How to doeverything in Kairo

Sign up

1. Go to kairobookings.com and press Sign up.
2. Enter your business name, your booking address (yourname.kairobookings.com), your name, mobile, email and a password.
3. Enter the 6-digit code we email you. It can take a minute, and sometimes lands in junk.
4. Pay once. Card, Apple Pay or Google Pay.
5. Your Kairo is built in a few seconds. A Welcome to Kairo email follows with your links.

Sign in

1. Go to login.kairobookings.com, or straight to your own address, e.g. yourname.kairobookings.com.
2. Enter the email and password you signed up with.
3. Forgot it? Press Forgot password on the sign-in screen. The link goes to your sign-up email.

The setup journey

1. The first time you sign in, Kairo walks you through setup. Your booking page builds itself in a phone beside you as you go.
2. Your craft: pick what your business does and Kairo drafts a menu.
3. Details, Hours and Your look: your phone and address, the days and times you open, your colour, logo and cover photo.
4. Menu and Team: untick what you don't do, set your prices and times, and add the people who take bookings.
5. Bookings: choose whether clients book themselves online or message you for a consultation first.
6. Messages: confirmations, reminders and receipts by email, switched on for you.
7. Kairo shows everything that is now live, and what is optional, so you know you're ready.

Want to change something later? Settings → Account & data → Guided setup runs it again. Nothing is lost.

The setup checklist

1. Until your setup is finished, a short checklist sits at the top of each screen.
2. Each line has a button that takes you straight to the thing it asks for — texts, card payments, your booking link, the iPhone app.
3. It disappears by itself once everything is done.

Read your day

1. Today at a glance shows how many appointments you have, how many are done, what you've taken and what is still expected.
2. Coming up lists the next appointments. Open calendar takes you to the full day.
3. The tiles show revenue collected, what is outstanding, your client count and your rebooking rate.

Act on an opportunity

1. Opportunities are things Kairo found in your own diary — clients overdue for a visit, gaps worth filling.
2. Press Draft a message, check the wording, then Send.

Quick actions

1. Take payment opens Point of Sale.
2. Block time takes a slot out of online booking.
3. New appointment books someone in.

Book an appointment

1. Click an empty slot — the date, person and time fill themselves in. Or press New appointment.
2. Choose the client: search for them, pick Walk-in / no client, or type a new name and press Add new client.
3. Choose the service. Add another service for more than one.
4. Check the team member, date, start time and length, and add any notes.
5. Press Book appointment, then choose whether to email or text them a confirmation.

Move or change an appointment

1. On a computer, drag it to a new time or a different person, or drag its bottom edge to make it longer or shorter.
2. On a phone, tap it, change the time or person, and press Save changes.
3. If the new time clashes, Kairo asks before double-booking.

Cancel, mark a no-show or complete

1. Tap the appointment to open it.
2. To cancel: press Cancel appointment, choose whether to let the client know, and confirm. You have 15 seconds to undo.
3. For a no-show or a finished visit: change Status to No-show or Completed and press Save changes.

Take payment and rebook

1. Open the appointment and press Checkout / bill. Kairo makes the invoice and opens it in Billing.
2. Press Rebook to book their next visit — choose how many weeks ahead, the time and the person.

Block out time

1. Press Block time.
2. Choose who is unavailable — one person, or Everyone (whole business).
3. Choose the date and times, or All day, and a reason only you can see.
4. Press Block this time. Online booking is off for that time.
5. To undo it, tap the block and press Remove block.

Share your link

1. Copy it from the dashboard checklist, or from Settings → Online booking.
2. Put it in your Instagram bio, your Google business profile and your WhatsApp auto-reply.

What your clients do

1. Choose one or more services.
2. Choose who they'd like, or Any available.
3. Pick a day and a time.
4. Enter their name, mobile and email, and press Confirm booking (or pay a deposit, if you take one).
5. They get a confirmation by email with a link to change the time or cancel, within the rules you set.

