Pabau
By Pabau
Pabau typical implementation process:
Initial Consultation & Goal Assessment: The process begins with a discovery session where Pabau’s onboarding team assesses the clinic’s size, services, and goals to design a personalized implementation strategy and integration plan.
Account Setup & Configuration: Pabau configures the system environment, enabling clinic branding, staff profiles, service menus, payment integrations (like Stripe or GoCardless), and privacy settings to align with internal workflows.
Data Migration: The team assists in securely importing client data, past appointment records, forms, and billing details from legacy systems or spreadsheets into Pabau’s cloud platform, ensuring clean data transfer and GDPR compliance.
System Customization: Workflow elements such as appointment types, calendar layouts, forms, automations, and reports are customized. This stage may also include online booking setup via website widgets or embedded links.
Staff Training & Onboarding: Clinics undergo role-based training through Pabau Academy, live webinars, or on‑site sessions led by training specialists. Teams learn scheduling, automation configuration, marketing tools, and EMR setup suited to their daily roles.
Testing & Optimization: Before going live, the setup is tested using mock appointments, payment processing trials, and internal validation of automations and client communication flows (email/SMS reminders and forms).
Go‑Live Activation: Once approved, systems are switched to live operation. The onboarding specialist monitors initial usage and resolves any immediate technical or process issues to ensure a smooth launch.
Pabau can be deeply customized to fit the specific operational, branding, and workflow needs of medical, aesthetics, and wellness businesses. Its configuration options span scheduling, communications, client management, branding, and automation, enabling clinics to tailor the software precisely to their service models, size, and branding preferences.
Customizable Client Portal: Clinics can fully adjust the client-facing portal to reflect their own brand identity by adding brand colours, background images, logos, and custom registration fields. Organizations can decide which form fields appear during registration and which are mandatory, aligning onboarding with compliance standards and client workflows.
Online Booking Platform Personalization: Pabau’s booking interface lets practices control display settings such as available services, appointment slots, provider options, and time intervals. Clinics can also toggle whether clients can cancel or reschedule online, include footer messages or privacy disclaimers, and embed branded booking links on websites.
Form and Data Capture Customization: The client creation form and intake process can be rearranged using drag-and-drop tools to match internal data collection priorities. Users can rename fields, create new sections, group related information, and remove unnecessary data points for clearer patient onboarding.
Appointment Calendar Customization: The calendar module allows staff to colour-code services and providers, alter time slot lengths, configure work hours, display preferred resources like rooms or machines, and apply filters for multi-location operations. This visual adaptability simplifies scheduling and coordination.
Automated Workflow Design: Pabau’s automation center enables businesses to create rules for sending tailored emails, SMS messages, and activity alerts based on triggers such as booking confirmations, birthdays, or missed appointments. Users can define custom email subjects, sender profiles, conditional logic, and design templates via a drag‑and‑drop editor.
Branded Communication Templates: Clinics can develop and store customized email and SMS notification templates, ensuring branding consistency across appointment reminders, invoices, aftercare instructions, and marketing campaigns.
Label and Tag Organization: Client segmentation can be personalized through colour-coded labels that categorize customers by preferences, treatment status, or loyalty level. Labels and filters drive targeted marketing automation and custom report creation.
Custom Reports and Dashboards: Administrators can design KPIs and reporting dashboards to track revenue, staff productivity, and appointment utilization relevant to their structure. Reports can be exported, filtered, and tailored by department or location.
Automation Library and Audience Filtering: Within campaign automation, practices can apply filters to define highly specific client groups (such as patients with incomplete treatments or those due for annual renewals). Each automation can be uniquely named, described, and scheduled according to the clinic’s operational tempo.
Brand Integration Across Touchpoints: From the logo in system-generated emails to colours in patient intake forms, Pabau supports end‑to‑end brand consistency without coding. This flexibility ensures that all digital touchpoints match the clinic’s public image, a critical factor for luxury medspa brands.
Custom Notifications and Alerts: Pabau administrators can configure internal system alerts for staff actions (e.g., new bookings, reschedules, cancellations) and customize recipients or sender details to maintain clarity across teams.
API & Integration Flexibility: Through the Pabau API and Partner Portal, developers can connect external CRM, marketing, accounting, or analytics platforms. This enables deeper software adaptation beyond the default environment, ensuring businesses can build specialized ecosystems without leaving Pabau.
Pabau pricing structure is subscription-based and transparent, with a few additional costs tied to setup, training, customization, and usage-based services. While the base plan starts at $59 (£49) per month for solo users, practices can choose from multiple tiers scaling with user count, data volume, and feature access. However, clinics may encounter setup, training, and optional premium feature charges depending on deployment complexity.
