Setting the processing time

Updated on 2026-08-22

This is the field that sets HairConnect apart from an ordinary calendar. Skip it and you will never get your salon full.

What it is

With a colour, the hairdresser works for, say, 30 minutes, after which the colour develops for 30 minutes. During that second period the chair is occupied, but the staff member is free — and serves another client in the meantime.

HairConnect records that as two times on the service:

• Duur (duration) — the minutes the staff member is busy;
• Wachttijd (processing time) — the minutes the colour develops.

Together they are called the stoeltijd (chair time), and that column is in the service list too.

Setting it

Salon → Diensten (Salon → Services), open the service, section Tijd (time).

Fill in Wachttijd as 0 when the staff member is busy the whole time. With an ordinary cut that is the case.

What happens then

If you book that service, HairConnect builds two blocks:

1. an active block for the duration;
2. behind it a processing block for the waiting time.

If you book two services in one appointment, the second starts after the processing block of the first.

In the calendar a processing block looks different: hatched, with a dotted bar on the left and the word INWERKEN (processing) inside it.

The rule that explains everything

Only active blocks occupy a staff member. A processing block only occupies the chair.

Everything follows from that:

• you can simply plan another client into that processing time, without an error message;
• the free-slot finder in online booking actively fills those gaps;
• the utilisation rate counts active minutes only, and chair occupancy adds the processing time on top;
• the till never charges for processing time: only active blocks become receipt lines.

Why utilisation counts active time only

If waiting time counted, a salon that colours a lot would automatically look "fuller" than a salon that cuts a lot — while it actually has more room. You would then stop double-booking exactly when it pays off.

Chair occupancy may therefore go above 100%. That is not a mistake: that is the figure saying you are genuinely putting the processing time to use.

See Utilisation rate.

Deviating per staff member

The processing time of a service can differ per staff member in the database, but there is no input field for it in the staff form. What you can set per staff member there is the duration. See Services per staff member.

Frequently asked questions

Why is there a ± next to the estimated duration in the Nieuwe afspraak window? Because that screen shows the standard duration of the service. The actual blocks use the duration that applies to that staff member.

Can I drag the processing block separately? Yes, using the small handle at the bottom right of the block. See Moving and changing.