What's New

June 2026: Email Campaigns, Online Booking Analytics & Birthday Rewards

2 June 2026

Highlights

Email Campaigns

Campaigns now send as branded email as well as SMS — same audience filters, same flow, one more channel. Emails carry your colours, an optional hero image and a Book-now button that drops clients straight into your online booking page, with opens and clicks tracked per campaign. Bella helps you write it — describe the email in a sentence and it drafts a subject and body for you to edit — and checks every campaign before sending, so SMS meets anti-spam rules and email clears spam-triggers and deliverability. Unlimited within Messages Plus (fair use) — no per-send cost, no external email tool.

Online Booking Analytics

See where your online bookings come from — Instagram, Google, Facebook, AI assistants (ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude, and Copilot), Direct, and other sources — with visits, bookings, and conversion rate per channel. A booking funnel reveals where visitors drop off, a live today strip tracks activity as it happens, and a visit-to-booking conversion rate ties it together. Built in, with no Google Analytics setup required.

Birthday Rewards

Turn birthdays into bookings. Set an automatic birthday reward once — a percentage off or a fixed amount — and Bella applies it for the client when they book online or at the till, once a year, with no promo code to remember. A warm greeting goes out on the day and a reminder nudges anyone who hasn't used it before it expires. Capturing birthdays stays free; the reward sits in Messages Plus.

Messaging & Campaigns

  • NewEmail Campaigns (Messages Plus)Two-Way Messaging

    The campaign flow you already use for SMS now sends branded email too. Pick Email as the channel, write a subject and rich-text body, add an optional hero image and a Book-now button, and preview the result live in your brand colours before sending to your filtered audience — or scheduling it for later. Stuck for words? Generate with AI drafts a subject and body from a one-sentence brief, grounded in your salon's own description — a starting point you edit, never auto-sent. Before any campaign goes out, a content check reviews it: SMS against anti-spam rules and email for spam-trigger words and deliverability on the subject and body, with serious problems flagged to fix and smaller ones shown as warnings. Every send tracks delivered, opened and clicked per campaign, and unsubscribe handling is automatic and compliant: each email carries your business details and a working unsubscribe link, and clients who opt out are excluded from future audiences. Email campaigns are unlimited within Messages Plus (fair use), never use SMS credits, and don't need a dedicated phone number — send your first one the moment you subscribe. Test it on yourself first with "Send test to myself".

  • EnhancedDedicated numbers, verified under your businessTwo-Way Messaging

    If you send from a dedicated SMS number, Bella now guides you through verifying your business identity from Settings → Messaging, and registers the number under your own verified business details rather than a shared identity. That meets carriers' anti-spam requirements so your messages keep landing reliably, with a clear status and a grace period while verification completes. Dedicated numbers are part of Messages Plus.

Payments & Booking Protection

  • NewCard on file to book — no deposit chargedPayments & Deposits

    Protect your calendar without charging a deposit. You can now require a saved card on file when clients book online — nothing is taken at the time of booking — and if they cancel late or don't show up, Bella charges your set fee to that card automatically. Choose how the fee is calculated: a percentage of the booking total, a percentage of the deposit, or a fixed amount, set across the account or per service. It's the lighter-touch alternative to upfront deposits, and it still discourages no-shows.

  • NewMembers can skip the depositMemberships

    A membership can now waive — or change — the upfront deposit your members pay when they book. Set it per benefit: No deposit (members book the covered services without paying a deposit, even when the benefit is only a partial discount), Require deposit (a specific member deposit you set), or Card on file. It applies everywhere the deposit is read — online booking, the deposit reminder, the pay-deposit link and the auto-cancel-unpaid-deposit job — so a member is never chased for a deposit their plan has waived, and staff see a clear "waived by membership" note on the appointment. Non-members are unaffected.

  • EnhancedSell gift cards at the till — no online payments neededGift Cards

    You can now sell a gift card straight from the dashboard even if you haven't connected online card payments — record the sale paid by cash or any method at the till. Previously selling a gift card needed online payments switched on, so this removes a real blocker for businesses that take payment in person.

Clients

  • NewMerge duplicate clients — and prevent new onesClient Management

    Tidying up your client list is far quicker. Merge two profiles into one and Bella intelligently combines every field and linked record — appointments, sales, notes, packages and forms — so nothing is lost, and a no-history duplicate merges in a click. New duplicates are now prevented at the source too: Bella blocks a second client with the same phone number or email address, while still allowing family members who genuinely share contact details.

  • NewTimeline notes, Photos & FilesClient Management

    Keep a running history on each client. Record dated timeline notes on a client's profile — an authored, chronological log you can attach files to — and find every attachment in one place, with Photos and Files now showing images and documents from appointments and the profile together.

