Pricing & Revenue
Best Sales Reporting Tools for Tattoo Studios: What to Track and How to Track It
A sales report shows what came in and what each artist is owed. Payroll and the payment you send are separate. Checked November 8, 2026.
Best Sales Reporting Tools for Tattoo Studios: What to Track and How to Track It
You want two numbers: what the studio took in, and what each artist is owed.
A sales report is those numbers. Payroll is the pay run you do later, with the report in front of you. Sending the artist their money is a third job.
What to pull for a tattoo week
Pull revenue, the tax you collected, deposits, commission, and tips. Then filter by dates, by artist, and by how the client paid. Export the rows when your bookkeeper asks for a file. The reports help lists those views, including a CSV.
Commission is the artist’s share of the sales you recorded. You can save one rate, or separate cash and card rates. Product commission sits on the product. A sliding scale, when it is on the account, uses the whole pay period to pick the band. Tips go to the artist in full, on top of commission. The commission help is the setup. The public walkthrough is tracking artist commissions.
The report shows what is owed. Tattoo Studio Pro does not pay the artist. You still decide how and when people are paid.
Artists see their own sales, commission, tips, and payout total in My earnings. Managers run the studio reports.
Tattoo Studio Pro
Solo is $29 a month or $239 a year for 1 team member, and every feature is on every plan. Yearly billing costs less than paying monthly. Hosting is included. Other team sizes are on the pricing page. Managers and health officials do not count.
The payouts report adds commissions, tips, and salary for the dates you pick. You reconcile that total. Tattoo Studio Pro does not send it.
Card payments go through the studio’s Stripe account. Help does not print a Tattoo Studio Pro percent, so this post does not borrow one from Stripe’s public rate card.
The supply log is a lot record. It is not inventory. There are no stock counts, and nothing is deducted when you log a client. A sales report will not show you remaining ink.
Square: $0, $49, and $149 a month per location, plus separate card rates
Square’s appointments pricing page, opened November 8, 2026, prints three location prices.
Square Free is $0 a month per location. Plus is $49 a month per location, and Premium is $149 a month per location. The page says the Plus and Premium fee applies to each location you run. It does not say whether sales tax is included.
Square Free has no monthly subscription. The page says you pay processing fees when you take a payment, and those fees change by plan.
In person, the row is named “Tap, dip, or swipe” and applies when the card is present. Online, or through an invoice, is a different row. The table keeps the two rows apart.
| Plan | Location price | In person, card present | Online or invoice |
|---|---|---|---|
| Square Free | $0 a month per location | 2.6% + 15¢ | 3.3% + 30¢ |
| Square Plus | $49 a month per location | 2.5% + 15¢ | 2.9% + 30¢ |
| Square Premium | $149 a month per location | 2.4% + 15¢ | 2.9% + 30¢ |
Plus and Premium each offer a free 30-day trial. The page does not say whether that trial asks for a card. You can cancel or switch plans. That sentence is Square’s.
Sales insights are on for Free, Plus, and Premium. The tooltip says you pick a date range and see a sales summary, including payments and fees.
Team sales and activity reporting is off on Free. It is on for Plus and Premium. The tooltip says you can see who made sales and who issued refunds.
Tip pooling and commissions tracking is off on Free. It is on for Plus and Premium. The tooltip says you set custom commission rates, and it also describes splitting card tips across employees who were clocked in. That row tracks a rate and a tip split. It does not say Square pays the artist, and it is not the payroll product in Square’s menu.
The saved comparison is Tattoo Studio Pro vs Square Appointments.
Vagaro: advanced reporting is included. Payroll is a priced add-on
Vagaro’s US pricing page, opened November 8, 2026, returned HTTP 200 and the title “Vagaro US Pricing.” Advanced reporting is on the included list. Data Lake is not on that list. The Data Lake add-on record’s subheading is $40 a month. A later Data Lake blurb on the same page does not repeat that price.
Payroll is not on the included list. The priced Payroll record is $34 a month plus $5 an employee. Further down, a section describes Vagaro Payroll and Rent Collection in words, without that price. The included reporting row and the $34 record are different lines.
The open price block prints $30.00 with a strikethrough, then $23.99 a month, labeled an exclusive rate for the first 6 months. Other seat tabs are in the page and were not that open block. I did not total them. An added bookable calendar license is $10 (US), up to seven. The page does not print a card rate, and it does not say whether the monthly prices include sales tax.
Forms are a separate $10 a month add-on record. They are not the reporting row either.
More of that page is on Tattoo Studio Pro vs Vagaro.
Four lines that get mashed together
A booking app’s fee on a new client is an acquisition charge. An artist commission is the share of a sale the studio already took. Payroll is wages and a pay run. A card rate is what the processor takes when the card runs.
A sales report can show the commission line. It does not become the other three because they all mention money.
Questions
Does the commission report pay the artist?
It shows what is owed. Tattoo Studio Pro does not pay the artist. You still handle how and when people are paid. The walkthrough is tracking artist commissions.
Is the payouts report a bank transfer?
The payouts report adds commissions, tips, and salary for the dates you pick. That total sits on the report. Tattoo Studio Pro does not send it.
Is commission tracking off on Square Free?
On the appointments pricing page opened November 8, 2026, the Free column is off for “Tip pooling and commissions tracking.” Plus and Premium are on. Sales insights are on for all three. Team sales and activity reporting is off on Free and on for the other two.
Is Vagaro advanced reporting the payroll add-on?
Advanced reporting is on the included list. Payroll is a separate record at $34 a month plus $5 an employee. Data Lake is a separate record at $40 a month.
Does Tattoo Studio Pro print a card percent?
Help does not. Card payments go through the studio’s Stripe account. This post does not copy a percent from Stripe’s public rate card.
Where does an artist see their own numbers?
My earnings shows that artist’s sales, commission, tips, and payout total. Managers run the studio reports. Solo is $29 a month or $239 a year for 1 team member, with hosting included.