Change how it looks

1. Settings → Online booking → Booking page appearance.
2. Choose your colour, light or dark, the lettering, your logo, a cover photo and a welcome line.
3. Press Save appearance.

Set your cancellation window

1. Settings → Business → Hours & booking.
2. Under Customers can cancel until, choose how close to the appointment clients may cancel or move it online.

Take deposits

1. Connect Stripe or Square first: Settings → Payments → Taking payments online.
2. Under What customers are asked for, choose A deposit, Their choice, or The full amount, up front.
3. Set the deposit as a fixed amount or a percentage, and save.

Fill cancellations automatically

1. Settings → Online booking → Waitlist & automatic filling.
2. Turn on Let customers join a waitlist. When a day is full, clients can ask to hear if it frees up.
3. Turn on Offer a cancelled slot automatically, and choose how offers are sent and to how many people.

Turn on consultation first

1. Choose A consultation first in the setup journey, or go to Settings → Online booking → Consultation first.
2. Tick Take bookings by consultation only.
3. Choose where people should message you — Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger, phone, email — and enter your handle, number or link.
4. Press Save consultation settings. Your booking page now shows a Message us button instead of times.

Send a booking link after the chat

1. In the Calendar, press Booking link.
2. Under Send a new link, choose the service, the person, the date and the time you agreed. Change the price if you quoted something different.
3. Press Create link, then copy it into your chat with the client.
4. They open it, confirm (and pay, if you ask), and the appointment lands in your calendar.

Prefer both? Keep online booking and add a free Consultation service to your menu, so new clients can book a chat like any appointment.

Ask for payment with a booking link

1. Settings → Online booking → Consultation first → How they pay.
2. Choose your own payment link, a card on the page (Stripe or Square), or no payment.
3. With your own payment link, choose who confirms the booking: the client when they say they've paid, or you after you've checked.

Turn requests on

1. Settings → Online booking → Special requests.
2. Tick Let customers send a request from my booking page, and save.

Answer a request

1. Requests appear on your dashboard and ping your phone.
2. Press Reply by email or Text them — it opens your own email or messages.
3. Press Mark as done when it's sorted.

Add a client

1. Clients → New client.
2. Enter their name, and their mobile and email so they get confirmations and reminders. Add a birthday and notes if you like — preferences, allergies, colour formulas.
3. Press Add client. Clients who book online are added for you.

Bring your client list from another system

1. Export your clients from your old system (Fresha, Square, Acuity or any spreadsheet) as a .csv or .xlsx file.
2. Clients → Import, and drop the file in. Kairo matches the columns by name.
3. Check the preview and press Apply import.

Already have the clients but missing their numbers? Update contacts fills in phone numbers and emails from a spreadsheet.

Find and tidy

1. Search by name, email or phone. Filter by new clients, regulars, or who has a booking.
2. Merge duplicates finds clients who are in twice and joins them — appointments, invoices and history included.

Patch tests and consent

1. On a service, tick Needs a valid patch test, or Needs the client to agree to something in writing.
2. Settings → Policies → Patch tests & consent sets how long before the appointment a test must be done, and how long it lasts.
3. Open a client and press Treatment record to record a patch test, consent taken in person, or a photo.

Export your clients

1. Clients → Export downloads clients.csv, ready for a spreadsheet.

Add or change a service

1. Services → New service, or tap a service to edit it.
2. Enter the name, a category (e.g. Colour), and how many minutes it takes.
3. Choose Fixed price, From (the price depends on the client — you set the exact amount at checkout) or Free.
4. Add a description for your booking page.
5. Leave Bookable online ticked for clients to see it, and press Add service.

Take a service off the menu

1. Open the service and press Archive. It stays in your history but can't be booked.

Import a menu

1. Services → Import CSV.
2. Include a name, duration and price for each service, and optionally a category, description and price type.