  • NewFilter clients by the services they've hadClient Management

    Find exactly who you want. Filter your client list — or a campaign's audience — by the services a client has actually booked, picking one service or a whole category at once. Build segments like your lash clients, or everyone who's had a haircut, then export them or message just them. It matches each client's appointment history at the service level, so it covers every variant of a service.

  • NewTag clients and market to the groupClient Management

    Group your clients by anything you like — service interest, VIP, a patch-test reminder, or the list they came from — by adding tags to their profile. Tags work independently of appointment history, so a brand-new client with nothing booked yet can still be tagged, filtered and messaged. Filter your client list by a tag, or target a campaign straight at everyone with that tag, even before their first visit. Migrating in? Apply tags as you import, with a column in your file or a single tag for the whole batch, so your list arrives ready to segment. Type-ahead suggestions reuse your existing tags, so VIP and vip never split into two.

Birthday & Lifecycle

  • NewAutomated Birthday Reward (Messages Plus)Two-Way Messaging

    Birthdays are the highest-intent, lowest-effort retention moment — and now Bella runs the whole thing for you. Set the reward once on the new Birthday Programme page: a percentage off or a fixed amount, with a validity window (30 days by default — roughly their birthday month) and an optional minimum spend. From then on it is recognised automatically for the client at online booking and at the till, and applied to their bill once a year — no promo code to type, no manual tracking. Prefer a code? Switch delivery to a code the client enters, guarded so only a birthday client can use it. Choose who qualifies with the same audience filters you use for campaigns, and exclude any individual client from their profile (they still get the greeting, just not the discount). A warm greeting goes out on the day, and a gentle reminder nudges anyone who hasn't used their reward before it expires — stopping the moment they redeem. Capturing client birthdays stays free; the reward and its two messages are part of Messages Plus.

  • NewNew-Client Offer (Messages Plus)New-Client Offer

    Win more first-timers back for a second visit. Set a new-client offer once — a percentage off or a fixed amount — and Bella recognises a client's very first appointment and applies the reward for them automatically, whether they book online or check out at the till. No promo codes, no manual tracking. The reward is part of Messages Plus.

Scheduling

  • NewTag individual appointmentsScheduler

    Flag a single booking with a free-text label — patch test, first colour, running late, rush — kept separate from the tags you put on a client. The tag shows as a small flag on the appointment's scheduler card, with its own tag icon so it's easy to tell apart from a client tag, and the full set is in the hover tooltip. Filter the calendar to just the bookings carrying a given tag, or type a tag straight into the scheduler search. Type-ahead reuses tags you've used before so they stay tidy, and tags are internal — clients never see them.

  • EnhancedRecurring appointments & seriesScheduler

    Managing repeating appointments is smoother across the board, and you can now cancel all future appointments in a series in one step rather than removing them one at a time.

  • EnhancedClearer working vs non-working hoursScheduler

    When the Working Hours overlay is on, the times outside your team's working hours now stand out clearly from working hours — in both light and dark mode — instead of the two shades looking almost the same. You can also set your own non-working-hours colour under Settings → Scheduling → Scheduler Colours.

  • NewFortnightly and alternating-week rostersScheduler

    Team members who don't work the same days every week — every other Monday, or a Saturday every two weeks — can now be set up cleanly. When editing a team member's working hours, give any day its own repeat interval (for example "Every 2 weeks") using the repeat icon next to that day; the rest stay weekly. On off-weeks the day is explicitly closed, so clients can't book it.

Online Booking

  • EnhancedMake your booking page sound like youBooking Page Customisation

    The Book Now button label, the section headings and the call-to-action text on your online booking page are now editable, so the page speaks in your own voice rather than generic defaults.

  • EnhancedService and category colours

    Your service and category colours now carry through to the online booking page, so clients see the same clear colour-coding you use in the scheduler.

  • EnhancedWorks in your clients' language

    Clients can translate your booking page into their own language using their browser's built-in translate, and the page keeps working smoothly — a real help for businesses with non-English-speaking clients.

  • EnhancedRegion-aware booking links

    Booking links now use a region-aware web address — a .com.au link for Australian businesses — so your booking page sits on the right domain for your clients.

  • NewGroup bookingsOnline Booking

    Book one service for a small party in a single booking — a couples massage, two friends in for facials, a group blow-dry before an event. Turn on group bookings for any service and set the maximum party size (2–6). Clients pick "how many people?" when they book online, and your team can build a group straight from the calendar with the same stepper. Bella schedules the whole party at the same time, each guest with their own team member, and only shows times when enough of your team is free for everyone.

