Staff dashboard
Every shop you own or work at. Enter shop mode for one to check people in, manage the roster, and so on - to switch shops once inside one, sign out and back in.
Your barber profile
Your photo, bio and social links - shown to customers wherever they can pick you by name, at any shop you work at. Tap your photo there to see what they see.
View & join the queue before you leave home
Live queues at walk-in barbershops near you. Hold your place, then walk in when it's your turn.
Minutes saved
Haircuts via How Short
Barbershops
See which walk-in barbershops nearby are on How Short, vote for the rest to be added, or register your own.
Don't see your shop? Register it →
All shops
Open
Closed
Shop wait
minutes, general queue
Ahead of you
join to get a number
Barbers working
checked in now
Choose a shop
Every shop on How Short runs its own queue, barbers, and prices. Pick one to see live wait times.
No barbers checked in - this shop is unavailable right now. You can still join the queue and we'll seat you once someone checks in.
Hold your place
Choose how you're seen
Pick the general queue for the first available barber, or hold your place with someone specific.
Scheduling for members - coming soon
Jamie Chen
Scheduled place hold
Your haircut
Waiting
1In queue
2Checked in
3You're up
4In the chair
Estimated wait time: -
Push/text notifications for queue updatesComing soon - keep this page open to track your spot.
Your spot in the queue was adjusted
Get ready - you're up soon
You're one of the next two in line. Stay nearby - you might be called soon.
It's your turn - check in now
A chair is free for you. Scan the check-in QR code in the shop before the timer runs out.
Scan the check-in QR code in the shop to check in.
General Queue
£1.00
Barbershop control panel
Anyone on shift can use this: check customers in, check them out when they're done, and mark a no-show, no login needed. Log in below only for your own schedule.
Check-in QR code
Post this where customers actually arrive, at the door or front desk. Customers can only check themselves in by scanning it in person, not from the browse screen, so no one jumps the queue by checking in early from home.
Chairs
Waiting for a chair
Everyone currently waiting, general queue or for a specific barber. Once checked in, they're managed from their chair above instead.
Customer accounts
Anyone on shift can enrol a customer paying you directly, in person, into a membership - see Give membership below. The shop's own card on file (set up by an owner under Billing) is charged, never the customer's.
| Name | Phone | Visits | No-shows | Standing |
|---|
Log in
Forgot your PIN?
Set your new PIN
You're signed in as yourself for this one step only - set a new PIN, then you'll be signed back out so this shared device stays on the normal login screen.
Your status
Checked out
Schedule
Your working hours, set by the shop owner.
Today's breaks
The queue fits these in between appointments automatically, customers see them coming rather than being surprised. Treat each time as no sooner than, not exact - the queue never cuts a break short but may push it later if you're running behind. Add as many as you need for today.
Your insights
0
Served today
0
No-shows (named holds)
–
Your current wait
Stripe payouts
Checking payout setup…
Today at a glance
0
In queue now
0
Barbers checked in
0
Served today
Recent transactions
No-show settings
Place hold amounts and How Short's service fee are fixed and not set by the shop. On a no-show, How Short keeps a small service fee and the rest goes to the shop.
This just unlocks the option - staff still choose per customer at checkout whether they paid in person or through How Short. This is about ad-hoc, day-to-day haircut payments only - it's separate from Memberships (in Growth), which a shop can already offer regardless of this setting.
No additional fees for taking full payment through How Short - the hold fee stays the only thing How Short keeps, every penny of the haircut price goes to the shop.
Services, duration & hours
What you charge, how long a typical visit takes, and when you're open - all shown to customers when they join the queue.
| Active | Service | Price (£) | Duration source | Manual (mins) | Estimated (mins) | Memberships | Unlimited, any barber (£/mo) | Unlimited, named barber (£/mo) |
|---|
Shopfront profile
Your bio, social links, and amenities - shown to customers on your shopfront page.
Barber roster
| Name | Status | Served today |
|---|
Invite a barber by email - works whether or not they already have a How Short account:
Shop owners
Invite another owner by email - works whether or not they already have a How Short account. They get full owner access to this shop.
Customer accounts
| Name | Phone | Visits | No-shows | Standing |
|---|
Notify customers
Send a message to everyone who's visited your shop.
Coming soon
Widget creator
Show your live queue on your own website. Paste this snippet anywhere on your site - it's read-only (no sign-in or payment happens inside it), with a "Join the queue" button that sends visitors to your real How Short page to do that.
Subscriptions & memberships
Both are fixed platform-wide structures - see business-model.html's Stage 2/3 matrices. Subscription pricing (Standard/Plus, 1/2/4 holds a month) needs nothing from you. For memberships, tick "Offer memberships" against a service in the Services, duration & hours card (in Shop settings) - customers then see the standard 3/6/12-cut Shop & Barber Membership matrix for that service, priced off its rack rate automatically.
There's also an Unlimited option - unlimited visits to that service each month, renewing until the customer cancels, either with any barber or locked to one named barber. Unlike the matrix above, you set both prices yourself, independently of "Offer memberships" above: enter a monthly £ figure in a service's own "Unlimited, any barber" and/or "Unlimited, named barber" columns - offer either, both, or leave blank to not offer it.
Setting a customer up with a membership they paid you directly for (in Customers) costs the shop a reduced per-visit fee, charged to a card on file - not the customer's card.
Queue joins
Hourly today, plus this week at a glance.
This week
Customer recurrence
How often customers come back, and the average gap between visits.
Wait time & demand - named barber vs general queue
Average wait (minutes) and weekly joins, per barber and for customers with no specific request.
Average wait (min)
Demand (joins / week)
Queue success rate
Served versus those who no-showed or left the queue before being seen.
Customers seen per day
Daily total of customers served, last 14 days.
Revenue analytics Example
A preview of what you'll see once full payment handling is switched on - real daily revenue, not just wait times.
Example data - enable full payment handling above to see your shop's real numbers.
Subscription
A monthly allowance of free place-holds - the more you commit to each month, the less each one costs.
Memberships
Bundles of haircuts and place-holds together at a discounted rate - the more you commit to, the cheaper it gets. Set whether a membership renews itself when it runs out, or just finishes.
Your visits
Register a shop
Who are you?
Thanks - we'll be in touch to get your shop set up.