Raising your prices

A price rise goes through your whole service menu at once. You start with a rough rise, like 5% rounded to the nearest $5, and every price gets a new one. Then you go through them: type over any price, leave a service as it is, and fix anything that looks wrong. It's a draft until you apply it, so nothing changes for clients while you work on it.

You need Edit services and prices to make a price rise. Owners have every permission.

#Starting a price rise

1. Go to Settings → Services and choose Price rise.
2. Under Raise prices by, type a percent, or choose one of the quick picks.
3. Choose how prices are rounded: 50c, $1, $5 or $10. FullColumn starts on $5 when most of your prices already end in 0 or 5. Prices are rounded to the nearest; tick Always round up to round up instead, so a rise never comes out smaller than you asked.

Every price on the menu now shows its new price, what it was and how much it rises. That includes each service's standard price, its price at each level, team members' own prices and bundles with their own price. A rise never takes a price down. If rounding would take a price below what it is now, it stays as it is.

Choose Save changes to keep the draft, and come back to it later from Settings → Services, where a banner says a price rise is in draft. Leaving the page with changes you haven't saved asks whether to discard them first. Review and apply saves them too.

#Going through the new prices

• A category rising by its own percent: type it in Rise by at the top of the category, like 8% for colour. Use the overall puts it back.
• A level rising by its own percent: in a category, type it under the level's name, like 8% for Senior and 5% for Junior in Cuts. There's a box where the level has prices of its own in that category. It's for that category's prices at that level and the own prices of team members at that level. Left blank, a level rises by the category's percent. A level whose price follows Standard rises with Standard.
• Typing over a price: type the new price in its box. Back to puts it back to the rise's price. A price typed below what it is now stays as it is: a price rise never lowers a price.
• Leaving a service as it is: untick it. All its prices stay as they are, its levels and team members' own included.
• Seeing what you've done: the tabs show Needs a look, Changed by you and Not rising.

At the top, Average rise and Worth about show what the rise adds in a year. They're worked out from the last 12 months of appointments, if clients keep coming as they did.

#Prices that need a look

FullColumn flags a price when:

• rounding left it as it was, or made the rise much bigger or smaller than you asked for
• levels' new prices are out of order, like a junior now charging more than a senior (a level following Standard counts at Standard's price)

A rounding flag offers Make it with the rise as you asked for it, to the nearest dollar. Any flag can be left with Fine as is, and typing your own price clears a rounding flag.

#Applying the new prices

When you're ready, choose Review and apply.

1. Choose what happens to Appointments already booked (below), and whether those clients get a message.
2. Under When the new prices start, choose Straight away, or On a day and pick it, like the 1st of next month.
3. Choose Apply new prices, or Schedule for the day you picked.

The new prices start on your booking page and for every appointment booked from then on. Applying can't be undone: going back means changing each price in Settings → Services, and the old prices are kept in the price rise history.

#Starting on a day

A price rise scheduled for a day is applied on the morning of that day, from the start of the hours automatic messages go out (Messages → Automations, 9am to start with), so its message goes then too. You can tell clients ahead, and nobody has to remember to come back. Until then, the banner in Settings → Services shows the day, and the price rise can be looked at but not changed. To change it, or apply it straight away instead, choose Unschedule: it's a draft again.

Which booked appointments move, and who gets the message, is worked out on the day, so appointments booked in between are included.

#Appointments already booked

• Keep the prices they were booked at: only appointments booked from now on get the new prices.
• Move them to the new prices, except…: booked appointments move to the new prices, apart from those you choose to keep their price:
  • Appointments before a day you pick, to give clients notice.
  • Each client's next appointment, so they have one more visit at the price they know. Their later ones move.
  • Appointments clients booked online, as they saw the price when they booked.

Moving booked appointments also needs Book and change other team members’ appointments, as it changes everyone’s appointments.

Some appointments always keep their price: those already paid for, those booked with a promo code, those whose price was changed by hand, and those booked as a bundle you've since archived. Deposits stay as account credit either way. The page lists which appointments move and which keep their price, and why.

#Telling clients whose appointments move

When booked appointments move to the new prices, FullColumn can send those clients a message as the prices change. It starts with our wording, which you can change for this price rise:

Hi {first_name}, our prices at {business} have changed, so your appointment on {date} will be at our new prices. Any questions, just let us know.

{first_name}, {business} and {date} (their first appointment that moves) are filled in for each client. It goes once to each client, by text or email as your appointment messages do (Send by in Settings → Reminders & SMS → Automatic messages), and texts count towards your allowance. Untick Send a message to send nothing. Clients whose appointments all keep their price aren't sent anything.

#Past price rises

Settings → Services lists the price rises you've applied, with how many prices rose and by how much on average, and how many clients were told. What changed shows every old and new price, and the booked appointments that moved to the new prices.

#Common questions

#Does a price rise change products?

No. A price rise is for services. Change product prices in Products.

#Can two people work on the same price rise?

There's one draft at a time. If it's saved on another device after you opened it, saving or applying yours asks you to look over the price rise again first, so neither of you overwrites the other.

#Can I undo a price rise?

No. Once the new prices have started, going back means changing prices in Settings → Services; What changed in the price rise history shows every old price. A price rise scheduled for a day can be unscheduled until then.

#Can I make a price rise on my phone?

It goes through every price on the menu, so it's made on a computer.