  • NewSay who's coming to a shared spaceOnline Booking

    For a service booked into a shared space — a private sauna, a couples float room — clients can now name who's coming with them when they book online, and your team can add those guests straight from the calendar. Everyone named is counted as busy at that time, so nobody gets double-booked. It's the companion to group bookings: use group bookings when each guest needs their own team member, and shared-space guests when they share the one room.

Bundles & Packaging

  • NewBundles, everywhereServices & Bundles

    Bundles are now first-class across the whole platform — not just on your booking page. Scope a membership benefit to a whole bundle, add a bundle as a prepaid-package line where a single session covers every service in it, and link an intake form to a bundle so it auto-sends the moment that bundle is booked. In each case you pick the bundle directly from the same picker you'd use for services, alongside or instead of individual services.

  • NewSell a bundle as a gift cardGift Cards

    Gift cards gain a third type: a card for a whole bundle — like a "Spa Day" package — priced automatically at the bundle's total and redeemed at checkout like any balance card. Choose exactly which bundles are eligible. Bundle gift cards sit alongside the existing amount and service cards — sold from the business dashboard or bought by clients on your booking page.

  • EnhancedMark a bundle members-onlyServices & Bundles

    You can now restrict a bundle so only clients with a covering membership can book it online — the same Members only control you already have on individual services.

  • FixedMembers-only services are members-only inside bundles tooServices & Bundles

    We closed a loophole: a members-only service placed in a bundle is now correctly members-only online, so a non-member can no longer book it just because it was packaged into a bundle. The membership check now applies whether the service is booked on its own or as part of a bundle.

Service Catalogue

  • EnhancedAlways know which service you're editingServices & Bundles

    The service editor now keeps the service's name and category visible in a header above every tab, so it stays clear which service you're editing as you move between Details, Pricing and the rest.

  • EnhancedRoom for the full story — longer descriptionsServices & Bundles

    Service, membership, package and bundle descriptions can now run up to 4,000 characters, so there's room for full details, aftercare and policies without running out of space.

  • EnhancedUpload photos straight from your phone

    Photo uploads are smoother: Bella now accepts iPhone HEIC images and compresses large photos automatically, so gallery and profile images upload quickly without a separate conversion step.

Forms

  • NewLink a form to a bundleForms & Intake

    As well as services, you can now link an intake or consent form directly to a bundle — it's sent automatically whenever that bundle is booked. Pick the bundles from the same picker you use for services on the form's Settings tab.

  • EnhancedEasier on a phone, easier to findForms & Intake

    Forms are more comfortable to complete on a phone thanks to bigger tap targets, and you can now open any submitted form straight from the appointment or from the client's Forms tab.

Reports & Insights

  • NewOnline Booking AnalyticsDashboard & Reports

    Your Online Booking page now shows native traffic-source attribution: which channels bring your bookings (Instagram, Facebook, AI assistants such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude, and Copilot, Google, Direct, and Other), with visits, bookings, and conversion rate for each. A booking funnel shows where prospective clients drop off (visited → added a service → picked a time over the last 30 days) with the biggest leak highlighted, a live today strip tracks visits and bookings as they happen, and a visit-to-booking conversion rate sums it up. Everything is built in — no Google Analytics setup required — and it captures app and AI-assistant referrals that Google Analytics typically misses. Rates are sample-size gated, so a quiet week never shows a misleading percentage.

  • EnhancedA report for every programmeDashboard & Reports

    Every client programme now has its own report. Alongside memberships and gift cards, you'll find dedicated reports for referrals and birthday rewards, so you can see how each programme is performing in one place.

Notifications & Accessibility

  • EnhancedGet notified of new reviewsClient Reviews

    Switch on a notification for new reviews so you hear about them as they arrive — handy for responding promptly and celebrating the good ones.

  • EnhancedLarger text size & easier dialogs

    Pick a larger Text size from the appearance menu for a more comfortable read, and pop-up dialogs now scroll properly on smaller or zoomed-in screens.

  • EnhancedClearer settings editing

    Compact settings editors now show an "editing — not saved" cue until you apply, so you always know whether a change has been saved.

Fixes & Reliability

  • FixedNew clients always saveClient Management

    Resolved a rare issue that could prevent new clients from being created.

  • FixedTidier business notification emails

    Business notification emails are cleaner — we removed a duplicated total line.

  • FixedDiscount permissions

    Fixed a permission issue when applying discounts.

  • FixedSmoother onboarding

    Fixed a startup issue affecting the website-details extraction that pre-fills your account during onboarding.

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