Why NextUp Walk-in: one system for the whole visit

The five-tools problem

Each tool does its job. The trouble is between them. A customer is typed into the waitlist, again into the booking app, and a third time at checkout. The website shows prices that were right last spring. Team pay is worked out on Sunday night from three different screens.

When the line, the payment and the client record live in separate places, every visit is entered more than once and something always falls between two apps. The full version of this argument is on the Why NextUp Walk-in page. This post is the short one.

What one system covers

It starts with the line. Customers join by QR code or link with no app to download, and see their place and wait live on their phone. The same line shows on the Staff Screen, the waiting-room TV, a door tablet kiosk and the phone, tablet and TV apps.

Checkout happens on the visit itself: cash, a tip, a pay link or QR, a saved card or a Stripe card reader. It takes payment for a visit’s bill, but it is not a full point-of-sale system and does not connect to another point-of-sale system or to card readers other than Stripe’s.

Each client has one profile, so the visit, the payment and the history sit together. Team pay works from the same records: a statement for each person, less rent and advances, ready to export. Commissions, payroll and tip pools are Pro.

Appointments and online booking are Pro too, and they sit beside the line so walk-ins and booked clients share one day.

Your website comes from the same account. It shows your real wait, services and prices, with a Join the line button that puts visitors into your actual line. Change a price once and the site follows. The website builder is on every paid plan (not Free), at $19 a month ($190 a year) per business. Its Booking times block is Pro.

Payments stay on your own Stripe account

Card payments, tips included, are processed by Stripe on your own Stripe account. NextUp Walk-in never holds your money. You pay your team, and NextUp Walk-in shows what each person is owed.

NextUp Walk-in’s card fee is 0.5% of card payments, never on tips, at most $1 a payment, on top of Stripe’s processing fee. Cash payments carry no NextUp Walk-in fee. There is no marketplace and no new-client fee, but the card fee still applies.

Built for 16 kinds of business

Barbershops and nail salons, pet groomers and chiropractors, car washes and restaurants: the business type you pick changes the words on every screen, the TV and the customer’s phone. A stylist in one shop is a server in another.

Each location has its own line and screens, with one brand, one catalog and one sign-in across them. If you are weighing options, the comparison pages go side by side with other apps.

What each plan includes

The Free plan covers 1 location and 1 team member with 50 check-ins a month. It needs no card, sends no texts to customers, and has no website builder.

Walk-in is $29 a month for the first location and $19 for each extra. It has the line and every screen, clients, messages, checkout with every payment method, team pay statements, insights, reviews, the apps and multiple locations. Pro is $59 and $39, and adds appointments and online booking, memberships, packages, gift cards, commissions, payroll, tip pools and email campaigns. Restaurant is $69 and $44: everything in Pro plus the floor plan and station view.

Walk-in and Pro include 3 team members per location, then $10 a month each. Restaurant has no seat charge. Yearly billing is two months free. Not every feature is on every plan: the Pro list above is Pro only.

How to start

Start on Free, or take the 14-day trial with every Pro feature. The trial is once per business, and it needs a card added at Stripe Checkout; nothing is charged until the trial ends, and cancelling before then means nothing is charged.

Pick your business type, add your services and team, print your QR code, and have a customer in your line in minutes. See the pricing page for the details.