Back-bar cost
The product a service consumes, priced as a cost rather than a sale.
Back-bar cost is what the product consumed during a service costs the salon: the colour, developer, toner and treatment used on the client, as opposed to anything sold off the retail shelf. It is a cost of delivering the service, so it comes out of the service’s margin rather than showing up as a sale. In Salyntra a back-bar figure sits on each service line of an appointment, which is what lets a colour service and a blow-dry at the same price report different profits.
Why keep it separate from retail?
Because they behave in opposite directions. A bottle sold to a client is revenue; the same bottle used on that client is cost. Counting both as stock movement without distinguishing them makes a busy colour week look like a bad one.
Separating them also means the margin on a service is a number you can actually see. A colour service at the same price as a cut is a different business.
How does Salyntra track it?
Each service carries a back-bar figure, and it is recorded per service line on the appointment rather than per appointment. A visit with colour and a manicure attributes the product cost to the colour, where it belongs.
Common questions
Does back-bar cost affect stylist commission?
That depends on how you set commission up. Back-bar is a salon cost, so most salons calculate commission on the service price and absorb the product separately — but the figure is there either way, so you can see what a service really earned.
More terms
A commission rate that rises as a stylist’s takings do.
Deposit policyMoney up front to hold a slot, and what happens when it does not arrive.
Walk-inA client served without a booking — and how to record one honestly.
Payment claimHow a bank transfer becomes a confirmed booking.
Loyalty tierA status level clients reach, and what it should be measured on.
See it on your own salon
Thirty days, every feature, no card. Import your clients and services and judge it against how you actually work.