Add a client
What you actually need to type to create someone, what you can leave for later, and the message settings that decide what they're allowed to be sent.
2 min readUpdated August 22, 2026
Most clients get created at the front desk with someone standing in front of you, so the form starts small.

The fast version
New client opens a panel with the essentials: name, email, phone. That plus how they heard about you is genuinely all you need to save someone.
Everything else lives behind Add more details — and it stays there until you ask for it, so a busy desk isn't scrolling past an address form to find the save button.
What's behind it, when you want it:
| Section | What goes in it |
|---|---|
| About them | Gender, pronouns, birthday |
| Social | Instagram, Facebook |
| Contact | Alternative phone, full address |
| Messages | The four settings below |
| Booking | Block this client from booking online |
| Notes | Anything the desk should know — "always offers to make the tea", "parks round the back" |
Who's allowed to message them
Every client has four independent message settings, split by what the message is for and how it's sent:
| Notification | Text | |
|---|---|---|
| Appointments | On by default | On by default |
| Marketing | Off by default | Off by default |
The split is the important part, and it isn't arbitrary.
Appointment messages — your confirmation, your reminder, your "we've had to move you" — default to on because booking an appointment is the request to hear about that appointment. Nobody books a haircut and is surprised to get a reminder.
Marketing defaults to off because nobody books a haircut in order to receive your newsletter. When you switch it on, RewireBox records when it was switched on and where — this form, an online booking, an import — so the record doesn't just say the client agreed, it says when and how. That pair is the thing that makes your campaigns defensible.
The stakes differ by country. In the United States marketing is opt-out (CAN-SPAM): you may message until asked to stop. In Canada it's opt-in (CASL), the burden of proof sits with the sender, and penalties reach into the millions — which is why, for Canadian salons, only consent with that recorded when-and-how counts: a client whose record carries the tick but no evidence doesn't enter a campaign audience until it does.
The upshot is that when you send a campaign later, you don't have to audit anything. The eligible audience is already known, because it was recorded one client at a time, at the moment each person actually said yes.
Common questions
What's the minimum I need to create someone?
A first name and a way to contact them. Everything else can wait, and the form is built so you don't have to look at the rest until you want to.
Why are marketing messages off by default when appointment messages are on?
Because they're different things in law. Someone booking an appointment has asked to hear about that appointment. They have not asked to hear about your January offer. Switching marketing on records when and where they agreed, which is exactly what you need if anyone ever asks.
Can I add a client while I'm booking them in?
Yes, and it's usually the better way round. The booking panel lets you create someone inline, so you don't abandon a half-finished appointment to come here.
What does 'exclude from AI features' do?
It keeps that client's record out of the AI summaries and suggestions. It's there for the handful of people whose situation is sensitive enough that you'd rather nothing was ever automatically written about them.
Related articles
- Find a clientClients · Searching by name, email or phone, and narrowing a long list down with filters when you don't know who you're looking for yet.
- The client recordClients · The four numbers at the top, the four tabs underneath, and how to read someone's whole history with you in about ten seconds.
- Book an appointmentCalendar · Click a slot, find or create the client, add the services, book. Plus what happens when the slot you picked isn't ideal.
Can’t find what you’re looking for?
Book a 20-minute walkthrough and we’ll answer it on a screen share — or start free and try it on your own salon’s data.