Weighing colour formulas in grams, and the colour bar

Weighing a formula records exactly what went into each bowl, in grams. Anyone on the team can mix it again next time, what you used comes out of stock a tube at a time, and Reports → Colour shows what each colour service costs you. A weighed formula is still a colour formula on the client's card, written out the way your team would write it.

Typed formulas keep working: weigh the ones you want to, and type the rest (recording colour formulas).

#Setting up colour for weighing

Two things, once. If you started with the typical hair salon menu, both are done for you: its colour services have Uses colour on, and Products has example colours, a lightener and developers (brand "Example colour") to try the mixing screen with. Change them to your own brand's names, sizes and costs, or archive them once you've added yours.

1. Give each colour product a size. On the Products page, open each colour, lightener and developer you use and, under Colour, fill in Size: what one tube or bottle holds, in grams (count a developer's millilitres as grams). Its cost price makes its cost per gram. A product without a size can't be weighed into a formula. For each developer, oxidant or activator, also turn on Developer.
2. Mark your colour services. In Settings → Services, open each colour service and turn on Uses colour. Their appointments show on the colour bar, and a formula weighed for one of their appointments counts towards that service in Reports → Colour.

Products with Developer turned on show under Developer when you mix, with their ratio to the colour. Each shade's swatch comes from the shade in its name, as colour charts number them ("6.1", "7/43", "8GC"); where the name doesn't say, like "Ruby", press Choose beside Swatch and pick it from the shade chart (products and stock).

Giving products a size needs Add and edit products and prices, and changing services needs Edit services and prices. Owners have every permission.

#The colour bar

Colour bar in the menu lists the day's appointments with a colour service, in time order. It's made for the tablet where you mix. It shows once at least one service has Uses colour turned on. At the top it counts the day's colour appointments, how many are mixed and how many are still to mix.

• Still to mix: the client's last formula, bowl by bowl, with each product's swatch and grams, and what was left last time (that bowl starts less). A typed formula shows as its text. Press Mix to weigh this one.
• Up next: today, the first appointment still to mix has a coloured border, and each shows how soon it starts ("in 15 min").
• Mixed: one quiet line with the formula's swatches and grams. Open opens it to change.

Mine shows the appointments where you do one of the colour services, and Everyone everyone's. Use the arrows or the date to see another day, and Today to come back.

#Weighing a formula

Open the mixing screen from the colour bar (Mix), from an appointment (Mix beside Last formula, or Mix colour… in the appointment's menu), or from the client's Formulas & notes tab (Weigh one instead). It fills the screen, made for fingers on a tablet, and works the same on a phone or a computer. Then:

1. A new formula starts from the client's last one, when that was weighed: its bowls and grams fill in, less anything that was left over (mixing less waste), ready to change. Last formula, at the top, says when it was and who mixed it; tap it to see its bowls, products and grams. If their last formula was typed, press Start from the last weighed one to start from their last weighed formula instead.
2. Press + Colour (on a phone, + Add), choose the brand, then tap the shade. Colour and Developer at the top of the list switch between them. Shades are in shade-chart order (6.1, 6.13, 6.2, then 7), and the search finds any product by name or shade, or by scanning its barcode.
3. The product you're on shows large beside the bowl: type its grams, or use − and + to change them a gram at a time. Up next, under it, moves on to the next product in the bowl; once a bowl's done, tap the next bowl's tab when you're ready. Tap any product in the bowl to change it; the bin beside its name takes it out of the bowl, after asking.
4. Press + Developer and choose the developer. With it chosen, press 1:1, 1:1.5 or 1:2 to fill in its grams from the colour in the bowl, or type them.
5. + Bowl adds another for lengths, a toner or a gloss: type its name, or tap one of the usual ones. Each bowl is a tab with its total. Under a bowl, Rename and Remove with its name (Rename Roots, Remove Roots) do what they say; Remove asks first, and shows once there's more than one bowl.
6. Tap Processing time, under the bowl's products, and set how long it's left on: type it, or use − and + for 5 minutes less or more.
7. Under Whole formula, add a note on how it turned out if you like: it's for every bowl, and saved as the formula's last line.
8. Press Save formula, at the top.

Each product shows a swatch of its shade, read from the number in its name (a 6.1 is a dark ash blonde) or chosen on the product, so a bowl can be checked at a glance. The top of the screen shows the formula's total grams beside Save formula (each bowl's is on its tab); what it cost is on the client's card and in Reports → Colour. When you open it from an appointment with more than one service, choose which one it's for under For.

The formula goes on the client's card, written out like this:

Roots: Majirel 6N 30 g + Majirel 6.1 30 g, Oxydant 20 vol 90 g (1:1.5), 35 min
Result: lovely cool brown

#Mixing more or less

Press Amount, beside + Colour and + Developer (on a phone, the sliders button beside + Add; it shows once the bowl has grams still to pour), to mix more or less of a bowl: longer hair since last time, or a lighter regrowth.

• Choose By % ("10% more") or By grams ("10 g more"), then type how much or use − and + (5 at a time). Less is a minus: −10% is 10% less. By %, it's from half as much to double.
• With more than one bowl, choose that bowl or all of them.
• The screen shows the grams before and after. Press Mix 10% more (or whatever you chose) to change them.

Every product still to pour grows or shrinks together, and the developer stays at the same ratio. Products already poured on a scale stay as weighed.

#Mixing less waste next time

When you start from a formula that had some left in a bowl, that bowl is mixed less by the same share: if 20 g of a 100 g bowl was left over, each of its products is 20% less this time, and the developer stays at the same ratio. Beside Last formula, Less the 20 g left is chosen (on a computer, point at it to see each bowl's share; the colour bar shows it too, as "starts 20% less"). Choose Same as last time to mix what was mixed then.

