Money
A payout system that's honest about what it does
Inkdesk tracks how each artist is actually compensated — commission, booth rent, or a hybrid of both — inside your shop's CRM, so an owner isn't reconciling from a notebook at month end. Client deposits still collect to the shop through Stripe Connect; automatic Stripe payouts split out to individual artists are not part of Inkdesk yet. Staff manage compensation settings in the cabinet after Google login, right next to the completed sessions on the day board that those numbers depend on.
The compensation models shops actually run
Plenty of shops run straight commission on completed work. Others charge booth rent and let the artist keep card tips and cash outright. Hybrids — rent plus a smaller commission, or different rules for flash versus custom pieces — show up constantly once a shop mixes employees and independent booth renters.
Inkdesk's compensation tracking is built for that mess of real arrangements rather than forcing every shop into one marketplace-style split. Record the actual model per artist, so reports match how you already shake hands with your own roster instead of some generic default.
Write the agreement down in Inkdesk the day an artist starts — not after the first awkward cash-out conversation. Hybrid deals especially need the specifics spelled out: what counts toward booth rent, what commission actually applies, and what happens with tips.
It's also worth deciding in advance how the model handles edge cases most shops eventually hit: a touch-up on a piece done months ago under a different pricing structure, a session cut short for a medical reason, or a piece split across two artists collaborating on the same client. None of these are exotic — every shop running long enough sees them — and having a default answer written down in Inkdesk ahead of time prevents an awkward one-off negotiation from becoming the unofficial new rule everyone quietly expects going forward.
Where this is genuinely different from deposit collection
Deposits are booking security: flat or percent, a typical card floor around $20 or more, collected through Stripe Connect, tied to your cancel and no-show policy — usually a 48-hour reschedule window, configurable per shop. That money lands on the shop's own Connect account as part of confirming the appointment.
Artist payout tracking answers a completely different, later question: once the session is done, what does the artist actually earn under your agreement? Those two things are obviously related in an owner's head, but inside Inkdesk today they're deliberately separate systems, because automated artist-level splits don't exist yet and pretending otherwise would be misleading.
Use completed appointments on the day board as your weekly reconciliation list. If a deposit was forfeited and no session happened, that booking shouldn't quietly inflate anyone's commission total.
What an owner can actually see and change
Set commission, booth rent, or hybrid parameters per artist. Completed appointments on the day board give you the real activity layer to reconcile against, instead of trying to remember which sessions actually happened this week. Managers with permission handle the day-to-day; compensation changes stay controlled by owners.
- M Marco · hybrid 50% · $1,540
- S Sia · 60% commission · —
Deposits stay in salon money until Complete + final pay.
Because Inkdesk is multi-tenant, a guest artist's deal at your shop never leaks into a different salon on the platform — invite them with Google login rather than sharing a shop password around.
This is also the layer that makes a shop sellable or bankable later, if that's ever on the table — a buyer, a bank, or a business partner asking about artist economics wants documented compensation models and a real completed-work history, not an owner's verbal explanation of 'it's roughly this, usually.' Recording the model as you go is far less work than reconstructing it retroactively from memory and old bank statements.
What's genuinely not included yet — said plainly
Inkdesk does not currently push automatic Stripe transfers to individual artists as a marketplace-style split. If you pay artists outside Inkdesk today — bank transfer, cash settlement, a separate payroll run — keep doing that, and use Inkdesk as the ledger of what the agreement says and what work actually got completed.
When you're comparing tools, treat 'deposits via Stripe Connect' and 'automated artist payout splitting' as two separate checkboxes. Inkdesk has the first one built and running today. The second is compensation tracking, not automated money movement — worth knowing before you assume otherwise and build a process around a feature that isn't there yet.
How to actually talk to your artists about this
Be explicit: deposits protect the shop's calendar and its cash flow; compensation defines what an artist takes home after completed work. Mixing those two conversations up is a fast way to create distrust — especially with booth renters who are already paying for the chair out of pocket.
Show artists exactly where their completed sessions land on the day board and how their own model is recorded in Inkdesk. Transparency here beats a surprise spreadsheet showing up on the first of the month with numbers nobody can trace back to actual appointments.
A short guest spot can use temporary compensation settings without spinning up an entire second $50-a-month shop, unless the guest artist is genuinely operating as their own separate business.
It also helps to revisit compensation terms on a schedule rather than only when someone brings it up — a booth renter who signed on a year ago at a rate that made sense then might have very different expectations now that their book is consistently full. A brief, low-stakes check-in every few months, using the actual completed-session data in Inkdesk rather than a vague sense of how busy someone 'seems,' keeps the conversation grounded in numbers both sides can see instead of impressions either side might be wrong about.
Book a demo to see the rest — this page tells you the truth first
Most software pages oversell the money-movement piece because it sounds impressive in a sales call. This one isn't going to do that: compensation tracking is genuinely useful for keeping commission and booth rent honest and visible, and it's genuinely not the same thing as Inkdesk cutting checks to your artists for you.
It's included in the $50-per-shop-per-month subscription at inkdesk.online. Card deposits still incur normal Stripe processing fees on the Connect charge — that's separate from however you settle with artists outside of automated payouts.
FAQ
Can we track booth renters and commission artists in the same shop?
Yes. Set compensation per artist — commission, booth rent, or hybrid — all inside the same shop tenant.
Does Stripe pay artists automatically through Inkdesk?
Not yet. Stripe Connect handles shop deposits and Inkdesk's own subscription billing. Automated artist payout splitting isn't part of Inkdesk today.
Do deposits automatically count as artist earnings?
No. Deposits confirm bookings for the shop. How that money applies to a final session payment and an artist's cut follows your own process — Inkdesk tracks the compensation model separately.
Who's allowed to edit compensation settings?
Owners and permitted managers in the cabinet, using Google login. Artists shouldn't be able to freely edit their own deal without that permission.
Does forfeiting a deposit change what an artist is owed?
Forfeit is a shop-side deposit outcome on the booking. Whether that interacts with artist earnings depends on your own commission rules — Inkdesk won't invent a marketplace split you didn't agree to.
Inkdesk is $50 per shop per month — one shop subscription, not a pile of add-ons. Start a free trial or open the live demo with sample data. No credit card required to look around.