Getting started
From zero to a live booking link.
Six steps, roughly 10 minutes (most of which is Stripe's KYC, not ours). Read the whole thing pre-signup to know what you're in for, or open it in a sidebar tab post-signup and tap through.
Sign up + tell us about your business
Email + Apple / Google. No card required. Onboarding asks for your business name, timezone, and mode (mobile / studio / hybrid): three questions, two minutes. We pre-fill the spray-tan service catalog if that's your vertical; other verticals will get sensible defaults too.
Sign upConnect Stripe
Stripe Connect Express runs the payouts. The flow is hosted by Stripe (you'll see their UI) and asks for tax ID, bank account, and a few business details. Plan for 10 minutes: most of it is Stripe's KYC, not ours. After approval, deposits + balance taps + payouts all flow direct to your bank, no platform skim.
- Standard Stripe rates apply: 2.9% + 30¢ online, 2.7% + 5¢ in-person.
- We never see card numbers or bank details: Stripe holds those.
- Status surfaces on your Settings page when Stripe finishes review.
Set your service catalog + pricing
Each service has a name, duration, price, and (optionally) a deposit %, a rinse window, and add-ons. The booking page renders these as bookable slots. Edit pricing anytime: past bookings keep their original price.
Manage servicesSet your hours + travel zones
Business hours per day-of-week tell the booking page which slots to offer. Mobile artists also configure travel zones (concentric drive radii with per-zone fees) and a drive-buffer-minutes value that adds padding before and after each appointment for windshield time.
- Studio-only: just hours.
- Mobile: hours + travel zones + drive buffer.
- Hybrid: both, plus the house-call hero on the booking page.
Claim your handle (or a custom domain)
Default booking URL is yourname.goldenhourhq.com: claim the slug from Settings. Want it on your own domain (book.yourbrand.com)? Point a CNAME at us and we provision a TLS cert via Cloudflare. Both URLs work; the custom one feels more premium when handed to a customer.
Claim your handleShare your booking link
/app/share gives you the link, a QR code (download as SVG for print), an embed snippet for your Squarespace / Wix / WordPress site, and a Book-now button HTML. Pick whichever fits the channel.
- Instagram bio: paste the URL.
- iPhone share sheet: open the URL once, then Add to Home Screen.
- Existing website: drop the auto-resizing iframe snippet next to your About section.
After you go live
Four things worth doing in week one.
None are required: the booking link works without them. But each one compounds, and most artists who finish all four within their first week stay much longer.
Set up automated SMS + email
Confirmations and 24-hour reminders fire automatically: no setup needed. Optional: review-request 12h post-appointment (Settings → Review & rebook nudges), win-back at N days lapsed (Settings → Retention), birthday SMS (same page).
Customize your intake form
Default questions match your vertical (e.g. spray-tan asks about Fitzpatrick + recent UV exposure). Add or remove from Settings → Intake. Answers show on the appointment detail page with an AI one-line summary at the top of the client card.
Turn on the wedge features
Masked-number chat (Settings → Messaging) so customers never see your real phone. Inventory tracking (/app/inventory) for spray-tan solution + consumables. Photo workflow with consent + watermark. Each is opt-in.
Subscribe to product updates
We ship in public: every week's drops show up on /changelog. Subscribe via RSS at /changelog.xml or just bookmark the page. Active build means the answer to "can it do X?" changes month to month.
Ready when you are.
Sign up takes a minute. You can finish the rest at your own pace: the dashboard will hold its hand out until each step is done.