 8 weeks before and after. Indicative.
Borrowing for a build-out or a laser
SBA 7(a) loans for buy-outs and build-outs go up to $5 million and need a personal guarantee from 20% owners. SBA tightened its citizenship and residency ownership rules in 2025, so check SBA's current lending rules before applying with a non-citizen owner. Lasers are often leased: check the buyout and early-termination terms. Avoid merchant cash advances that take a share of daily card sales. As of Oct 2026.
Before you sign a laser lease, work out how many treatments a month cover the payment, and check that your insurance, any medical director structure and your state's scope rules let your team operate it.
Asked in Greymill
The gift cards: until a card is redeemed, the money is a liability, not profit.
First-quarter redemptions arrive with no cash behind them, while payroll, rent and tax deposits still fall due.
Set it aside in a 13-week cash view, with redemptions in the weeks they are likely to land.
What no-shows cost you:
Today: 100 x $70 x 7% = $490 a week
25% deposit, if no-shows fall to 2%: 100 x $70 x 2% = $140, less 2 x $17.50 kept = $105
Saving: $385 a week, $20,020 a year
The fall to 2% is an assumption, so measure 8 weeks before and after. Show clients the deposit before they book.
Next, I can build your 13-week cash view with the remodel in it.
Ask it about your own business
Paste this into Greymill with your own figures, and Cash & Profit works it through for your business.
I run a salon or beauty business in [state], in the US. Build me a 13-week cash flow starting [date]: weekly service and retail sales [figures], card fees [rate], gift card balances outstanding [amount], deposits held [amount], booth rent coming in [amount], payroll and commission [amounts], product orders [amounts], rent [amount], sales tax and payroll tax deposits [amounts] and estimated taxes [amounts]. Show the weeks where gift card redemptions land with no cash behind them, and what a deposit of [amount] on bookings over [price] would be worth at my no-show rate of [rate].
More for beauty, hair and aesthetics in the US
- Pricing a color service so it still pays after commission and productPrice each service from the provider's time and product, check what commission leaves you, and track service sales per available hour before you change the menu.Read the lesson
- Am I claiming the FICA tip credit, and do I owe tax on back-bar color?Salons can now claim the FICA tip credit on employees' tips, while back-bar product and New York City's service tax catch out owners who never checked.Read the lesson
- Adding laser, microneedling, injectables or tattoos: whose license covers it?Every state licenses the person and the shop separately, scope of practice decides what an esthetician may do, and injectables, and in most states lasers that affect living tissue, are the practice of medicine.Read the lesson
- Memberships, auto-renewals and no-show fees: will my terms hold up?Memberships, deposits and no-show fees are lawful when the client agrees to clear terms up front, and auto-renewal laws spell out how sign-up and cancellation must work.Read the lesson
- Commission stylists, '1099' stylists and booth renters: am I underpaying or misclassifying?A booth renter must really run their own business, and every commission employee needs a minimum wage and overtime check each workweek.Read the lesson
- Getting more five-star reviews and Instagram bookings without breaking FTC rulesRebooking, reviews, portfolios and texts bring in salon clients, and each comes with federal rules on incentives, endorsements, photos and consent.Read the lesson
- A client was burned, reacted or had an injectable complication: what do I do today?The first hours after a burn, reaction or injectable complication decide the client's outcome and whether your insurance responds, so act in order and admit nothing.Read the lesson
Open the interactive lesson · Every beauty, hair and aesthetics lesson · What Greymill knows about the trade
Sources
The primary sources behind this lesson, checked Oct 2026.
- 15 U.S.C. 1693l-1; Cal. Civil Code 1749.5 (Cash, lenders and the 13-week model)
- SOP 50 10 (Cash, lenders and the 13-week model)
- SBA Policy Notice 5000-865754, effective March 7, 2025; current SOP 50 10 version 8.1 with technical updates, effective October 1, 2026 (Cash, lenders and the 13-week model)
- Publication 15 (Worked in dollars: utilization, commission against booth rent and deposits)