Setup and Implementation Fees: New users typically pay a one-time setup fee averaging $500 for small clinics and up to $5,000 for enterprise-level organizations. This covers account configuration, data importation, role-based access setup, and onboarding assistance. For businesses requiring customized workflows or third-party integrations, Pabau offers bespoke setup packages starting at an additional $500.
Customization Costs: Practices seeking unique branding, custom intake forms, branding integration, or API connections may incur customization fees. These fees are quoted based on scope, beginning from around $500 for small implementations and scaling up for multi-location clients.
Support and Maintenance Charges: Standard technical support, live chat, and product updates are included in all monthly subscriptions at no added cost. However, on-site training or advanced account consultancy is billed separately on a per-session or per-hour basis. Premium clients using enterprise solutions may have dedicated account success managers bundled into their yearly plan.
Usage-Based Costs: Some features, such as AI capabilities (Echo AI), SMS messaging, telehealth, and Stripe terminal payments, operate under a credit-based model where 1 credit = £0.10. This pay-as-you-go pricing strategy allows clinics to control ongoing operational costs based on actual usage volumes, such as automated reminders or video consultations.
Service Charges in Payment Processing: Pabau gives providers the flexibility to apply custom service or processing fees to client transactions directly via its built-in service charge module. While optional, this can help offset card transaction fees. Pabau cautions clinics to comply with region-specific billing laws when implementing such surcharges.
Pabau provides a structured onboarding, training, and support program that helps new users go live quickly and build long-term proficiency across clinical, front-desk, and management roles. New accounts are assigned onboarding specialists, have access to on-demand education, and receive responsive, extended-hours support via live chat and video. This combination accelerates adoption and ensures teams stay current with Pabau 2 feature updates.
Personalized onboarding: A dedicated onboarding team configures branding, services, calendars, roles/permissions, online booking, payments, and automations; they guide data import and pre‑launch testing through a defined project plan.
Role-based training: New users learn via Pabau Academy video lessons, live webinars, and optional on‑site sessions focused on reception workflows, scheduling, billing, EMR, and marketing; receptionist-specific training materials are provided.
Live webinars and knowledge base: Pabau runs regular free webinars and maintains a large knowledge base with hundreds of how‑to guides on topics like service setup, online booking, automations, and team management.
Extended-hours support: Support is available through live chat and video calls with a 24‑person Customer Care team; published hours cover Monday–Friday 8:00 a.m.–4:00 a.m. GMT (3:00 a.m.–11:00 p.m. EST), with weekend coverage and ticketing for after-hours needs.
Go-live assistance: Specialists monitor first‑day usage, resolve issues in real time, and help fine‑tune calendars, notifications, deposits, and Pabau Pay terminals for smooth launch.
Pabau safeguards patient and business data with a layered, compliance‑first security model that combines strong technical controls, secure cloud operations, and strict access governance aligned to healthcare best practices and GDPR. The platform’s security posture is reinforced by continuous education resources and detailed configuration options that help clinics operationalize privacy and safety across day‑to‑day workflows.
GDPR and privacy controls: Pabau is designed to operate within GDPR requirements, supporting lawful basis management, data minimization in forms, client rights handling, and privacy‑by‑design across client portals, online booking, and communications.
Encrypted client portal and online booking: The patient‑facing portal and booking flows are configurable and run over secure connections, limiting exposed fields, enforcing authenticated access, and allowing clinics to control what PHI is collected and displayed to clients.
Role‑based access control (RBAC): Administrators can define granular roles and permissions for reception, clinicians, and managers, ensuring staff only see data needed for their tasks while protecting sensitive medical and financial information.
Secure data capture and storage: Electronic medical records, consent forms, treatment photos, and documents are stored in a secure cloud environment with configurable intake and client creation screens to avoid collecting unnecessary sensitive data.
Auditability and activity controls: System guides and operational settings support auditable configuration of services, categories, and team actions, improving traceability and operational hygiene during internal reviews and external audits.
Communications security and least‑privilege: Clinics can standardize branded notifications and limit message content through custom templates, reducing the risk of over‑sharing PHI via email or SMS while keeping communications role‑appropriate.
Payment security and PCI‑aligned processing: Integrated payment processing (e.g., Stripe via Pabau Pay) uses processor‑level encryption and terminals managed through guided setup, segmenting card data from clinical records and supporting compliant collections.