Add a product

1. Products → New product.
2. Enter the name, retail price, and optionally the cost price (never shown to clients), supplier, SKU, barcode and a photo.
3. Enter the stock on hand and when to warn you it's running low.
4. Press Add product.

Keep stock right

1. Stock goes down each time a product is sold at Point of Sale.
2. Low stock shows in the list. Filter by Low stock to see what to reorder.
3. A refund can put products back into stock.

Add someone

1. Team → Add team member.
2. Enter their name and title, pick a calendar colour, and leave Active ticked to show them on the calendar and booking page.
3. Press Add.

Set their usual week

1. Team → Scheduled shifts.
2. Press the pencil next to their name, set each day on or off with their times, and press Save.
3. Clear the week makes them follow your business hours.

Days off and leave

1. Team → Scheduled shifts, and tap the day.
2. Choose Not working and press Save. Nothing can be booked with them that day.
3. Back to usual undoes it.

More than one location

1. Settings → Business → Locations to add a branch.
2. Each team member belongs to a location, and clients choose the location first.

Take a payment

1. Point of Sale → New sale · walk-in, or pick one of today's appointments.
2. Add a Service, Product, Custom item or Discount.
3. Press Charge, then choose Card, Cash or Other.
4. The invoice is marked paid and a receipt is emailed if the client has an email.

Take cards in person

1. Settings → Payments → In-person card payments.
2. With Stripe, the client pays on your phone or by a payment link. With Square, take it on your Square reader and press Paid on Square — record it.

Make an invoice

1. Billing → New invoice, or press Checkout / bill on an appointment.
2. Press Add service or Add line, then Create invoice.

Record a payment

1. Open the invoice and press Record payment.
2. Choose card, cash, bank transfer or other, and the amount.

Refund

1. Open the invoice and press Refund — all of it or part.
2. Card payments through Stripe go back to the card. Cash refunds are recorded.

Receipts and tax invoices

1. Every payment you record, and every deposit or booking paid online, emails the client an itemised receipt with your logo: each service and product, the total, the GST included in it, what was paid and how, and anything still owing.
2. Your prices include GST, as prices shown to Australian clients must. A $150 colour is $150 on the invoice, and the receipt says $13.64 of it was GST. Nothing is added on top.
3. Add your ABN in Settings → Payments → Invoices & receipts. With an ABN and a tax rate, receipts are titled Tax invoice, which is what a client needs to claim the GST.
4. Receipts are on in Settings → Messages → Notifications (Payment receipts).

Clients paying by card see your name, colours and logo on Stripe's payment page too — Kairo sets that on every payment.

Print or save

1. Open the invoice and press Print / PDF. A paid invoice prints as a receipt, or a tax invoice with your ABN.

Invoice settings

1. Settings → Payments → Invoices & receipts sets GST, your ABN, the invoice prefix, payment terms and the footer.
2. My prices include GST is on to start with. Turn it off only if you quote prices before GST, as some businesses do to other businesses; GST is then added to each invoice.

Choose what gets sent

1. Settings → Messages → Notifications.
2. Turn each one on or off — booking confirmations, appointment reminders, payment receipts, review requests — and choose Email, SMS or both.
3. Set how many hours before the visit reminders go.
4. Press Save notifications.

Turn on text messages

1. In Kairo, go to Settings → Messages and press Set up text messages (or Set up texts on your dashboard). Texts go through your own ClickSend account, an Australian SMS company — you pay ClickSend a few cents a text, and Kairo adds nothing.
2. Open a ClickSend account: press Open ClickSend, fill in your name, business, email and a password (or use Sign up with Google), press Start free trial and follow ClickSend's prompts to confirm your details.
3. Connect it: in ClickSend, press the key icon at the top right. It shows your Username and API Key. Copy each into Kairo and press Connect — Kairo checks them with ClickSend straight away.
4. Check your credit: Kairo shows your ClickSend balance. Free credit covers the test; add about $20 before you go live (a few hundred texts), and turn on Auto-recharge in ClickSend so reminders never stop.
5. Test it: reminders and confirmations are ticked for you. Check your mobile number and press Turn on texts and send me a test. Texts switch on only once ClickSend accepts the test.

