Start here · 8 min read
Getting started
From your invite to your first confirmed booking — the whole setup in one pass, about an afternoon.
Linebook goes live in about an afternoon. There's no migration project and no onboarding call — you set up your studio, add your artists, point people at your booking link, and start taking bookings the same day. Here's the whole path, in the order that works.
1 · Get in
1We're opening shops a few at a time, so access is by invite for now. Join the waitlist and we'll send you one. If you'd rather look around first, the live demo needs no signup at all — it's a real, fully-loaded studio you can click through.
2With your invite, sign up and claim your subdomain — yourshop.linebook.ink. You get a 14-day free trial, no card required. You only enter card details when you choose Start subscription in Settings → Billing.
3You land in the console as the owner. Your daily work — Requests, Bookings, Clients, Calendar, Flash, Payments, Finances — lives across the top. Everything administrative sits behind the Settings gear on the right.
NoteYour own account — your name, photo and password — is separate from studio settings. Reach it any time from your avatar (top-right), or under Settings → Account & security.
2 · Set up the studio
4Settings → Shop & hours: your address, phone, weekly hours and Instagram, plus the e-Transfer address clients send deposits to. Your hours are what the booking site offers, so get them right before you share the link.
5Settings → Brand & site: your logo, studio name and the photos on your page. Then Look & feel for your accent colour, paper and type — that's what themes your booking site.
3 · Decide how money works
Do this before you take a single booking — every one of these is snapshotted onto the payment when it's recorded, so setting them later doesn't fix the ones already taken.
6Settings → Payments → Deposits: what each artist takes to hold a slot. A flat amount, or a percentage of the agreed price with a floor. (See Deposits, holds & payments.)
7Settings → Payments → Card payments: connect your own Stripe to take card deposits online. Optional but recommended — card money lands straight in your account, and Linebook never touches it. (See Card payments with Stripe.)
8Settings → Payments → Shop cut: how the shop and the artist split the money — commission, booth rent, or a hybrid. Set the studio default, then override per artist where someone's deal is different. (See Shop cut, commission & booth rent.)
9Settings → Tax: your sales-tax jurisdiction and rates, so what you charge and what you report are right from the first payment. (See Sales tax.)
4 · Add your team
10Settings → Team: add each artist. They get a login and a chair on your booking site — every artist is included in your flat plan. A visiting artist can be added as a guest chair instead, with no login.
11Fill in each artist's public profile — photo, styles, short bio and their deposit. That's exactly what a client sees when they pick an artist, so it's worth ten minutes each.
5 · Set up client intake
This is the highest-stakes thing you'll configure, and the easiest to leave until it's urgent. Do it now.
12Settings → Data & privacy → Intake & consent form: your health screening, your waiver, and what clients consent to. Health, waiver and photos are agreed separately, never bundled into one checkbox.
13Check the age rules for your region while you're there. Linebook records that ID was checked and that the client is of age — it deliberately never stores a photo of their ID. (See Client intake, consent & waivers.)
6 · Make sure you actually hear about it
14Settings → Notifications: choose what reaches you and how often — as it happens, a once-a-day digest, or not at all. A booking request nobody sees is a booking you lose.
15Install the app on your phone for push notifications, and subscribe your bookings to the calendar you already use under Settings → Calendar sync. (See The Linebook app and Add your bookings to your calendar.)
7 · Rehearse, then go live
16Settings → Test: send yourself the real client emails and open the real forms, so you see exactly what your clients will get before anyone else does. (See Test mode.)
17Settings → Account & security: turn on two-factor. Your account holds client contact details and your studio's money. If you run a team, Settings → Security lets you require it of everyone.
18Share your booking link — put yourshop.linebook.ink in your Instagram bio and anywhere you take enquiries. That's your whole public site: your artists, your flash and a request form.
19A request comes in → an artist proposes times → the client pays a deposit → it's Confirmed and on the calendar. That's a booking.
Before you share the link
A quick pass through the things that are annoying to fix afterwards:
Your weekly hours are right, including the days you're closed.
Every artist has a photo, a bio and a deposit set.
Deposits, shop cut and sales tax are configured — these are snapshotted per payment.
Your intake form asks what your jurisdiction needs you to ask.
You've sent yourself a test booking and read every email it produced.
Notifications are on, and two-factor is enabled.
Not sure how a booking moves through the console? Start here.
How a booking flows →