Multi‑location governance: For multi‑site groups, calendar, service, and team configurations can be standardized and permissioned across locations, helping larger organizations maintain consistent security and privacy policies at scale.
Automation safety and controls: The automations center allows rule‑based communications with named audiences and triggers, enabling precise targeting and content control to avoid unintended data disclosures in campaigns or reminders.
Pabau delivers updates frequently on a cloud-managed cadence, combining regular incremental releases with larger feature rollouts to Pabau 2, mobile (Pabau Go), and the app marketplace—applied automatically with minimal disruption and no on‑prem maintenance required.
Update frequency and scope: Product updates are shipped on an ongoing basis, with public roundups documenting weekly/bi‑weekly changes and periodic major releases that add modules (e.g., memberships, payroll, AI into treatment notes) and UX enhancements across web and iOS.
Cloud delivery and zero‑install: As a SaaS platform, updates are deployed centrally and propagate to all tenants automatically, keeping clinics on the latest features and security patches without manual downloads or version control hassles.
Coordinated mobile releases: Pabau manages synchronized improvements to its mobile app; 2025 saw a significant Pabau Go revamp with new checkout flows, payment options, and stock deductions, delivered via the App Store as part of the standard release cycle.
Status and incident management: A public status page communicates maintenance windows and performance events; when scaling or performance work is required (e.g., doubling server capacity), engineers announce short restart windows and mitigation steps to minimize impact.
Pabau’s policy places full ownership of clinical and business data with the subscribing clinic, while Pabau retains ownership of the software platform and delivers export options and tooling to ensure portability when needed.
Client data ownership: All patient records, forms, notes, photos, invoices, bookings, and communications created in the system are controlled by the clinic; Pabau provides the application and hosting but not proprietary rights over customer content, aligning with GDPR principles of data controllership for the healthcare provider.
Export and portability: Clinics can export core datasets (clients, appointments, services, invoices, stock, and campaign data) via built‑in reporting and CSV/XLS exports; the Help Center provides step‑by‑step guides for exporting contacts, services, and financial data to facilitate migration or external analysis.
Booking and portal data portability: The client portal and online booking components are configurable to minimize data collection and standardize fields, which also simplifies downstream export by keeping structured, consistent data across locations and service lines.
API and integrations: Pabau supports interoperability through integrations and a partner ecosystem (e.g., Xero, Stripe, Google Calendar, Mailchimp), enabling clinics to sync operational data out to external systems as part of a portability or analytics strategy.
Post‑termination practices: Pabau’s Support Center and onboarding documentation instruct customers to run full data exports before account changes or termination; ongoing access to exports and reports resides in the live environment, so clinics are advised to complete extraction during the active subscription period for completeness.
GDPR alignment and rights requests: As a GDPR‑aligned platform, Pabau’s processes support subject rights (access, portability, erasure) and privacy‑by‑design configurations, allowing clinics as data controllers to fulfill patient data access/portability requests generated through their Pabau records and exports.
Media and documents: Treatment photos, consent PDFs, and uploaded documents are maintained in secure, structured repositories linked to client records and can be downloaded individually or in batches according to the clinic’s retention and portability policies.
Pabau follows a flexible, contract-lite SaaS model that allows clinics to scale up or down their subscriptions, users, and locations as their operations evolve, without penalty or service disruption. Its pricing and platform architecture are designed to support dynamic growth—from single‑practitioner setups to multi‑branch clinics—through straightforward adjustment processes and modular add‑ons.
Upgrade flexibility: Clinics can upgrade plans at any time to unlock more users, advanced modules (e.g., Marketing Plus, Echo AI, or Care Plus), or additional storage. Upgrades are applied immediately and billed on a pro‑rata basis for the remaining period of the subscription month, keeping continuity of features and data.
Downgrade policy: Users can downgrade their plan to a lower tier by providing a 30‑day notice before the next billing cycle. Downgrades take effect in the subsequent billing period, allowing the practice to retain full access until the end of the paid term. No penalties apply for reducing plan size, though feature access is limited based on the selected tier.
User management: Administrators can add or deactivate staff accounts instantly within the platform. When new hires join, roles and permissions can be set dynamically; when staff leave, accounts can be deactivated to avoid billing charges for unused licenses.
Multi‑location scalability: Pabau supports an unlimited number of branches through its multi‑location management system, which syncs appointments, staff schedules, client records, and reports across sites. When a clinic grows, new sites can be created in minutes by adding a new location under Setup > Business > Locations. If the account reaches its plan limit, an upgrade prompt is automatically provided for adding more branches.
