What it is
The Walk-in Queue is a live, digital "front-desk line" for the studio. It shows everyone who is physically in the shop right now waiting for service — in one ordered board the front desk can run all day.
It handles three kinds of people in a single view:
Appointment clients who have arrived and are checking in for their booked time.
Walk-ins who need a consent form (e.g. tattoos, piercings) before service can start.
Walk-ins who don't need consent (e.g. simple services or retail).
The front desk no longer juggles paper sign-in sheets, sticky notes, or guessing who's next.
How it's different from the Waitlist
The studio already has a Waitlist — that's a scheduling tool for people who want a future appointment ("call me when a Saturday opens up"). The Walk-In Queue is the opposite: it's for people who are here, today, now, waiting to be seen. The two work side by side and serve different jobs.
What it does (key capabilities)
Capability | What it means for the studio |
One unified line | Appointments and walk-ins appear together, in priority order, so the desk always knows who's next. |
Check In | One button to add anyone to the line. The system automatically detects if they have an appointment today and offers the right path. |
Priority & manual reorder | VIPs or time-sensitive clients can be bumped up; staff can drag-and-drop to reorder the line at any time. |
Ping by text | Tap Ping to text a waiting client ("we're ready for you"), so people can step out and still keep their place. |
Start | Begins the service. When a consent form is required, it's automatically sent to the client's phone, pre-filled with their details — same trusted flow used for appointments. |
View consent form | Once the client signs, staff can view the completed, signed form right from the board. |
Checkout | Sends the client straight into the existing checkout/invoice flow — correctly wired for each track (appointment, walk-in with consent, or simple walk-in). |
Remove (with reason) | Cleanly remove someone who left, no-showed, or cancelled — nothing is ever silently deleted; reasons are kept for the record. |
Live wait times | Each row shows how long the person has been waiting, updating continuously. |
Fast at scale | Designed to stay responsive with 50+ people in the line on a busy day. |
A day in the life (typical flow)
Client arrives → front desk hits Check In and searches their name (or creates a new client on the spot).
The system auto-detects a same-day appointment. If found, staff "check in to appointment." If not, they add the person as a walk-in and pick the service.
The client takes a seat. The board shows them in line with a live wait timer.
When their turn comes, staff Ping them by text if they've stepped out.
Staff hit Start. If the service needs consent, a pre-filled form is texted to the client to sign on their phone.
Once signed (where required), the service happens. Staff can View the signed form anytime.
When done, Checkout takes them into the normal payment flow.
Once the invoice is paid, the entry automatically completes and drops off the active board.
How it integrates with the rest of the system
The Walk-In Queue is not a bolt-on — it reuses the platform's existing, proven workflows rather than duplicating them:
Clients — uses the existing client database (find-or-create), so no duplicate records.
Appointments — reads same-day appointments and, when a client checks in to one, uses the exact same consent-form flow appointments already use.
Consent forms — for walk-ins, sends the same pre-filled, signable form clients already receive, with the studio's service and age rules applied automatically.
Checkout & invoicing — every checkout routes into the existing checkout system; nothing new for staff to learn. Completion is tied to actual payment, keeping reporting accurate.
SMS — Ping and consent links use the platform's existing text-messaging service.
Navigation — appears in the menu under Appointments, right next to Waitlist.
Permissions & security
The Walk-In Queue has its own dedicated permission, so studios control exactly who can use it.
Out-of-the-box role access:
Owners, Company Managers, Location Managers — full access.
Receptionists / front desk — full access (local to their location).
Artists — can see and act on their own clients in the line.
Checkout still requires checkout permission — using the Walk-In Queue never bypasses payment controls.
Consent links sent to clients are hardened against tampering — a client can only ever complete the form tied to their own entry.
What staff can fill out on an entry
When checking someone in, staff complete a short form. Which fields appear — and whether they're required — depends on whether the person is an appointment client or a walk-in.
Field | What it captures | Appointment flow | Walk-in flow |
Client | Who's waiting — searched/selected, or created new on the spot. | Required | Required |
Appointment | Which same-day appointment they're checking in to. | Required (pick the appointment) | n/a |
Service | The service they're here for. | Auto — taken from the appointment | Required (must be an active service at this location) |
Preferred artist | The artist they'd like. Leave blank for "any available." | Optional | Optional |
Placement | Where on the body (e.g. forearm, ankle). | Optional | Optional |
Design description | What the client wants done. | Optional | Optional |
Size estimate | Rough size / expected duration of the work. | Optional | Optional |
Priority | Flag to push this person up the line (VIP, time-sensitive). | Optional | Optional |
Notes | Anything else the desk wants on record. | Optional | Optional |
Notes:
For appointment check-ins, the service (and its consent requirements) come straight from the booked appointment — staff don't re-enter them, which avoids mismatches.
For walk-ins, picking a service is the one required choice beyond the client, because it drives whether a consent form is needed and what gets billed at checkout.
Everything else (artist, placement, design, size, priority, notes) is optional in both flows — fill in as much or as little as the moment allows.
Status, position in line, wait time, and timestamps are set automatically by the system — not entered by staff.