The numbers and terms that run a barbershop, defined.
Booth rent, commission splits, occupancy, rebook rate, interchange, the GST/HST threshold. Each entry is a plain-English definition, the formula where there is one, a worked example, and how BarberFlow handles it for Canadian shops.
Money
Average ticket
Average ticket is the average amount a client spends per visit. Divide total sales by the number of tickets over the same period, counting services plus retail.
Read the definitionBooth rent
Booth rent is a fixed weekly or monthly fee a barber pays a shop to use a chair. The barber keeps every dollar of service revenue and covers their own costs.
Read the definitionCommission split
A commission split is the percentage of each service sale a barber keeps, with the rest going to the shop. No law sets it and we found no government source that publishes split data, so it is whatever the shop and barber agree to in writing.
Read the definitionDeposit
A deposit is money a client pays before the appointment that is applied to the service if they show up and kept, in whole or in part, under the written cancellation policy if they do not.
Read the definitionGift card
A gift card is prepaid credit a client buys from the shop to spend later, by themselves or someone else. In most of Canada it cannot expire or lose value to fees, and GST/HST is charged when it is redeemed, not when it is sold.
Read the definitionPrice increase notice
A price increase notice is telling clients before a service price goes up. No Canadian law sets a notice period for barbershop prices; the rule everywhere is that the price charged matches the price displayed or quoted when the client booked.
Read the definitionRetail attach rate
Retail attach rate is the share of service visits where the client also bought a product: tickets with at least one retail item divided by service tickets, times 100.
Read the definitionRevenue per hour
Revenue per hour is service revenue divided by the hours a barber or chair was scheduled. It is the number that combines price, speed and empty gaps into one figure.
Read the definitionTip rate
Tip rate is tips as a share of service revenue, or the average tip per ticket. In a barbershop the tip is the barber’s money, and the CRA taxes it as income whether it came in cash or on a card.
Read the definitionOperations
Buffer time
Buffer time is the minutes held after a service so the barber can clean and disinfect tools, reset the station and wash up before the next client sits down. In Ontario and BC the cleaning it covers is required by public health rules.
Read the definitionCancellation window
A cancellation window is the period before an appointment when a client can cancel for free. Cancelling after it closes triggers a late cancellation fee.
Read the definitionDouble booking
Double booking is two appointments on one barber at the same time. Done on purpose it overlaps a long service’s hands-off phase with a short one; done by accident it leaves a client waiting at the door.
Read the definitionNo-show fee
A no-show fee is an amount a barbershop charges a client who books an appointment and never arrives. It is usually a set percentage of the booked service price.
Read the definitionNo-show rate
No-show rate is the share of booked appointments where the client never arrived and never cancelled: no-shows divided by booked appointments, times 100. A late cancellation is counted separately.
Read the definitionOccupancy rate
Occupancy rate is the share of a barber's available hours that are booked. Divide booked hours by available hours over the same period and read it as a percentage.
Read the definitionStanding appointment
A standing appointment is a repeating booking that holds the same day and time for a client, visit after visit, until someone cancels the series.
Read the definitionWalk-in
A walk-in is a client served without a booking, taken in arrival order or in the gaps between appointments. Most barbershops run a hybrid: appointments first, walk-ins around them.
Read the definitionPayments
Chargeback
A chargeback is a card payment the client’s bank reverses after the client disputes it. The money leaves the shop’s account with a fee on top, and the shop gets it back only by proving the charge was valid.
Read the definitionCredit card surcharge
A credit card surcharge is a fee a merchant adds when a client pays by credit card. It has been allowed in Canada outside Quebec since October 6, 2022, capped at the merchant’s own card cost and never more than 2.4%, and it is banned on debit.
Read the definitionInterac Debit
Interac Debit is Canada’s domestic debit network. The money leaves the client’s bank account directly, the merchant pays a flat per-transaction fee instead of a percentage, and a contactless tap is capped at $250.
Read the definitionInterchange fee
Interchange is the part of a card fee paid to the bank that issued the client's card. Every processor pays the same interchange and adds its own markup on top.
Read the definitionPayout
A payout is the transfer of a shop’s card takings, less processing fees, refunds and disputes, from the payment processor to the shop’s bank account on a set schedule.
Read the definitionRetention
At-risk client
An at-risk client is a regular whose gap since their last visit has passed their usual visit cadence but who has not yet been gone long enough to count as lost. They are the clients a shop can still win back cheaply.
Read the definitionClient lifetime value
Client lifetime value is the revenue one client is expected to bring in over the years they keep coming back: average ticket × visits per year × years retained.
Read the definitionClient retention rate
Client retention rate is the share of clients from one period who come back in the next. It is the clearest read on whether a barbershop is growing or leaking.
Read the definitionRebook rate
Rebook rate is the share of finished appointments where the client books their next visit before leaving the shop. It is measured at the chair, not weeks later.
Read the definitionVisit cadence
Visit cadence is how often a client returns, measured as the average number of days between their visits. A break in that rhythm is the first sign of churn.
Read the definitionTax
Input tax credit
An input tax credit is the GST/HST a registered business paid on its own purchases, claimed back against the GST/HST it collected. Net tax owed is tax collected minus input tax credits.
Read the definitionSmall supplier threshold
The small supplier threshold is $30,000 in taxable revenue over four consecutive calendar quarters. Cross it and you must register for GST/HST and start charging tax.
Read the definitionT4A slip
A T4A is the CRA slip a business issues when it pays fees for services to a self-employed person it is not the EI employer of, with the year’s total in box 048. For a barber working in someone else’s shop the slip is usually a T4 with employment code 13, not a T4A.
Read the definitionSee these numbers for your own shop.
A 20-minute walkthrough of BarberFlow with your real occupancy, rebook rate, and payroll.