Data continuity during scaling: All patient records, loyalty histories, invoices, and reports remain preserved when scaling up or down. New users and locations inherit existing corporate settings (e.g., branding, service menus, and automations), ensuring zero downtime or reconfiguration.
Add-ons and modular scaling: Practices can purchase or remove add-ons like memberships, packages, or advanced analytics without changing their core subscription. For example, modules like “Packages,” “Care Plus,” or “Marketing Plus” can be activated per location or globally to fit business demand.
Payment and billing adjustments: Card or billing updates for scaling organizations can be done directly in Setup > Subscription > Manage Billing, which connects securely to Stripe’s hosted customer portal. This centralization allows clinics to add payment methods, view invoices, or modify renewal details instantly.
Pabau’s terms and conditions for contract renewal, cancellation, and refunds provide flexibility for clinics while ensuring proper notice and fairness across service agreements. Policies are structured around monthly or annual SaaS subscriptions that auto‑renew unless notice is submitted in advance.
Contract renewal: All active subscriptions renew automatically at the end of each billing cycle (monthly or annually). Customers wishing to discontinue must give no less than 30 days’ written notice before the renewal date. Annual plans are billed in advance, while monthly users can stop renewal once notice is filed via [email protected] or their account dashboard.
Early cancellation window: A satisfaction guarantee applies—customers may cancel within 30 days of signing up and receive a full refund by contacting [email protected]. After that period, cancellation takes effect at the end of the existing billing term, and no pro‑rata refund is issued for partial months.
Notice and auto‑renewal terms: Auto‑renewal clauses align with UK SaaS fair‑use standards: Pabau must clearly inform clients of contract length and renewal procedure. Renewal reminders are sent in advance, granting sufficient time to cancel before being charged for another cycle.
Membership and recurring charges: Clinics using Pabau Memberships can manage patient subscription billing through the software. Membership cancellations can be applied immediately or at the end of the current billing cycle, ensuring clients maintain benefits through the paid period. Staff can pause or stop memberships from the client record, providing transparent control of billing at the clinic level.
Service and no‑show cancellations: Internally, Pabau offers fully customizable no‑show and service cancellation templates that comply with each clinic’s policy. Clinics may enforce deposit rules, charge late‑cancellation fees, or set advance‑notice thresholds within the software, reinforcing both provider protection and compliance with client notification expectations.
Refund management: Refunds are handled directly through the client card > Financials tab in Pabau, with options to refund full or partial invoice amounts back to a card (for Stripe/GoCardless payments) or to add the balance to a client’s on‑account ledger for reuse in future bookings. Cash refund requests must be processed manually. Refunds appear in both the Financials and Payments areas for audit transparency.
Termination for breach or non‑payment: Pabau reserves the right to suspend or terminate accounts if payments are overdue, terms are violated, or misuse is detected. Service is reinstated only after outstanding balances are settled; access resumes under the original agreement terms.
Data ownership and post‑termination extraction: Clinics retain full ownership of their data and are responsible for exporting records before termination. After cancellation, users can request data exports, but continued platform access for retrieval is limited to the notice period.
Pabau software is built to support robust compliance with leading healthcare and data protection regulations, particularly those relevant to clinics and medspas operating in the UK, EU, and increasingly North America.
GDPR compliance: Pabau is fundamentally designed for General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) adherence, providing features like consent capture, clear audit trails, client data minimization, access/right-to-be-forgotten tooling, and customizable privacy configurations across every client interaction. Clinics using Pabau act as controllers, while Pabau serves as a GDPR‑compliant data processor and cloud-host.
Data security and privacy: All PHI and sensitive data managed in Pabau are securely stored and encrypted, with access governed by configurable role-based access controls, audit log tracking, and secure communication templates—meeting the security expectations for medical records software in regulated clinical environments.
PCI DSS compliance (Payments): Pabau integrates with Stripe, GoCardless, and other providers, meeting Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) requirements. This secures card transactions, manages cardholder data separation, and keeps payments compliant with global processing norms.
HIPAA-aligned workflows: While Pabau’s core compliance strength is GDPR, it also supports U.S. clinics by offering HIPAA-aligned best practices: audit trails, minimum necessary access configuration, secure messaging, and e-signature document management. Clinics serving U.S. patients should confirm contractual details with Pabau on Business Associate status.
Clinic-specific regulations: Pabau helps organizations operationalize CQC (Care Quality Commission, UK), GMC, and advertising/commercial practice standards by allowing clinics to define and enforce correct clinical workflows, documentation, and consent management per their required protocols.