Choosing either puts last time's products back to exactly those grams, even the one already chosen, so it also undoes Amount or typing on them. Products already poured on a scale, and ones you've added since, stay as they are.

Opening a formula again shows Last formula too: the client's formula before it, to compare with.

#Recording what was left in the bowl

After the service, open the formula again (from the colour bar, the appointment or the client's card), tap Left over at the bottom of the bowl, and type what's left in it, or use − and +. With a connected scale, you can weigh it instead (below). Then Save changes.

It's colour you paid for but didn't use: Reports → Colour shows it as waste, the formula notes it ("12 g left over"), and the next time it's started from, that bowl is mixed less.

#Weighing on a connected scale

FullColumn connects to Acaia's Bluetooth scales (the Pearl, Lunar, Pyxis and others) in the FullColumn app on an iPad, iPhone or Android phone or tablet, and in Chrome or Edge on a computer or Chrome on an Android tablet. Safari can't use Bluetooth, so on an iPad or iPhone, use the app (getting the app). Anywhere else, weigh on any scale and type the grams: Connect scale only shows where a scale can connect.

1. On the mixing screen, press Connect scale. In the app, allow FullColumn to use Bluetooth the first time (on Android, to find nearby devices): it connects to the scale it finds, or asks which when there's more than one, nearest first. In Chrome or Edge, choose your scale from the list. From then on it connects by itself each time the mixing screen opens. After the page is reloaded, Chrome asks once more: press Connect and your scale's name (Connect PEARL), and choose it.
2. Add a product, or press Pour on the scale on one already in the bowl. The scale is zeroed and its reading shows large. A product with grams to pour to (started from the last formula, typed first, or a developer at a ratio) fills a ring towards them: purple turning green as you near it, green once you're on it (within 2%, or 0.2 g on a small pour), then orange and red as you go over. A new one just shows what the scale reads, and keeps it.
3. Press Done to keep what the scale read and pour the next product in the bowl. The next bowl waits until you tap its tab. Tare zeroes the scale again, keeping what's poured so far. Lifting the bowl off before Done keeps the reading; the next product then waits for the bowl, so put it back on and press Pour on the scale (zeroing the scale with the bowl off would count the bowl as poured).

To add more of a product already poured, tap it and press Pour more: the scale zeroes, and what you pour adds to what's there.

A product that came out more than 2% over or under what it was to be shows by how much on its line, such as +7%. Saved, the formula keeps what was poured on the scale and what each was to be: open it again and the poured products still have their ticks and how far off they came, and a bowl with everything poured has a tick on its tab. A formula started from it begins fresh, with nothing poured. Typing over a poured product's grams takes its tick off, as they're no longer what the scale read. Reports → Colour counts what was poured over.

To weigh what's left over, tap Left over, press Weigh on the scale, put an empty bowl like it on the scale and press Zero the scale, then put the used bowl on and press Done.

The scale's name and battery show above the reading. A minute after the mixing screen closes, FullColumn lets the scale go, so it can switch itself off and save its battery (it stays on while it's connected); opening the mixing screen again connects it again. If it's switched off or out of range, press Reconnect, or Forget it to stop using it. While it's connecting, Cancel stops trying (it gives up by itself after 20 seconds).

To disconnect it for good, point at or tap its name, then press the × beside it: FullColumn forgets it, and the next connection asks which scale. If the scale is set to ounces, set it to grams.

#How weighed colour comes out of stock

Stock still counts whole tubes and bottles. Every gram weighed into a formula counts towards the open one, and each time a whole size has been used, one comes out of stock. A 60 g tube comes out once 60 g of it has been weighed into formulas, however many clients that took.

• It shows in the product's Stock history as Used in salon, with the note "Colour formulas".
• Changing a formula to less, or deleting it, puts back any tube it no longer uses.
• A product with Track stock off is still costed in formulas, but its stock doesn't change.
• Changing a product's size changes nothing already weighed: each formula keeps counting at the size it was weighed at.

#Changing or deleting a weighed formula

On the client's Formulas & notes tab, a weighed formula shows bowl by bowl: each bowl's ratio, processing time and leftover, then its products with their swatches and grams, how it turned out, and "Weighed" with its grams and colour cost. The formula's menu (the three dots) has:

• Edit, which opens the mixing screen. A weighed formula's text changes with its bowls, so it can't be edited as text.
• Pin to top, Copy and Delete, as for any formula (recording colour formulas).

Everyone on the team can weigh formulas and change them. Deleting one someone else added needs Import, export, merge and remove clients.

An appointment with a colour service shows the client's latest formula under Last formula, a weighed one bowl by bowl.

#Common questions

#Do I need a scale that connects to FullColumn?

No. Weigh on any scale and type the grams. An Acaia scale can connect, to save typing (weighing on a connected scale).

#Can I weigh a product that isn't colour?

Any product with a size can be weighed into a formula, so a treatment or bond builder you mix can be too.

#What does a formula cost when a cost price changes?

Each line keeps the cost per gram from when it was weighed, so past formulas and reports stay as they were. Changing a formula later (its leftovers, how it turned out, or another line) leaves the lines you didn't change as they were; a line you add or change is costed at today's cost price.

#A product I need isn't in the list when I mix

Only products with a size, and not archived, can be weighed. Open it on the Products page and fill in Size under Colour. A developer that shows under Colour when you mix needs Developer turned on there.