Optional: send texts from your own mobile number instead of a shared one — it's at the bottom of the same screen.

See what was sent

1. Messages lists every message Kairo sent, with whether it was delivered.
2. Press Retry on anything that failed.

Automatic marketing

1. Settings → Messages → Marketing automations.
2. Turn on messages like birthday offers, rebook nudges and win-backs. Clients who opted out never receive them.

Read and reply

1. Reviews shows your average rating and every review.
2. Filter to 3★ & under to see what to fix, and press Reply to answer.

Get more Google reviews

1. Settings → Messages → Notifications → Google review link. Paste your Google review link and save.
2. Clients who give 4★ or more are then invited to post their review on Google too.

Use the growth plan

1. Growth shows where your new clients came from over the last 90 days.
2. Work through Your growth plan and tick each step as you go.
3. What to post this month gives you a ready caption — press Copy the caption.
4. Referrals lets you offer existing clients something for each friend they bring.

Ask Kai

1. Press Ask Kai at the top of any screen (or ⌘K / Ctrl+K on a computer).
2. The first time, Kai explains what it shares and asks you to turn it on.
3. Ask anything: “What's on today?”, “How did last week go?”, “Who hasn't been back in a while?”
4. Or tell it what to do: “Book Jane in tomorrow at 3”, “Move Tom's 2pm to Friday”, “Add a note to Sarah”.

Talk to Kai

1. Press the microphone, say what you want, and pause when you're done.
2. To go somewhere, just say it: “Show me Friday”, “Open my clients”, “Take me to my SMS settings”. Kai goes straight there.
3. On the iPhone, use the microphone on the keyboard instead.

What Kai can change

1. Every change Kai makes is listed as it happens.
2. Anything that deletes, messages a client or moves money waits for you to press Confirm.
3. Turn Kai off any time: Settings → App & Kai.

Install it

1. Search Kairo on the App Store, or press the App Store button on kairobookings.com.
2. Open it and sign in with the email and password you use for Kairo.
3. Allow notifications.

Choose your notifications

1. Settings → App & Kai → Phone notifications.
2. Choose: new bookings, cancellations, booking links that say they're paid, special requests, and a summary each morning at the hour you pick.
3. Press Save phone notifications.

On Android

1. Open your Kairo address in Chrome, tap the ⋮ menu, and choose Install app or Add to Home screen.

Find a setting

1. Settings, then the section tab at the top.
2. Or type in Find a setting — “reminder”, “logo”, “deposit”, “hours” — to search every section at once.
3. Each card has its own Save button.

No-show rules

1. Settings → Policies → No-shows.
2. Ask clients to confirm, ask for a deposit after a number of no-shows, stop online booking after more, or always take a deposit on bigger bookings.
3. Press Save no-show rules.

Backups

1. Settings → Account & data → Backups.
2. Kairo emails you a complete copy of your business every week by default. Choose how often, and where it goes.
3. Press Download a copy any time.

Change your password or email

1. Account → Security to change your password.
2. Account → Sign-in email to change the address you sign in with. It asks for your password.

Sign out everywhere

1. Account → Sign out everywhere ends every session on every device — for a lost phone, or someone who has left.

Refund within 14 days

1. Account → Refund and delete my Kairo.
2. Kairo shows exactly what happens: your money back, your booking page closes, clients stop hearing from you, everyone is signed out, a copy of your data is emailed to you, and everything is deleted 7 days later.
3. Tick I understand and press Yes, refund and delete.
4. After 14 days, the same card offers Ask for a refund, which a person reads.

Close your account

1. Account → Close my account. Enter your password and type your business name.
2. Your booking page goes off and everyone is signed out. Your files are deleted 7 days later — until then, a message to us can bring them back.