What software runs a grooming business with more than one location?
Short answer
You need software where a location is a first-class concept rather than a second account: its own calendar, team, price list, opening hours and booking page, with owner-level reporting that spans all of them. Argus is built that way — one login covers every branch, each branch keeps its own timezone and hours, managers are restricted to the branches they run, and earnings and takings can be read per branch or across the whole business.
Why a second location breaks most salon software
Plenty of tools handle one shop well and then ask you to open a second account for the second. That is where the pain starts: two logins, two price lists to keep in step, two sets of reports to add up by hand, and no way to see whether the new branch is actually profitable.
The test to apply when comparing tools is simple: is a location a real object in the system? Can it hold its own opening hours, its own team, its own prices — and can the owner still see one number for the whole business?
What each branch keeps of its own
- Its own calendar, with a column per groomer working there that day
- Its own team, and its own weekly rota
- Its own opening hours, including split days, and its own timezone
- Its own address, phone number and map location
- Its own page in your customer booking flow
Your service catalogue and your customer records are shared across the business, which is usually what you want: a customer who visits whichever shop is nearer that week is one customer with one history, not two half-records.
What the owner sees across all of them
Reporting reads either way. Pick a single branch to see how that shop is doing, or “All locations” for the business as a whole — takings, month-to-date sales, upcoming appointments, and payments broken down by method for cashing up.
The earnings report is the one that quietly saves the most time: one row per team member with commission, tips and payout, where a groomer who worked at two branches rolls into a single row rather than needing two figures added together.
How customers experience several branches
Your booking page lists your branches with a search box that matches on name and address, next to a map whose pins highlight as the customer moves down the list. They pick a shop, then a pet and service, then a time that a groomer at that branch is genuinely free for.
If you only have one shop today, none of this gets in the way — the branch step disappears entirely, and appears by itself the day you open the second.
More detail: calendar & scheduling and earnings & reports.
Related questions
- Do I pay per location?
- No. Argus is free to start and a single account covers every branch you run — there is no per-location charge.
- Can a manager be limited to one shop?
- Yes, and it is enforced on the server rather than just hidden in the interface. A manager sees the calendar, schedule and reports only for the branches they are responsible for, and cannot check out a sale or cancel an appointment elsewhere.
- What if my branches are in different timezones?
- Each branch carries its own timezone. Available booking times, day boundaries and single-branch reports use that branch's local day; all-locations reporting uses your organisation's timezone, so a date range always means the same thing.
- Do customers have to pick a branch every time?
- Only if you have more than one. The branch step is skipped automatically for single-location salons, and for multi-branch salons customers choose from a searchable list beside a map.